Bless This Mess Review: The Grisham Gals (Season 2 Episode 8)

Bless This Mess Season 2 Episode 8, “The Grisham Gals,” is a bit of a mixed bag. While there are still a handful of hearty chuckles, the plot is fairly similar to another episode that already aired this season.

To make matters worse, the episode I am referring to aired less than a month ago, making the faux pas quite apparent. Bless This Mess Season 2 Episode 6, “The Visit,” focused around Rio’s mother coming to town, and all the misadventures created by the situation. This time around, Kay’s sister, Stacey, pokes her head in, and wouldn’t you know it, causes a similar type of ruckus.

While there are some switch-ups in the plot, it still seems too soon to be rehashing the family pop-in. 

It doesn’t help that you can see most of the plot points miles ahead of the game. Kay is jealous of Stacey, and Rio tries to calm Kay down with her psychobabble, but in turn, becomes jealous of Stacey herself. It feels like a paint-by-numbers storyline — to say the least. 

Stacey is kind of a local celebrity. Her rodeo theatrics are widely known, and that makes Kay extremely jealous. Most of us with a sibling have at least one thing that causes a little tension between us and them.

For some people, it is their family, while others it’s the amount of freedom in their lives. The list of reasons to be jealous of someone could go on for miles. They range from legitimate, all the way to absurd.

Rio wants to cleanse Kay of this seething feeling she gets around her sister by inviting the two to dinner. This, of course, bites Rio in the butt when she realizes that Stacey and Mike had a fling years ago.

Unfortunately, they make Rio look a little nutty when it comes to Mike and Stacey’s interaction with each other. In my eyes, I feel Rio has the right to be jealous. I know, I get it, jealousy is a negative thing to have — but that doesn’t mean it is always misplaced.

Mike and Stacey’s flirtatious actions towards each other send up red flags from the get-go. Even Stacey keeping the love letter Mike wrote to her years ago screams thousands of warning signals. Just because you trust your spouse, doesn’t mean you should automatically trust the person they befriended.

Mike: Just a classic Rio and Mike screwup.

Of course, it turns out in the end that Stacey doesn’t have any ulterior motives, but frankly, that isn’t always the case. After all, Stacey admits that she is jealous of what Mike and Rio have together. Sometimes that is enough to create confusion and blurred lines. 

At least the writers do a good job of showing the many levels of jealousy that there is. Rio’s jealousy builds throughout the episode, starting first at envy — and eventually erupting into lashing out.

It’s true, jealousy makes us do things out of selfish-ambition. It is also a contradictive emotion that makes you feel superior and inferior at the same time. 

Honestly, that is probably why we do such crazy things when we feel jealous. We don’t understand how to correct the emotion because everything is just so counterintuitive in the situation.

Rio tries to analyze her feelings, putting them in their place within a tiny little box. I like that it doesn’t work. 

Psychology and analyzing situations aren’t always the cure-all that they are made out to be. Sometimes you just need to work out things in some strange, crazy manner, to at least get it out of your system — and get your head back on straight.

Kay helps Rio get her aggression out during the car ride over to the party, and it turns into a heartwarming moment. It is good to see Rio open up to her friend, even though Kay isn’t having it. 

The awkward moment when drunken Rio confronts Stacey is a lackluster climax, failing to make much of an impact. One moment Rio is stumbling all over herself trying to seduce her husband, and the next she is giving some heartfelt and concise speech.

So her motor skills are deteriorated, but her mouth works perfectly fine? Could she at least slur her speech?

I know this show for its well-thought-out rants about life and relationships. The writers go out of their way to teach us a lesson with rarely coming off preachy. They do it so well in fact, that if you aren’t paying close enough attention, you can miss the point altogether. 

That is why I find this ending ultimately unsatisfying.

Trying to make two separate points, to two different people at the same time — while drunk nonetheless — makes a mess of any kind of moral to the story. Adding to the fact that Rio should feel vindicated in her jealousy, makes it hard to even know who to root for in the end. 

Aside from the major plot kerfuffles, there is a severe lack of the Bucksnort townspeople in the episode. Bucksnort usually feels alive and well, bustling with the country kin and their daily lives. Instead, we only get a handful of the main characters, with nary a glance at anyone outside of the main two plot points.

This is quite a shame since typically half of the laughs come from outside sources. 

And don’t get me started on the time Rudy and Constance waste on canoodling. Yeah, it is cute that the two want to further their relationship by taking it to the next level. Not only does this get drawn out too long, but it doesn’t even have a real resolution. 

Planning a sex date on the calendar doesn’t count as tying things up in my book. I’m not asking for a blow-by-blow of Rudy “sealing the deal,” but I would like a little more than an awkward man telling his girlfriend his foreplay can last at least six hours — cute, but rather unsatisfying.

All this combined makes for one heck of a letdown. Last week’s episode, “Six Out of Six,” was my favorite of the series thus far, leaving me with a long week headed towards a new episode. Once greeted with this steaming heap of an episode, it makes me wonder if the show isn’t aging as well as I once thought.

Hopefully, the mojo picks back up next week, or I might be in for a long rest of the season.

What did you think of this episode of Bless This Mess? Am I being too harsh on the episode’s shortcomings? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Bless This Mess airs Tuesdays at 8:30/7:30c on ABC.

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