Good Girls Review: Incentive (Season 3 Episode 9)

Beth, Annie, and Ruby are moving forward with their plans to take down Rio on Good Girls Season 3 Episode 9, “Incentive.”

Each week, Good Girls continues to provide a meditation on what it means to be a good person. This week, the reintroduction of the federal government, the overflowing “crime jar,” and a nail polish recall provide the framework for that discussion. 

First, let’s talk about Phoebe. Good Girls Season 3 has suffered a little from the lack of FBI investigation. Turner was a presence that was always threatening, but he provided a much-needed boost to the stakes at times. 

It’s smart to reintroduce the federal government, it’s also smart to make the agent on the case the complete opposite of Agent Turner. Where Turner was together and polished, Phoebe is chaotic and disheveled. Yet, they both have a self-assuredness to them that aids them in their investigations.

The choice to make this agent a female also feels appropriate and “Incentive” illustrates why with its opening sequence. 

Using “I Feel Pretty” as the soundtrack to two women primping in the mirror feels ironic given these two women’s very different approaches to readying themselves for the day. Beth vamps herself up for Rio. Phoebe focuses less on her looks and more on her case. 

Continuing into Phoebe’s arrival at work, the quips that she gets from her coworkers about her appearance are a tired trope tying a woman’s success in the workplace to how she looks.

It also feels designed to make sure the audience underestimates her, at least a little bit. 

Phoebe is a brand new character, and we don’t see enough of her life (work or otherwise) to make a judgment about what her life outside looks like, but her innovation should scare us. Initiating a product recall with the intention of sending the counterfeiter scrambling is a brilliant move. The brief interaction reminds me of Beth pitching the idea of money laundering in a big box store. 

The nail polish shortage puts Ruby in a tight spot, and not just where the counterfeiting is concerned. Her job at the nail salon was supposed to aid with the security glow, and without that, the entire plan will fall apart. Once again, Ruby is the lynchpin to their survival. 

The stakes are higher than ever for The Hills. With Stan in on another criminal operation, it’s important that both the Hills stay out of jail and/or alive as long as possible. Staging an act of good service to rob a nail salon is another way of doing that. 

It’s an innovative and smart way to fly under the radar, but bringing Sara into it is another new low for Ruby. She knows it too, but she also sees what her activities can provide for her family, including Sara’s kidney. 

Confessing to Sara that her criminal activities were how she got her kidney was not something I imagined coming out on “Incentive,” but it definitely feels needed.

Ruby and Sara have always had an intriguing relationship, especially once Sara started exhibiting delinquent behavior. While Ruby’s criminal acts have always occurred with her family’s interests first she isn’t out to set an example for Sara to follow, she made a choice to protect something she held dear. 

RUBY: What you thought kidneys grow on trees. I made a choice to do something I thought I would never do, and it wasn’t for fun, or to have nice things. 
SARA: What do you mean?
RUBY: I bought you a second chance. I’m sorry, I stole it. Something that insurance, prayers, neighbors, none of that could do, and I’ll be damned if I threw my soul away so you could turn out like this.

Letting her know the truth about how they paid for her kidney is knowledge they can’t take back. It’s a burden they’re placing on Sara to live with since the kidney can’t go back to where it came from. 

Presenting the idea that they should help the family of her kidney donor is a way to karmically cancel out the bad things the Hills have done for Sara. Sara knows that she can’t give the kidney back, but the money from the swear jar can do good.

The Bolands have their own issues to work out as well. Beth has always been the leader of their operation, but her activities are starting to interfere with her marriage and it’s pushing her and Dean’s relationship to a breaking point. 

Dean has continuously surprised me this season with how genuine he seems to be about wanting to make things better. I briefly worried that he was about to flush all that goodwill away by sleeping with Gayle, but he did something appropriate.

DEAN: Because, I don’t want her. I want you, but I don’t really have the best track record, so I don’t expect you to believe me…and if you need me to go to my mom’s just–you say the word, but I really…Beth, I really want to stay.

This is not something Dean Boland would have done or said in Season 1. 

This interaction illustrates just how important Beth and Dean are to each other, and I am even starting to pull for them to make a grand departure to Las Vegas and start a new life. They both want to do better, and they’re on the same page for once. 

If Beth is able to hire this hitman and the plan goes through, they’d be in great shape to start a new somewhere else. It’s a perfect time, considering Rio stole everything from them and they’d probably be able to pack up their SUV. 

If that were to happen, it doesn’t mean they’d be entirely out of the crime business. Just because you move to a new city doesn’t mean there won’t be more gangs and new structures to work out.  

Stray Thoughts:

• Damn the Hills filled up that crime jar really fast.
• Watching Annie reflect on what’s important in a relationship is great to watch, but her monologue in Josh’s office makes me worry that she might backslide simply because Josh is unobtainable.
• Let’s talk about the incriminating evidence that Rio now has on Beth. Getting her to touch that gun honestly felt like the oldest trick in the book, and Beth should have known better, but the fact that she fell into that trap just illustrates how these women are still babies in the crime world.
• The two hitmen were interesting conversations but it felt like they ate up more of the story than they contributed to. 
• The disappointment Dean exhibits when he finds out the Beth won’t be coming to the awards ceremony is very touching and one of the most emotive performances we’ve seen from him. 

What did you think of this episode of Good Girls? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Good Girls airs Sundays at 10/9c on NBC.

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