Rio and Mrs. Boland: Shipping Happily Never After on ‘Good Girls’
“A gang leader and a housewife walk into a bar…”
It sounds like the beginning of a mediocre joke, but on Good Girls Season 2 Episode 9, “One Last Time,” it’s the foreplay before Beth Boland (Christina Hendricks) and Rio (Manny Montana) have sex for the “last” time before she gets out of the drug dealing business.
If the way they stare each other down before devouring each other’s faces is any indication, they have some pretty amazing sex during the commercial break. But their chemistry is so electric that a fully clothed makeout session is all I need to ignite my feels, thank you very much.
The show is about blurry moral lines, but Good Girls would be able to cover more interesting territory if it were to take a chance with Beth and push her over to Rio’s “dark” side for longer than usual.
No, that’s not because anyone is expecting a happily ever after. Brio shippers know we ship something closer to “happily never after.”
But Beth and Rio’s chemistry won’t be ignored. We all know how to play cat and mouse, and we have seen it play out on TV far too often. Why not let these two independent minds define the rules of a whole new game?
Let’s back up for a second because like I said, Beth is a housewife and Rio is a gang leader and drug dealer. Even before Good Girls Season 2 Episode 13, “King,” that’s a suspect combination.
He’s not going to leave his life of crime behind to go live with her in the suburbs, and considering the fact that she’s made the decision to continue working for him more than once, she doesn’t exactly crave a mundane life void of danger.
But as Montana told Click 2 Huston, “King” marks a point of no return for Beth and Rio’s relationship. “It kills me because…she shot me [Rio],” he said. “I feel like it still has to teeter on that line between attraction and chemistry, but it has to be something different in Season 3 and I think it is.”
Season 3 is currently in progress, and Montana’s words are already quite an understatement.
Rio has made Beth pay for betraying him by demonstrating how much money her life is worth to him and killing Lucy, the co-worker that Beth roped into her counterfeit money operation without her knowledge.
Before Good Girls Season 3 Episode 5, “Au Jus,” viewers knew Rio was a murderer. But something about his style of execution (a.k.a. having other gang members do the actual killing) or the fact that the victim was making Beth, Annie, Ruby, and Rio’s lives harder made those murderers easier for us to justify.
It’s fiction, and we’re rooting for criminals, after all.
By ordering Lucy killed in front of the ladies and forcing them to watch, Rio draws a clearer line between him and them.
It’s a little bit sexy and fun to root for the housewife with the loser husband to form a lasting, hot connection with the charming gang leader who respects her business savvy.
That’s not who Beth and Rio are anymore. If their evolution wasn’t clear to you before — it should be crystal after “Au Jus.”
Of course, Beth isn’t exactly blameless here. She’s actively plotting Rio’s murder because what else is she supposed to do with a non-paramour boss who doesn’t trust her or give her a fair cut of profits?
Where does this leave shippers like me who were secretly hoping deep down in their hearts that Beth wasn’t just faking a pregnancy with Rio’s baby to stay alive? I have no answers, all I know is this:
We’re not exactly mourning a traditional fairytale ending; that was never in the cards for us.
No one would argue that this is a healthy relationship. But from a purely analytical perspective, chemistry like Beth and Rio’s (and Montana and Hendricks’) can’t just be written off of the page.
Theirs is the kind of chemistry that would still linger if one of the actors left the show. If you need proof, just listen to Rio say “Elizabeth” once without feeling a chill.
I can’t predict where Good Girls is going next, but I didn’t choose this ship the ship chose me and I’m not going anywhere any time soon.
Good Girls is a show about scaling the edges of moral lines, and Beth has always been most likely to jump to the other side.
Each woman is playing their own twisted game of Red Light, Green Light with Rio over and over again, running back to the start (their “normal” lives) before he can actually beat them.
I’m tired just thinking about it. How is Beth still breathing?
It makes me wonder what would happen if she stopped running back to normalcy all together and instead took Rio’s hand, stepped over to his side of the line completely, and stayed there for a while.
If anyone can channel Bonnie Parker for a bit without being blinded by love until death, it’s Beth Boland.
Agent Turner is dead and Rio isn’t. On Good Girls Season 3 Episode 8, “Nana,” we learn that someone else is about to be on their trail soon.
Is it too much to ask that they stop pointing guns at each other and rip each others’ clothes off instead? There’s nothing like mapping out a survival plan after sex.
—
Are you a Brio shipper? Share your thoughts on them in the comments below!
Good Girls airs Sundays at 10/9c on NBC.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Esme Mazzeo
Esme Mazzeo is a lifestyle and entertainment journalist from Long Island. When she's not writing for work, she's writing for fun, or searching for something to satisfy her sweet tooth. She thinks rainy days are the best kind of days. Certified night owl.
2 comments
Television today is lacking depth, connectedness, and the ability to dig in to human issues, while still being funny. That’s what drew me to Good Girls, in particular season one. I am a big Rio and Beth fan, their on screen chemistry is undeniable. I’m not sure why the show doesn’t promote the story line more? Some of their best one on one scenes are noticeably missing from the shows social medias pages, and website. I have a feeling their concerned the premise of the show will take a back seat to the Rio and Beth story line. I’m afraid if they don’t embrace the gift they have with these two characters we may loose the show. I’m not at all opposed to a Rio spin off. NBC did it with Tom from the Black List. If Rio is getting to much attention for the show, Maybe its time to give him his own.
I’m ok with them ending up as happily ever after. I watch tv as part of a break from reality so I dont need their relationship to be realistic. I need it to interest and draw me in. Besides, the lack of reality and logic in this show overwhelms in enough other areas, so why stop with their relationship?
Comments are closed.