Good Girls Review: Fall Guy (Season 4 Episode 3)
Things aren’t looking good for Dean on Good Girls Season 4 Episode 3, “Fall Guy,” After getting arrested at the end of Good Girls Season 4 Episode 2, “Big Kahuna,” Beth feels guilty about lying to him about Rio’s involvement.
It’s interesting to see this given where the series began. Beth was so determined to get a divorce when they robbed the Fine & Frugal. While a lot can change in a year (see 2020), it does feel a little odd to see Beth clinging to this idea of a family and devoting so much time to trying to protect him.
So much of “Fall Guy,” has our main characters in a holding pattern because of Dean’s arrest and this mission. The fact that they find a sacrificial lamb in Eric is an interesting idea, but it backfires, and rightly so. The thing about Good Girls, is that while Beth, Annie, and Ruby are doing crimes, they’re not evil.
Putting an innocent person in prison is a line they shouldn’t cross. While there is a short-term objective here, the girls aren’t seeing the bigger picture. This would ruin Eric’s life. While they may not think he has much to lose, this is not something that they can control, nor is it something that they can fix when he serves his sentence. There’s a long line of things that can, and likely will, go wrong just given the finer workings of the federal prison system.
Doing that to protect their family is much like when Rio killed Lucy on Good Girls Season 3 Episode 5, “Au Jus.” What happened there can’t be undone, but they’ll also never be able to reverse a felony conviction for Eric.
It’s not right that Dean is behind bars either, and Beth acknowledges that there are gender and sex stereotypes at play here, but the show can’t continue without Beth running free and printing money.
The flashbacks to high school Dean and Beth are a nice touch that really increases the viewer’s empathy. After having Dean be a villain for about two seasons, he needs some help to get back into the audience’s good graces. Seeing little moments like the opening scene in the ice cream parlor, or his interactions with young Annie show that Dean does know how to be a good person.
The prom night scene where he sits with Beth in the hospital is an especially sweet moment. If this was how Beth and Dean’s relationship was once, then maybe it can be that way again.
While most of “Fall Guy” centers around trying to get Dean out of prison, but while it attempts to solve that problem-of-the-week it also advances other plot points.
Mr. Fitzpatrick comes back into play, and Beth has reached a breaking point. It’s unclear exactly where this storyline is trying to go. He’s into Beth, but their encounter in her kitchen makes it much more complicated than a transaction. Somehow, it doesn’t feel like Ruby, Beth, and Annie have thought through to the after.
What happens when Mr. Fitzpatrick comes back from Fiji and kills Rio? That’s still an action they can’t undo or come back from. Mr. Fitzpatrick understands that and isn’t going to let Beth forget it.
MR: FITZPATRICK: What do you want?
BETH: To be nothing like you.
MR: FITZPATRICK: A little late for that.
BETH: Why?
MR. FITZPATRICK: You hired me, remember?
The longer he stalls, the more it feels like he’s trying to give Beth space to back out. While that might be a smart move, the girls are currently operating in survival mode. They have been since the start of Season 3. If they are going to move past this, they need to be in control of a decision, and right now, this is it.
This is especially true since it’s too late for Beth to come forward. By the end of “Fall Guy,” Dean has confessed to the crime he didn’t commit, and this is his reality for now. Seeing him when his children visit shows the audience how much he really cherishes his family, and perhaps doing this will give Beth the time needed to sort things out.
Overall, “Fall Guy” is a pivotal episode for the series. It gives the characters we’re so invested in backstory the enlightens who they are now and how they got here. It also gives Phoebe, our new federal agent, some room to play. Most importantly, it sets the stakes for what would have been the final episodes of Season 3.
With all these pieces now in motion, it’s only a matter of time until the walls start to close in on Beth.
Stray Thoughts:
- Ruby and Stan are going down a dark path that they may never come back from.
- Annie’s heartbreak over Ben wanting to spend more time at his dad’s is palpable and Mae Whitman sells it.
- Any guesses as to if Phoebe will actually turn the photo over and see Beth’s note? Actually, how did the Secret Service not see the note?
- Ruby and Annie are two of the best wing persons out there. I am going to start asking myself if I’d call certain friends to feed my kids pizza while the world is falling apart.
- The fact that Annie continues to call Dean, Deansy is adorable.
- Stan’s amazement at the weird battery size the calculator takes is relatable. I recently discovered there is an AAAA battery size and thankfully the thing that needed it actually came with a battery included.
- The only thing that may have been missing from these flashbacks is a young Ruby ala, Good Girls Season 2 Episode 8, “Thelma and Louise.”
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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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.