Good Girls Review: You (Season 4 Episode 13)

It’s starting to feel like the story we love again. Good Girls Season 4 Episode 13, “You,” has the girls back in the driver’s seat. (Kind of!)

While Rio has once again inserted himself in their affairs, the girls seem to be more determined than ever to figure out how to get out for good. However, it still falls into the comfortable rhythm of Season 4. The girls have an idea, they establish a way to get it working, and Rio comes along to throw a monkey wrench in it. 

While that makes sense, and there wouldn’t be a show otherwise, it’s starting to get stale as Beth, Ruby, and Annie don’t make any moves that stand a chance to get them out. 

They’re comfortably ensconced in the crime world, and while it’s been interesting seeing them get to where they are now they need to make bigger moves to keep the story interesting.

Let’s go back a minute to Good Girls Season 3 Episode 1, “Find Your Beach.” The girls were perfecting their printing process and eager to start their newest venture.

They were going into business for themselves. It was a struggle, but they knew it would be worth it. 

When that episode posed a threat in the form of Agent Turner, it was quickly eliminated and Rio was reintroduced. That worked for a while, but we’ve now had close to two seasons of these girls trying to figure out how to get to that independence again.

While independence takes time, this isn’t the typical writing that we’ve come to expect from Good Girls where the story just consumes plot like candy. The longer it stalls, the more it feels like there is hesitation to make any changes to the story that affect the dynamics on screen.

It’s time for the show to decide: who is this story about? Is it Beth, Ruby, and Annie? Is it Beth? Is it Beth and Rio?

That definition would help them commit to the characters at the center of this narrative and push it forward because without progress their victories will slowly start to mean nothing. 

The side characters are starting to become the bigger driving forces. That could be the catalyst for change that Good Girls needs right now. 

The fact that Phoebe and Dave are starting to actually get traction is refreshing. When Phoebe was introduced in Season 3, I was very excited because I thought for sure that this would lead to a more robust threat, but the partnership slowly petered out and no real change came from it. 

Between the return of the Secret Service, and Beth’s run for City Council, it has the potential to rock the show on a fundamental level. However, it’s too early to tell if it will have lasting change. 

What’s a little more worrisome is Stan and Dean’s attempts to take Beth down. While it sounded like a solid plan, I feared that it wouldn’t work or someone would back out. this turns out to be true with both Stan and Dean expressing regret and worrying about their respective wives. 

Not that Vance cares.

Something has been off-putting about The System since Dean got involved with them, and it’s starting to rear its head. Vance is likely going to continue to push the issue regarding Beth and it would be an absolute disservice if the person who brings everything down is a friend of Dean’s. 

There’s something circular and poetic about it, but Dean is the reason that Beth got involved in this in the first place. She didn’t get involved because she was trying to save Dean, it was because he cheated on her. 

Good Girls started as a show about women who needed money to solve problems in their lives. Having Vance bring them down because he thinks Dean deserves better, doesn’t serve that and makes Dean the hero he shouldn’t be in this narrative.

Overall, “You” is an attempt to start up the story that has been meandering for the past season. I fully believe that the show can set a new course, I just wish we had more than three episodes left in the series.

Stray Thoughts:

• I really have to applaud their argument against the puritanical moms at the city council meeting. Watching all the business owners say that Sweet P’s needs to reopen so that they can benefit from the late-night crowds and guilty husbands is the kind of retribution they needed.
• Dave crashing with Phoebe cos his wife kicked him out is going to be interesting. 
• I loved the idea of equity in a strip club, and if it wasn’t all (or mostly) for Rio, I would like it even more. The fact that they show that these women are human beings is very on point with the series as a whole and the issues it’s taken up since the beginning. I hope subsequent episodes delve into it more. 
• Annie and Kevin were a cute addition to this. I’ve been wanting Annie to have a meaningful and appropriate relationship for seasons now, and the fact that they seem to be forming a genuine connection is a refreshing change. Annie may have gone a little overboard with the bucket, but she actually seems glad he’s back too.

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

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Good Girls airs Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC

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