So Help Me Todd Season 1 Episode 10 Review: The Devil You Know

Much of the premise for So Help Me Todd builds on where its title character starts out in the pilot—broke, washed-up, and without his PI license. Season 1 Episode 10 “The Devil You Know” finally introduces us the woman largely responsible.

It goes about as poorly as we might expect. Todd is clearly still manipulated by his ex. Both Margaret and Allison are at his throat over it, and he responds with personal attacks before pleading for understanding that he (truthfully) only ever reached to Veronica to help find evidence for his mom.

The entire thing is kind of an uncomfortable mess. There’s such an immediate rush to outrage, both in Margaret and Allison calling Todd out and in him initially lashing out at them for doing so. It’s a lot of showy anger when what’s really needed is some tough and real talk.

While the frustration with Todd is absolutely warranted, the anger is used to overshadow what should be legitimate concerns about what this woman has done to him—not only legally, but emotionally—and what she could be capable of doing again.

Between this and his own outbursts (highly petty though not altogether incorrect in point), the entire Wright family has an issue with stewing and exploding over the issues that most need to be communicated. It was aggravating in the Thanksgiving episode and is here, too.

In the hunt for a silver lining, it’s worth admitting that there are a couple points where we can see this anger coming from a place of care and concern, even if that’s never outwardly expressed. Margaret hates what Victoria did to her son. But at least she’s still safely locked up for it, right?

Ah, there’s the rub. In a “coincidence” you could see coming while blindfolded, Victoria’s aid gets her marked up for good behavior and released early. The promise to avoid all contact with her suddenly looks impossible.

Story-wise, it’s the best way to go and is a hopeful sign that we’ll get out of this communication rut. Just as Todd can’t avoid Veronica now, I’m hopeful that the emotions that all this anger is masking will be pulled out of the closet, too. The potential for extreme drama doesn’t hurt, either.

There is a case wrapped up in all this as all. Considering we start with a false accusation of murder and bring in corrupt cops, another victim of a setup, and threats against children, it’s the kind of story that could stretch over several episodes.

Instead, it too serves mostly as the motivation for all the family tension, soon wrapping up so quickly and neatly that it feels too good to be true. The best that can be said is that all the talk of love lost pushes Margaret to file for divorce from Harry.

This show works best when we see mother and son working well together, but we know that can’t always happen as things stand. Those things need to be dealt with, and for now, they’re not being dealt with well. Maybe it’ll take something as potentially dangerous as Veronica’s release to change that.

Other Notes

• Margaret is an export bowler. Like “should be winning championships” expert. Who knew?
• It’s only mentioned through one of Todd’s cheap shots, but shouldn’t we still be taking about Allison’s whole foray onto a dating website?
• I kind of get the whole “you want to kill them because you like them” running joke, but ladies: some of your exes sound like terrible people you should  just want to hate and ignore.

 

What did you think of this episode of So Help Me Todd? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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So Help Me Todd airs Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS.

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