So Help Me Todd Season 1 Episode 16 Review: Twelve Worried People

You know how the nerves before a big personal event are always worse than the event itself? Well, Susan doesn’t. So Help Me Todd Season 1 Episode 16, “Twelve Worried People” starts with what should be an easy case for her to win. It ends with someone’s death via poison.  

Her distress in the aftermath pulls both us and Margaret into the plight of Amy, another juror now accused of murder. We detour from the courtroom into a more classic “whodunnit”, with the remaining jurors being the only possible suspects.

The twists and turns are well-executed if not especially groundbreaking. It isn’t much of a surprise when another juror (with “red herring” written all over her) drops dead. It’s even less of one when we learn that Amy is the killer’s true target.

It’s a solid mystery nonetheless. When we meet the true killer and realize he’s acting in the wake of his daughter’s death, inadvertently caused by a truly evil action by Amy’s mother, we can genuinely empathize with his motive, if not his actions.

By the end of the episode, though, the most lasting impact comes outside this frenzy of activity and in a quickly kindled potential romance between Todd and Amy—who, for the record, already resents her mother and is horrified by her deed.

The most obvious objection here of course pertains to Susan, and it’s addressed. And however much I might hate to say it, however much we might ache for her for many reasons right now, she really can’t raise any objections after denying that that kiss ever happened.

There will doubtless be more aftermath in that department, but it’s going to have to wait, because an entirely different type of personal trauma is much closer on the horizon. This type is spurred when Margaret’s sister, “Aunt Patty” comes to town.

Patty is a lot. Her and Margaret’s relationship might make Todd and Lawrence’s look like a close sibling bond by comparison. She may be a hero to rabbits (it makes sense in context), but to everyone else, she loves to criticize and over-explain.

That also makes her a truth teller, ready to reveal deep secrets on a whim, only somewhat inadvertently. In the past few episodes, a certain subject has conveniently held the air of truth waiting to be told:  Margaret’s first husband.

After a few hints that Margaret was unhappy with her marriage to her children’s father, we get the full story. Before dropping dead of a heart attack, he was at best detached and at worst emotionally abusive towards his wife.

It’s a wrenching admission for her to make, but most of our attention remains with her children, both (Lawrence never appears in the hour) clearly overwhelmed both by shock and grief in the painful conversations with their aunt and mother.

It is also a little odd, because we have seen Allison share at least some knowledge of Margaret’s unhappiness before. There, it tied to her own dissatisfaction in marriage. It does here, too. The episode ends as she tells Chuck they need to talk.

I promise there is also humor within a largely sobering hour. But this show that started as a comedy with a few tiny moments of drama feels like the opposite here. Thankfully, the drama does land, even if we might think longingly of more lighthearted times.

We’re approaching the end of the season now, and the increased feeling that things are about to come to a boil reflects that. The Wright family history, Susan and Todd, and now Allison and Chuck back at the forefront. I’m both curious and very anxious about where it all goes.

 

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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