So Help Me Todd Season 2 Episode 1 Review: Iceland Was Horrible

It’s been nine months since we’ve seen our characters on So Help Me Todd Season 2 Episode 1, “Iceland Was Horrible.” For them, it’s only been five days.

Margaret has been staying with Gus since Harry appeared in her home. The only thing is that Gus doesn’t know about her ex’s antics. Neither does anyone apart from herself and Francey, and it takes a murder to rouse Margaret from her hideout.

A news anchor is killed on camera and his co-host soon arrested. Margaret’s attempts to help reveal two things. First, Todd has gone full PI again, and second, the law agency where she’s just been named partner is in complete shambles.

Mother and son work to find the killer and clear an innocent man’s name. This consists of their usual shenanigans, interrupted briefly by the absolute chaos of everyone learning about Harry. Todd literally almost kills the man.

On the romantic front, Susan is happily married (Todd doesn’t interrupt, but not for lack of trying) and Lyle is in new couple bliss with Alex. Unfortunately, walking in on Harry only to learn who he is gives Gus all the wrong impressions.

Even after Margaret sends Harry packing in glorious fashion, he’s out of reach. She’s left with a job barely on its feet and a list of people to fire. She doesn’t do that, of course. But what she or anyone will do remains to be seen.

To make up for lost time, it seems we’ve recaptured the usual level of messiness in both the professional and personal aspects of these people’s lives and cranked them all up to eleven. Just how much has happened in our absence?

Death by falling equipment in front of a live audience is scandalous enough, and the investigation leans into that flashiness, eventually ending with Todd confronting the killer as cameras roll. He does so in exactly the fashion we’d expect.

Still, this is mostly just an outlet for the changed dynamics that happen as Todd is reinstated as a private detective. He has more leeway and uses it immediately. We see (very) clearly that he’s a good son later, but he is a bit obnoxious for a while.

The situation Margaret is left in isn’t exactly surprising, but it is jarring so soon after she’s on top of the world. I’m not sure why we’ve been led to believe all would be fine for so long and I definitely don’t love what Beverly’s ominous behavior could suggest.

Swinging to the personal only makes things more miserable for poor Margaret. She obviously doesn’t handle Harry’s reemergence the best she can, but I’m side-eyeing Gus for not offering her a chance to explain after that scene.

Yes, the one that starts with an extraordinarily awkward dinner as Harry serves a bewildered Allison, Lawrence, and Chuck, and continues into Todd arriving, breaking a bottle on the table, and threatening to shank Harry in front of everyone.

It’s a brief but intense and completely serious moment. However much Todd likes to get on his mom’s nerves, he’ll rage at anyone who hurts her. It’s even satisfying to see. Still,  Margaret laying down the law is the ultimate moment of triumph.

As for the other romantic developments, I’m tentatively happy about both. Lyle deserves the world, even if love makes him a bit out of character. That moment of doubt when Alex stole his pen isn’t easy to forget, though.

Then there’s Susan. Though it doesn’t give us the climactic moment some might have expected, I’m glad Todd is unable to stop her marriage. Francey is right that she deserves to seek out her own happiness, and she clearly does love Peter.

For now, Todd accepts this closure, and I’m happy to set aside a love triangle. Maybe the endgame tells a different story, but in this moment they’re both better off to set that particular mess aside. We have enough of it everywhere else, anyway.

 

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

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