RedInk

Unpopular opinion, I understand, but I always find the more serious reality on these shows to be exploitative. If anyone is truly helped by something they saw on a Housewives franchise, I think that’s wonderful, but I imagine that’s few and far between. I’d venture to say it may even result in more damage because there is nothing offered beyond the obligatory hotline number and general platitudes to “seek help,” when most everyone already knows to do that but can’t afford it, or has an unwilling family member, etc. I forwarded through this one because I knew it was coming. And although I obviously sympathize with Mary in this situation as a mother, she’s shown herself to be disgustingly predatory before (her church). My much more cynical side sees it as attention-seeking behavior, usually on the part of the parent or spouse. There is just no need to put someone so vulnerable and at their weakest point on camera. Discuss steps you’re taking and what’s helping, sure, but after the person in need is in a stable place.

She’s done with him. Pretty sure this martyred wife act is step one for her to gain some financial footing and get sympathy at the same time.

I don’t know if it makes her a bad person necessarily, but it’s definitely not admirable. I’ll be charitable and say I think it’s hard for some of Jen’s kinder coworkers to want to root for her and then anxiously watch her make one bad, materially-driven decision after another. For others, Jen just holds up a mirror and makes them worry about their own insecure footing. Regardless of their education and ability to earn money, only Gina and Tamra (sorry to have to throw her a compliment) fund their lifestyles. The others are wholly dependent on their husbands, family money, alimony, etc., to live the way they do. Jen just wants what they have but has chosen poorly. If that’s pathetic (it is), then they are a little bit too. Cautionary tales make people uncomfortable, and the loser in the story is ostracized as a result.

I should feel sorry for Bree because of her legitimate abandonment issues and isolation, but I caaaaan’t. I’m waiting to see the earrings as step one of Marianne taking Bree and her cheating husband down, although I expect she knows he can’t keep it in his pants and there won’t be any consequences for him. Really all the secondary characters should garner more sympathy than I can muster…except for Steven and Lucy, who really are the worst and do deserve each other.

Yes! They all lose me with this. Across all franchises, nothing is off the table - they discuss their children’s mental/physical illnesses, trauma, parental neglect, bullying - all of it, and sometimes (even more despicable) they act like it’s “awareness” instead of the obvious storyline fodder it is. I can’t think of a single housewife who doesn’t divulge sensitive information about her children. Maybe Marge (Jersey) and Dorinda (NY)?

The best thing I can say about these final episodes is that they made me a little less sad that the show has ended. If we hadn’t gotten a 4th season at all, I’d have been gutted, but these last installments were a slog to get through. I know they couldn’t just tie up all the loose threads in a story that was so beautifully constructed, but I thought the choices made were so awful: a destroyed Andy abandoned, Ben split apart from the group, (potentially) evil Timothy, and silenced Sister.

I agree, and this episode seemed like filler rather than a jumping-off point to a series finale. The entire mini season has had a distinct shift in tone, and I can’t imagine how any one of the mysteries could come to a satisfying conclusion. I’m not sure why these were even tacked on. I think everyone is correct in assuming the deconsecration/sale of the church is a methaphor for Paramount canceling the show, but to me that’s more interesting for the producers than the viewers. I just hoped the story could play out as best it could in the limited time given.

I really hate it too (caveat: I’m Christian, so it’s hard for me to turn that part of my brain off), but I’m not certain that will happen in the end. Especially after seeing this episode play out. I’m thinking Ellie isn’t a legit patient but a plant at the hospital who is intentionally manipulating both David and Kristen. And Kristen seemed a little more ambivalent about divorce by the end of the episode.

So did I, and for the same reasons. The writers worked so hard to make the the case that it could be literally everyone connected to the victim, and the daughter was the only throwaway character (but I did think it was the prosecutor who tied her up to frame Rusty). These people were so repulsive, and I suppose that was intentional, but why? Who likes a murder mystery where the accused, the accuser and the dead are all so gross? Even the wife was spineless and resolved to put her sociopath husband over her children. I wish Barbara had killed Rusty. I’d watch that sequel.

The therapist! Thank you! You’re right, and I’d totally forgotten. (Still, based on everyone’s response to him, I thought this manager would be a little more powerful than any other basic mortal being.)

So who was The Manager, anyway? He died pretty easily…didn’t expect that. Middle management I guess?

This is what doesn’t track for me and why I need more backstory on her. She’s orchestrating the apocalypse, torturing people, and assisting her boss (the literal devil) with creating the Antichrist from her own child’s body. I can’t understand how that person cares much about anything. She just kind of turned evil and then grew a (semi)conscience at breakneck speed.

I love this show, and Christine Lahti is a definite high point, but Cheryl’s arc is just confusing. I was shocked by both her descent and her turnaround. For a stretch, she has been so evil that I’d say she was completely irredeemable. I buy her in any role, but I wish the writing gave us something to help reconcile these two opposing parts of her personality. I’d love a Cheryl-centric episode. Oh! Also I was screaming at them just returning that baby.

That’s so true! My daughter is Elizabeth, and we called her Beth. She’s now an adult and has gone by Ellie since grade school.