This is going to be hard.
It wasn’t supposed to end like this. But here we are with Good Girls Season 4 Episode 15 and Good Girls Season 4 Episode 16, a two-hour coda to a four-season epic event.
There are questions left unanswered, and you can’t help but walk away thinking ‘what if,’ but even with that, there was a lot to enjoy about how things ended up. And plenty of pondering about where we imagine the ladies ended up.
Nabbing Nick was the goal, and to do that, the ladies had to figure out how to get dirt on him in a somewhat timely fashion.
The best part of the first hour was Annie’s fake date that turned into an oddly cathartic experience and ultimately helped Beth get the goods on Nick and Annie figure out that Kevin just may be a guy worth fighting for.
Nick’s true, nasty colors came flying out when he realized that Beth had deceived him, and gone was the charming politician who plants trees with the youth of the city. He was quickly replaced by someone who seems much more aligned with his brother/cousin.
Rio: If you need something, darling, all you gotta do is ask.
Beth: He’s you brother.
Rio: Cousin.
Beth: Family.
Rio: He’s in our way.
Bringing Beth and Rio together to go against Nick was the jolt in the arm this series needed and has always needed, if we’re honest.
The ladies were always the draw, but the Beth and Rio dynamic has always been such an essential part of the overall narrative. But the show failed to develop new dynamics to introduce in their relationship, which led to things feeling very stale the past few seasons.
And it’s unfortunate because, in so many ways, that chemistry was squandered. Sure, we got our sexy times here and there, but we never got development.
Rio and Nick are grown men who have been working together for years, and yet Beth Boland is the thing that finally fractured their relationship forever. After everything that’s gone on between them, when faced with the idea of losing Beth, Rio decided that just wasn’t going to be an option.
To think he was even willing to meet with the Secret Service to help was a shock, though he ultimately did things a different way.
Painting Nick into a corner where it was him or grandma was a bold, bold move by Rio. And it showed just how badly he needed to not only best Nick but keep him away from Beth. He wasn’t going to lose anything else to Nick. Not ever again.
Nick: Why can’t it be him?
Dave: Cuz he’s got something you don’t.
The will-they/won’t-they Brio relationship will probably be one of the things Good Girls will always be known for, and there’s really no resolution when all is said and done.
Rio talks a big game and throws around bitch like anyone believes at this point he genuinely feels nothing for Beth. But now it’s pretty clear that there are feelings there, but what those feelings are, we’ll unfortunately never know.
Beth likes to be a bit delusional when it comes to her connection to Rio, but even she has to know now that a man who’s willing to turn on his family is a man that feels SOMETHING for you.
Speaking of Beth, she found out Dean was setting her up and took the news surprisingly well. And once she won the election and had Nick on the ropes, she had Nevada right in her sights.
But what’s that old saying? Oh yeah, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
The Nevada montage was very clearly a dream, even though Mick shooting Beth at point-blank range was very real and very jarring. If there hadn’t been still a good chunk of the episode left, I was almost convinced she was actually in real danger.
The moral of the Nevada story is that the ladies were banking on a change of scenery changing their lives for the better. They would get away from the crime and get back to the simple things in life with the people they loved most.
And that sounds wonderful on paper, but problems don’t cease to exist just because you change your zip code.
Beth: I’m not going to Nevada.
Ruby: We can get you other flowers.
Beth: Nothing’ll be different.
Ruby: Except you won’t be a criminal.
Beth: Exactly.
For Beth, her little trip to the desert suburbia clued her in to the fact that she is who she is now. There’s not a way to go backward at this stage because she’s too far gone. And that’s something that Rio, and even the sniper, had been preaching to Beth since forever.
Her denial over the years made sense, but it’s a shame we finally got Beth Boland acknowledging the truth about herself, and we don’t get to see what that Beth looks like.
While Beth is good and even helping Dean keep his shirts from wrinkling when he packs up his bag to leave, Ruby is left with an ultimatum.
Stan and Ruby will forever be the gold standard of Good Girls relationships because even when they’ve had their lows (and damn, they had some lows), their love for each other always won out in the end.
But Stan’s stubborn refusal to not blame all things on Beth has created a divide where now he sees it as Ruby having to decide between two families; the Hill’s and the sisters.
Ruby’s packing her bags when the series fades to black, but was it fair for Stan to place that kind of decision on her shoulders? On the one hand, she has to choose her family. That’s her husband and her children, and that’s the only decision there is.
But was THIS the time to get out of dodge and leave everything behind? Probably not.
Beth just got shot, and Annie was hauled off to jail, and Ruby’s disappearing into the wind wouldn’t exactly help matters at all.
Ultimately, you have to imagine she stayed behind, reuniting with Stan and the kiddos down the line, but this is a storyline we, unfortunately, don’t get a resolution to.
Annie in jail was something I did not see coming, especially considering how this was one of the first times in the entire series she seemed settled. She and Ben have probably never been in a better place, and she had a good guy in her corner.
Kevin is quirky, and he’s kind, and he cares about Annie and her son. He’s been a rock for her, and it felt like she was well on her way to having a solid relationship for once, and now she’s had to give it all up because she’s going to jail.
It was a well-played move on Nick’s part, and again, it’s a story that’s just left up in the air for us to wonder how long Annie would be in jail for a series of crimes she didn’t commit.
Annie’s prison sentence, Ruby’s choice, and Beth’s new role as Rio’s boss are the things we’ll never get to experience, and that’s a hard pill to swallow. But everyone is alive and breathing, so that’s a small win on a show that’s been rather violent at times.
We’ll miss the laughs and the crazy shenanigans, but this show exceeded my expectations, and it should go out with its head held (mostly) high.
Odds and Ends
- Vance is an absolute weirdo. He was such an odd addition to the back half of the season, and besides exposing Dean and Stan, what was his point?
- We were not blessed with enough Rio laughter or smile over the years. We got multiple scenes throughout the finale, and it just really sunk in that we were robbed.
- Ruby and Stan’s nail salon song was one of their best song and dances yet. Man, I’m going to miss them.
That’s a wrap on an enjoyable series.
Please flood the comments with everything you loved about the finale, the season, and the series as a whole.
It’s been a pleasure to review this show since the beginning, and I appreciate everyone who’s come along for the ride! Catch you on the next one!
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Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.