Molly later asks Howard about their family, particularly cousin Renee, who hasn’t spoken to her since Molly missed her wedding. Howard tells her it would be great if she stopped by family Spades Night in order to reconnect. At work, Sofia gets a delivery of flowers, and Nicholas and Arthur read the card. “To my dearest, Fifi,” it says. “I crave your touch.” Sofia suddenly snatches the flowers from them, yelling to the sender on the phone that he’s going to have to do better. Arthur and Nicholas spy as a man named Tony shows up to Sofia’s office. They stop Sofia as she leaves the office to ask her what’s going on. She confesses that there are two men in her life. Tony, a thoughtful lawyer. Then there’s Jaylin, who brought the flowers. He keeps her on her toes, but he’s unreliable. Arthur tells her to be honest: she’s going to choose Jaylin because those kinds of guys always win. Nicholas, however, disagrees. He would go for the man who cares enough to show up. She thanks them for contributing their thoughts, but she’s going to talk to her real friends before she makes a decision. Renee gives Molly an icy greeting when she arrives at Spades Night, but the rest of the family is happy to see her. When Howard tries to help Molly and gets thrown under the bus by Renee, he leaves Molly on her own. Molly tries to stir up Renee’s memories of the dance they used to do together. This loosens Renee up, and they get along great. It’s Howard they make fun of instead when he returns. Molly gets Renee a new table as a gift after she complained about her old one. But Renee doesn’t take it well, accusing her of trying to buy her with her money. She asks why Molly skipped her wedding for a vacation and sent her a fancy gift to make up for it. She then calls off Spades night. Howard stands up for Molly to Renee, but Molly says Renee is right. She shouldn’t have missed the wedding, and she did try to buy her. But she didn’t ditch her for a vacation. Right before her wedding, she was on John’s iPad and saw some texts from another woman. He talked her into going to Mallorca to fix things. She didn’t want to go, but “he seems to have a way of getting everything he wants.” They went, and he denied everything. She believed him, but now knows that was a mistake. At the time, she was embarrassed to tell Renee. Renee says she understands. It must have been hard to come back to the family, but at least she’s here now. Later, Sofia thanks Arthur for his earlier advice, but she tells him he’s wrong. “I think sometimes the dependable guy gets the girl.” She says he has a better chance with “her” (Molly) than he thinks. Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre texts Molly that he got her a gift–jewels that belonged to Marie Antoinette. Howard asks her if everything is okay. “Everything’s great,” Molly says with a smile.
The Episode Review
If the writers think Molly is supposed to be more endearing to us because of her love of KitKats and microwave burritos, they have wildly miscalculated how her character comes across. This episode alone shows that Molly can still get out of everything for having had a terrible husband. She simply didn’t have to do the work to get Renee back as a friend. As for the other significant plot line, I’m afraid the sad puppy dog persona is not a good look on Arthur. This storyline tries to set him up as a sympathetic, deserving guy. But he’s done nothing at all to try to win Molly’s affections yet. He has only bemoaned (without evidence) the assumption that Molly will not choose him because he is a “nice guy.”
