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The Riches: It's A Wonderful Lie
(S01E12) With just one episode to go in the season, the dominoes have started to fall. We've seen the Malloy family wriggle their way out of some tight spots. After this episode, you really have to wonder just how they are going to do it again. Some kind of a showdown with Dale was inevitable from the get go, but the new twists with Nina and Pete really add fuel to the fire. Give the writers credit for some nice planning with Pete (Arye Gross). Cael found the emails from him early on and I had wondered if and when they were going to deal with that. Wayne's plan to just play dumb seemed a little crazy, but what other option did they really have? It did make for quite the crazy scene for the "Mont Pierres."
I really liked the quick turnaround Wayne made when Pete mentioned tracking down Jolinda. Cael's quick work of rerouting the phone call back to the cell phone for Dahlia was interesting. On the surface, just because they are able to operate as a team so well. But what really made it great was what it meant for Dahlia.
She managed to use what she knows about Jolinda to craft the story to tell Pete, and added in what she could in her best shot at just sending him away. The look on her face as she hung up the phone showed that it didn't just sit right with her. And it gets to the bigger issue that she just can't get comfortable in her new skin. While Sam and Di Di have embraced the buffer life, and are flourishing in it, it is not for Dahlia. Not yet anyway.
The fact that Pete turned out to be just a little bit off his rocker seemed to work in their favor initially. Wayne as the shrink was fun to watch. He was grasping at straws, but it looked like his encouragement to write an angry email and be done with Doug Rich was going to work. If only. That would have been too simple a solution though. I liked that Dahlia couldn't let go of the fact that she felt responsible for what was happening to Pete. It made for a really good scene at the hotel where she talked him off the ledge. At that point, I thought they had done enough and would be done with Pete for the foreseeable future. As we saw at the end of the episode though, that's not the case. Pete is on to Wayne and is going to have to be dealt with. There was a very interesting look from Aubrey as they talked in Doug's office too. She's seemed to have her suspicions throughout the series and I'll be curious to see what comes of that.
The returning Hugh cracked me up. Hugh, as everyone says, is most definitely an asshole. But he is an asshole that is great fun to watch. I especially liked how right after telling Doug that he is a changed man he started screaming at Kimmy to bring him his god damn latte... Please. His new wife, Gi Gi (Julie Ann Emery, pictured) was an unexpected surprise. Her situation, and Wayne's request for help with it, was one more thing to make Dahlia uncomfortable with her buffer life. The scene where she convinces Gi Gi to take another look at the post-nup was very good. She managed to help Wayne, but still stick it to Hugh and do what was best for Gi Gi.
Wayne's trip to court surprised me. Not that he managed to get through it, or that he won. It seems that it was a pre-determined outcome anyway. After Dahlia explained that it meant he was as big an asshole as Hugh, I really expected him to try and do something to make things right with the family, wielding some of that new found partnership power to put a new face on Panco.
I'm not sure what to make of Nina at the moment. When she showed up while Pete was visiting it made for a tense moment. Her later rationalization that they must be in the witness protection program was fun, but like Wayne's counseling session with Pete, would have been too easy. I'm glad that she put together that something else was going on, and that she called Dahlia on it. It will be interesting to see where that goes, and it also added more pressure on Dahlia. Nina has been a good friend to her, and it's getting harder and harder to just lie to everyone about every last little thing.
What can you say about Dale and Hartley? TV has some great romances. Joe and Allison on Medium or Eric and Tammy on Friday Night Lights. And then they have this. It is one of the most disturbed and crazy relationships on TV, but it is fascinating to watch. It set the stage for the reuniting of Dale with the Malloys at Hugh's reception. That wasn't how I expected it to go down, but it was still interesting. The look on Dahlia's face was perfect. It was the straw that broke the camel's back and it leaves us wondering how Wayne is going to bring her back.
The plan to wait Dale out is probably for the best, although I think they are giving Dale too much credit. I don't think he has an angle to work. He's as lost in this new world as they are and is still trying to figure out what to do. Could it be that Hartley will be the unwitting accomplice that saves the Malloy family bacon? As much as Dale wants his revenge, he's got a shot at a good thing with Hartley. Why muck it up by going after Wayne and Dahlia? How often do you run across rich, soon to be widowed, one armed, knockouts? 
They have set the stage very well for what promises to be an explosive finale next week. Dale? Pete? Nina? Aubrey? They will all have to be dealt with at some point if the Malloys are going to hold on to their new life as the Riches. I'm looking forward to it. For now, I'll give "It's A Wonderful Lie" a 6, out of 7.
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