Summary
Alma continues her fall to the dark side in “The Woman in Question”, and Rita receives some comeuppance.
This recap of Why Women Kill season 2, episode 7, “The Woman in Question”, contains spoilers.
When Why Women Kill Season 2 first debuted and revealed early on that Bertram Fillcott was a serial killer, it seemed very much like that revelation would form the crux of the story. How wrong we were! Instead, Bertram’s murderous activities have been used as something of a barometer for the moral decline of his wife, Alma, who is becoming more and more of an outright villain than he could ever hope to be. Last week, she facilitated the death of Carlo and the framing of Rita for the crime; in “The Woman In Question”, she not only shows no contrition for having done so but actually doubles down on the justifications for it.
It’s a villain origin story, basically, and Why Women Kill season 2, episode 7 makes that clear. Allison Tolman continues to sell the transition in a wonderfully outlandish way – I’ve barely even thought about how she’s managing to get all her swanky new outfits since I’m enjoying her strutting about in them so much. Her parallels with Rita are clear too, though I get the sense in the last couple of episodes that we’re supposed to be feeling more sympathy for Rita than we are for Alma. The question remains, though. If Rita is able to extricate herself from the predicament she ends up in during “The Woman In Question”, what will her retaliation be? And how will we feel about it when – or even if – it occurs?
Something’s on the horizon, anyway. It isn’t a surprise that Alma’s face ended up on one of Vern’s blackmail photos, but that’s complicated by two things. The first is that Alma and Bertram are Vern’s future in-laws now. I think of all the varied intermingling storylines on the go here, this is the hardest to swallow, since the relationship itself came out of nowhere, let alone the proposal. But, either way, Vern seems genuine in his affection for Dee, and they’re due to get married, which means he’s going to have to do something about his knowledge that her mother was present at the scene of a murder. But the second problem is that Isabel finds herself in possession of the incriminating photograph. She’s determined to save her cousin, even if it’s just to preserve her lifestyle and keep old secrets buried. So, what is she going to do next?
As of Why Women Kill season 2, episode 7, it’s very difficult to say what anyone will do next, which is usually the mark of a good, twisty thriller. Everyone seems as willing and capable as everyone else of doing real damage, and the potential is out there for a lot of damage – personal, physical, reputational – in the next three episodes. The women might not be looking forward to it, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t.
