The Starter Wife Review:
"The French Connection" (Episode 107)

While last week’s episode focused on the legacy of exes in our characters’ romantic lives, this week’s Starter Wife throws the viewer abruptly back into the present. Unfortunately, Joan (everyone’s favorite curmudgeonly but kinda sexy recovering-alcoholic best friend) really has gone on a cruise with her estranged husband. So we’re left with Molly’s new writer boyfriend, Rodney’s action-hero flame, and the crumbling of Liz’s marriage.

Zach’s ex-wife fills Molly in on the former couple’s dirty little secret: his ongoing affair with an actress. Not just any actress, of course, but the starlet slated to play Molly in her autobiographical screenplay Wife Goes On. Zach never admits to the accusation exactly, so it’s probably not the ultra-threatening, love-of-his-life liason the ex made it out to be. Point is: she approaches him later with the mature, "I want this to work" attitude, and he (sort of) breaks off the relationship. This leaves Molly in a more vulnerable state when Kenny advances, and, despite the characters’ painful lack of chemistry (not to mention the malicious legal action occurring as recently as last week’s episode), the two sleep together.

Meanwhile, Lou, who “accidentally” proposed to Molly a while back, is about to get married to a phoney French girl. Upon discovering his would-be’s deception, he heeds Molly’s prodding (“she just reinvented herself”) and forgives his fiancée within seconds, not having known anything about the woman, down to her real name. This unabashed leap of faith is supposed to contrast with the trust-tightrope Molly and Zach are walking, I guess, but we remain incredulous.

Rodney, for some reason, has been stuck in a bad teen romance movie this season. He spends the episode babysitting his closeted boyfriend, whom we’ve just discovered to be bipolar.

Liz, on the other hand, has her eye set on a reunion with her pro-pitcher, hunk of a husband. We squirmed in our seats with Molly’s go-crawling-back advice: “You have got to figure out a way to convince Devon that you can change.” But mostly, well…we don’t care what’s going on with Liz. Something about her character. True, her sincerity comes off counterfeit. And yes, her dilemma isn’t as nuanced as the love troubles we find in Molly, Joan or Rodney’s lives. Or maybe we’re just disgruntled about Joan’s disappearance and Liz makes an easy scapegoat. But man, she gets on our nerves.

At the end of the episode, when Molly’s wrapped up in her ex-husband’s arms, the camera pulls back into the stalker-style shot from outside the window. Complemented with eerie music, we’ve got the promise that news of her dalliance with Kenny will appear on Hollywood’s hottest gossip blog at the start of Friday’s episode.