Where the typical Starter Wife episode promises plot points in the way of public snubbings and private indisgressions, “Look Who’s Stalking” is the series’ most action-packed installment yet.
The episode starts off with Molly hungover. She’s slept with her ex-husband Kenny, hours after Zach quasi-broke off their sort-of-secret-ish relationship. She’s lying in bed, thinking, “Oh, he feels as weird as I do; good,” when Kenny begins showering her with compliments. Then, uh oh, the doorbell rings and it’s Zach, with a breakfast-in-bed tray and a heartfelt apology.
If this beginning wasn’t enough, we finally discover the stalker’s identity. It’s Charlotte, Molly’s romance-novel-writing fellow workshop student, but this time she’s toting a revolver instead of a notebook. She was the one leaking Molly’s journal entries to Dizzyland (Hollywood’s premiere gossip blog), making our heroine a pariah among the Beverly Hills social elite. The stalker’s threats had been escalating (most recently it was a “Die Slut Die” note attached to a sandwich), until now, when Charlotte decides to hold her unrequited object of affection and his lover hostage.
A messy sequence of events follows and we have the love triangle all in the same room, with Charlotte demanding that Molly reveal her betrayal to Zach. Rodney and Felix burst in, and the former saves the day. (“Forgot my cape and tights.”)
And so the stalking premise is over. There will be no more humiliating gossip leaks to Dizzyland, no more would-be threatening gestures that fall short of actual intimidation. What’s next? The full-length series has already proven itself more goofy and less pessimistic than its miniseries predecessor. The resolution of the conflicts that seemed to be the narrative vehicle in this incarnation suggests that maybe we’re going back to the resolution-of-feelings style plot construct we saw last year. But wait! In the final moments of the episode, we find out that Joan and Pappy have gone missing. Maybe USA is sticking with light-hearted mystery and intrigue, after all.