‘The Starter Wife’ 2.02 Review: Molly Was Robbed
Episode: The DIA/The Diary of a Mad Ex-Housewife
Original Air Date: October 10, 2008
“The Diary of a Mad Ex-Housewife” is all about finding that darn journal stolen from Molly during Zach’s party. It never turns up, but a whole bunch of juicy gossip from it does on the dish-loving website Dizzy-Land.com.
What’s worse, the tidbits are so discussed around town, a radio-show host named Dr. Bob analyzes the still-anonymous source and comes up with a profile that’s too close to how Molly is for comfort, right down to the ex-wife status and flat-chested part. Ouch!
At least Zach is there to make everything a little bit better. After he tells Molly about Dr. Bob’s latest hobby analyzing her, he gives her Kiss #1. I wasn’t too big on Hart Bochner being cast as the new romantic interest at first, but now I’m all for it. His performance strikes a good balance between tail-chasing, middle-aged divorced guy on the rebound and decent if sly man in need of a mature yet quirky woman like Molly.
Joan and Rodney pitch in a little in the support department, too, during a lunch where they discuss how far off this so-called doctor is. Still, Molly comes clean to Liz Marsh at the end of the episode regarding the most hurtful piece of information from her journal that makes it to the Internet: the fact that insecure Liz paid a waitress $5,000 to flirt with her Dodgers husband Devin to see if he would be tempted. Molly’s journal includes the observation that Hollywood wives need to check their jealousy at the door, a detail that helps her verify the dirt online is coming from her writing.
Huge props to Molly for being such a standup woman; we all already knew she is. It’s also understandable that Liz isn’t exactly in the mood for friendship after the big reveal. But the best — or worst, depending on how you look at it — part of this definitive scene is the woman who exits a stall after Molly and Liz leave the bathroom where their chat occurs.
Uh-oh! How long will it take before everyone knows the truth about Molly? If blackmail isn’t on the table, I’m guessing she has about two more minutes of anonymity at the beginning of the next episode.
Elsewhere, Kenny unexpectedly sells the Kagan home, to Molly’s profound dismay, and takes an apartment at the same Divorced Dad building that Zach lives in.
Pappy gives a furious Joan permission to have an affair — as long as she doesn’t fall in love — after she tries to get something going one night and he’s completely disinterested. For now, Joan would rather be with her man, but I’m sensing an affair, or at least sex, with another man is exactly what she needs. Where’s that drunken David Shea dude?
Rodney also gets the thrill he’s been hoping for when, on his very first day on the Felix Jones job, his new client takes him to bed … after everyone leaves and before claiming he’s not out of the closet because he’s not gay. Sure. Of course not.
This is what we call being on the down low, which is a cute term for the less catchy phrase “in complete and total denial about your homosexuality or bisexuality.” Rodney deserves better.
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