Dead to Me Recap: Exit Strategy

Does this feel like the third-to-last episode of a hit show? Sure, it pushes the plot forward, really centering how exhausting it must be for one woman who’s fighting cancer and another who’s more than four months pregnant to manage an elaborate cover-up. But there’s an emotional gravity that’s missing this episode, as it has been at several points this season.

It’s an episode that really affirms something disappointing: This is the weakest season of Dead to Me. It could possibly still recover with a brilliant final pair of episodes, but the season has felt overcrowded with twists that have smothered the characters in ways they weren’t the first two years, when the writing better balanced its displays of plot and character. Yes, those seasons were insane in the cliffhanger department, too, but they still allowed their stars enough breathing room to feel genuine. It was a soap opera’s worth of twists with character work out of the prestige-TV era. But Jen, Judy, and Ben feel more like pawns for the writers this year than real people. They’ll still give these talented performers an emotional beat now and then to show off, but it feels as if the writers may have had more than one season planned to work through things like cancer and an unexpected pregnancy. Pushing everything into a final season of only ten episodes has led to an ending that feels rushed. It’s still entertaining but lacks the cohesive thematic thrust of previous seasons and feels as if it’s hurrying characters off a stage instead of giving them a fitting good-bye.

Like much of this season, this episode is about waiting for the other shoe to drop. Judy is waiting to find out if she needs to go through another round of chemo or if there’s nothing that will save her life. Jen is waiting to find out what happens with the DNA that the investigation into Steve’s death found on his body and trying to figure out how to manage a pregnancy and stay out of jail at the same time. And now that the writers have finally brought Garret Dillahunt back into the mix, we are waiting eagerly to see what his unique cadence and mix of confusion and intellect will bring to the series in its final beats.

Judy goes for an acupuncture treatment while Jen goes to yell at Perez for putting handcuffs on Ben. Don’t worry about Ben. Rich white guys don’t ever face justice. It was really just to make Nick happy and close that investigation. Jen threatens Perez with the fact that she’s really been a part of the cover-up — bold move — and then Perez reveals they found DNA on Steve’s body. Will they be able to match it to Jen? They have to stay calm.

They do not stay calm. Jen and Judy basically come up with a plan to flee the country under the guise of just getting away but not really thinking through how that might look if the DNA does come back pointing to a Harding. There’s a funny line about Judy’s mom saying there’s always an exit, you just have to work to find it — Judy’s mom is in jail, so she definitely didn’t find that final exit. Perhaps Jen and Judy will find it in Mexico, though. Is this how the show is going to get back to the season’s opening dream sequence? It’s going to take some work to get there.

At Karen’s open house, Jeff (Marc Evan Jackson) is getting in the way, which is really just a way to bring the character back into the universe of this show so he can serve a greater purpose a few scenes later. While Judy is off picking out a vacay outfit (and finding a hidden key in the process), Jen runs into someone unexpected in Karen’s “safe room”: Agent Moranis! He introduces himself in a very serious tone, and Jen stumbles her way through the interaction. He just has a few questions! No big deal!

He starts with the indisputable fact that Jen was Steve Wood’s Realtor, which already invites some stuttering from Jen that would make even a rookie investigator suspicious. More urgently, Jen got a ticket near where the body was found. Why? Jen and Judy come up with a story about a girls’ weekend and somehow decide to toss Jeff into the mix for reasons that don’t really make sense other than pure panic. On the way out, Moranis notices the broken frame on one of Judy’s paintings. Everything is starting to look suspicious at the Harding house.

When he leaves, Jen goes into full chaos mode, convinced that Moranis took her “#1 Mom” mug to get Jen’s DNA. What now? Let’s kill Glenn. It would almost be funny if Dead to Me went off the rails and turned Jen and Judy into lunatics in the final couple of episodes. The pressure just becomes too much, and they kill Moranis, Perez, Nick, Karen, Jeff, maybe even Pastor Wayne … That’s not going to happen, though, and not only because the mug was in the sink. They don’t have to kill Glenn or anyone else. At least not right now.

Jen and Judy go to get Jeff on the same page about the ticket, which gives Jackson a fun scene that still feels as if it’s slowing momentum near the end of this show’s entire run. It’s revealed that Christopher (Max Jenkins) is spending time with Jen’s old neighbor, just making “martoonis,” but the real reveal is that Jeff never deleted the footage from the night Steve died. And Karen reset the cloud password.

So it’s off to see Karen, Mexican lasagna in hand — a callback to the series premiere. Jen and Judy want to see the safe room and go through some memories with Karen via her footage. They motivate Karen into closing this chapter of her life by deleting the footage, even taking the hard drive backup. Phew. That’s one fire put out.

But there’s another one waiting in the final scenes, as Judy is calling to schedule her follow-up scan and Karen drops by with some new intel: Her cameras picked up Agent Moranis going through Jen’s garbage. Jen knows it’s for her DNA, so the next morning, she goes to see Glenn. She brings scones.

Extra Counseling

• The “she-men” conversation is kind of funny but also indicative of how this season hasn’t been as sharp in the humor department. Jen is the kind of person who would probably have obsessed over DNA being left on Steve since he died. She’s meticulous. A joke about either of them not understanding female DNA being left at the scene of a crime feels a little false despite the panicked state in which it’s made.

• Where’s Ben? Is it a little weird that his arrest became more about Jen’s response and didn’t center him at all? Did Marsden need the week off?

• Two left! Will anyone else die? Probably not. I’m still convinced it can’t end with Ben in the dark about Steve’s death. Everything else? Who knows! For all we know, there’s another major twist to come. This season has certainly had more than its share.