Sometimes the only way forward is to revisit the past. This is true for both Margaret (Marcia Gay Harden) and Todd (Skylar Astin) on So Help Me Todd 1×10, “The Devil You Know.” Margaret has to finally put her failed marriage behind her if she wants to move on. With or without new love. And Todd has some unfinished business with Veronica (Eliza Coupe) his former business partner and ex. The woman who nearly ruined his life.
Putting the Past Behind You
For all intents and purposes, Margaret’s marriage ended in the Pilot episode of So Help Me Todd. One doesn’t need to be an expert on relationships to know that it’s not a good sign for your husband to flee to another country to avoid another day with you. But it isn’t always easy for your heart to let go, even when your head knows better. And so Margaret has been in something of a holding pattern ever since – not able to go back, but not able to move on either.
At the beginning of So Help Me Todd 1×10, “The Devil You Know,” she’s still in the same position. She’s willing to file for a legal separation, but she’s not able to bring herself to file for divorce. That changes over the course of the episode, as she realizes it’s time. Moving on isn’t always easy, but it’s necessary to grow.
While Margaret struggled with her own unresolved issues, Todd confronted his own. Not just to help his mom, but to help numerous people wrongly convicted by dirty cops of very serious crimes. This was truly the weak part of the episode for me. Not that Todd was willing to speak to his former partner for information (unable to think of another way to get the inside scoop on a possible alternative suspect). But everyone’s reactions to him doing so.
On one level, I get it. Veronica nearly ruined his life. He lost his license. He almost went to jail. And the only reason he’s not homeless is because he’s able to crash in his sister Allison’s (Madeline Wise) garage. Veronica truly dragged Todd to rock bottom, and it was only his family that kept him from staying there. When someone hurts a person you love that badly, it’s hard to forgive and forget. It’s also hard to trust that your loved one won’t be sucked back in.
But Todd isn’t the same person he was in the series’s first episode. True, he has a long way to go. But he has made progress. Substantial progress, at that, given the short duration of the season thus far. Margaret’s (and Allison’s) anger at him may be understandable. To a point. But his mother’s assertion that this is proof he’s not changed at all – that he’s not grown at all – is horribly unfair. Not just because he’s proven himself to be growing week after week. Every single time he helps her with a case. But because of his motives for turning to Veronica now.
If his reliance upon Veronica had merely resulted in helping his mom see the light about his failed marriage…fine. That’s probably not worth the risk. There are other ways to go about it. But that wasn’t his impetus for going to visit her. His initial decision was to simply to help one person wrongly accused (and likely to be convicted, as Margaret even acknowledged) of murder. Through solving the case, his actions helped secure the release of at least three innocent people. That’s no small thing. Certainly not to the people who had been framed and were otherwise facing the rest of their lives behind bars.
Maybe it was risky, chancing that he’d get caught in her web again. At least in his mother’s eyes, because she was concerned he couldn’t resist her. But Todd did resist her. He did get the information he needed, and then he said goodbye. And as much as Margaret protested that he’s such a good investigator that they would have gotten the evidence to acquit everyone, even without Veronica’s help…well, frankly, I don’t see how that’s true. They didn’t get that information without Veronica starting them down the path. And even if they one day might have been able to do so, it would have taken far more time. Time Margaret’s client (and who knows how many other people) didn’t have.
For all her failings, Margaret is a loving mother. Exasperating at times. Demanding always. But loving underneath. Which explains her attitude toward Todd speaking to Veronica this episode, at least to a point. But she still took it too far when she accused Todd of not changing at the end of the episode, particularly when it’s very clear he has. The fact he said goodbye to Veronica and never intended to speak to her again alone proved it. Todd may be impulsive and reckless. He certainly is childish at times. But even with the eventual outcome (Veronica is now free) he did a good thing this episode, for a number of people. That Margaret still held his choice to confront his former partner as a mark against him made me – for the first time – not like her character very much.
Love, Not Murder
Being fair, Margaret’s erroneous assessment of Todd wasn’t the only issue with this week’s episode. The subplot involving Susan’s (Inga Schlingmann) relationship issues was also frustrating on a couple of levels.
As I’ve written before, Susan has been almost criminally underused in the series to date. Her relationship status isn’t characterization. That’s true whether she’s happy in love or not. I don’t know if her subplot this week means that her love life will start taking greater prominence in episodes (which will at least allow her more screen time for her character to be fleshed out), or if it means that the writers are about to unceremoniously end her engagement. Possibly off-screen. It would be the epitome of a Go Nowhere, Do Nothing plot. But it wouldn’t be entirely unheard of on television.
While Susan’s relationship woes suggest a potential for meatier material for her around the corner, there’s little else positive I can say about the repeated conversations about how you know it’s love when you fantasize about murdering your spouse. I get that it’s supposed to be humorous (with humor that’s decades old, at least). But it’s a stale joke that I wish writers would let die already. And while I would have shrugged it off as a sign one maybe shouldn’t take marriage advice from some filing for a divorce, it wasn’t entirely meant to be a joke when the writers used that secret fantasy as a nod to the fact that Susan and Todd belong together. She doesn’t really love her fiancé, because it’s Todd she imagines murdering on occasion!
I know it’s supposed to be humorous and tongue-in-cheek. That doesn’t change the fact that I’m tired of media normalizing the idea that love means being miserable enough on occasion to think about murdering your spouse. We certainly don’t need to normalize the thought that such fantasies are a sign of True Love. But what do I know? I’ve only been with my husband for over a decade, and I haven’t fantasized about murdering him once. (The alarm clock, on the other hand…? Its days are numbered.)
So Help Me Todd airs Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS.
I watch the show because I love Marcia Gray Harden. I loved her in Code Black and hated to see that series end. Also love the outfits on the show. I would wear every one. Hope it is not canceled but if it is I hope Marcia ends up on another series.