Whining in the Rain
Season 4
Episode 3
Editor’s Rating
3 stars
***
Photo: Bravo
I love that this show does so much of the heavy lifting for me so that I don’t have to tell you that a “pram” is a stroller or “pissed” means drunk (which is different from “pissing down,” which means raining hard, but an English person will use ” pissing down as an excuse to get pissed). I also love that we take a little tour through some of the London neighborhoods. Chelsea, where Kimi lives is considered “affluent” and Knightsbridge, where Mark lives, is “luxury.” Lottie says she lives in Islington/Hackney, which are next to each other but worlds apart. I thought she was saying she lived in Hackney because it is, as the show tells us, “artsy,” and Islington is like Park Slope, full of prams and liberals in the worst outfits you could imagine. Then when Lottie goes shopping with her mom it is at a store in Shoreditch (“cool,” “gentrified”) which is closer to Hackney so maybe she is artsy.
Then Myka, Kimi, and Lottie meet for coffee in Notting Hill, which they describe as “boho chic.” Sorry. No. Notting Hill is overrun with American bankers. That’s all that’s there now. And they went to the Portobello Road flea market? I know two of them are American, but what are they? Tourists? Yes, Notting Hill was boho chic in the ‘90s when the movie came out, but Julia Roberts put that particular nail in that particular coffin.
While Myka talks about the Dara situation when she’s breathing Hugh Grant’s exhaust in Notting Hill, the better coffee date is when Myka meets Dara over vanilla lattes. Dara? She’s back? She filmed again? Is this the last time? Is she quitting the show or is it like Elton John quitting touring? Myka starts by saying she was really hurt by the dinner in the last episode, and she’s been holding onto that. “Have you really?” Dara says with so much condescension covered by fake care that it made me want to dump a vanilla latte on her head.
Dara claims that the situation with what she said to Missé was “deeply miscommunicated.” What we get from the conversation is that Dara didn’t say those things to Missé; it’s just that Missé must have overheard them. Um, okay. So that’s like saying, “I didn’t throw the wine at you, it just got on your shirt because I threw the wine at someone else.” Bitch, you still threw the wine, and now I have to go the dry cleaner. This makes no sense at all. What also doesn’t make sense is that Myka says she needs to feel safe in a friendship and Dara says that goes both ways. Yeah, sure, but what has Myka done to make her not feel safe in their friendship? We haven’t seen anything. If there is something, then either the editors are keeping it from us to make Dara look bad (likely) or Dara just freaking sucks and will say anything to make herself look better before she quits this show for good (more likely-er). Myka leaves this interaction believing Missé over Dara and saying she’s done with their friendship.
Most of the episode is taken up by a trip to the winery that Missé plans. The crew is right to be skeptical; England is not particularly known for its wineries, but with climate change it might become a hotspot for them. Invest now, people! It takes them all so long to get there that Mark has to turn around and go right back home. And miss all the drinking and crying about their pasts? He must be devastated.
Missé, who planned the event, kicks off lunch by playing an around-the-table game, but it’s just like “share something about yourself.” Kimi starts and, throughout the episode, we learn a whole lot more about her. Her mother had her and her brother when she was young, resented the kids, and got divorced. Kimi lived with her Haitian father in Haiti for a good part of her life and didn’t talk to her mother for 20 years. She moved to Miami and then became Mama Elsa’s witch protégé. Okay, I made that last part up, but I’m going to need a whole miniseries about Kimi’s life and how she seems to know just about everything. Is she our first AI reality television creation? Is Kimi Claude’s sister made flesh?
Margo tells them about 9 Songs, Myka tells them that her father is from Barbados and she knew nothing about etiquette, Lottie tells them that her father got a miracle drug for liver cancer. The real tough tales come from Martha, who talks about her older sister’s suicide, and Missé who talks about how her brother was murdered in front of his wife and child on their doorstep on Chrsitmas Eve.
Kimi is somehow the most English of all of them, getting visibly upset when everyone keeps sharing feelings and emotions. She wants to talk about something fun instead. I’m with her. It’s a day out. Can’t we trade stories and some gossip and talk about how everyone in London hates Paul Hollywood but still invites him to their dinner parties? Kimi says that when people share too much she finds it disingenuous. Lottie remarks that Kimi didn’t share much about herself and hopes she gets more vulnerable. I don’t know. She seems to be doing a great job so far. Maybe Lottie just needs to tune into the show.
Kimi really lets loose on the car ride saying she knows more about Missé’s story. While everyone feels bad for her, Kimi brings up that it’s not entirely as she made it seem. Missé did allude to everyone thinking that her family is all criminals or into drugs, but doesn’t really go as in-depth as the news reports, which say that her brother “was a kingpin in an international drugs gang and was targeted as part of a feud with a rival organized crime group.” He was murdered by a hitman who is now spending his life in prison.
Based on the preview of next episode, it looks like Kimi’s reaction is something we’ll be exploring more, but it’s a hard one to parse. Kimi is being quite callous about Missé sharing her story. Obviously, Missé is devastated that her brother was killed in such a vicious and public manner. She just sees him as her brother, not a “kingpin” in anything. Should there have been some more context to the story? Sure. Maybe. It seems like there might have been but it was edited out. It’s hard to know all of what is said, but based on what we see, Missé is leaving some details out. Still, who wants to pressure a friend (and for some, a new friend) for details about their brother’s murder at lunch?
While that might be the most impactful scene of the episode, the most stunning is Martha going to clean out her storage area (or maybe just inspect it, the motive was unclear) and Margo going to meet her on (gasp) a Lime bike. Martha is looking through her enormous hat collection and finds hats from her older sister, Polly, who was bipolar and committed suicide in 2013. Martha is feeling like a bit of a failure since she doesn’t have her life more together at 45. She then tells Margo that she has now given her house keys to a stranger who won’t give them back.
This is connected to the painter she contracted after she met him in the park and gave him £300. Apparently, he took the money and her keys and is refusing to do the work or return her keys, and she’s afraid that she’s going to be turned out of another house because of a crazy man. Margo’s response is immediate and intense. “You’re not going to be kicked out of your house by another man, you’re going to get kicked out of your house by you,” she says. Martha says that she won’t become a horrible person just because life has been hard to her. That is a great sentiment, but what’s the old saying? Trust in God but lock your doors. I think this is a case of that. Martha can still be open and trusting in general, but also take precautions that she’s not taken advantage of again. Did she have to give the man a whole key? Could she not have, at least, asked for some of his previous work? Could she not have at least seen a van with a painter’s logo and a phone number on the outside?
Margo goes as far as to say she’ll have to “take a step back from their friendship” if Martha is going to act so cavalierly and tells her that she needs to think about herself more than she thinks of other people. Martha says, “That’s a hard muscle to exercise when you haven’t done that.” My heart just breaks with sadness for this wounded bird who can’t seem to find the error of her ways. But also, girl. Be for real. Margo tells Martha that she’s been waiting her whole life for someone to come and take care of her, and no one is showing up. It’s like if she puts herself in worse and worse situations then the savior will eventually have to arrive, and Margo makes it clear that the savior is not her. She’s not going to be the one to arrive at Martha’s house and find her dead.
What is so shocking about this conversation is this is not one we’re used to having only three episodes into what is essentially a new show. These are old friends with a difficult dynamic having a very frank discussion with each other. This is down and dirty stuff. These are the deep, dark things that people usually want to hide from the world, but that we’re getting the pleasure of seeing before our eyes. This isn’t newbie stuff; this is two old pros giving it their all. Martha tells Margo that she knows she needs to take care of herself, but the learning curve is steep and hard. Martha collapses into Margo’s giant black coat, which looks like a parachute. What would come out when you pull that rip cord and need to save your life? That’s just what Margo might have done here today, save Martha’s life, and she should be glad for it, as she stains the nylon with her salty tears. Martha thinks of that new life, of being independent, of finding her own solutions, of leaning on her friends, not being carried by them. As she cries into Margo’s great coat, she thinks, if even for a fleeting second, that she can do it. As long as she never has to ride a Lime bike.
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