Paula’s story isn’t adding up, and it’s definitely coming back to haunt her.
Photo: Apple TV

In its first season, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed covered a lot of ground. The series managed to be a taut, captivating, potent thriller that drew full-throated comparisons to Hitchcock, but it was also about motherhood, divorce, and selfhood. Hitchcock often centered his stories around everyday people caught in uncompromising situations, and Paula Sanders’s narrative was no different. But Hitchcock also often utilized an unreliable narrator in his storytelling, and Paula seemed to be relatively reliable … right up until the very end. The big mic drop at the conclusion of the finale turns out that Paula is a stone-cold (if possibly accidental) killer after all, and that the shadowy Souter Group is going to make her pay for her sins.

Looking back at the evidence in aggregate, we definitely knew that something fishy was going on with Portland. It was mentioned at least once per episode, and in “Raisins,” we did see that Paula’s flashbacks of the driveway incident suggested more than just an accidental homicide. Paula has tried to convince herself and everyone else that she was innocent in the death of her drunk, unruly neighbor Caleb, but given the surveillance video we see at the conclusion of the episode, it seems like she may have killed him to keep him quiet about something. While it is tempting to think that she simply had an affair with this unkempt but admittedly hot dude, his assertion of “I vouched for you!” seems particularly damning. In what context did he have to vouch for Paula? What, exactly, was she getting up to in Portland?

Given the information we now have about Portland, it seems like Paula was pretty lost even before her world-shattering divorce. Honestly? Motherhood can do that to a person. Paula says as much in both of her big speeches in this episode. When she confronts Cecilia Vanderwalle (Nina Arianda) on the golf course, she invokes the idea that mothers are constantly sacrificing for their children. This entire scene is terrifically tense, kicking off with a stunning shot of the two women standing in defensive positions on the golf course, birds swirling ominously in the cloudy sky above. “There’s nothing we won’t do to make our kids happy, right?” she snarls at the perfectly coiffed Cecilia, before telling her that she can prove that Blake didn’t earn his spot at Yale, and that she can make her life “very fucking messy.” It’s telling that Paula identifies herself as a mother here — saying “You fucked with the wrong mom” as she concludes her plea for exoneration — as it’s the lone tether she’s had to her identity from the very beginning.

This golf scene and, later, the courtroom scene are two Big Acting Moments™ for Maslany in the episode. She predictably nails them, but it’s also curious that Paula is made to beg and justify her position as a mother with a right to live a personal life on two separate high-stakes occasions, one in front of a fellow mother who has her life in her hands, and a second time in front of a room full of non-mothers. After Cecilia has a couple of lackeys unceremoniously kill the actually alive (!) Dennis in the most unsatisfying way possible — by tossing him off a roof and not even giving Murray Bartlett a chance to wax poetic about life and death — Paula is quickly cleared of all charges. The forged suicide note in Dennis’s pocket confesses to the murders of Sky and Trevor (which he did, indeed, commit), and less than 24 hours after Paula’s visit to Cecila — you’re not breakin’ our hearts! — she gets to see Hazel.

The reunion is short-lived, however, as the custody trial is to take place the very next day. Paula tries to reason with Karl and Mallory on the playground, but they pull a page from the playbook of a Republican in the wake of a mass shooting and claim that “this isn’t the time to talk about such things” when it damn well obviously is the time to talk about such things. Paula just gets a pat on the back from Karl as he tells her to “have fun” with Hazel while the threat of losing her child hangs over her head. Cool advice, dude.

Paula does have fun with Hazel, and they do all the things she promised, including watching a movie in bed. Hazel gets sleepy and asks if they can finish tomorrow. Tomorrow is uncertain for Paula, and a terror more palpable than anything we’ve seen her experience flits across her face. She has done everything she can to ensure that her little girl stays in her life, but even that might not be enough.

The next day, Paula heads to court. I truly love TV’s fantastical depictions of custody hearings where, more often than not, everything is decided swiftly and justly. If only things worked like that in the real world! Thankfully for Paula, she is in a TV series — an Apple TV series, no less — so it’s pretty much guaranteed that things are going to go her way here, but not before she gets to give one hell of a speech.

There’s some predictably underhanded character defamation on the part of Karl and Mallory’s shark lawyer, and while Karl later claims that he had no idea that the lawyer was going to be so cruel, it’s the latest in a line of examples of Karl being a passive asshole. But Paula is ready for the dirty attacks, and she acquits herself beautifully by simply telling the truth. At first, she speaks about her divorce, using an analogy about her lawn dying. “One day, you notice a little bit of brown, and the next day, it’s all dirt,” she says ruefully. She suggests that she completely fell apart after her marriage collapsed. As we know now, this is a lie — she was falling apart and engaging in shady dealings with her neighbor even before Karl divorced her — but it’s a white lie. Paula doubles down on the truth, saying that she’d do anything for Hazel. Then, the shark lawyer brings out the big guns, skimming right by accusations about the Portland incident to focus on her online relationship with a sex worker. He definitely means to slut shame Paula here, but she owns it, and it’s to her credit that she does. She defends her choice, invoking the grim reality that moms don’t just “get to be a wreck” because they have someone else to take care of and be stable for. She then doubles down on her relationship with her daughter, saying that she knows what’s best for her, and what’s best is to stay where they are, where Hazel already has a life.

The judge (Boris McGiver) ends up agreeing with Paula. He keeps the agreement the way it is. How could he not? Aside from the whole being wrongfully accused of murder thing, Paula is the ideal parent. She just got promoted, she coaches the soccer team, and she has roots in the community. When the judge reads his verdict, Paula gets a moment of pure joy in the courtroom, tears streaming down her face, the camera tight on her profile as she releases everything she’s been holding in for months, possibly years. It’s a very hard-won moment, and we all deserve to bask in it. We can also engage in some fun schadenfreude because for Mallory and Karl, this is a huge loss, especially because it looks like Mallory has already accepted her job in Boise. Oh, the hubris. Too bad, so sad. Hope you like cows, Mallory.

The final third of the episode functions mostly as a setup for a potential second season of the show, which I desperately hope Apple TV is considering. Sure, the central mystery is solved, and they’ve offed Murray Bartlett, but the finale makes a compelling argument for more. We check in with most of the central players at an exoneration party that Paula throws for herself at her apartment. The bitchy moms are there, as is her sweetie pie lawyer, Doug, and Geri and Rudy. Geri is very obviously into Rudy, even though she can probably do better, but as they leave the party and Geri makes a move, Rudy tells her that he’s back on with his ex, Vi. This upsets Geri because she feels like she’s losing the only person who believes in her, and at the end of the episode, we see her going back to work on the Paula story.

Everyone is pretty curious about how these murders just sort of tied themselves up with a neat little bow. There are a bunch of hanging threads, and Geri might be in trouble if she keeps investigating that article. Or maybe not? The Margin is already building some sort of top-secret room with tons of files, papered windows and digital locks on the doors. Perhaps Geri’s pitch brought some things to light? There’s surely a big story there.

Gonzales also thinks so. She stops by Paula’s party to ask her to give up more information. And while I do love Dolly de Leon and I’d probably give her whatever she wanted, if it had been up to her detective work, Paula would have surely gone to jail and lost custody of her child for the rest of time. So I get why Paula gives her such an icy reception. However, Gonzales tells Baxter that they’re going to get to the bottom of who, exactly, shot him and why … even though Brian already shot Jennifer in the head.

For her part, Paula seems pretty content with letting everything be. However, she forgot that she had threatened the head of a huge, multi-national crime ring in broad daylight. She happily tucks Hazel into bed, cleans up after the party, and enjoys a solitary beer on her couch with the windows wide open. Someone is watching. And they’re calling her repeatedly. When she doesn’t answer, the texts start coming in. “We need to talk,” states the first. Then, a video. It’s footage of the Portland incident, and it certainly didn’t go down the way she’s been claiming. The next text says, “We own you. You’re gonna do us a favor.” Paula’s eyes go wide as her phone starts ringing again. The score boosts the tension here, with high-pitched strings giving way to a rapid-fire heartbeat as Paula picks up the phone. The credits roll as she says, “Hello?”

Friends. If that isn’t how to wrap up a story while leaving us wanting more, then I don’t know what good TV is. I am very invested in this show getting a renewal because I want to see all of it: the fallout with Geri’s article, Gonzales’s investigation, Paula working with Cecilia and Brian, more of Geri and Rudy … and what’s going on with that secret office at the Margin?! I need answers. I need more of Paula’s unwavering confidence and spunky one-liners. I need it all. It’s been a maximum pleasure watching this series with you all, and if you enjoyed these recaps, please tell all your friends about this show so that Apple renews it for a second season.

• I loved how Hazel is all, like, “Mom, where were you?” when she sees her at the playground, and then immediately forgets that she even asked the question when her friends ask her to go play. Kids! They’re like bouncy balls!

• In the courtroom scene, Paula remarks that she’s the only mother in the room, but, in real life, Tatiana Maslany doesn’t have kids. Funnily enough, the actual only mother in that room is the actress who plays Mallory, Jessy Hodges, as she has a child with former SNL cast member Beck Bennett. A reversal of art and life! Fun!

• Is Rudy stupid? Go for it with Geri, you goon.

• According to Cecilia, the Souter Group is “a global risk-advisement firm.” My husband and I call these types of workplaces “Jabberwocky” after a plotline on the short-lived but absolutely fantastic ABC comedy Better Off Ted. Lots of companies are basically gussied-up nonsense because no one wants to admit that they don’t understand what the business does. Or, sometimes, the company is secretly an international blackmail ring posing as a reputable company.

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