Picking up from last week’s episode, April is trying to figure out how to get enough money to help her dead husband Paul’s ex-mistress Miranda and Miranda’s young son, who is supposed to be Paul’s son (but may not be, based on what we saw last week). She meets with her accountant, who tells her that money is tight, as most of it is tied up in her store. The meeting is cut short when April gets a call from her daughter, Lucy’s, school, saying Lucy is missing. April rushes to the school and meets with the principal, and is surprised to see Richard there, too. It turns out that his daughter, Meg, and Lucy had ditched school to go to a book signing by Selena Gomez. Later, when April confronts Lucy privately about her behavior, April is stunned when Lucy calls her a goody-two-shoes.

For the record, I meant to single out Corinne Massiah, the actress who plays Lucy, for praise in a previous episode. For a 10-year-old, this girl seems to have a lot of confidence and is very comfortable on screen. We may have a rising child star on our hands.

Later, Richard comes by April’s store, to compare notes about punishing their children. April tells Richard the whole story about Paul, Miranda, and the kid, which explains why she flaked on him previously. He understands and encourages her to be “impulsive” for once. They kiss, and end up in bed, after hours, in her store. It’s nice to see April getting some truly happy moments on this show for change, she deserves it after the emotional roller coaster she’s been on in the past episodes. And it helps that Rochelle Aytes and Cameron Bender have good chemistry together. Let’s hope this relationship lasts.

Karen arrives at work and receives some good news. She’s been selected to speak at a special forum regarding mental health, which will include luminaries like L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Hillary Clinton. But almost as soon as she hears that good news, she gets some bad news, in the form of another visit from Mr. Newsome, the investigator checking out Tom’s life insurance, who was last seen in Episode 2. He once again asks for Karen’s notes about Tom, to see if he was suicidal during his last days, and hints that this could now be a criminal investigation, meaning he could get a subpoena for those notes, which Karen has refused to give to him. Karen later meets with Tom’s widow Elizabeth, who eventually asks her to go ahead and write some fake notes saying Tom was suicidal, and hand them over to Newsome. Karen initially refuses, and Elizabeth thinks it’s because she doesn’t want Elizabeth to lose the life insurance, but Elizabeth says she doesn’t want it anymore,she just wants this whole thing to be over with. It’s almost funny when Karen says “Fabricating notes could cause me to lose my license.”

Uh, yeah, so can sleeping with one of your patients, and illegally prescribing him drugs for him to use to commit suicide.

Late at night, Karen is alone in her home, she sits down with her laptop, and begins to write the notes describing Tom is suicidal. The close-up look on Karen’s face says it all. It’s killing her to do this, but she knows that she has to. So, stoically, she does. Many kudos to Yunji Kim for being able to pull off that scene. A lesser actress couldn’t.

Joss begins this episode having a sexy romp in bed with a meathead stud (I never did catch his name, if it was mentioned). Alex walks in during the aftermath, and announces that she’s found her own place to stay, so she’s going to be leaving Joss’ place soon. Then the two ladies go out jogging/hiking. Afterward, they come back to Joss’ room, and Joss goes to take a shower, and then suddenly Alex opens the stall and asks if she can join her. Joss says yes and we get a HOT LESBIAN MAKE-OUT SESSION.

What? I’m a heterosexual man, how else am I supposed to react?

Well, this show didn’t hold back, there was no quick kiss followed by a commercial, and these two ladies went at it. It was the hottest love scene since Savi and Dominic ended Episode 1. Jes Macallan and Shannyn Sossamon sizzled up the screen. As it was going on, I actually suspected that it would turn out to be like a “dream sequence,” that Joss was just imagining it. They’d hinted at the attraction between the two women before, but I didn’t think they’d act on it so soon. But it was no dream, the scene was real. But if you think this is just being played for cheap exploitation, you’re wrong. This show treats it just like any other relationship. Joss and Alex have a heart-to-heart talk afterward, as neither woman wants things to change between them.

Joss still maintains that she’s not a relationship kinda person, and Alex claims to understand, and they basically agree to be Friends With Benefits. Later, Joss talks to Harry, who saw her and Alex together in the kitchen earlier, and he noticed the sparks between them. He confronts Joss, warning her that she could be making a mistake, since last episode she was telling him how happy she was to finally have a real “female friend”, but is now risking that with sex. Joss insists it didn’t mean anything, but even Harry could see that it meant more to Alex. Later, while helping Alex pack her stuff in her old place, Alex’s ex, Sally, stops by and also confronts Joss about Alex’s feelings for her. Joss continues to deny it, and when Alex later calls Joss to invite her to lunch, Joss lies about being at work and declines the invite. But then late at night, while in bed again with the male meathead, she ends up ditching him to call Alex and go over to see her.

I’m still not sure where they’re going to go with this storyline. Joss’ established history, up to this point, has been that she’s the woman who isn’t good at relationships and doesn’t want one anyway. So I can’t tell if she’s going to end up having a successful relationship with Alex, perhaps having her realize that the problem was that she’s really gay, or if she’s going to end up ruining this relationship too. Either way, it’s an interesting storyline.

And then there’s Savi (gotta save the best for last). She’s still not sure what to do about her pregnancy. She’s waiting for the genetics lab to get back to her with the results, to see if Harry is a match. But there’s a running subplot throughout the episode, as each time she sees Dominic at work, talking and laughing with a new female intern, she gets a look on her face that appears to be jealousy. In one scene she interrupts Dominic and the intern’s conversation, to give the intern a bunch of work that will take her out of the office, but she still avoids Dominic when he tries to talk to her. Finally, he confronts her on the street, accusing her of acting jealous. She denies being jealous of the other woman but says she is jealous of Dominic because he’s able to just get on with his life like nothing happened, while she’s dealing with all her guilt. But he confesses that he still has real feelings for her, and doesn’t regret what happened between them and that seeing her every day at work is just as hard for him as it is for her.

Once again I’m impressed with Jason Winston George, as he manages to portray Dominic as a three-dimensional character, who is more than just the suave playboy he initially appeared to be. Here, for a brief moment, he showed his vulnerable side. I think this episode may be the one that wins over more of those fans who don’t like Dominic.

Meanwhile, somewhat improbably, Harry detects a “metallic” smell on Savi’s breath and speculates that it could mean that she’s pregnant (there’s also the fact that she has to pee a lot lately, which also makes him suspicious). When he tells Savi what he thinks, she tries to avoid the subject. Finally one night he gives her a special drink and a pregnancy test, which she agrees to take. But then she finds herself, bleeding, thinking she’s on her period, meaning she’s not pregnant, which she tells Harry. The look on Alyssa Milano’s face in that scene is amazing, as you can’t tell if she’s sad or relieved. It could totally go either way. But then she goes to her doctor, who tells her that she is still pregnant, and Savi starts crying. And, again, in this scene, you wonder if they’re tears of joy or tears of pain? You can’t tell, and that’s what makes it all the more dramatic. Alyssa Milano just nails this role. But the doctor warns Savi that her blood pressure and heart rate are dangerously high, and in order to get through this pregnancy safely, Savi will need to make some “lifestyle changes”. Back home, she sees Harry putting away some pregnancy books that he had bought. And when he sees the look on her face and asks her what’s wrong, she replies:

“I’m pregnant Harry, but it might not be yours.”
THE END

HOLY MOLEY!!! I did NOT see THAT coming! Brilliant cliffhanger, I was in shock for minutes afterward (that’s why this review is posted later than usual). It’s going to be a LONG wait until next Monday! I can’t wait to see how Harry (who continues to be played to perfection by Brett Tucker) will react!

The only criticism I can think of for this episode is that there weren’t any scenes of all 4 women together. We just got one brief scene of April, Karen, and Savi together for lunch. And Joss didn’t interact with any of the other women (although her scenes with Harry almost made up for it) I think the main female cast works so well together, and I love the way the writers portray it so that even though each woman has her own problems, they’re still there for each other, to offer advice and comfort, however they can. So I hope to see more of that in future episodes. But that’s a minor critique. Between the lesbian shower scene and that cliffhanger, this episode, written by series creator K.J. Steinberg, was very compelling.

MISTRESSES airs Monday Nights @ 10pm on ABC

You can also watch episodes online via http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/mistresses