Picking right up from where the last episode left off, April’s daughter Lucy has gone missing, and April runs to Paul’s hotel, thinking he has her, but he swears that he has no idea what happened to Lucy. They get in a car looking for her, and eventually the police find her at the Santa Monica pier, where she ran off for no apparent reason. Eventually, April and Lucy talk about it, and it turns out that Lucy is feeling bad because April has been spending so much time with Richard, and Lucy is worried that they’ll get married and they’ll have a new family, which Lucy isn’t ready for. On Paul’s suggestion, April gets Lucy to agree to see a therapist, so they can talk about their feelings. When April tells Paul, he reveals that he still doesn’t plan to leave, and he says he wants his family back, and that includes April as his wife. And then they kiss.

Eh, I wasn’t blown away by this particular plot. Even when Lucy was missing, I never really felt the urgency about her possibly being in danger, like I should have. And the resolution and explanation of where she was seemed to come out of left field. I realize that Lucy is a 10 year old girl, and they can be moody and unpredictable, but up until now all indications where that she was happy with the idea of April dating Richard, whose daughter is Lucy’s best friend. And when Lucy first complained that April was never around, because she’s always with Richard lately, I was like, since when? Again, up until now, the running theme about April and Richard is their lack of ability to spend quality time together, because their plans always get screwed up. BTW Richard was only in a couple of scenes in this episode. He comes by April’s house after Lucy is found, he didn’t have his phone which is why April was unable to call him before. He’s not too happy when she tells him about spending time with Paul, and then later, in a reverse of the scene from episode 7, Richard is standing outside watching as April and Paul are talking in her shop. And I just can’t buy the idea that April would even consider taking Paul back after all this, so that kiss at the end was just, BLAH.

Things start off good for Karen, as the episode opens in court, as a judge dismisses Elizabeth’s civil suit against her, due to lack of evidence. But then later, she’s met with a member of the local medical board, who tells her that because she admitted to an affair with a patient, and illegally prescribed him morphine, her license to practice has been suspended for 6 months. Strangely, Karen reacts with anger, talking about how this will ruin her reputation, and hurt her private practice, instead of being extremely grateful that her license wasn’t revoked permanently (as it realistically should have been). She later calls Elizabeth to complain (even after all this, Karen still hasn’t figured out to stop contacting that family?!?), thinking she called the board on her, but it wasn’t her. She later finds out that it was her partner Jacob who turned her in, and he goes off on her for all the lies and everything she’s done, in a pretty cool scene that reminded me of when Dom went off on Savi in episode 7, accusing her of always thinking of herself and not considering how her actions are affecting those around her. That’s basically what Jacob says here, and he tells Karen that their partnership is over, and to not bother coming back in 6 months when her license is renewed. That was a good scene for Matthew Del Negro (Jacob) to get some of the spotlight.

Joss was back in Savi’s guest-house, but still trying to patch things up with Alex, who doesn’t want to talk to her. But Joss is still sleeping with Olivier, but then she reacts with anger when he tells her that he’s moving back to France. Apparently, he was never the permanent new boss, he was just there to get it running profitably for the new owners, and now that it’s done, he’s ready to leave. He tells Joss he’s promoting her to the new manager, but she’s still angry feeling like she’s thrown her relationship with Alex away because of him, and now he’s leaving, but Olivier points out that she only has herself to blame for messing up her relationship. Later she goes to Harry’s restaurant, and starts flirting with some random guy at the bar. Then they go into the bathroom and starting making out pretty heavily, but when Joss tries to stop him he won’t take no for an answer, so Harry has to come to her rescue, knocking out the guy and taking her back to the guest-house. The next morning she’s hung over, Harry slept on the couch to keep her company, and tries to give her relationship advice, but when she runs into the bathroom to “sharf” (google it), Harry happens to see the envelope with Savi’s paternity test results, conveniently sitting right there in an open drawer. Back at work, Olivier is indeed gone now, and her coworker tries to congratulate Joss on being promoted to manager, but Joss decides she doesn’t want to do this job anymore and quits, and goes to say goodbye to Alex, realizing that it’s over between them.

I’m disappointed that the Joss/Alex relationship didn’t last a bit longer. I don’t feel the show really explored that enough. They dragged out the Will They Or Won’t They drama for a few episodes, finally had them get together and then it seems, just like that, Joss was cheating on her and now it’s over. Oh well. And I’ll be sad not see Shannyn Sossamon as a regular on this show now. And Joss quitting her job made no sense. She seemed to thrive on being a great real estate agent, but now all the sudden she’s saying she hates it and doesn’t want to do it anymore? That’s also out of left field. But, hey, when Joss went to Harry’s restaurant, we did get a brief glimpse of Ashley Newbrough as “Kyra With The Funbags” (from episode 6) again!

As for Savi, she’s contacted by Harry’s partner Jeff about the fact that the restaurant needs another $25,000, or it will have to close. Savi, whom we learned in episode was an original investor in the restaurant tells him that she can’t bail Harry out now, and to just let it close. Back at her office she finds out that Dom has been made partner instead of her. She says she’s happy for him, and offers to take him out on a date, to help him celebrate. And, yes, both of them actually refer to it as a DATE. They go out to dinner, and seem to have a nice time (again, Alyssa Milano and Jason Winston George have great chemistry). Afterwards, they talk about the possibility of going out again, and they kiss briefly, but Savi holds back, saying it’s too fast. Then, back at home, she’s calls Jess and tells him she’ll send a check to keep Harry’s restaurant open, and then we flash to the restaurant where Harry is sitting alone with a drink in one hand and the envelope with the paternity test results in the other…
THE END.

The Savi/Dom/Harry story was mostly handled well. Although it’s still hard to believe that Savi would have kept the paternity test results secret, even from herself, for so long. And that both Harry and Dom aren’t in her face demanding that she tell them who the father is. But the show wanted to drag out the suspense as long as possible, and they’ve succeeded. ONE MORE EPISODE, next week. I hope it lives up to the promise of this first season, with a satisfying resolution to all the subplots, and makes it worthy of a season 2.

GRADE: A

MISTRESSES airs Monday Nights @ 9pm on ABC

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