Rochelle Aytes (April), Alyssa Milano (Savi), Yunjin Kim (Karen), Jes Macallan (Joss)

PREVIOUSLY: “Charades”

Okay, first off, for those who are actually paying attention to these reviews, I know I missed reviewing the last two episodes. Both times I had to get up early the next morning so I couldn’t stay up late enough to watch it. Most weeknights I go to sleep by 10pm, it’s only when Mistresses is on that I have to stay up later to catch it. For each episode I ended watching it later, via the ABC website, and I originally planned to post the reviews later but kept getting delayed with other stuff and now here we are. I originally thought of writing a review for each episode tonight, and then post them in advance of tonight’s finale, the same way I did last month when I posted reviews for episode 8 and episode 9 in one night, but now it feels like overkill. So first I’ll just cover what happened over the past two episodes.

So Karen convinced Anna to contact her folks back in Korea, and they all made up with Anna deciding to move back home to live with them. So, is that it? I really enjoyed Catherine Haena Kim as Anna, even if the character, and Karen’s reactions to her, didn’t always make much logical sense. I wouldn’t mind seeing her stick around if the show returns. Then Jacob (Matthew Del Negro) got a job out of state and asked Karen to come with him, but she doesn’t want to give up her whole life (which seems to only consist of her three friends), so she said no. Then she decided to quit being a therapist (FINALLY!), and figure out what to do with her life, only to be shocked by the return of Ben (Brian Hallisay), whom she hooked up with in a bar back in episode 6 who tells her that he’s been diagnosed HIV positive. So now Karen has to get tested, but she’s (understandably) freaking out about it.

I like this story. STD’s are a reality, so for a show that often has folks jumping in bed with people before they really know who they are, it’s good to see it address this very real possibility. Of course, I hope Karen doesn’t get HIV or AIDS (although it might be interesting if they had her get Herpes, and then have her having to deal with that next season), but I’m glad they’re addressing this.

Speaking of jumping into bed with people you don’t know, we get the scoop on Daniel (Ricky Whittle), he’s part of the FBI who have been monitoring April for months, due to their investigation into Paul’s criminal activities. And now they’re blackmailing her into cooperating with them. I can go either way on this story. It has potential, but I need to see it play out before I judge it.

Joss and Scott (Justin Hartley) are heading towards matrimony, but then Harry starts (uncharacteristically) being rude and mean to her, for no apparent reason. Joss is confused, but so are other people, including Scott’s mother, by the fact that Joss seems to be more concerned with Harry’s behavior than she is about getting married to Scott. Harry does manage to knock boots with his sexy new boss, Greta (Helena Mattsson), so good for him. But it’s clear where this story is going…and I’m still not thrilled with it.

And Savi and Dom (Jason Winston George) team-up to trap Toni, getting her on tape admitting that she set-up and lied about Dom. Then for some inexplicable reason, Dom decided to allow Toni, this woman who almost ruined his entire life, to keep working at the firm! Logically, that makes NO sense! I can’t believe that he, or his law firm, would agree to that. I mean, on the one hand, I do really enjoy Rebeka Montoya as an actress and the way she’s portrayed this character, so I do like the idea of keeping her on the show for Season 3 (if there is one), but I wish they could have come up with a more logical way to make that happen. The downside of this story is that I’m still bummed that they broke up Savi and Dom, we never really got to see them as a couple. And now they have Savi trying to date boring old Zak (Jason Gerhardt).

Well, that catches us up to this finale. It’s about to air soon, as I type this. So I will complete this blog when it’s over.

Okay, here we go. I’m not really going to recap, just give my impressions. This was a very good episode (written by series creator K.J. Steinberg and directed by John Scott). The standout star has to be little Corinne Massiah, as Lucy finally found out about Paul (although how convenient that there would be a TV playing the news during the wedding). I loved that scene. I want to see how this changes her and April’s relationship. Not to mention Daniel, whom Lucy loved, but will she also turn on him when she finds out who he really is? This could be good.

Karen and Ben’s scene was also good, and it rang true. I found Yunjim Kim totally believable as Karen kept switching from anger to fear as she faced the possibility of having HIV. But she doesn’t have it, so what else did the doctor find? My first guess is that she’s pregnant, which means we’ll get another “Who’s The Daddy?” storyline in season 3. Although why was he hesitant to tell her that over the phone? Could it be some other life-threatening disease, like maybe some form of cancer? Perhaps. I’m still rooting for Herpes. It would be interesting for a show to have a character dealing with the complexities of maintaining a sex life while having Herpes (which is extremely common).

I’m almost willing to buy the Joss/Harry revelation now, except for two things: #1 They’re really going to start having sex, literally during her wedding?!? They couldn’t have done the standard “kiss and then run off together” thing? I know it’s cliche, but it’s more believable than seeing Joss rolling around in the sand with Harry while wearing her wedding dress. And Savi catching them in the act is an interesting twist, except I think they overdid it by having Savi suddenly reveal that she still has feelings for Harry. We haven’t seen that at all this season, they were done. So this just came out of left-field and felt like it was only done to make the Joss/Harry story more dramatic. I don’t think that was necessary. Even with Savi being over Harry, it would still feel like a betrayal to most people for her sister to hook up with her ex-husband, so that’s already enough drama for the show.

Overall, it’s been a good season. Not perfect, but it serves its purpose as something new to watch during the Summer when all the other network shows are in reruns. I think it’s deserving of a 3rd season and hope that it is renewed so I can watch it next summer.

And at the very least, if we don’t get another season, I’d hope ABC will give the producers a chance to make a 2-hour movie that can wrap up all the cliffhangers.

Standout songs this episode were MIRACLE by Rachel Roy (played when April and Daniel had sex), whom I can’t seem to find out much about online. There’s no video on Youtube, but the song is available on iTunes

And there’s also the song played at the end of the episode, LOVE SHOW by Skye. Thankfully there is a video for that: