This was kind of a decent episode, with the exception of the fact that this show keeps insisting on including all kinds of stuff That Really Happened that they could cut out in the name of telling a more streamlined story, and also this one episode spanned THREE YEARS. Whatever: I’m just yelling into the void here. Finally, poor Gus dies — JoAnna Garcia Swisher is very good this episode; someone get that woman a successful show — and we also meet a new Astro-Wife about whom I would not care at all, except Holley Fain, who plays Marilyn Lovell (the part Kathleen Quinlan plays in Apollo 13), is actually very good with little to do. (She was also on Gossip Girl with Desmond Harrington; they’re both unrecognizable right now, her because of this terrible wig and him because he looks so awful for some reason.) Let’s recap what happened to everyone:
Betty and Gus: SOB. (Enjoy the angst while it lasts; I am sure next week’s episode will be much later, so we can get to the Moon Landing within the next three episodes, at which point I expect someone [Marge] will say something along the lines of, “they couldn’t have done it without us,” as she slings her arm around Jo’s shoulders and they all look up at the moon. God, I really want to get all of the scripts for this show and re-imagine the entire thing. Let me in there with my red pen and a time machine.) Anyway, poor Betty; she spends this entire episode agitating for NASA to institute protocol to keep The Wives informed about what’s going on with their husbands, and so that they’re properly informed in case the worst happens (after seeing them bungle telling Marilyn See about her husband’s crash) and then the worst does happen to her. PS: There was an amusing scene early on wherein the Mercury Wives agree there are too many wives now to tell all the Marilyns apart. I, in fact, thought they were calling Marilyn See “Marilyn C,” like there was also a Marilyn L and a Marilyn J. And then I realized there was a Marilyn L.
Louise and Alan: Alan HATES having an inner ear disease; Louise and Trudy fly down to Florida to give the husband of one of the Gemini Wives what-for, because he’s screwing around in Florida while his son is dying of cancer. He cries that he feels too helpless to be there at the hospital and Trudy and Louise are basically like, “well, you SUCK” and storm off, and that’s all true, but what I really want to know is: CAN WE FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE FACT THAT THIS DUDE MIGHT HAVE BEEN A BIGAMIST? Thanks.
Trudy and Gordo: Trudy is flying the ladies all hither and yon and Gordon doesn’t like doing laundry.
Annie and John: We’re all just treading water until the show gets to Glenn’s triumphant 1998 return to space, I assume? (Snarkiness aside, I think it’s SUPER AWESOME that John Glenn got to go back to space at 77. Per Wiki: “According to The New York Times, Glenn ‘won his seat on the Shuttle flight by lobbying NASA for two years to fly as a human guinea pig for geriatric studies’, which were named as the main reasons for his participation in the mission.” You go, John Glenn Coco. Sigh. Sometimes, I feel like this show is leaching my love of space from me and then reading that gives it back to me a little bit.)
Marge and Deke/Jo and Wally: Are all still alive. Jo got a flattering haircut. Deke got some lines. Wally is a ghost we never see.
Other Wives: Poor Marilyn See is widowed and it would be so much more affecting if we ever spent any time with her or ever saw her husband AT ALL. For example, I thought Matt Lanter played her husband, but then I looked it up and realized that he played Ed White, who died with Gus, so he IS dead, but just not in the manner than I thought he died. This show is confusing, and also a little upsetting, because Wikipedia is very good at reminding me that these are real people who did actually die. I wish this show was doing more justice to the space program, you guys. Should we just all stream From The Earth to the Moon instead?
