Last week on Divorce, Frances (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Robert (Thomas Haden Church) take a stab at mediation and it doesn’t go well. While they go finally tell the kids about the impending divorce, Robert steps up his game, starts trying to get a new deal together, and leaves Frances alone at mediation while he gets a lawyer.
This week, Frances quickly learns that Robert has a lawyer after his bumbling idiot lawyer calls the house looking for Robert. Since he has already made the move to abandon mediation, she gets her own lawyer. Played by Jeffrey DeMunn, Max Brodkin is known for his fierce maneuvers in the courtroom. And when Robert’s lawyer finds out, he goes into a panic which induces Robert to fire him and retain other representation. He enlists Tony Silvercreek, played by Dean Winters, to take it on and we find out from Dallas (Talia Balsam) that Silvercreek is particularly nasty and hates women. Seeing DeMunn and Winters spar off in court could be quite entertaining. Both men are absolutely fantastic actors.
In the meantime, Frances has taken possession of her gallery and must now hunt for artists to show. Diane (Molly Shannon) has a habit of purchasing expensive art from famous artists, which has made her quite a few friends among the artistic community. She drags Frances out to another gallery to attempt to enlist clients. Frances hits it off with a painter that he enjoys, who in the end is just trying to get money from her.
One of the most interesting interactions in the episode is between Robert and Diane’s husband Nick (Tracy Letts). Nick is still healing from his heart attack, but Robert is continuing to attempt to get funding for his new kids’ play place. For starters, since Robert’s financial situation is already weak, the fact that he wants to start a new investment in the middle of divorce proceedings is really dumb. I’m so grateful that someone finally hinted as much. Also in terms of random investment, a kids’ play place is the kind of business you’re going to need plenty of backup capital because that’s probably not going to make money for a while. But the point is when Nick finally challenges Robert about his marriage and who Robert is as a person. For being his friend, Robert treats Nick like crap, trying to force him to eat steak and ignoring the fact that he’s recovering from a massive heart attack. Then he just constantly pesters Nick for money. Nick brings up the point that the best part of Robert is Frances, and that their marriage might be bad now but that she’s worth fighting for in the end. It will be interesting to see what perspective this gives to Robert.
Being this far into the season, which character do you feel for more: Frances or Robert? At first, I was very sympathetic to Robert, particularly because of Frances and her infidelity. But as the show continues, Robert’s personality is coming out more and he’s really not that likable of a person either. Here’s what our least favorite couple has in store next week.
