Last week on Divorce, Frances (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Robert (Thomas Haden Church) took the kids and made the trek to Frances’ parents’ house for Christmas. While Frances took her sweet time breaking the D-word news, Robert was quick to step in and take the blame for her. It was a brief moment of nicety in the ever moving storm of divorce proceedings.
This week, Frances and Robert meet with their lawyers. Max Brodkin (Jeffrey DeMunn) and Tony Silvercreek (Dean Winters) are absolutely fantastic. Brodkin represents Frances and Silvercreek for Robert. While Brodkin seems to be out of wits and off his game following a mini-stroke, Silvercreek is letting Robert know he needs to be working on himself and particularly trying to get laid.
And boy is Robert trying. We start the episode with him meeting up with an old friend, Kathy (Mary McCormack) who was once Robert’s almost affair. He perceives the chance to make that happen, while Kathy very clearly disagrees. Robert then goes off on a poor barista who previously flirted with him while working. As anyone who has worked in retail knows, a little charm goes a long way working with customers. Nothing personal, Rob. But he does make sweet with a mom from school and gets a little sugar – which is nothing but awkward for him.
Frances is busy working on her gallery but with little support from friends. Dianne (Molly Shannon) keeps offering ideas that Frances doesn’t want or commenting about how small business clearly don’t do well in the neighborhood. Not particularly supportive. And the stress of the financial situation is probably not helping. Robert has purchased several properties to flip and they are not livable and therefore unsellable. He refinanced the mortgage on their house without asking Frances, which in a marriage is a big no-no. Meanwhile, Dallas (Talia Balsam) is spending time with her son and working on repairing the strained relationship. Robert runs into Dallas and they throw some daggers at each other. But Robert realizes he struck a nerve and apologizes, giving Dallas probably some of the best parenting advice possible. You can’t smother. Get to know a kid on their terms, don’t force your own because that just pushes them further away. And I can’t lie, Dallas and Robert shared a smoldering look there for a minute and I wondered where that would lead. But nowhere at least in this episode.
Next week, it appears Robert visits church. What profound meaning this might have for him, we don’t know yet. But I do enjoy seeing Church say crass things in the church. And we will see some kind of Julian (Jemaine Clement) and Robert face-off which I am sure promises to be hilarious. Meanwhile, Frances is working on getting her gallery open which will obviously affect her work life. Since she’s the main breadwinner for the family, how will that affect the divorce? Time will tell.
