Why women kill season 2 episode 9 recap

The penultimate episode of Why Women Kill was deadly! 

Were you as shocked by all that transpired? 

Why Women Kill Season 2 Episode 9 picked up 3 weeks after Isobel’s death. As Rita was cleared of charges and prepared to leave prison, Alma cemented herself in the garden club, Dee eloped with Vern and continued to avoid her parents after coming face-to-face with Mrs. Yost’s buried corpse, and Vern remained focused on solving not one but two murder mysteries.

It’s safe to say everyone has a lot on their plates. 

And poor Bertie found that liquor eases the guilt of covering up a murder along with the pain of losing a daughter.

Neither Bertie nor Vern truly understood why Dee was avoiding her parents, but the audience knew that she was struggling to make sense of what she unearthed back at home.

Who wouldn’t? That’s not something you casually bring up in conversation, but when she finally got fed up, she worked up the nerve to confront her mother. 

I was beyond nervous for Dee in this scene.

Alma is a cold-blooded killer who has eliminated every person that has posed a threat to her new life. One would hope that killing your pregnant daughter would be a line Alma wouldn’t cross, but it’s hard to tell with her these days.

Alma was flustered when she was called out, and yet, she still managed to talk her way out of it by putting the blame on Bertram. 

She truly has no shame. 

Credit: Paramount+

Does anyone else find it quite silly and naive that Dee just believed that her father had an affair with Mrs. Yost?

Come on, Dee!

Alma straight up manipulated her daughter into keeping quiet, and worst of all, she was proud of herself.

Her behavior has become problematic, and it’s sickening the way she uses people as pawns. It’s even more disturbing that she’s so good at it.

Manipulating Dee wasn’t the only dirty work Alma was indulging in. 

When Joan pushed back on the idea of Alma running for Garden Club president, she took it upon herself to dig up Joan’s biggest secret and use it against her. 

Alma was so sure she would find Joan having an affair when she tailed her to the hotel, and she did, but it was more shocking that she was having an affair with Grace!

At this point, I really thought that Alma wouldn’t dare betray Grace, the only person who has been nice to her since the beginning, but I was wrong. Nothing gets in the way of what Alma wants anymore. 

However, to get what she wants, Alma is becoming the kind of woman she’s always hated. She’s so laser-focused on what she wants that she doesn’t care who she destroys (or kills) in the process.

Joan realized that Alma backed her and Grace into a corner — this was the 50s, so it’s not like they could just come out and announce a same-sex relationship without causing a scandal and losing everything. She immediately halted her run for president and endorsed Alma just as she wanted. 

If throwing Grace under the bus wasn’t a wake-up call for Alma, maybe seeing just how disgusted and disappointed Grace was with her would be. 

As I said, Grace championed Alma when no one else did. She extended a friendship, and Alma betrayed her. 

Hopefully, this is the moment that Alma realized that Bertie was right all along — actions have consequences, and she’s going to pay the price. 

I wanted Alma to succeed and get her heart’s desire but not at the expense of others; she would lose friends as quickly as she made them… if you could even call these ladies real friends. 

And if this isn’t enough of a wake-up call, maybe Bertie’s accident will be. 

Will Bertie survive? Or is this penance for all the lives he unexpectedly took?

If you think about it, all of Alma’s secrets die with Bertie. She might not want to lose her husband, but no one else truly knows what happened the night Mrs. Yost died, nor do they know anything about Carlo’s death. 

Bertie is the loose end. 

Rita was having a hard day, and for once, I truly felt for her. 

One might think that rock bottom would be considered jail, but for Rita, it was the aftermath of her imprisonment that took a toll on her.

When she went to the mansion to kick Catherine out, she realized that her marriage to Carlo wasn’t legally binding as she was still married to her abusive ex-husband, Harry, who, much to her surprise, was still alive. 

This meant that Rita didn’t get anything in Carlo’s will — no house, no money, nothing. 

And at her lowest, everyone turned their back on her including her garden club friends. The term “friends” is used loosely when it comes to those ladies.

Rita may have been rotten to everyone around prior to her downfall, but you would at least hope that someone would lend her a helping hand instead of kicking her down even more. 

The only person that did come through for Rita — and risked his own happiness unknowingly (he’s pretty, but he’s not all that smart) — was Scooter. 

Scooter has done some questionable things, but you can’t help but love him. Or at least feel for him. He has a good heart and wants the best for everyone.

He saw how horrible Catherine was to Rita and snuck out to bring her some clothes and cash. 

In a way, it was his redemption arc, but it was also Rita’s as we finally got some insight into what motivated her to be so cruel to those around her. Rita, who grew up poor, put up a facade because people only treated you right if you had money. 

However, her experiences taught her that the richest people of all weren’t rich because of their possessions but because they were loved unselfishly.

In that sentence, Rita revealed that Alma was always the richest person out of everyone in the garden club but she destroyed it all because she wanted to be someone else. 

It’s a classic case of “you want what you can’t have.”

Of course, Catherine was onto Scooter, and when she saw him embracing Rita, she blew up in a fit of rage as she thought he was cheating on her. 

I expected Catherine’s wrath, but I never expected her to grab a gun. 

She was aiming it at Rita, but when Otto tried to grab it from her, he accidentally set it off right as Scooter stepped in front of the bullet. 

He took one for Rita! 

My guess is that Scooter sadly won’t survive the shot, which will destroy Catherine as she won’t be able to accept that she killed the only love she ever had because of hatred and jealously. They weren’t lying when they said jealousy makes you do ugly things. 

The second stray bullet shot poor Bertie. Considering how inebriated he was, I’m confident that he survived.

As I said, Alma would be devastated, but it would mean all of her crimes would be buried with Bertie. 

And it might be best for him if the shot was fatal as Vern’s investigation led him right to Bertram as the top suspect in both Carlo and Isobel’s murders.

Without the photo, Vern followed the poison right to the source, and the pharmacist confirmed that Dr. Filcock is the only person that ever purchases a lethal mix of potassium chloride. 

Vern requested a meeting with Alma before taking his concerns to Dee, though, when Alma brushed him off, I wish he would’ve consulted with his wife first. 

Instead, he broke into Alma’s house and confronted her instead. 

We know Alma is a little too comfortable with killing people who know too much and have the evidence to bring her down.

At this point, she has no idea about Bertie’s accident, so if he threatens to expose her husband, she might do something crazy like kill Vern.

Will Alma stoop that low? Or will Vern’s life be spared by a call informing Alma of Bertie’s accident?

It’s quite heartbreaking to think that if Alma decides to kill Vern, both Dee’s husband and her baby daddy will die on the same night. 

Doesn’t our girl deserve more?

At the onset of the series, I rooted for Alma, but now, I find myself hoping that Dee exposes everyone for who they truly are. 

These characters have truly gone through all the stages of development, and while some of them have been changed for the better, others likely wouldn’t recognize themselves if they looked in the mirror.

Will Alma find her way back to the meek housewife? Will Rita reinvent herself?

Will Scooter, Bertie, and Vern survive?

And who will pay the price for all the murders?

Share your thoughts on the episode in the comments below! 

Why Women KillLana ParillaAllison TolmanTV reviews

You didn’t expect a calm season finale for a show titled Why Women Kill, did you?

A few more shocking deaths were par for the course. 

Since the series is considered an anthology, the season finale was also technically a series finale as it wrapped up our journey with Alma, Bertie, Rita, Dee, and the gang.  

It’s extremely rare for a series finale to get it all right and satisfy every viewer while also offering plenty of shocking twists and surprises but Why Women Kill did just that.

One of the best things about the season has been its unpredictability.

Going into this final episode, I had many theories about how it might all end. Would Alma kill Vern because he figured it out? Would Bernie die? Would Alma let him take the fall for all the murders and taint his legacy? Would Vern and Dee turn on Alma and help Rita get revenge?

The possibilities were endless, and yet, I never even considered that Alma would go off the deep end in the way that she did. 

But let’s start at the beginning.

The penultimate episode saw Catherine accidentally shooting Scooter in a fit of rage and jealousy. A second stray bullet hit Bertie, who was coming home drunk from the bar.

While all signs pointed to both of the men dying, they — surprisingly — both survived.

I was sure that Scooter wasn’t going to make it since he was shot at such close proximity, but alas, the pretty boy came out mostly unscathed. I say mostly as is his life was upended in a different way, which I’ll get to later. 

As for Bertie, his flask stopped the bullet from doing any real damage. As the doctor told Alma, this was the only time that a husband’s drinking problem came in handy! I haven’t the slightest idea why Alma didn’t appreciate the humor considering she wasn’t actually as concerned about Bertram’s shooting as she was the fact that Vern figured out her involvement in Carlo and Isobel’s death. 

Alma was hellbent on covering up her crimes through any means necessary. 

Following her chat with Vern, I was truly concerned for him and kept yelling at him to get out of her house while he still could! 

Poor Bertie barely woke from his hospital slumber before Alma ambushed him with her murderous plan to take out her son-in-law. 

I’m not surprised Bertie was fed up with his wife. It was clear that Alma had gone off the rails and was now sinking deeper and deeper into a black hole. For every new problem, her solution was to simply to murder. 

This wasn’t the woman who was so shaken by her husband’s murderous tendencies at the beginning of the season.

I, as the rest of Alma’s family, kept foolishly hanging onto that vision of her and believed that this was just a “phase” that she would snap out of if the situation became too dire, but as the episode carried on, it was clear that the timid housewife was long gone. 

When Bertram refused to help her murder Vern (as any sane person would!) and she came up with the plot to frame Scooter, I could no longer give her the benefit of the doubt.

She traded her in for a full-blown killer and didn’t regret it one bit.

I’m always down to support a #bossbabe and powerful woman, but Alma was the opposite of that. She let her insecurities run rampant, and instead of becoming the kind of woman she always envied and admired, like Rita, she became a whole serial killer.

Some might even say that she was the Evil Queen. See what I did there?

She adopted the “if you can’t make people love you, you have to make them fear you” mindset and ran wild with it. 

No one was spared from Alma’s wrath — not even her own family. 

It’s not clear if she would’ve killed Dee if it came down to it, but she sure didn’t care about hurting her emotionally. 

In order to frame Scooter and make it believable, Alma hatched a diabolical plan and told him about Dee’s pregnancy and how Vern “stole” his baby in order to provide motive. 

It was heartbreaking to see Scooter find out the truth through Alma’s manipualtions. Despite being vapid, Scooter is a decent guy with a big heart. I’m glad he found out as he deserved to know the truth and decide for himself if he wanted to be involved in the child’s life or not, but he didn’t deserve to find out the way he did. 

From there, Alma continued to spiral as she bought a gun to kill Vern, aimed to plant Scooter’s cufflink at the scene of the crime so that he would be framed as a scorned lover/baby daddy, and hoped that they would think he skipped town since he was planning to leave to New York with Rita. 

It was actually a pretty brilliant plan. Alma has always been good at plans — we saw that from the moment she had to cover up Mrs. Yost’s murder. However, it hinged on the very fact that everyone needed to act accordingly in order for itto work flawlessly.

And if this series has taught us anything, it’s that humans are unpredictable creatures.

Scooter wasn’t furious upon learning the truth as Alma thought he would be, nor was his first though to skip town with Rita. In fact, it was the opposite as he met up with Dee and expressed interest in being a dad in some capacity. We truly didn’t give that man enough credit. 

These little moments meant that Alma’s plan fell apart before it even fell together.

When Bertie got wind of the plan, he realized he needed to interfere as Alma could not be stopped.

He gave her the night off and offered to finish the job on her behalf as she got ready for her inauguration party. 

It was a little unclear whether or not Bertram was going to heed his wife’s instructions, but I hoped that he had enough clarity to realize that killing his son-in-law was a huge mistake.

And Bertram did not let us down! 

Credit: Why Women Kill/ Paramount+

Instead of shooting Vern, he came clean about all the other murders and took the fall giving Alma a clean break. 

Unfortunately, Alma’s murderous tendencies got the best of her and she made another mess that made Bertie’s hard work null and void. Not to mention she left a trail of blood that led right to her fur white stole. 

But before that, Dee was able to piece it all together after swapping findings with Vern. 

I’m thrilled the series didn’t dumb down its characters for storytelling sake. It would have been so easy for Dee and Vern to keep “missing” each other and never figuring out the whole puzzle, but the fact that they did confide in each other meant that they were able to connect Mrs. Yost, Carlo, and Isobel’s murders to Dee’s parents!

Dee did not want to believe Vern’s theory about her parents, but seeing how her mother’s demeanor changed when she confronted her about telling Scooter about the pregnancy, she could no longer deny the facts.

The moment where she questioned why her daughter didn’t tell her she looked beautiful in her party attire was truly terrifying. 

Alma looked posessed as though she were in a trance. Alma lost it, and there was no denying it. 

It was even more terrifying that she wore a crimson red dress with a white stole as it was a carbon copy of a look Rita previously wore. (I got Jeanette wears Kate’s outfit on Cruel Summer vibes! If you know, you know.)

Things got even crazier at the Garden Club party where we got to see the highly-anticipated Rita and Alma showdown. All the cards were on the table and the gloves were off. 

I was rooting for Rita to take Alma down. It’s surprising that Rita didn’t even consider that Alma was the one that framed her for Carlo’s murder since she was the only one who benefitted from Rita’s destruction, but well, Alma never gave off killer vibes. Plus, Rita had other troubles on her mind. 

Considering how Alma hurt Grace, the one woman who was in her corner from the very beginning, I was hoping that we would see her and Rita team up to take Alma down.

Rita may have been hiding under a facade, but she was always good at being evil, so I expected that she would have a cavalry of police waiting around the corner waiting to arrest Alma after she weaseled out a confession from her. 

Wouldn’t that have made so much sense? Why did Rita go into this alone?

Rita once again underestimated how far Alma was willing to go to get what she wanted when she confronted her and she paid the ultimate price. 

Alma tried to tiptoe around the truth, but Rita knew all the right buttons to make her crack, and when she did, she figured she had no choice but to kill Rita to shut her up. 

Out of all the deaths this season, this one was definitely the most shocking. And she stabbed her twice with absolutely no remorse! 

I was hoping that Rita would survive as I wanted her to finally find peace, get a chance to reinvent herself, and find a man who genuinely loved her and wasn’t using her. 

The character development when it comes to Rita and Alma has been outstanding. While it was hard to champion Rita in the first few episodes, she became one of the most relatable characters. She was broken and had a dark past, which fueled her into becoming somebody she wasn’t.

She may have been ice cold in the beginning, but she was never capable of murder.

In Alma’s case, becoming someone she wasn’t meant that she went from being a hero to a villain very quickly.

I’d even say that villain is quite an understatement because only a sociopath could possibly kill a woman without hesitation, leave her in an alleyway to bleed out, and waltz into a room full of people to give an acceptance speech. 

When she called out Rita’s “shocking behavior and brazen deceptions” in the speech, she was actually summing up her character in one-fell swoop.

It was a brief look into the delusional mind of an unhinged woman! Alma has lied to herself so many times that she’s begun to believe her lies. What’s worse is that she constantly painted herself as a victim. 

Even when she was caught red-handed with Rita’s blood dripping off of her stole, she grabbed her things and rushed off because she was inconvenienced by a murder she committed and her big night was ruined. 

Her actions following the announcement that a woman was murdered in an alleyway were basically an admission of guilt. 

And my question — how did Alma think killing Rita and leaving her there to die was going to pan out?

Back at home, Bertram heard about Alma’s latest kill and figured that there was no going back as they would surely get “the chair.”

The decision to have a beautiful and peaceful death together was quite poetic for him, but Alma wasn’t deserving of it.

After taking so many lives with the same method, Bertram finally punished himself in the same way.

The only thing he ever wanted was peace from his inner demons, and through his actions, he was giving peace to those who needed it most.

However, Alma wasn’t ready to go down without a fight. As Bertie lay there dying, she was too preoccupied with finding yet another way to wash her hands of the crimes she committed. 

In the same way that she didn’t actually care that Bertie was shot, she barely even noticed that he died as she was so caught up with “getting away with murder.”

When Dee and Vern walked in, they found Bertie without a pulse and Alma filling out a little memento in his honor. She had become the killer her husband once was.

Talk about picking up a bad habit!

We didn’t have to wonder what would happen to Alma following that deadly night as the episode provided a follow-up for every character. 

Alma was arrested, obviously, and Scooter was one of the main witnesses in the highly-coveted Filcott Trial, which also meant that he finally got the fame he was chasing after. You know he was milking that for every penny.

I was bummed that we didn’t get to see Dee’s reaction to her mother’s arrest, but I loved that we got to see them become parents to a baby boy.

During her heart-to-heart with Scooter, Dee admitted she didn’t tell him about the baby because she didn’t want to destroy his dreams. While it’s not her choice to make, I respect that she wanted what was best for him regardless of how he treated her. 

Dee is a gem! She was always the best and realest character in the series, and I’m glad she didn’t get dragged down by her parent’s mess.

As for Alma, well, she continued to live on in her delusions. She earned the nickname the Garden Club Killer, and went down as the most famous murderous in American history. 

She finally got the attention she always wanted all along. 

It may be hard for us sane people to understand why and how Alma was capable of committing all those murders, but when you realize it was never about the Garden Club in the first place, it begins to make sense.

The Garden Club was simply an elegant place for women to become someone.

For Alma, it was always about being noticed and being a person that people paid attention to. In her mind, attention is attention, regardless if it’s good or bad.

It didn’t matter why she was noticed (for being a murderer and sociopath), it simply mattered that she was.

Even on the day of her execution, she basked in all the glory of having all eyes on her. 

As the narrator explained…. it was her version of a “happy ending.” 

Alison Tollman and Lana Parilla both delivered incredible performances and truly dedicated themselves to the characters. 

Overall, the finale delivered everything we could’ve wanted. 

I do wish that we saw Catherine again after the shooting, got some kind of closure in terms of Rita’s husband, Harry, who was still alive, and gave a little more thought to Mrs. Yost’s murder. 

I know it was the catalyst for Alma’s character to go down a dark and grisly path, but her death definitely seemed glossed over. I feel like they could’ve put the pressure on Alma and Bertie with that investigation a bit more.

Of course, in retrospect, it’s just another person to add to Alma’s body count. She went from covering up an accidental death to making calculated moves about who was going to die for threatening her happiness. 

Why do women kill, you ask? Out of jealousy, for revenge, and to keep their secrets hidden forever! 

What did you think of the season? Were you surprised how it all went down? And who would watch a spinoff focused on Dee, Vern, and the bebe?! (With a few cameos from Scooter, of course!)

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below! 

How many people will Alma kill by the end of Why Women Kill Season 2? 

We’re 8 episodes in, and I’ve lost track. 

She’s murdering folks left and right, and feels absolutely no remorse, which is the part that’s most concerning to Bertram. 

The woman he knew and married, and the woman we first met on Why Women Kill Season 2 Episode 1, has faded into the background. And this new and horrible woman has taken hold. 

Alma started off as the woman horrified by Bertram’s crimes, but now, she doesn’t even hesitate to use murder as a way to eliminate any potential problems. 

She justifies it as self-preservation, but unfortunately, that’s not going to hold up in court. 

Murder is murder no matter how you splice it. Gone are the days when I rooted for Alma — she’s gone too far and there’s no going back.

She risked her family, her marriage, and her freedom for some illusion of the perfect life. 

Will Alma ever be satisfied? Or will she constantly want more power and more revenge? Murder seems to be addicting as it gives her a thrill, so she might just continue on this destructive trajectory. 

And all for some pretentious garden club. I understand keeping your eye on the prize, but where does one draw the line?

Does she not realize that the garden club ladies aren’t actually her friends? They’ll turn on her the moment the truth comes out the same way they turned on Rita.

Alma’s latest victim — Isobel. 

Isobel kind of dug her own grave when she blackmailed Alma and Bertram to pay up $20,000 for the incriminating photo proving that they killed Carlo and framed Rita. 

If she just gave them the photo as promised, she might’ve survived the whole ordeal.

Oh, who are we kidding — Alma always intended to kill her. She knew Isobel would bever keep quiet, especially when she found out Rita was her cousin. 

Alma consciously stole the poison and brought it with her — it was part of her carefully calculated plan to kill Isobel and “eliminate” the problem this whole time. 

Except that she’s not entirely eliminating the problem. 

As Bertram told her: every action has a consequence. The more people she murders, the longer the trail of dead bodies. While she’s done her best to hide any and all evidence leading back to her, she’s not a skilled assassin; she’s a housewife who found her power by poisoning people. There are plenty of things she overlooked that will catch up with her eventually. 

Just look at how easy it was for Dee to connect the dots about Mrs. Yost’s disappearance. Though it might take the cops a little bit more time to piece it all together, if she can do it, so can they. 

Dee was first tipped off to something being wrong when Alma was overly calm about the news of Mrs. Yost.

When she confronted Mrs. Yost’s nephew, Irvin, she realized all of his aunt’s “missing items” were in her parent’s living room. Dee then realized her mother lied when about where Mrs. Yost was going as she couldn’t have been visiting her sister since her sister died two years ago.

All of this could’ve definitely been chalked up to a “misunderstanding,” but there’s no explaining the corpse buried in the backyard.  nothing like getting all your answers when you’re staring down a corpse. 

Thanks to Rocco (truly a woman’s best friend), Dee quite literally dug up her mother’s biggest secret. 

I’m surprised Dee remained so calm, though, I’m not surprised she ran away from home. I would’ve peaced out of there immediately. 

Dee called Vern and asked him to elope as soon as possible, but Vern was busy solving a murder mystery of his own.

Credit: Why Women Kill/ Paramount+

It doesn’t help Alma that her daughter is engaged to a detective. If these two get to talking and exchanging information, they’re going to unearth something very menacing.

Vern knew someone else was in the house that night, but now that he found her cold, lifeless body, he’s going to be seeking out the truth by any means possible. After all, a good detective doesn’t stop until he’s closed a case. 

He’s investigating not one but two murders and considering Isobel knew who took out Carlo, it’s safe to assume that the same person is responsible for both murders.

Since the same poison used is the same in both deaths, I wonder if they’ll be able to trace it back to Bertie’s practice. 

And if so, would Alma turn on Bertie to protect her new image?

After all, she pretty much risked her family and marriage to get the lifestyle she always wanted.

Throughout the episode, anytime someone threatened to expose her, she played the victim card, so I could see her selling out her husband at the end of all of this, especially as she had no problem lying to him to get the poison from his practice in the first place. 

Vern will definitely pursue the case. He knew Isobel had evidence, so he won’t be fooled by the suicide letter.

Will Vern and Dee be the people that take down Alma and Bertram? Or will they help them cover up the murders once they realize what’s really going on?

Or will Alma kill Vern once she realizes he poses a threat to her new life? As I said, she’s way too comfortable with pulling the trigger (or injecting the poison or whatever) these days. 

The note will likely clear Rita’s name; It was Isobel’s last selfless act to her cousin. 

It was also the least Bertram could’ve done to help Rita after partaking in this whole mess at the whim of his vengeful wife. 

Rita is painted as evil, but at least she owns it.

Her evil is also very different from Alma’s evil. She may go to extremes to get what she wants, but she’s far from being a murderer. The only time she ever killed anyone was in self-defense, so she doesn’t deserve to be rotting in prison when she’s innocent. 

As Rita weighed her options on whether or not to sell out Isobel and let her take the fall for Carlo’s death (she didn’t), we saw flashbacks of their journey together. They rose up from rags to riches together as Isobel sacrificed everything to help Rita land a wealthy man to support them both.

That’s why her death is going to hit Rita hard. 

When Rita finds out that Alma not only put her behind bars but also contributed to her cousin’s death, she might actually consider murdering her. 

Rita’s troubles are far from over as Catherine finally got to the bottom of Scooter’s issue.

With the help of her butler, Otto, she found out that Scooter was Rita’s lover boy. 

She was mad, sure, but she quickly channeled her energy into a new plan to destroy Rita. 

In order to prove his true love for her, she wanted him to testify against Rita in court, which would mean she wouldn’t get a dime of Carlo’s money. 

Will he do it? He didn’t seem fully on board, but he is materialistic. I do think Scooter has some genuine feelings for Catherine, but those feelings are definitely fueled by a life of luxury that being with her affords him. He has no loyalty — he goes where the money is, which, right now, is with Catherine. 

I can also see Rita retaliating by telling Catherine about Dee’s pregnancy as she knows it would come between them and cost Scooter.

As I said, this whole mess was caused by one housewife who wanted to feel worthy of a garden club membership. And it continues to escalate for that reason! 

What did you think of the episode? How will it all end? Let us know in the comments below!

Everything is coming up roses… well, at least in Alma’s eyes on Why Women Kill Season 2 Episode 7.  

In reality, her carefree attitude is quite concerning, especially to Bertie, who just realized he was played by the only woman he’s ever trusted. 

The poor guy feels like a complete dud after his wife used him to commit the perfect crime… for now.

When Rita was arrested for Carlo’s murder, Bertram found himself confused as to why Alma wasn’t more concerned for her best friend’s wellbeing.

He began to piece it all together when Dee introduced her parents to Vern, who mentioned that a promising new case involving a rich woman.

Bertram realized he was talking about Rita, and Vern weighed in about Alma’s hatred of the woman who “black balled” her from the garden club. 

Of course, we know it’s about more than that. The garden club situation may have been the catalyst, but it was also about Alma’s pride and proving that she wasn’t going to sit by idly and be bullied.

But Alma took it too far. Her need for revenge got the best of her, so she risked everything including Bertram. 

Alma’s also living in denial as she believes that she isn’t going to get caught; it’s almost as if she doesn’t understand that there are consequences to her actions.

I’m worried about Alma, I really am. I don’t think there’s going back from this.

She’s no longer the sweet, meek woman who was absolutely horrified to find out about her husband’s deadly hobby. Instead, she’s morphed into this devious and cold-blooded killer who is showing zero remorse for what she’s done, or worse, for what she manipulated her husband into doing.

Alma is an accomplice, but she made Bertram do the deed even while knowing it was going to mess with his psyche. 

If we thought Bertie’s attempts at justifying the murders were bad, Alma has taken it to the next level. While he at least thought he was helping his victims, Alma is using the same reason to justify her revenge. 

It’s one thing to threaten someone the way Rita threatened Alma, but it’s another thing to execute the revenge plan that you’ve concocted in your mind during a fit of rage. 

And it’s definitely concerning when a murderer thinks another murderer has gone too far and “lost their minds.”

But here’s the thing — Alma isn’t a murderer, which is why she didn’t account for all the external factors that came into play that night.

She had a solid plan, but it’s likely not going to be enough. 

She notified Catherine to Rita’s “plan,” she suggested a motive — Carlo found out she was cheating and threatened to write her out of his will in which she stood to inherit millions, and she planted the poison in Rita’s purse. 

But she didn’t account for Vern being there that night and taking photos, nor did she ever consider that he was going to get hired by Rita while preparing to marry her daughter.

She also didn’t think that one of his photos would capture her sneaking around the house (though not to toot my own horn, I totally foresaw!). 

I figured that Vern would notice her lurking in the background of the shot before anyone else and make the connection that Alma was Dee’s mother, but it was Isobel who noticed instead.

It’s not clear what she’s going to use with this information, but it’s collateral. 

Will she try to extor Alma? Or will she hold it over Rita, who she doesn’t seem to trust all that much these days?

However, the biggest flaw with Alma’s plan was that it didn’t make any sense for Rita to actually kill Carlo.

On the surface, yes, Rita wanted him gone so she could take his money and bone Scooter, but if you actually knew Rita, like Vern does, you’d know she’d at least pay someone to kill him. 

Once Rita learns that Alma is the one framing her, she could easily twist this around on the desperate housewife wanting to be her friend. 

She could paint it as Alma doing everything and anything to gain Rita’s acceptance. 

I mean, that’s what an evil villain would do!

I also think Alma is inserting herself too much in the situation. She should completely avoid getting involved, but she couldn’t help herself as she spread rumors to Mavis and the garden club ladies that Rita told her about the plan in confidence. 

When everyone begins to talk — as they did during dinner — they’ll find that the common denominator in this whole situation is Alma. 

And that’s not going to work in her favor. 

Alma knows the ladies well enough to know that they’ll gossip about Rita, but she also isn’t one of them. They may be laughing at Rita, but they’d crawl right back her way in a heartbeat and turn on Alma. 

Credit: Why Women Kill/ Paramount+

She needs to stop thinking about joining the garden club and start thinking about how to get out of this once Vern discovers the truth. 

Because he will. He’s a brilliant PI who already caught onto the fact that Alma wanted him to change his profession only after finding out that Rita was his client. 

It’s not going to take him long to figure out that Alma has a personal stake in the outcome of this case, but the question is — how will he react?

Obviously, Alma is his soon-to-be mother-in-law. Will that make a difference?

It seems as though Dee and Vern agree on the fact that truth should always prevail regardless of who it concerns. 

Money was a deciding factor in taking on Rita as a client, but he only really considered it because he knew in his heart Rita was innocent. 

And Dee gave him permission because, despite her disgust with Rita, she didn’t want an innocent woman to go down for a crime she didn’t commit. 

I think if it came down to it and Dee found out the truth, she would want Vern to do the right thing even if it meant turning on her own blood. 

Rita’s happiness following Carlo’s death lasted a whopping few seconds before an army of police swarmed the place with a search warrant at Catherine’s behest. 

As Rita wracked her brain as to who might have wanted to frame her, Alma wasn’t even in her peripheral vision.

Despite Catherine’s desire to take down Rita, Rita has been focusing all her efforts on the wrong villain. If she gave Alma more credit, she might’ve seen this coming. 

Everyone may have turned on Rita while she was at her lowest, but it’s definitely an eye-opener. 

I hope she remembers it when she does find her footing again.

The garden club ladies that reveled in her downfall, Scooter boarded the Catherine Express when he realized she was his meal ticket, and even Isobel stood up to her and told her to clean up her own messes. 

Rita is realizing the sad truth that without the money and power, no one was actually there for her because they loved her and wanted to be her friend. 

She could’ve had that with Alma, but she blew it. 

Of course, I’m not going to sit here and say Rita didn’t deserve any of it because she obviously hasn’t been the best person to these people throughout the years either.

You reap what you sow! 

So, what happens now? Isobel has tea on Alma, Vern is going to get to the bottom of it sooner rather than later, but I doubt any of that will matter because Bertie won’t be able to stand by idly as Alma allows another woman to pay the price for his sins. 

Will he turn himself in to protect his wife? Will he turn on Alma? I reckon at some point the drug used will connect to his practice and possibly force the cops to investigate every death that involved a heart attack. 

A salacious scandal like that would surely keep Alma out of the garden club.

Not to mention Mrs. Yost’s death still hasn’t reared back into the narrative! 

Other Thoughts

• I continue to be impressed with Vern’s dedication to Dee and raising a child that isn’t his. He’s such a stand-up guy! 
• Why wouldn’t Catherine stay in LA? The weather’s nice, she got rid of Rita, and she has a mansion with a young lover. She’s winning right now. 
• She also uncovered some major dirt on Rita about Harry from Galveston, a man she and Isobel allegedly killed. Will more information come out about him? Will it give us insight as to why Rita is the way that she is these days?
• Alma readily used Bertie for her plan against Rita, but it was actually heartbreaking to see how easily she was willing to sabotage her daughter’s future (and the baby’s) to protect her lie!
• How was Alma’s garden, which was ruined by Rita, growing beautifully again?
• Scooter calling Rita “Aunt Rita” was hilarious. 

What did you think of the episode? Are you enjoying how tangled everything has become? Let us know in the comments below!