This episode was a dud compared to episode three. I think it’s the weakest episode of the series thus far. Here’s the important stuff:

–Ronald has a weird moment in which he dumps his cereal on his mother’s head, just like a spoiled toddler. Rather than smack his face, Mama asks him if he has anything to do with the missing girls.

–Rick Legarski hears about the missing girls on the radio as he’s driving. This isn’t the first time he’s heard about them in the media. And. He. Is. Livid. He calls Ronald in a teeth-gritting furor and commands him to meet at the abandoned bar where they do their illegal business. Legarski looks more than a little triggered when Ronald says his mother is suspicious. Legarski goes so far as to reach down for his service weapon, as though he’s considering killing his idiot crime partner. He doesn’t, of course.

–Back in the bunker, the girls are worried about Grace, whose leg looks infected. She’s in pain and has a fever. Ronald stops by and douses the leg with peroxide. Later, Legarski stops by to inject her with some medicine. We’re led to believe that her injury improves and that she’s no longer in danger of dying from infection.

–Cassie goes to the sheriff to ask for help keeping an eye on Legarski. The sheriff calls Legarski in for a private chat. As they talk, Legarski at first tries to sweet talk the sheriff and change the topic to take the focus off himself, and when that doesn’t work he plays the race card. This is something people don’t talk much about. People of color are often accused of playing the card, but white people do it sometimes too. During his race card rant, Legarski says the sheriff is doing a back flip in his rush to investigate him just because Cassie is black and made the complaint. Legarski claims it’s “open season on the badge.” He says anyone who claims blue lives matter is painted as a bigot (which is kinda true in many cases), but rather than gain him any leeway or sympathy from the sheriff, Legarski’s speech just makes him look angry and belligerent.

–Cassie and Jenny go to the truck stop after viewing the parking lot footage from the night Jerrie was kidnapped. Cassie plays lookout while Jenny, dressed as a hooker in over-the-knee boots, goes up to a random trucker and tries to get a DNA sample from some items in his truck. The trucker, who’s already made her scrub herself down with sanitizer and even squirt her mouth with some liquid because he wants him a clean hooker, gets suspicious of Jenny. They end up brawling in the parking lot. She punches him down, and he reaches for his gun just as Cassie jumps out with her gun and shouts him down. It was like a scene from Charlie’s Angels or something.

–Ronald goes to see Merilee, Legarski’s wife, at the quilt shop she runs. He buys a quilt and convinces her to go to an old-fashioned dance hall to meet him. That night, we see Merilee step into the dance hall–which is full of old folks, one of whom is spiking the punch bowl–and lose her courage and bail on him. Ronald chases Merilee out to the parking lot and convinces her to dance. They have a good time, though why they do is still uncertain. He’s pretty boring. Perhaps Merilee is just lonely. She is, after all, married to a psychopath, but then again Ronald is also a psychopath. Does she just happen to attract psychos, or is Ronald deliberately targeting Legarski’s wife for some reason? Not sure where the writers are going with this storyline. I mean, Ronald has to know Merilee is Rick’s wife. How many women named Merilee could possibly live in this small rural town?

–Cassie and Jenny tail Legarski to the place in the woods where the girls are being kept. At one point, they’re standing super close to the bunker and the girls are shouting for help from underground, but Cassie and Jenny can’t hear them.

My fave quote from this episode comes from Merrilee to Ronald after he calls her beautiful while buying a quilt from her:

“Ah, it’s still the same price. We’ve discontinued the flattery discount.”

I’m hoping next week’s episode will be more thrilling.