‘Sweetpea’ Recap: ‘Someone’s Been a Naughty Girl’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Ella Purnell and Nicôle Lecky as Rhiannon and Julia in Episode 105 of ‘Sweetpea’ – ‘Someone’s Been a Naughty Girl’. (Photo Courtesy of STARZ.)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Five of ‘Sweetpea’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
​
It is definitely safe to say that the fascinating STARZ series, Sweetpea, has asked some hard questions over the course of its first four episodes. Specifically, can Rhiannon maintain her anonymity? And can she find any measure of redemption for the things she’s done? Simply because it seems implausible that she would forever remain in the shadows with the amount of visual data out in the world, and at her core, was a good person. One that has crossed a lot of lines but could atone for her sins if she chose to do something worthwhile, and it just so happens that at long last, the series began to ponder upon the answers to those all-important questions in the season’s penultimate episode.

Which ‘Someone’s Been a Naughty Girl’ accomplished, by way of some big surprises. One of which, involved Marina. Who really took what she discovered to heart and began to investigate Rhiannon with impunity. Because she saw the connections, saw the darkness and what Rhiannon might be looking for and that brought her all over town to investigate this wallflower turned murderer. Which allowed for us to spend a lot of time with Marina and learn she and Rhiannon shared in some traits. Since Marina was also oft ignored and oft not seen, but the difference between the two was that Marina made a point to not let that eat her soul up or set her back. She opted to push past it and find agency. But that aside, the police were closing in and that was a big problem for Rhiannon.

Whose journey in this tale, oddly related to Marina’s parallel path. For when we caught up with her in this tale, she was struggling with what to do with Julia. Because now she felt for her, since no woman should ever be subjected to the horrors of a garbage fiancé, and that allowed for the two to finally connect and confront one another about current and past actions and that led to some hard truths for Rhiannon. Such as how, she was her own worst enemy and chose to do the opposite of Marina and embrace her pain instead of fighting against it, and that rattled her to no end and put her in a difficult spot mentally. Wherein she started making mistakes. Because a confrontation with Julia’s fiancé, about what she did to his home, prompted her to try and make him the next victim in broad daylight.

But alas, Jeff saw this happen and that forced Rhiannon to try and stop him from revealing the truth. Which fate helped with since he was splattered about when he rolled in front of a massive truck. But that also gave Rhiannon pause. Because that helped her to understand, Julia was right. That she had let this happen, she chose to go down this route and find unhealthy catharsis and if she didn’t change course, she would be a true monster and that gave her an idea on how to redeem herself. One that required Julia’s help. Wherein they would work together to bring that gross fiancé to justice and for the most part, the plan worked. But it did require a little of Rhiannon’s darkness to save the day. But she did work to redeem herself here and time will tell if she has done enough.

After all, Marina was there to greet her and Julia and that cannot be a good thing. But while we wait to see what Marina does with the evidence she has; we can revel in quite the intelligent tale. One that deeply explored how the modern world makes it damn near impossible to get away with murder, and that’s a good thing. Because it is the darkest act, we take part in, and it did let us know that Rhiannon is redeemable but will be forever transformed, regardless of the outcome. Because she has taken lives and been responsible for the death of an innocent, and there’s no going back from that, and it will be interesting to see how she reconciles that when the season finale of this fascinating series gets underway. Until next time.

---

Watch ‘Sweetpea’

Powered by JustWatch