SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Imperfect Women Episode 3.

Imperfect Women Episode 3 is a very polarizing hour. It’s perfectly valid if some Apple TV viewers decide they’ve had enough after “Monster.” As the title indicates, it’s an unflattering episode all the way around. But for those who are willing to sift through the ugliness, it adds more layers to an already juicy miniseries.

Picking up right where Episode 2 ended, “Monster” will not surprise anyone by throwing shade on Robert Hennessey’s assertion that he didn’t kill his wife Nancy. It’s meant to make him look homicidal, because it’s too early in the miniseries for Robert and Eleanor Bouchet to have a happy ever after (and honestly, anyone having a happy ever after in a domestic thriller like this would almost feel out of character). But more than that, it’s meant to make both Robert and Eleanor look like terrible people. This casts them in the worst possible light.

That’s a gamble, because if the audience is turned off by the two lead characters—and it’s clear at this point that Eleanor and Robert are the two most significant protagonists—then they might stop watching. “Monster” may indeed make some people less interested in Imperfect Women; do they care who killed Nancy if they don’t care what happens to anyone in her life? But there’s a couple different things to sink one’s teeth into among all the other things that will make viewers shake their heads.

Firstly, Imperfect Women Episode 3 finally develops the relationship between Eleanor and her brother Donovan into something that feels real. Donovan was presented in Episode 2 as kind of a stereotypical jerk, and now audiences see how much he cares about his sister and supports her when she completely goes to pieces. There’s only a little bit of “I told you so” in their interactions, and he provides Eleanor with an ally, which is crucial since another part of “Monster” is taking away everyone else that she’s depended on—Robert, Mary, Jordan (who decides to call the police after she dumps him), and her whole office.

The episode creates a scandal that Olivia Pope would be all over, and it wisely is less about if Robert killed Nancy than how much he used Eleanor. When he turns around and tells Eleanor that their two-day fling meant nothing and “there’s no we,” the audience expects it but that doesn’t make it less infuriating to hear. That adds a second direction to the storytelling; of course Robert is still a murder suspect, but beyond that, how much of him as a whole is just a made-up facade? How much of this great, award-winning image Eleanor has is a facade? In the latter case, she seems to be realizing it’s a lot.

Kerry Washington has to do almost all the emotional lifting in “Monster,” as Eleanor careens from one upset moment to another, and she delivers. This episode must have been exhausting to film given how much time she spends on the verge of tears, anger or both. Elisabeth Moss has one great moment where Mary lashes out at Eleanor, pointing out that Eleanor doesn’t have real problems like taking care of a family and is living in a fantasy world. Mary is spot on, and Moss makes it feel like her character has been holding that vitriol in for longer than the few days that have lapsed since the series premiere. Kate Mara pops up again for a major scene at the end, in which it’s revealed that Nancy begged Eleanor to go with her on the night of her death—a massive “what if.”

So who’s the real monster, Eleanor or Robert? Or both? Imperfect Women viewers will have to decide that for themselves. “Monster” gets a deserved knock against it for how the audience will feel when it’s over; they won’t like anyone very much, and they’re certainly not going to feel great. But it does a fine job of stirring up controversy on so many levels, creating a lot of plot holes that the characters can dig out of in the rest of the series. There’s a whole cargo hold of baggage to unpack now, and that means this show won’t run out of ways to keep people talking.

Imperfect Women streams Wednesdays on Apple TV. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.