SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Anna Pigeon Season 1, Episode 6.
Anna Pigeon has been top of the class all season, but the USA show finally makes a misstep with “There’s Always a Road.” After one of the season’s best episodes, this is the season’s weakest outing. It feels written around a plot twist that plays into too many cliches of the crime drama genre.
That plot twist is that Bethany Lopez (played by Wynonna Earp‘s Melanie Scrofano) is secretly Jeremiah Paulson’s daughter, and she’s the person who imprisoned Anna in the cave during Episode 5 in order to protect her family. Not only is that stereotypical—turning a genial side character into a cunning villain the whole time—but it’s unnecessary. It’s not as if Anna needed more of a reason to hate Paulson, and it undermines Manny’s entire character arc. On top of that, Bethany’s villain arc just never comes together, despite a go for broke performance by Scrofano.
“There’s Always a Rope” feels like the creative team came up with the idea of making Bethany a villain and then wrote the rest of the episode to get to that point, instead of developing an episode in which that big reveal fit organically. Bethany’s behavior throughout, even before the reveal, is a bit too heightened; what’s supposed to be panic about her safety instead feels like an act. Once she’s revealed as the person who attacked Anna, her motive makes little sense. On one hand, she’s “the help” wanting to protect the Paulson family, but a previous scene with Manny establishes that she has no real relationship with her father. Manny says Bethany thinks she has a relationship with him, yet even in the flashback that explains her culpability, it’s not clear why she’d think that. On the other hand, Bethany also talks about holding a grudge against Anna. Presumably that’s because Anna is threatening her family’s business, but it’s not explicitly stated and again, the lack of audience understanding about the family connection makes it harder to believe that Bethany would be so angry.
Beyond Bethany’s unconvincing characterization, there are other issues with this episode of Anna Pigeon. One is that the show has already gone down this path with the pilot, when it revealed that Anna’s colleague Harlan was also in league with Paulson. Making Bethany another villain doesn’t add anything new to the show. It just screws with Manny, who’s already been through enough this season. The final scene of him being heartbroken as he talks to Bethany in jail doesn’t do him any favors, because even after she tries to murder one of his friends—and gives the most cliche explanation she could—he still tries to help her by calling her dad. Obviously he loves her, but Manny deserves to stand up for himself and his own moral code more than he does here.
“There’s Always a Road” also misses some story opportunities. Anna’s whole plan of going off on her own to bait Paulson’s nephew is another very familiar concept; the audience already knows it’s going to end badly, and it’s also just more of Anna going rogue. Furthermore, the script teases fans with what could’ve been a meaningful scene between the two people who care about Anna the most—Stanton and Jesse—but it barely counts as a scene, as they exchange all of four lines. This would’ve been wonderful to see Ronnie Rowe Jr. and Cooper Levy play off each other, especially as the Jesse character is still developing. But it doesn’t happen.
The choice of a flashback sequence to confirm Bethany’s part in the plot is uninspired, and other episodes of Anna Pigeon have made better use of the supporting cast. One of the great things about this show is that it’s never been driven by any one character, even when the story is focused on one person. “The Rope” was the best example of that. Yet in “There’s Always a Road,” aside from Bethany and Zoey, the other players don’t have a whole lot to do. Add all these things up, and this installment of Anna Pigeon just feels creatively out of whack—which is further disappointing because its predecessor was so tightly plotted.
That’s not to say that the entire show is falling apart. There’s still some great acting on the part of Tracy Spiridakos, who’s mastered playing Anna’s “lone wolf with a chip on her shoulder” streak. There’s less room in this episode for her to show her vulnerability (maybe the creative team thought Episode 5 had enough of that), but Spiridakos remains eminently watchable. And even if what happens with her character is a letdown, there’s no denying that Melanie Scrofano gives a hundred percent to her biggest episode as Bethany. She goes full villain when the script calls for it. Anna Pigeon has its first stumble in Episode 6, but its actors are still there to pick up the show even as the writing falters. Now fans will have to see how the series moves on from this plot twist with only a few episodes left in the season.
Anna Pigeon airs Fridays at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on USA. Photo Credit: Michelle Faye/Courtesy of Versant Media.
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.
