Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce Tells Phoebe’s Story
Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce served up two big stories in the season finale, so I had to process all my feels and turn this into a two-part recap. I blame Marti Noxon for forcing me to write and you to read more of my opinions.
When the series premiered it was a natural assumption that each character would strictly adhere to a trope. In Phoebe’s case that might be the free-spirited hottie and perhaps even an insufferable “manic pixie dream girl.” Phoebe is indeed a hottie and can be a free-spirit. She can also be guarded or open, snippy or warm. Like the other friends (I’m including the guys here) she is faceted.
In the penultimate episode, the usually genial Phoebe ran into well-known photographer Kory at her children’s school, her demeanor was less than welcoming. At a charity auction, on that same night, Phoebe engaged in a bidding war over one of Kory’s nude photographs. The model looked like Phoebe, but her face was was obscured by cascading hair. When Marco questioned why the photograph was so important to Phoebe, she inexplicably dumped him on the spot. After winning the auction, Phoebe burned the photograph. Okay, we got it, Phoebe was obviously the model and resentful of Kory. I jumped to the conclusion that Kory was either a professional rival or former love.
In this week’s season finale, Phoebe exploded when she saw Kory at school photographing her children. Pushing and shoving ensued. (There is something in the water at that school, the mothers are extraordinarily bellicose.) In any case, Phoebe smashed Kory’s camera as if taking some candid class photos was a criminal offense. Hello foreshadowing! She later apologized to Marco and confided her haunting past. At age 14, a naive Phoebe ran away and wound up modeling for Kory. The photographer got her hooked on pills and passed her around at parties. There are countless photos of Phoebe and she doesn’t remember posing for them. One of the things that made the story stand out is that the predator is an attractive, seemingly respectable woman. She doesn’t fit the Law & Order: SVU profile so the revelation was jolting.
In addition to the writing, Beau Garett turned in a believable and gentle performance. She didn’t go for the tiresome “Look how raw this is!” Emmy bait. As Marco, it was just Brandon Jay McLaren‘s job to listen, but he expressed himself in an organic way that mingled compassion with a touch of awkwardness (Thank you for not clenching your fists in alpha rage, sir.) I applaud an unpredictable storyline that is free of overwrought acting. Garrett and McLaren make an interesting duo with some chemistry and I’d like to see more of them.
On a related note, I attempted to orchestrate a #Pharco Twitter campaign. Fortunately, the astute @LEsHeels helped me to see the error of my ways. As she put it, “You are great at making recaps, horrible at making ship hashtags XD”
Mr. TV Recaps wholeheartedly agrees that my shipper names suck, so I’ll just stick to writing about why I watch Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce.
