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Divorce Recap: ‘Another Party’

By Kelly Shanaphy

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Divorce continues to bring out the ugliness of Francs and Robert in ‘Another Party,’

In “Another Party,” the kids are finally dragged into the divorce battle as Frances and Robert use their individual relationships with their children as leverage. From the get-go, it has been very clear that Robert is the primary caregiver when it comes to spending time with Tom and Lila as well as handling their extracurricular activities. However, the episode starts off strong by asserting that Frances’ lack of physical presence in her children’s life doesn’t make her a bad mother. Too bad then that the desire for competition brings out the worst in her.

As expected, Frances demands that Robert relocates the snake to his apartment. He promptly agrees, making a small jab about her inability to care for “Maureen,” anyways. It’s this little insult that seems to send her spiraling out of control. Frances doesn’t want the snake, and while she does love her kids, she spends a majority of the episode out with her friends or starting her new art gallery. She asserts that this doesn’t make her a bad mother, which it doesn’t, but it does mean that Robert is the clear choice as the “winner” in a custody battle because he already spends almost all of his time caring for them.

Dean Winters, Thomas Haden Church, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jeffrey DeMunn. (Credit: Craig Blankenhorn/HBO)

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Taking her lawyer’s advice, Frances decides to volunteer at the school’s carnival in hopes of being perceived as an involved parent. However, randomly deciding to take part in a school event is hardly the way to sway the mothers who spend most of their time planning these events. Frances makes things even worse by confronting the mom in charge, who of course is the one who Robert slept with, to try to “clear the air” between the two of them as well as make a slight comment about working full-time. Immediately it seems weird for Frances to try to reason with someone whose full-time work involves volunteering at the school by mentioning that she’s been too busy with her “real job”. Clearly, not the right move.

When her attempt to gain the approval of the parents failed, Frances decides to take the kids as her “special someone’s” to Nick and Diane’s party. ‘Another Party,’ brings the story to a nice full-circle where Robert spent the first episode outside the house looking in at Frances’ life and swings around to have her longingly staring as her kids happily dance with him. Frances spends all of the scenes at the party with her friends because she only brought her kids to show what a good mother she is while Robert genuinely wants to spend time with them. He shows this by offering to take the kids home so Frances can stay out late and even offering to have Tony not use the “negligent mother” weapon in court.

Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church (Credit: Craig Blankenhorn/HBO)

It’s this that makes Frances’ decision to get herself a shark lawyer and completely embarrass Robert in front of the entire school such a disappointing one. Not only does it completely destroy the kids, but also it firmly takes away any of the likeable characteristics that Frances had slowly acquired throughout the nine episodes. It’s a petty move that will only come to hurt her.

Next: Westworld's lack of surprise.

Neither Frances nor Robert are inherently likable characters, and they’re certainly not doing well on their own. Divorce doesn’t shy away from showing these characters at their worst, and that continues to be one of its greatest strengths, as well as a weakness.

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