Dead to Me Season 2, Episode 7 recap: What Would Jen Do?

Charlie makes a startling realization in Dead to Me Season 2, Episode 7, while Judy is forced to put her relationship with Michelle on hold.

Dead to Me Season 2, Episode 7 starts the morning after Judy and Michelle’s magical night together. It doesn’t take long for Judy to come face-to-face with Perez in the kitchen and she is not pleased whatsoever to see the infamous “riptide” in her house, knowing full well she’s sleeping with her ex-girlfriend of six years.

Needless to say, Perez being Michelle’s roommate does not play out well when Judy tells Jen about it. Jen all but banishes Judy to her bedroom and forbids her from seeing Michelle again, forcing Judy to break things off. It sucks because they’re very sweet together, but I’m rooting for them to make things work somehow.

The bigger focus of this episode is Steve’s vigil. Finding Steve’s car is a devastating blow for Ben and his family. They decide to hold a vigil as a way to “keep hope alive” for the family and Steve’s friends (turns out, he had a lot).

Well, Jen now has feelings for Ben and feels increasingly guilty and bad for him. She stupidly volunteers herself and Judy to throw the vigil after witnessing how overwhelmed Ben is by everything.

The vigil turns out to be a nice evening on the beach, which we know from Judy was one of Steve’s favorite places to go when he needed solace. Everyone shows up in support of the Wood family, including Steve and Ben’s mother, played by fantastic Frances Conroy.

Meeting Steve’s mother is like a knife in the gut for Jen. They’re both grieving women who have lost someone in their lives and they both have two sons. It hits home for Jen in a way it hasn’t before that she took a son away from a mother, something she is terrified could happen to her own boys.

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The vigil is not Jen’s finest hour. She has to face these guilt-ridden punches from multiple angles, including from Pastor Wayne (Keong Sim) who returns from last season.

Eventually, she finds herself seeking comfort from Ben, which is probably the worst person she could possibly turn to, and it makes her look like a giant hypocrite. “WWJD” is a running joke in this episode, what would Jen do?

Make out with the identical twin of the man she murdered after she told Judy to dump a woman that makes her happy for being the ex-girlfriend of the woman investigating them both. It’s not a good look, but some part of me does wish Ben and Jen could be together.

They’re an unlikely match but they would be sweet together in an ideal world. But Dead to Me is not an ideal world and Jen’s feelings are only going to complicate matters.

Judy also has to deal with a gut-wrenching realization at the vigil when she sees Heidi, the woman Steve began seeing after breaking things off with Judy. She’s pregnant with Steve’s baby. Judy is devastated by this and it leads her to a breaking point with Detective Perez.

Perez essentially tells Judy she doesn’t trust her and doesn’t like her and Judy tells her that all she is doing is trying to make things better for the people she cares about and trying to be a really good person to the best of her ability, but she feels like she constantly makes everything worse.

“Now I have to go pick up those paper bags so a seal doesn’t choke,” she says, ending her tearful tirade. Linda Cardellini’s line delivery is excellent, as always.

Of course, the episode has to end with another cruel twist of fate, one that sends Jen’s boys careening toward the danger created by their mother. Charlie shows up at the vigil to support Ben, who he’s taken a liking to. Not only does he try to encourage his mom to date him by giving her his “permission,” in a sense, but he appears to genuinely like him as a person.

At the vigil, a slideshow plays showing photographs of Steve growing up through the years and a more recent Steve standing in front of his Mercedes wearing a familiar TKG Arts hat. Charlie recognizes both the car and hat immediately and appears to connect some deadly dots in his head.

What did you think about Dead to Me Season 2, Episode 7? What will Charlie do now that he has made this new connection? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Dead to Me Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.