Margo’s Got Money Troubles Season 1 Finale Review: Lock and Load

Critic’s Rating: 5 / 5.0

5

Hell, yeah. That’s the stuff.

Everyone should stand up to bullies the way the Millet Family does. They’re direct, honest, and own their deeds. Bodhi’s village is loving, protective, and ready to go to war for him.

The Season 1 finale of Margo’s Got Money Trouble, “Lock and Load,” pays off on everything we, the viewers, have invested in the lives of Margo, Jinx, Shyanne, and especially Baby Bodhi.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles, “Lock and Load”

After everyone said hello to Rock Bottom on Margo’s Got Money Troubles Episode 7, “Lariat Takedown,” they spent some time regrouping and taking those deep, cleansing breaths as the finale began.

Jinx gets a no-nonsense dressing down from Lace. Between her high kung-fu kicks in higher heels, Lawyer Lace makes it crystal clear that Jinx is their case’s biggest liability.

He takes it to heart. Rather than retreating into the depressive depths that triggered his spiral, he starts his path of recovery over again.

Taking some time for himself at Shyanne’s place, he watches his old wrestling matches, drawing strength from the fire he used to turn on for the crowds, and turns the page on his relapse.

He makes amends with Susie in one of the most emotionally touching scenes of the series. I love that he can admit his actions betrayed everyone’s trust in him.

Not just Margo, who knew what was possible when she let him move in, but Susie, who worshipped him before ever meeting him.

Her honesty is heartbreaking. But the key is that she is honest with him. She tells him how his relapse hurt and scared her, then reminds him that he can’t be in the apartment now.

Offerman’s ability to silently convey a vast range of emotions from guilt and remorse to acceptance and understanding only cements my admiration of his talent.

He abides by Susie’s directive to leave, but they’ve started to mend their relationship, and that’s something.

Mama Bears

One can only imagine how Shyanne’s relationship with motherhood has been fraught with the dissonance between form and function.

Margo accused her on Margo’s Got Money Troubles Episode 5, “Flamingos,” of raising her to be a friend and wingwoman rather than a daughter because Shyanne can’t bear to be honest with anyone else.

Now that Bodhi’s custody is in question and, with it, Margo’s happiness, Shyanne steps up with every intention to “play nice.”

Sitting down with Elizabeth Gable and apologizing for hitting her is probably the ultimate Queen move. How she held back from breaking the other side of her face after Ms. Gable opened her gob and started spewing her usual vitriol, I’ll never know.

Best Vagina on the Planet

They really saved the best mother-daughter moment for the eleventh hour.

Having Margo source her body-positive paradigm from a lecture on self-love and pride that Shyanne delivered while fully naked, to her three-year-old self in origin-story gold.

For Margo to explain that she would probably continue producing her OnlyFans content even if Shyanne could find money to support them really signals a shift in her perspective.

What started as a life preserver in a sea of need has become a torch to bear, a canvas to fill. And it all began with Shyanne telling a toddler that hers was the “best vagina on the planet.”

So when that toddler grows up to plan an online event devoted to an “artfully rendering of [her] tunnel of love,” what mother wouldn’t be proud?

Judge Not

It’s been such a minute since Ally McBeal was the top of my weekly Must Watch list and Margo’s Got Money Troubles has worked so hard to stay out of the courtroom, that I’d clear forgotten that David E. Kelly, king of quirky legalese, showruns it.

The setting of the Superior Court feels like a huge tonal shift from the rest of the series. It’s an artificial environment with everyone on their best behavior.

The figurative deck also seems stacked against the Millets. Jinx broke Mark’s hand. Shyanne broke Elizabeth’s jaw. And then Margo blew mediation out of the water by leaping across the conference table, threatening to kill Mark.

Every incident is one of justifiable rage, but still, on paper, it all looks bad for our intrepid little family unit.

Despite the spectre of Justice Spence looming large in the Millet family consciousness pre-trial, his actual presence evokes a delightful form of shock and awe.

“I read all the papers, and this is nonsense. When a child custody dispute reaches this point, when it comes to a Superior Court judge, then nonsense has had its way.”

— Justice Andrew Spence

Paul McCrane, as Justice Spence, exudes a frenetic yet hypervigilant sort of baseline irritation with the situation. From the moment he bursts into the room, he never sits down.

Rather than meting out justice from on high (i.e., his bench), he takes his issues with this case down to the floor, confronting both Mark and Margo with his impressions of their behavior.

Playing Devil’s Advocate, he gets the lines I’ve wanted to scream at Mark from the beginning.

“Justice Spence: “You impregnate a student, and now you dare to seek custody of the child? I tell you now, right now, Mr. Biological Father, this case has a stink, and I’ve good reason to believe the waft starts with you.” — Justice Andrew Spence

Stink. Yes. Mark is the stink. And Elizabeth is the skunk. The truth has never been clearer.

FTW

After endearing himself to the audience with a very sincere game of peekaboo, Spence’s Bodhi-litmus test of the family sets things right in the most King Solomon way.

Shyanne’s moment of relief and joy when Bodhi doesn’t cry in her arms may be the most heart-warming of the series. And once again, the entire sequence is Bodhi-centered. Eyes are on him in every interaction. He is why they’re there.

Let’s take a moment to appreciate shows that take a moment to make it matter. Like Jinx’s moment of processing Susie’s truths, Spence takes a long and literal 20-second pause to analyze the situation before his court.

Spence: You stand there proud of yourself, young lady?

Margo: I doubt anyone truly feels proud of themselves, Your Honor.

Spence: You think that’s an answer?

Margo: I’ve given Bodhi a good home. I’ve raised him with my love and the love of his grandparents. I have provided for my son. And just because people find what I do to be distasteful, it doesn’t make it illegal or wrong or disqualify me from being his parent. My answer? Yeah, I am proud.

Kudos to Kelley and his team. He remains a force to be reckoned with when wielding a gavel, robe, and justice.

And, clearly, it never hurts to have an incredible cast to bring those scenes to life.

We Need To Talk About Kenny

By any measure, Margo’s Got Money Troubles Season 1 has been a triumph of narrative, performance, and pacing.

The story’s been engaging, the twists and turns emotionally-charged, and the characters multi-faceted.

And no one’s undergone more barometric dynamics than Mr. Shyanne Millet, the good reverend Kenny.

Oh, Kenny. Sweet, surprising, simple Kenny.

I’d like to believe he called Child Services out of genuine concern for Bodhi’s well-being. I think that he’d like everyone to believe it was pure altruism. I suspect he wants to believe it himself.

But the truth is not that angelic.

Kenny may not recognize it in himself — and I might’ve been loath to admit it even a single episode ago — but, at his core, he is a misogynist.

He has been incredibly understanding about Margo’s OnlyFans business and was accepting of Shyanne’s assault on Elizabeth Gable. But the truth is, he treats them with this kindness because he sees them as flawed women, unable to control or maintain their piety.

He can forgive them everything because he believes they need his care and guidance. But you know who he cannot forgive? Jinx.

In Vegas, he let slip that Jinx was a bad father to Margo. Since then, he’s bridled at Shyanne’s affection for Jinx.

He called Child Services to make Jinx’s relapse even more of a liability, hoping to drive him completely out of Margo, Bodhi, and Shyanne’s lives.

No matter how honest he is about the facts of the call, he’ll deny that he did it out of envy and a touch of wrath. But that is the truth, the light, and the way of it.

Moving Forward

With a Season 2 greenlit, taking the narrative beyond the scope of Rufi Thorpe’s novel, Kenny is one of several issues that need addressing.

Over to you, Fanatics. How did Margo’s Got Money Troubles’ finale fly for you? Are you tipping the show or blocking the concept?

Where do you see Season 2 landing? How will the Millet-Gable relations evolve? Will Jinx and Lace strike something up? Can The Hungry Ghost stoke our appetite for more?

Hit our comments with your thoughts and theories, predictions, and preferences!

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