The Family: Who’s the Best Liar?

There were some strange moments for sure in “Betta Male” (4-24-16), but they were more on the order of “c’mon now” then the events of last week.

“Hillary and Bill, John and Jackie… We’re not re-inventing the wheel here.”

Willa was at Bridey’s when she got a call from her co-worker but pretended to be home. Bridey could not help remarking on how smooth that was. “I’m a really good liar,” Willa bragged. She kissed Bridey adieu and went home to give her family the script for the upcoming gubernatorial debate. Things were already tense — Ben brought down a box of Adam’s childhood toys that he wanted thrown in the trash, sock monkey and all. “Let’s talk about Dad’s affair,” she announced, and told everyone what their role would be in salvaging the leak about John Warren’s affair with Detective Nina Meyer.

The pock-faced man, Doug, was at Hank’s home at the same time, getting ready to fix some rotted pipes and spying on the Warrens. He was even taking notes: “Sister leaves house 9 A.M.” and the other one looked like “Dad leaves house 9:30 A.M.”

Nina has your number, Ben

Nina Meyer watched footage of Ben’s therapy session. He slipped up and said “we had school” (this somehow had to mean “me and another kid,” and not “me and the kidnapper”). The therapist chalked it up to an imaginary friend survival technique and Ben played along and said the friend’s name was Ben. From the next exchange, Meyer gleaned that Ben was a foster kid. Sharp detective that she is (uh, now) she immediately zeroes in on the foster home in the area where she saw Ben prowling around at night and picked up a photo of young Ben by threatening the foster parent with social services (then she told him she had already reported him).

Nina headed over to interview the Warrens with that photo and some others. Willa and Claire were all over her when the young Ben photo showed up. They wouldn’t even let her finish her sentence. “Do you know him cause he kinda looks a lot like…” John was the only one not in on the secret. Claire freaked out at the massive level of fraud she and her daughter are perpetrating so Willa told Adam not to go to the debate.

“”You have not met a tragedy you couldn’t use, Claire.”

At the debate, incumbent Gov. Charlie Lang lit into Claire, accusing her of exploiting public sympathy: “Your son was taken, you ran for mayor. You got him back, now you want us to make you governor.” Claire shocked everyone by saying “I did not get my son back.” Willa, Ben and Meyer were all on tenterhooks waiting for the next shoe to drop. But she explained that the little boy who was kidnapped was not the stranger who returned. Even the therapist wouldn’t have seen that as laying the groundwork for when the truth comes out, but we’re sure Ben and Willa did.

That turned the debate tide in Claire’s favor and Willa was ecstatic. Ben not so much. He got a visit from Doug who got in the Warren house and said “Hey, Ben, time to have a talk.” Doug was gone when the Warrens got home but Ben was still there. Claire suddenly wanted to know his full name (Ben Murphy) and where he was born (Minnesota). Inanely, she said “Never been” and even more inanely he said “It’s cold.” (Oh? — like it’s not in Maine?) Ben admitted that her tacos were too spicy. He said he was sorry that he was not the real Adam.

Jane’s sorry, too, but not as sorry as she’s gonna be

It was hard to be shocked that FBI Agent Gabe Clements is still alive and a very sorry Jane brought him breakfast. Throughout the whole episode, his being a no-show was treated like “no big thang” even though he didn’t go home all night, didn’t call out and could not be reached by phone. No alarm bells went off until his husband showed up looking for him.

By that time, Bridey had sex with Danny. Hank noticed Doug’s logo on the wood he used to fix the kitchen drawer and like instantly remembered that same logo was on a birdhouse he bought at the political rally the day Adam disappeared 10 years ago. He dug it out, packed it up and went to the police station to see Nina.

At the end, Claire was planning on making Ben a cake for his real birthday. She told Willa that she will wish for the rest of her life that Ben was the one who got sick and not Adam. That sent Willa into a tailspin and she confronted Ben on the escape story he initially fed her. Ben is just as good of a liar as Willa, though, if not better. Without missing a beat, he said: “Both. He fell and hit his head and then he got sick. He was sweating. He was burning up and I couldn’t do anything. Okay?”

Then Nina was watching another therapy session tape, showing Ben peering into the fish tank, asking why the fish can’t swim together. “They’re both boys,” Dr. Santoro replied, “They can’t be confined together… one of them would kill the other.” Is that a red herring?