Mr. & Mrs. Smith S1E7: Infidelity
After last episode’s couples therapy only succeeded in drawing the Smiths’ issues to the surface, Jane and John are sleeping in separate beds, and spending their off time in glum silence. When John’s out of the house, Jane goes off on her own, visiting the brownstone of a woman named Bev who’s polite, but clearly not happy to see her (I May Destroy You’s Michaela Coel).
Jane pulls a gun on her, and asks a more pointed question than James Bond ever got to ask: “How long have you been seeing my husband?”
Bev claims she and John just hang out occasionally, smoking and watching movies. Jane’s not sure she believes her, and while she’s usually the cool, detached one in the Smiths’ relationships, she can’t hide her distress as she keeps interrogating Bev.
Especially once it’s clear John was more open and honest with Bev than he was with the therapist. She knows John’s a spy. She also knows every emotional rock and shoal in his marriage to Jane, and lays that all bare. As Jane keeps a gun leveled at her, Coel does a terrific job of being afraid to tell Jane the whole truth, and terrified not to.
She also does a great job of showing Bev trying to hide that fear when John shows up. He rings the buzzer and interrupts Jane and Bev’s heart-to-heart-at-gunpoint, so Jane hides while Bev has to play it cool, or else. So Jane listens from around the corner while John jokes and flirts with Bev. It’s still not clear if there’s anything overtly romantic going on, but she casually has her legs draped across his, and he’s more relaxed around her than he is with Jane, and the tension builds as Bev continues to glance nervously at Jane’s hiding spot, and we wait for John to blurt something out that will irreparably damage their marriage.
Except that’s not what happens. At all.
We’ve had a few twists on this show, but this episode has one of the smartest and best-executed of the bunch. We won’t give any of it away, apart from saying it leads into a second half of the episode every bit as good as the first.
Spy stuff. Bickering. Jane being extremely clever, much to John’s chagrin. Stand-up comedy legend Dave Atell as an exasperated bodega owner. Jealousy. Recrimination. Consequences. And one episode left to see if this marriage can survive, and whether the people in it can.
Stray bullets:
• ”Just to be clear, we’re not bonding. You have a gun on me.”
• The Smiths haven’t been at home since the early episodes, but this one makes great use of New York, as they end up in a series of crowded storefronts, taxis, and subways that feel very lived-in.
• We finally see John’s mom (via FaceTime), and she’s played by Beverly Glover, Donald’s real-life mom.
• We haven’t seen a lot of spy gadgets on this show, but the Smiths’ kitchen has a faucet directly over the stove so you can fill up a pot while it’s on the burner, and we don’t know who designed that, but Q had better watch his back.