Joan is informed that she’s going to have a yard sale on Saturday, but she’d rather have a social life, especially when she meets a good-looking boy who seems interested in her. Meanwhile, Will attempts to take a rape case to court but is stymied by the facts, and Helen is forced to confront her past.

Far better constructed than the last couple of episodes, even if it does hinge on the coincidence of a rape case coming across Will’s desk just as Joan gets close to learning her mother’s secret. Then again, the way the series works, this is pretty much what you’d expect. God tends to tell Joan to do stuff that has a knock-on effect on something else and teaches her a valuable lesson or two.

What might become a problem with this series is having too many secrets in the Girardi family. If one turns up every week, it’s quickly going to become very unrealistic, but at the moment it’s trundling along rather nicely. What’s especially good about the set-up is Joe Mantegna and Mary Steenburgen, who make an incredibly true married couple. Their scene together at the end of the episode is beautifully acted and shows a real tenderness and love between Will and Helen. Whatever might happen as the series continues, you can’t imagine these two ever splitting up; they’re clearly meant for each other. We also get to see that Will is a very moral man; he sacks his partner from the force because of making a small alteration to an official file that helps a rape case be heard when it would have been thrown out of court. While the criminal deserves to be put away, Will won’t bend his values for anyone and it gives him an impressive strength we’ve not seen that much of before now.

Elsewhere, Joan learns that having a boy interested in you doesn’t necessarily mean he’s the right person for you, and Kevin is actually right for a change but learns an important lesson of his own. Joan’s storyline is unusually background this time, but her dealings with Clay are both sweet and rather sad when she learns he’s not as good as he’d seemed. Kevin thankfully seems to have finally got out of being bitter and cynical. When he hears he’s been employed by a local newspaper partly because of the extra funding they’re going to get, it looks as though he’ll jack it in. The fact that he doesn’t shows a strength of character he’s been resolutely refusing to display up to this point, and is something of a turning point for him. It’s also good to see someone treat him as he deserves, refusing to accept his disability as an excuse and making him face up to living as normal a life as he can.

****

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