Now that Margaret’s been forced to publicly acknowledge Eugene’s extramarital affairs resulted in (at least) three illegitimate children, the Monreauxes’ Christian brand/network is in jeopardy on Fox’s Filthy Rich season one episode two. “John 3:3” begins with Margaret (Kim Cattrall) starring in a commercial for their shopping channel, a commercial that’s more befitting an expensive perfume brand than her newly announced Sunny Club subscription service.
The scandal’s all over the news but Margaret doesn’t believe her followers will care. She claims the press conference announcing Ginger, Antonio, and Jason were fathered by Eugene was a “moment of unity.” Margaret’s a bit delusional as news outlets, including Christian bloggers, have turned on the Monreaux family and their brand. Subscriptions to their Sunny Club have plateaued.
They need 8 million subscribers or they’ll lose vendors. They’re holding steady at 6 million.
Speaking of the illegitimate siblings, Ginger (Melia Kreiling) is outside of the hub of the Monreaux business – the Sunshine Network. She’s hanging out in a van with her mom and sister – a van advertising her porn network, Sin Wagon, which apparently isn’t doing well without Ginger watching over it. Eric (Corey Cott) pulls up, spots Ginger, and immediately begins complaining to his wife, Becky (Olivia Macklin). Margaret summoned him to discuss his future and he has no idea why Ginger’s there.
Ginger reveals during a conversation with her family she’s only there to pick up a $30 million paycheck.
Antonio (Benjamin Levy Aguilar) and his young son, Jesus, are also in the parking lot. He approaches Eric’s car and says he can’t wait to get to know them. Becky, who has already referred to Jesus as a demon child, wants nothing to do with this interloper. She wanted to give birth to Margaret’s first grandchild but now Antonio’s claimed that honor.
Reporter Luke Taylor (Cranston Johnson) tries to introduce himself to Ginger’s mom, Tina (Rachel York), but she doesn’t want anything to do with him. He reveals his new angle is to write about the women Eugene had affairs with.
Rose (Aubrey Dollar) arrives and the parking lot’s become an uncomfortable impromptu family gathering. Eric’s had enough and skips the meeting with his mom and drives away.
Rose introduces herself to Ginger’s mom who couldn’t care less about Margaret’s children. Ginger tells her mom to be nice, claiming Rose is “cool.” Rose drops the news Jason is in Colorado and won’t be joining the meeting with Margaret.
Margaret and her lawyer/friend Franklin (Steve Harris) lead the meeting, with Margaret claiming she’s going to bring this family together. Ginger doesn’t have time for this nonsense and asks for her check. Franklin confirms they’ll all be getting checks for $10,000 a week instead of the $30 million payouts.
Margaret wants to hire Antonio as a member of her security team. She wants Jason to close his pot business and Ginger to close her porn site. Plus, Ginger is banned from speaking to the press ever again.
Rose complains she’s been getting $10,000 a week since she was 16. (Poor girl…how she must have suffered.) Antonio’s reaction is probably the same as most viewers. He’s stunned she’s been getting that as an allowance for years.
Margaret tells Rose to head to Colorado and instruct Jason to close down. Rose refuses, calling herself apolitical.
Ginger can’t believe this turn of events and is shocked to hear they won’t get their big paydays until Margaret dies. She warns she’s not going to simply disappear and wait patiently for Margaret to die. Ginger’s determined to cash in on her new notoriety now that Sin Wagon’s been in the news. She lies and says business has boomed. Now, she’s planning on building her brand on the back of Margaret’s brand.
Catching up with presumed dead but very much alive and breathing Eugene (Gerald McRaney), he’s recuperating in a small cabin with the woman who rescued him. She believes the swamp spit him out so he can start over. God’s not done with him yet.
Tina fetches Ginger from the meeting, impatient and wanting to hit the road. As they’re walking out Reverend Paul Luke Thomas (Aaron Lazar) stops them and compares Ginger to Mary Magdalene. Ginger knows her Bible and stuns Reverend Paul with her knowledge of Mary Magdalene.
After the meeting breaks up, Margaret has Antonio fitted with new suits for his job as a member of her security team. Rose watches Antonio try on suits while thinking about her dad. She admits things would be secretly worse if he were still alive. She’s a combo of mad and sad, and her mom assures her she really needs to head out and speak with Jason. She reluctantly agrees.
While all that’s going down inside the Sunshine Network studio, outside Ginger’s holding court with the press. She says Margaret thinks of her as trash and then with the cameras rolling, she unfurls a banner down the side of the studio advertising Sin Wagon.
After taking in all the hoopla surrounding Ginger, Margaret returns home, sits on the floor, and cuddles her dog. She confesses to Franklin the moms of Antonio, Jason, and Ginger – plus any other women Eugene slept with – deserve empathy, not anger.
Franklin reveals he’s reached settlements with the families of the dead women and the pilot. He also reminds her they need more subscribers or Sunny Club will fail.
Margaret’s decided to take the bull by the horns. She steps in front of the studio audience and cameras to speak about growing up poor and living in a car. The family relied on the pity of strangers, but then one day their lives changed for the better. They “drifted” into a church, listened to a sermon, and afterward found their car was loaded with groceries. She promised God she would spend her life repaying that debt.
Sunny Club is the way she’s going to keep that promise. Part of the proceeds from sales will go to the Sunny missions. She promises those proceeds will “fill the cars of hungry people around the world.”
As she’s speaking a banner on the bottom of the screen shows subscriber numbers are stuck at 6,004,154.
Franklin meets with Luke in a bar and asks the journalist to write a positive piece on Margaret. Luke refuses since Margaret had him fired from the newspaper, but Franklin insists Margaret did no such thing. Luke reveals he’s been looking into Eugene’s plane crash and learned the jet had a perfect inspection record. Why did it catch on fire and crash?
Franklin seems to genuinely believe the Monreauxes are good Christians and have helped him. He’s sure Margaret is a good person. Luke’s equally positive someone wanted Eugene dead. Franklin suggests he keep digging.
Meanwhile, Tina wants to get out of town but Ginger’s not done quite yet. Ginger rents out all the rooms at a questionable hotel and has decided to build her new brand right there in New Orleans.
Because she can use him, Ginger agrees to speak with Luke. She delivers the scoop that she’s going to replicate Sin Wagon in New Orleans. When Luke asks about how her mom met Eugene, Ginger changes the subject back to Sin Wagon. Luke firmly explains he’s not interested in a puff piece about that. He wants to dig deeper into Eugene and Tina’s relationship. Tina never took a payout or signed an NDA, and Ginger says her mom didn’t want to hurt Eugene. But that’s all she’ll say before ending the interview.
And now we finally learn that Jason kissing his half-sister Rose in episode one wasn’t as absolutely gag-inducing as we thought it was. Rose heads to Colorado and learns from Jason’s friends he was in a car accident and is currently in a coma. He’s not expected to live. And of course, the Jason in the coma is not the Jason that Rose met and flirted with. The guy pretending to be Jason is Mark, Jason’s brother who apparently has gone through life being mistaken for Jason and vice versa.
After calling Mark a greedy liar, Rose storms off.
She returns to the real Jason’s bedside and says a prayer. She’s in the middle of an apology when Jason’s mom walks in. Turns out both Jason and Mark were adopted and she never knew Eugene. She explains Mark only lied because she asked him to due to Jason’s medical bills.
Margaret interrupts Reverend Paul in the recording studio and confesses her fans are losing faith. She admits he was right and wants him to ask everyone to forgive her and Eugene. Reverend Paul doesn’t believe that’s what they need. He thinks they should put on a show in which he’ll baptize Ginger. Margaret calls Ginger unpredictable, but he passionately believes saving souls is what they’re meant to do. Reverend Paul explains, “Whether she’s a good girl or a bad one, either way, we win.”
Reverend Paul will do what he needs to if she puts Eric in charge of the charitable missions. That will prove to Eric his mom sees him as a man worthy of taking over for his father.
And speaking of dad, the woman caring for him suggests it’s time for him to go home. She believes the children need him, but he has to reclaim his salvation first.
The Sin Wagon women arrive from Vegas, ready to take over the Big Easy.
Margaret confronts Eric and asks how she can make things right. He confesses everything’s all a lie now and he doesn’t know how to move forward. She puts him in charge of their charitable missions and he immediately apologizes for being so petty.
Margaret shows up at the hotel Ginger’s taken over and after posing for a selfie with Ginger’s employees, she meets up with Tina in the bar. Tina doesn’t want Margaret to take Ginger away from her and reveals Ginger’s been watching Margaret since she was a little girl. Tina admits Margaret inspired Ginger, and Margaret suggests they baptize Ginger on the show. (She makes it seem like a spur-of-the-moment idea.)
Antonio returns to the same hotel Ginger’s taken over. He enters his room and hands over his check to his mom, Yopi (Alanna Ubach), who’s been hiding out, away from the Monreaux spotlight. The check’s enough to put a down payment on a place and as she helps her son workout, she reminds him to make Margaret think she’s the best mom ever. (Antonio’s doing a great job of concealing his end game.)
Tina tries to convince Ginger to be baptized on television. She explains it’s what Margaret wants and she thinks the cameras are what Ginger wants. Ginger, wisely, doesn’t trust Margaret but Tina reminds her Margaret can protect her in a way she can’t. (From whom does Ginger need protection? The plot thickens.)
Ginger learns from her sister and employees they don’t have any customers. Because they were down for three days, the competition swooped in and undercut them.
Rose finally meets up with Jason again and says he’s not a liar. Jason’s shutting down his business and leaving because there’s too much competition from billionaires, and Rose suggests he become one. She’s not going to say a word if he wants to come back to New Orleans and get a payday for his family.
Ginger decides her mom’s right and she should go on television. Margaret accompanies her on stage as Reverend Paul prepares her for the baptism. The scene switches back and forth between Ginger preparing to be baptized and Eugene being baptized in the Louisiana swamp by the woman who nursed him back to health. However, only Eugene’s baptism goes as expected.
Ginger emerges from the tank of water dripping wet and wearing a white dress with nothing underneath. She turns to the camera and, nipples visible, suggestively declares, “Come visit SaintWagon.com where we guarantee you will rise again.”
The website is written in black across her stomach area and is only visible now that the dress is soaking wet.
Eugene is ready to return home and asks if his savior can call a cab. Instead, she hands him a walking stick and points to the path he needs to walk to return to his family.
The day after the baptism debacle Reverend Paul addresses the audience. He calls what happened blasphemous but it also reminds them they are engaged in a war with the Devil. They need to come together in this battle for Ginger’s soul.
As he pitches Sunny Club memberships, the banner on the bottom of the screen reveals there are now 8,002,452 active subscribers.
Reverend Paul had said this would be a win-win situation, no matter how the actual baptism went down. He was right.
Over at the hotel, Ginger has her employees dress as devils and angels now that they’ve switched from Sin Wagon to Saint Wagon.
Ginger’s sister, Rachel (Aqueela Zoll), is ready for customers. Her laptop dings and it’s one of her regulars who apparently she actually likes. His face is hidden as his camera only shows his chest during their online chat. She wants to know when he’s going to show her his face and although he doesn’t answer, we’re provided with a peek at who she’s speaking with. It’s Eric!
It turns out Antonio’s mom didn’t spend the money he gave her on an apartment. Instead, she owed a guy and used it to square up her debt. He’s disappointed but his mom reminds him he’ll get another check next week.
Jason and Rose ride in the back of a limo on their return trip to New Orleans. She won’t fly commercial and since their private plane crashed, this is their mode of transportation for now. They hold hands as they head down the road.
Eugene keeps walking as instructed and comes upon a fairly busy road. He doesn’t realize it but the limo with his daughter and the fake Jason drives by as he approaches the road.
The episode ends with Franklin telling Margaret about his conversation with Luke. Luke thinks someone wanted Eugene dead, but Margaret claims planes fall from the sky if God wants them to.
- Filthy Rich Season 1 Episode 1 Recap and Review
- Filthy Rich Season 1 Episode 3 “Psalm 25:3” Recap
- Filthy Rich Season 1 Episode 4 “Romans 8:30” Recap
- Filthy Rich Season 1 Episode 5 “Proverbs 20:6” Recap
- Filthy Rich Season 1 Episode 6 “Hebrews 9:15” Recap
- Filthy Rich Season 1 Episode 7 “2 Corinthians 3:17” Recap
- Filthy Rich Season 1 Episode 8 “James 4:1” Recap
- Filthy Rich Season 1 Episode 9 “Romans 12:21” Recap
- Filthy Rich Season 1 Episode 10 Recap
