Much Ado About Buffing

Marisol learns a secret from Genevieve’s past that may provide a clue to finding Peri’s killer. Zoila struggles to balance her love life and her demanding new boss, while also helping Rosie investigate The Circle. Danni appears to be warming up to Carmen, but her motives aren't so pure. Spence helps Rosie when Miguel begins to act out at school.

Plot[]

Zoila is outed as a maid.

Zoila, now having to work as the maid for Fiona Gladhart, is visited by Kyle, pretending that the woman who is in fact her boss is actually her ill house guest, then wanting him to leave so that he doesn't catch said illness. Fiona, who's worried that her clothes appear to have been stretched out by a "great big fat person", proceeds to lay down a set of rules for her maid, which include her having no personal visitors and having to wear a uniform. Zoila still intends on snooping around Frances' attic, on Rosie's behalf, so that she can find the video of Peri confessing who raped her; however, when Kyle and Frances go out to dinner later, Zoila is delayed in sneaking over because she first has to whip up a frittata for her jet-lagged employer. She calls Rosie to explain the delay, then managing to search the attic, including the hideaway where Ben's body used to be. Of course, by now it's been moved, and Zoila goes on to discover a locked cabinet. She suspects that the videos are in there but has no time to investigate further because Kyle and Frances arrive home abruptly. Frances is already mad about the fact that Zoila has yet to dump Kyle, and is madder still when she discovers Zoila in her house, in a maid's uniform, pretending to be roleplaying for Kyle. Zoila promptly leaves but, later, Frances comes to her house to berate her for not breaking up with Kyle yet. To cover her uniform, Zoila throws on Fiona's robe, which Fiona catches her wearing while she's still talking to Frances. She forces Zoila to remove it in front of her friend and Frances comes to the realization that Zoila has been lying to she and her son this entire time. Kyle confronts her over this after being told the truth by his mother and Zoila confronts him in turn regarding The Circle. She explains that Spence is innocent and that they need Peri's video but he refuses to betray his mother for her, to her dismay. However, he does approach Frances about Spence's innocence, though she maintains that he did it. She then forces him to choose between she and Zoila and, when he chooses her, she explains that Zoila has infiltrated them and that he knows what they must do next... As it turns out, this refers to them packing up and moving in the middle of the night, which Zoila is shocked to learn.

Daniela bases her audition performance for Marisol's film on Carmen.

Carmen is approached by Daniela who claims to have forgiven her and invites her out to dinner; however, it appears she still hates her birth mother a considerable amount, and is simply playing her for some unknown reason. Later, Carmen goes to the girls with the casting calls for Marisol's film, wanting to audition for the role based on her - "Carmelita" - while the others read the casting calls for those based on themselves, with Zoila being the most unhappy. Danni informs Jesse that she intends to audition for the role of Carmelita as well, and the only reason she's hanging out with Carmen is so that she can study and imitate her. Carmen is later rehearsing for the audition when Daniela meets her for the dinner, then copying Carmen's mannerisms as she gets ready to go out, becoming the perfect mirror image of her mother. When Carmen shows up for the audition, surrounded by all the young sexy Carmelitas, she is shocked to see Danni has shown up as well, and very hurt to learn that the only reason her daughter spent any time with her was so that she could perfect her acting technique. Because she's so angry, Hugh Metzger reacts poorly to her audition, for he feels she isn't being sexy enough, and when she mentions that she's also a friend of Marisol's (whom he despises), the audition is a total failure and she has to go. Carmen later goes to Danni to apologize, thinking it's stupid to fight over some part in a movie that neither of them are going to get, but Danni reveals that she got a callback. While Carmen is indeed jealous, as Danni had hoped, she's also very happy for her daughter, even advising her on which dress to wear so that she can appear as sexy as possible - per Hugh Metzger's directive.

Rosie convinces Miguel of his relevance.

Rosie remains tied up in her efforts to free Spence while Miguel acts out in school, threatening his teacher by saying that his imprisoned stepfather may kill him, and Rosie proceeds to receive a phone call warning her of her son's behavior. She believes it may be due to Miguel looking up to Spence and therefore thinking it's "cool" to be a criminal and so, during their next conjugal visit, she requests that Spence show Miguel that prison is not cool, and he suggests enrolling the boy in a program designed to scare kids straight. This fails due Miguel actually seeming quite taken with prison upon his visit, with even Kill Face failing to appear threatening when he grows distracted by the child's gummy bears. However, Spence soon learns that Miguel isn't acting out because he thinks criminal life is cool, but rather, because he feels Rosie has been ignoring her due to her ongoing investigation into Peri's murder. Spence feels bad for his stepson and informs Rosie of his feelings, meaning she's able to promise to pay more attention to him in the future. All the while, Rosie has been having Zoila snoop around Frances' attic, but she is dumbfounded to hear from her friend that The Circle sipped town in the middle of the night and took everything with them - including the cabinet which contained the videos of its members' confessions. Rosie relays this to Spence in their next conjugal, and he requests, once and for all, that she simply stop trying to get him out of prison, for it's now reached the point that it's destroying their family. Rosie of course refuses, but Spence has lost all hope. He goes on to approach Kill Face about his script for another play he's putting on, only to learn that Kill Face doesn't care one iota about the script - rather, every time he puts on a play he gains access to tools to build the sets with, and he's been using these tools to dig a tunnel out of the prison. It's nearly complete, and he invites Spence to come with him once it is.

Evelyn catches Gail and Adrian, bonding.

Evelyn and James are returning from yet another charity function when the former notices Adrian's PI, Rick Dresden, spying on them. She suggests that James pretend to propose, so as to hurt her ex, but he refuses because it isn't the right thing to do, which she finds boring. Dresden goes on to tell Adrian that he found legit nothing on the reverend in terms of dirt, having only been able to find good things in spite of his rather thorough search. In spite of this, Evelyn has grown disenchanted with the reverend, which she goes on to vent about to Marisol while eating Chinese food. She feels that James is too "good" for her and, when the chat gets going involving Marisol's complex situation with Peter and Jesse, she surmises that more Mushu will be needed. Gail, meanwhile, has heard word that Adrian is into bondage, and so she ambushes him with a pair of curtain ties and Evelyn ends up catching the two of them together while Adrian has his pants down, despite him wanting no part in sexual activity with Gail Fleming and claiming and the very idea of it terrifies him. He approaches Evelyn following this encounter in an attempt to explain himself but she acts as though she doesn't care, even though it's glaringly obvious that she's unhappy. Adrian interprets this as jealousy and realizes that he's been going about everything all wrong - he has to make Evelyn jealous if he is to win her back. He claims to Carmen that things are about to get even crazier than they've already been, while Evelyn goes on a date with James and complains about her husband. He takes this to mean that, in defiance of what she told him when they first started dating, she does not see her marriage as being over, and he breaks up with her because of this. At the same time, Adrian goes to Gail and says that the reason she "terrifies" him is because he's so deeply in love with her. Gail is ecstatic and captivated by the lie.

A horrible truth is unveiled...

Marisol goes to see Peter in his office but learns from Derek that he's gone to Hawaii without her and has no interest in talking to her because he knows she cheated. Not able to understand how he found out, Marisol visits Jesse to ask if he told anyone and, after being hurt initially, Jesse eventually realizes that he made vague reference of their affair to Genevieve Delatour, whom Marisol correctly assumes went to Peter and told him everything in an attempt to break them up and win him back. As such, she goes to Genevieve when she's in the middle of hosting a book club, confronting her in front of all the socialites in attendance. Genevieve acts sweet in response, which Marisol outs as a cover she uses to stop people from realizing that she's just a self-absorbed, petty and ruthless bitch, claiming that that's why she'll end up alone. Genevieve is very hurt by these comments but, upon hearing Rosie's advice to Miguel that he needs to apologize to the people he's hurt, she comes to realize what it is she must do. As such, she turns up at Marisol's and says she's sorry, explaining that she gets a little crazy when it comes to Peter because she never wanted to break up with him, having only cheated on him by accident. Marisol wonders how that works and Genevieve explains that she blacked out after half a cocktail while talking to one of his colleagues at a party, and the next thing she knew she was waking up in his bed. Marisol says that one doesn't black out after half a cocktail, theorizing that perhaps this man slipped something into Genevieve's drink, which Genevieve herself always wondered about. Marisol tells Genevieve that what happened to her was rape. Genevieve never thought of it this way because nobody called it that back then; and besides, nobody would believe her if she claimed such a big Hollywood name raped her. Marisol believes her though, and won't breathe a word, though she does wish to know who the rapist was. As it turns out, it was Hugh Metzger, who presumably raped Peri as well, and right now he is hosting Daniela's "callback" all alone. Could it be that he's about to sexually victimize another woman...?

Trivia[]

Shooting for "Much Ado About Buffing" and "Grime and Punishment" began on April 7, 2016 and ended on April 28, 2016.^[2]^[3]
The writers originally considered including a story where Adrian would make up "something unseemly" about James; however, this idea was eventually scrapped and became but a simple line of dialogue in the episode.^[4]
Adrian's line, "Well, hang onto your feather duster. It's about to get CRAZIER," was a last minute addition to the script.^[5]
Carmen makes a reference to the 1980s television series The Golden Girls, for which Devious Maids creator Marc Cherry wrote for.