Let Your Hearts Subside Tonight: Mistresses “A Kiss Is Just A Kiss” Review

This week Mistresses made it (happily) past the plotline setup and character introduction stage, while doubling-down on how much attention it gave to developing all four women’s storylines. “A Kiss Is Just A Kiss” also played with the idea of being a victim, and who much we allow – or don’t allow – ourselves to be one.

Dominic’s rejection of Savannah’s apology at the start of the episode probably stung her much more than it stung us. Both she and Dominic had enough to deal with regarding their huge case without Savi cleaning a place off at her desk for paranoia. Dominic’s removal from the case last week seemed to screw Savi’s head back on right though. It was surprising, and slightly admirable, how she made her amends – having Dominic step in for her on the case when she couldn’t be there. Sadly, the why of her absence took some of the glory away from Savi’s good deed. Especially as it wasn’t intentional, and she failed to use the opportunity to clue Dominic in on the baby situation.

We’ve heard her go on and on about her guilt over lying, but at what point will it stop her from telling more lies? Or more appropriately, stop telling half-truths? The full truth is that she can’t hide a baby bump for very long, so her decisions are going to have to be made quickly and minus the panic mode. The one straight positive of Savi’ storyline this episode is that she took level-headed control of her situation by going to the doctor to find out who the father is. Even though she used near trickery to get Harry’s DNA.

April admittedly had the toughest story to swallow this episode, but it finally got the screen time it deserves. Visited at her store by a lawyer, April was presented with a DNA test and notice that Miranda (Kate Beahan) will take her to court if she continues to ignore her child support claim. With no other choice but to address the issue, April turns to Savi for some decision-making help. Savi offers her usual on the mark advice, encouraging April to fight through the judicial system. It’s the safest way to guarantee the woman won’t have April wrapped around her finger.

Before April could take that step, she needed some incriminating evidence to give her the upper hand in court. For this she had to sit down with Miranda, which only gave the woman the opportunity to sink her teeth farther into April. April’s natural disposition is more passive, so it’s gut-wrenchingly hard to watch her be whipped around by a clear manipulator. Savi was right in that April protecting her daughter won’t be falling into Miranda’s web to keep up a scharade about Paul. It seems like she may have just done that though, as the final moments of the episode leave us wondering just how much of Miranda’s story is fabricated.

The biggest groan heard round the Mistresses world this episode went (again) to Karen after she discovers Sam’s wallet in her car. The amount of coincidences Karen experiences would have any sane person believing they were living “Stranger Than Fiction,” but Karen takes a licken and keeps the relationship tickin’. Karen drops by Sam’s apartment to give it back and within the first couple minutes we are reminded that Karen cheated with Sam’s father when Sam shares that he told his mother about the affair. Sam doesn’t stay on the topic for too long though, jumping instead to talk about less uncomfortable things including his new photography hobby, courtesy of his cheating father.

Erik Stocklin as Sam Grey, Yunjin Kim as Karen Kim — Photo by: Danny Feld/ABC

Sam proves he can be as smooth as Tom when he somehow convinces Karen to spend time casually and comfortably at the apartment. What starts out as another uncomfortable moment for viewers ends up being a really great set of scenes acted to near splendid romantic perfection by Erik Stocklin and Yunjin Kim. It turns (dangerously) sour, however, when Karen takes her final stand and states they had “no moment” after Sam tries to kiss her. Sam doesn’t seem too happy with that when he clears the entire table top in one angry swipe.

While Josslyn is normally great for relieving laughs on her own, the writers treated us to the Harry/Josslyn tag team this episode. Hopefully we’ll continue to get more scenes between these two as the platonic chemistry is a nice pause from all the circling romance. As for Jossyln and Alex, things certainly appeared to heat up between the two, but it was very surface level. To keep her clients – and help Alex out – Jossyln agrees to spend a day just “hanging out” with Alex and her partner, Sally.

Things go terribly wrong though when an attempt to help Alex out of an uncomfortable situation at a party turns into an invited kiss. This ends badly for Alex, as in a break up, and she turns to Jossyln for a place to stay. Jossyln is extremely apologetic about her role in the matter when she brings Alex breakfast in bed the following morning. It’s nice to see her treat a relationship with some delicacy and Alex brings out a different side of Jossyln that we’d certainly like to see more of. Hopefully these two women can wise up and realize that they work better together than alone.

Catch Mistresses Mondays this summer at 10:00 – 11:00 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.