So Help Me Todd – Season 1 Episode 12 “Psilo-Sibling” Recap & Review

Psilo-Sibling

Governor Willa and Lawrence come to see Margaret at the firm as So Help Me Todd episode 12 starts. Debbie is the sister of the governor and she lives on McMinnville farm. For 10 years, she has been financially and emotionally stable. Now she is backsliding, laments the governor to Margaret.

There is a man squatting on the land and he must be removed. The man is a veteran, so the press cannot find out. Margaret says she will handle it discreetly. Todd is detained in the room by the security detail. Lawrence frees him. Margaret wants her sons working together. They don’t want Todd to work on the case. Margaret has invited the governor to a family dinner.

Lyle goes with Margaret. Debbie doesn’t answer her phone. Gunshots are heard as Todd comes running from behind. Debbie is shooting from a tree house, it seems. Margaret announces that her sister Willa has sent them. Debbie informs them that a dead squirrel was delivered to her in the plate, with buzzing sounds and weird lights completing the setup.

The tenant is Ben Cooper. Debbie Jones met her in rehab. He fell back into habits. He is not giving any rent. Now, he is not prepared to leave. Ben is a little crazy and might be hard to remove. Margaret serves notice to him. But he calls her a traitor and he isn’t leaving until he’s back on his feet like they agreed.

He calls the neighbours Sarah and Jo crazy and speculates they might know something. They go to the farmer’s market where the couple is selling hallucinatory drugs like mushrooms. They provide guided tours on their farms. They call Ben a person with temperament. Gets angry easily. Margaret is left alone after Tood goes to pick up Allison and Lyle fetches the car. She is called by a palm reader. He predicts that she recently went through a heartbreak and that she has carried the hurt over. It is blocking her.

He gives her a charm to unblock whenever she is ready. When Margaret reads the property deed, she finds that the RV is parked within property lines. Someone has filed a suit for possession. Lyle feels the scare tactics might be related to this suit so Debbie video calls the next second and shows her burning farm.

The police arrested Debbie for possession of methamphetamine, found in a silver box inside the charred building.

Margaret plans to go to the farm that night to investigate. Todd fights Lawrence for not allowing him to be on the case. Margaret stops the fighting. She goes with her sons to the farm. The police verified that Ben was at an AA meeting that night of the fire. Margaret is afraid that she might be leaving her sons quarrelling all her life. She asks the sons what they want in life.

Lawrence takes the drugged tea from the couple and starts tripping and talking nonsense. It is a funny sequence until he says he wants Todd to like Lawrence. Before he can enquire, someone starts pounding the doors. Outside, they see a masked intruder. The same sounds and lights start flashing. Margaret spots a drone making that setup. Todd throws a stone at it and brings it down.

Susan informs Margaret that the lien on Debbie’s farm was filed by an entity located in Jamaica. Lucia operating systems. Margaret hurries Todd as it is the night of the dinner with the governor. Willa does not listen to Margaret and Todd’s explanations and wants to cut Debbie loose for falling into old habits again. Even though her test is clean and Todd has evidence of the scare plan, Willa is not ready to listen. She asks Margret to take her name off the land deed.

Margaret makes it clear she will keep representing Debbie as she believes she is innocent. Lyle has the drone’s flight path and the location is a mile off Debbie’s farm. They trace it to an abandoned warehouse where they find drugs, drones, and everything that the person used to scare and frame Debbie. Margaret also finds spa concepts on a map with the name of Lucia Operating plastered at the bottom.

Two masked men with guns corner them. Margaret subtly asks Todd to start a recording on his watch as the masked men ask them to tie themselves up. Margaret figures out they are Sarah and Jo. She takes off her mask and concedes that the mushrooms wouldn’t grow on her land. They tried to buy out Debbie but she didn’t listen. As Margaret is brought to her knees to be shot, she confirms the entire story in a confession for the recording.

Suddenly, Lawrence intervenes and saves their lives when Jo threatened to shoot them. Margaret dropped a pin to Lawrence before coming there. Ben testifies in court that the pills weren’t Debbie and the case is dismissed. Debbie is acquitted and makes up with Willa. Todd and Susan share a genuine moment in the lift. He asks her out for a bite but she is having dinner with Peter. There’s a sense of guilt and regret in Todd’s eyes for missing out on making a future with Susan.
Allison reveals her arrest to Lawrence. He dreams of becoming the governor one day. The family has nice family time but Allison perhaps still has some hangover.

Margaret opens the charm and whispers the scribing but nothing of note happens. Until the lights go out and come back again that is, at which point Margaret messages Gus to set up a date. She is finally ready to move on.

The Episode Review

So Help Me Todd is back after a long hiatus to finish the maiden season next week. It was fun seeing the mother-son duo in action again. Now that they will be back for a second season, the viewers can take a sigh of relief. Matthew Wilkas makes another impactful guest appearance in the show. He does bring some kind of physicality and the family dynamics completely change when he is around.

There is something about sibling love that the writers manage to nail every single time. Episode 12 has some great comedic moments and heartening family time. Marcia-Gay Harden has finally managed to impress me. She has truly made Margaret her own personal project, filling her up with small, effective details.

The story was not all that special in this episode. Previous storylines have been much better but since the other elements were drastically better, it gets a healthy score.