As the 7th episode of Maid begins, Alex (Margaret Qualley) arrives at the client’s house, but nobody is there. She calls Yolanda (Tracy Vilar) only to learn the client forgot about the cleaning and Alex isn’t going to get paid for it. Yolanda tells her about the cleaning at 19 Glastonbury at 12 noon before saying it is a 5-hour clean so Alex can’t have it either because she’ll go over 30 hours. Alex is out of luck having paid for daycare, gas, and cleaning supplies without work. Once the call ends, Alex decides to go to the Glastonbury house to negotiate with the owner. She offers to do it for 10 bucks an hour as long as the client cancels her cleaning with Value Maids. The woman relents and agrees before leaving Alex to clean the house. As Alex goes through the property, we learn the owners of 19 Glastonbury were a married couple that lived completely separate lives.

Their food, linen, shoes, bedrooms, and sex toys were separate. The female resident liked shirtless cowboys. Alex cleans the property, gets 50 bucks, and uses it to buy boots for Maddy and other things. Once she leaves, she goes to the trailer where Sean (Nick Robinson) lets her in and offers her a cup of coffee. However, Alex is only trying to find her mom’s blue folder because the mortgage documents are in there. She explains her mother needs to prove she owns the house to kick out Basil’s tenant since they’re paying Basil and not Paula. They briefly argue about Sean causing Alex to lose her apartment. Sean offers to let them take the trailer after saying he was back in therapy the same day. Sean complains about Nate (Raymond Ablack) while saying he doesn’t want Maddy (Rylea Nevaeh Whittet) living with him because it’ll confuse her.

Sean follows her outside. He explains he is doing all this for her and Maddy and he can’t do this without her. He argues there isn’t a point otherwise because Alex is the only person who knows him and where he comes from. Sean claims they’re damaged the same way, so they just work together. Alex speeds away before meeting with Paula (Andie MacDowell) outside the mortgage company. The representative, Singh (Sachin Sahel), looks through the blue folder and finds Alex’s college acceptance letter, but no mortgage documents. Singh asks for a state-issued ID so he can check for Paula’s information in the system, but she doesn’t have a driver’s license. Paula believes the police can look that up on the computer when she is pulled over. Surprisingly, Paula manages to convince Singh to look up the information without any identifying documents.

However, they soon find out that they’re at the wrong mortgage company. Later that night, Alex tells her mother that everything is her fault because she married an idiot who rented her house out and they can’t live in it now. While Paula believes Basil (Toby Levins) is coming back, Alex does not. Paula encourages her to cheer up because they’re getting to live in an amazing house. Alex says they’re only crashing here for a few days before stepping inside and joining Nate, Maddy, and Brady (Zolan Arneja). They learn Nate cooks on Sunday and freezes it for the rest of the week. Alex thanks him for picking up Maddy but he says it isn’t a big deal since he had to pick up Brady anyway. Throughout dinner, Alex imagines Nate as a shirtless cowboy. Paula excuses herself so she can get back to work and says she is doing something extraordinary back there. Alex is surprised to learn Nate asked Paula to paint a mural in the back of his garage to make it more cheerful.

Paula gives him a suggestive hug, so Alex tries to get her to cut it out. Later that night, Alex continues writing about the porn house and how the couple got to where they are now. Nate interrupts and they talk about putting the kids down. Nate turns down a beer because it hurts his stomach to drink after eight. Instead, Alex gets him a glass of water. Then, Nate invites Maddy to come see the pony he has. He explains the pony’s name is String Cheese and Alex quickly agrees to let her daughter go with them. They run into each other in the hallway and share an awkward moment with a shirtless Nate before going in separate directions. When Alex returns to her daughter, she tells her she is going to meet a real-life pony tomorrow. The next day, we learn about another couple. The husband is incredibly nice and cares for his miserably ill wife who likely has cancer.

After work, Paula encourages her daughter to go ahead and sleep with Nate. Alex says she doesn’t like Nate although her mother doesn’t believe it. Then, she claims Nate is relationship material, so she isn’t going to bone him for free housing. Alex tells her what she wants to do including getting off food stamps. They meet Basil’s owner and try to convince him to leave or pay them. The man says he has a lease that instructs him to pay Basil, so he isn’t going to help them. Next, Alex goes to the stables and says the mind needs to know someone is there for you. Nate is there with Maddy while Brady is already out there. Maddy pets and feeds String Cheese before riding the horse in circles. After that, Alex returns to Nate’s place and writes about The Loving House and the Porn House. Nate joins her and learns Paula is out there night painting before asking whether Paula is okay. He asks about the issue with the house, but Alex pretends she already sorted it out.

Alex admits she is the only person looking after Paula before we see flashbacks of Sean hanging out with Paula several times. Nate says his parents are happily married and normal. He wishes Alex would let him help although Alex says he is helping her. Then, he invites her to dinner. Alex says he is a really good guy, and she is his charity case. When Nate denies that, so Alex tells him about everything he is doing for them. She says she can’t go to dinner with him because it isn’t equal between them. She says she doesn’t think she can be with anyone right now before Sean shows up outside. Nate goes out with Alex and Sean is rude to him. He agrees to step back inside. Sean wants Alex to look at the most recent activity on Paula’s mortgage. He says he found the mortgage folder and had Paula’s PIN, so he logged in and checked it. They approach Paula who doesn’t want to be bothered because she is painting.

When she learns her mortgage is in default, Paula runs inside and shuts herself in. Alex and Sean go right in and try to convince her to come out. She continues making excuses for Basil including that he might’ve not used enough postage when mailing the mortgage payments. Sean insists they need to find Basil. Alex says he isn’t Australian, but her mom says otherwise. Sean grabs Paula’s phone and uses the Find My Phone feature to track Basil to the Caribou Casino. Sean says his buddy Jordan works there so he can help them. They decide to rush over to the casino immediately. Sean manages to keep Paula entertained on the way there while he plans her grand entrance. Sean says Jordan is going to bring Basil out for them. As they pull up, they see the RV in the parking lot confirming Basil is in there somewhere.

Paula gets out just in time for Basil to be thrown out of the casino. Basil curses at the staff in perfect English confirming he likely isn’t Australian. He tries to make excuses about that while Paula says she just wants to know the truth. When asked about the mortgage money, Basil insists it was a huge mistake and he paid it today, but Alex knows otherwise. Basil confesses he has a gambling problem, hasn’t been able to stay away from the tables, and ran up a debt. All the money is gone. Paula says she is going to lose her mother’s house which is the only thing anyone has ever given her in her life. She says she made it art and the house is her life. Paula curses him before Sean grabs her stuff from the RV and they prepare to leave. In the car, Paula wants to argue with Alex by saying she wants to say she told her so. Alex gets a call from Nate who wants to check on her. Maddy didn’t wake up and Alex insists everything is okay.

Paula tells her daughter it might be nice being her and having a bunch of guys lining up to please her every hour of the day. Sean joins them while Paula insists her daughter is loving every minute of this. They stop at a nearby gas station for gas and Sean asks if anyone has money. Since they don’t, he pays for it using his card and Paula gets out to go to the bathroom. Sean insists Paula doesn’t mean it when she goes for the jugular like that. He knows because his mom does it to him as well. Alex confesses Paula has become her full-time problem, but Sean says she is their problem. Alex doesn’t want to hear that although Sean says they’re in it together because Paula is Maddy’s grandma. They agree they won’t let anyone do that to Maddy. He holds her hand until she tells him to let it go. Sean tells Alex to go look for her mother. When she does, she finds that Paula isn’t in the bathroom, so she went off without them.

Alex returns to Sean and tries to call her mother who doesn’t answer. She thinks about it and insists she knows where Paula has gone so they speed away from the gas station. They go to Paula’s house where they find her outside breaking glass and screaming the house belongs to her. Since her hand is bleeding, Sean tells Alex to call the police while also trying to calm the tenant. Before long, Paula is taken away in an ambulance and Alex is in a trance. At the hospital, Sean handles everything and learns Paula lost a lot of blood and they’re going to prepare her for surgery. Since they’re told there is no reason to stick around, Sean thinks they should leave. Even when they return to the trailer, Alex is distraught. She sits down on the floor while Sean goes for water and a rag to clean the blood off her hands. As he cleans up the blood, Alex says Maddy rode a pony today. She says Maddy is really, really happy before sobbing and admitting her mother is so messed up.

Sean tries to comfort her while Alex complains about her mother being covered in blood and locked in a psych ward. Sean confesses she was scary and the whole thing was scary. Alex wonders whether she is going to scare Maddy like that one day. Sean says no. Alex apologizes several times. Sean says he would be doing the same if it was his mom and did when she relapsed. Alex kisses him. As they continue, Sean stops her to ask if this is what she wants. Alex says yes so they continue until the episode ends with Sean pleasing Alex.

 

Maid Review

The 7th episode of Maid should’ve been dramatically bleak, but I couldn’t help myself but feel disappointed at times. The core of the story is still very good, but we’re starting to delve into unrealistic or at least unbelievable areas. Some of the small details in this episode were questionable including the whole mortgage thing. While they were likely added for humor, it was annoying that Paula was so incompetent with her mortgage papers and not knowing which lender she was working with.

Plus, Alex got the wrong folder and going to the mortgage office was pointless. Paula cared so little about her house until it was too late. While it could be a matter of perspective and background, I hope there aren’t people like this out there. Regardless, Alex just crossed the line with Sean so I am eager to see where that goes. I also like the fact they finally started digging into some of Alex’s other clients and their lives.

Despite being a few minutes, it was intriguing to learn about the Porn House, the Love House, and the people living in both. We need more of that. The episode wasn’t as good as the previous few but that likely won’t stop viewers from loving Maid. The episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Previous recaps of Maid can be found here.