Letters Of Intent – The episode opens with Lydia (Lisa Kudrow) and Paul Morgan (Ray Romano) discussing their current situation. From their conversation, it appears that he’s already told her about the new blackmail letter and his solution. Lydia is immediately opposed to bribing Mikey Morgan (Denis Leary). For one, she appears genuinely concerned about Mikey’s drug use and secondly, she doesn’t want to give Leslie Fisher (Abbi Jackson) any more ammunition. It takes some convincing but Lydia gets Paul to agree to speak with Mikey before simply bribing him.

Elsewhere, Carla Owens (Teyonah Parris) is just now discovering the awkwardly close mother/son relationship between Dennis (O-T Fagbenle) and Dennise Sampson (Anna Maria Horsford). When Dennise is around, it is practically 2 against 1, even when it comes to decisions about their house. Despite this and Dennise’s generous donation, Carla puts an offer on the Baldwin Hills house when Dennise rushes Dennis to the emergency room because of a small cut.

Things are not going much better for Sarah Weber (Poppy Liu) now that she’s shared the news of the pregnancy with Leslie. Leslie views that whole debacle as a breach of trust and betrayal. The brief argument that ensues reveals that Sarah became catatonic after the couple’s previous failure because Leslie claimed that she didn’t want to try anymore.  Matters only get worse at this point when Greg Boycleane (Matt Rogers) calls to inform them that their offer on the home has been rescinded.

Subsequently, after Sarah and Leslie learn about their declined offer, Paul approaches Greg to score ‘hard drugs.’ Although it takes raising his commission to 6%, Greg agrees to help him out. At the same time, Dennis learns that he has high blood pressure.

Lydia invites Mikey over while Paul and Greg buy coke from Trish (Lucy Punch). The coke buy is immediately awkward from the beginning and only gets more so as it goes on. Greg has to end up paying for the brick when they learn that Paul’s Rolex is a fake. Along with this, Paul is forced to sample the coke. During this encounter, Paul admits that he plans on planting the drugs on Mikey and getting him sent back to prison. After buying the coke, Paul, Trish, and Greg are arrested.

By this time, Mikey and Lydia are enjoying old family photos. This brief interaction reveals that it was Mikey and Lydia who were originally together before Paul came along. The two eventually end up kissing, which clearly makes Lydia uncomfortable. As she rushes off to change her shirt, she tries to call Paul but fails to reach him. By the time Lydia returns to Mikey, he’s at the front door speaking with Leslie and Sarah. After instantly recognizing Leslie’s showing from the camera footage, Lydia tries to rush them away. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work so well thanks to the apology letter and news of Sarah’s pregnancy. Before the meeting is finished, Leslie even gives Lydia her personal business card and offers to help seek justice for Jacob.

As Leslie and Sarah pull away from the home, Dennis is shown jogging by and stopping to catch his breath at the Morgan’s house. Inside things go from bad to worse when Mikey expresses an interest in buying the home and begins searching for the deed. Mikey practically laughs at her threats to call Paul and reminds her that he was the one she called the night Jacob died. Outside, Phyllis Adelman (Linda Lavin) has caught wind of Dennis and approaches him. This interaction not only leads to her learning that he’s interested in buying the home but that he’s a writer. This ends when Dennis receives a call from his realtor.

By the time Greg and Paul have been processed, Dennis returns home to confront Carla for making an offer on the Baldwin Hills house without consulting him. Dennis is not only thrown by the betrayal but the fact that Carla put down a million dollars. Dennis begins a brief tirade about trust and honesty. Much to his surprise, this leads to Carla telling him that she doesn’t want to live with his mother and wants to buy their first home on their own. Unfortunately, Dennis doesn’t practice what he preaches because he hasn’t even completed the first chapter of his new book when he told Carla earlier that it’s nearly finished.

After getting out of jail and returning home, Paul calls Mikey and leaves a message with the request to talk. Inside, he immediately learns that Mikey didn’t answer his phone because Lydia has killed him. This is where the episode ends.

 

No Good Deed Review

Talk about digging yourself deeper and deeper into a pit of endless despair. That is the approach Lydia and Paul appear to be taking. I appreciated the return of the Sampsons as well as the awkward connection between Dennis and Dennise, although Fabgenle certainly isn’t one of my top 100 favorite actors.

I can honestly say that I don’t know how to feel about the death of Mikey. I certainly wasn’t expecting Lydia to kill him until she started having flashbacks about the night Jacob died. This could either be a good or bad thing. Other than this, this really wasn’t much to say about the episode. There were some good and equally bad parts about the drug deal and how all that went down. In the end, I’d have to give the episode a 5.5 out of 10.

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