The Unguarded Moment

**"The Unguarded Moment"** is the ninth episode of the second season of Paramount+'s *Why Women Kill*, and the nineteenth episode overall. It was released on July 22, 2021.

## Synopsis

Three weeks have passed and Alma, now very comfortable with her position in the Garden Club, decides to run for the vacated presidency. Rita is freed from jail. Bertram grows more guilt-ridden and depressed. Vern pursues the truth.

## Plot

Three weeks later, Alma becomes the new member of the garden club and shows the members that she is a great hostess. Grace informs the others that Rita is now free from jail. But after Rita's scandal, Joan, one of the members, suggest that they should vote for a new president of the club. Alma asks if newcomers are allowed to join and Grace confirms but Joan confronts Alma alone and tell her that she is not fit to run the position. Alma refuses and decides to run as the president of the garden club.

Dee elopes with Vern and marries him while Bertram continues to visit Dee's new home but she refuses to see him and let Vern speak to him. Vern tries to convince Dee to speak with Bertram but she refuses. However, she reconsiders when Vern told her what if her baby refuses to speak to her. At the prison cell, Rita is now free and plans to kick Catherine out of the house, believing that she back in the will. At the Castillos, Catherine learns that Rita is now free and expects that she will go to her house but Catherine prepares to plan against Rita. At the Fillcots, Alma calls Grace and encourage her to vote for her but Grace refuses as she will support Joan. Alma drops the call when Dee arrives and she confronts Alma why she buried Mrs. Yost.

Vern decides to investigate Carlo's and Isabel's death. He bribes an embalmer for information and learns that Carlo died with two drugs but Isabel with one. Alma lies to Dee that Mrs. Yost was Bertram's mistress and that Mrs. Yost tried to attack Alma but Bertram pushed her out of the window in their window, falling into her garden shears. Alma then tells Dee to keep it a secret and not tell Vern, to which Dee accepts.

At the clinic, Rona, Bertram's assistant, cancels all his appointment due to his alcoholism. He apologizes and she recommends to eat and drink coffee but he refuses. Back at the Castillos, Rita tries to kick Catherine out but Catherine refuses as she tells Rita that she had her investigated after reading Isabel's letter. She informs her that her former husband, Harry, did not die nor did he remarry nor divorced therefore Rita is still married to Harry, making her invalid to receive Carlo's will. Rita also finds out that Scooter moved in with Catherine. Alma invites Joan's former maid in her house for information about Joan. The maid tells Alma that Joan is having affair with someone else where they meet at the hotel every Tuesday and Friday. Realizing it is Friday, she decides to go to the Hotel. Vern goes to every pharmacy to know who would buy those drugs. He meets Yvonne and bribes her for information. She reveals the person that buy those drugs is Bertram and Vern is shocked with the revelation. Unsure of what to do, he asks for advice to his friend, Detective Rohbin. He asks him what would his detective friend do when he learns that the his wife's father is the killer he had been looking. Understanding what Vern meant, he advices him to look the other way and let other detective solve it due to their sense of justice. But Vern counters that shouldn't a good man everything they could to protect their girl. The detective answers that he probably loves her because she knows that he plays it straight. Or he can try to talk to her if he is not sure. But Vern counters another question what if she asks him to let a killer go free, would his feelings change about her. The detective does not answer, agreeing that he has a problem.

Now homeless, Rita seeks help from Joan to stay at her home for the meantime but Joan refuses. Rita asks her for money but again, Joan refuses. Bertram becomes alcoholic and imagines Maisie, the girl he killed at the first episode, talking to him. Dee sees him and asks him about Mrs. Yost, since she found her dead body in their yard and that Alma told her everything. He doesn't deny the allegation but she wants to find a way to hid her body. He tells her that they will think of something and that she shouldn't worry. Before leaving, she tells him that she loves even after what he did. But as she leaves, an unknown man steals Dee's cup glass. Elsewhere, Alma stands outside the hotel Joan will go to but then she sees Grace at the window and later, Joan appears. Alma realizes that Grace and Joan are lovers.

Later that night, Vern tries to speak to Alma about what he learned but she tells him that she will attend a party. Meanwhile, Rita asks Scooter to give her clothes. He says he will give it to her and that she should meet him at his previous apartment. But as he retrieves it, he sees Catherine taking her dresses and giving them to charity. In order not to get caught, he asks Otto to prepare their dinner and Catherine to make him Pan Dulce while he grabs all of Rita's clothes. Alma arrives at the party and blackmails Joan about her affair with Grace in exchange for her conceding for her candidacy.

Scooter meets up with Rita but Catherine and Otto follows him, while Vern sneaks in to the Fillcot's home. Back at the party, Joan announces that she will drop her candidacy and supports Alma for the position. Sometime later, Alma returns home but sees Vern waiting for her, as he demands to speak with her while carrying the drugs. Scooter appears at their meeting place and gives Rita her clothes and money. But she asks him if Catherine makes him happy, which he confirms. She tells him that she regrets her action towards him and reveals to him that she grew up poor and wished to God to be beautiful and rich but she realized that He gave them to her but took it all away to teach her a lesson. The two confessed their love for each other and he consoles her. From afar, Catherine and Otto watches them, confirming their suspicion. Catherine confronts them both. They try to explain her what they were doing but Catherine shoots both Scooter and Bertram. Otto takes Catherine home while she watches Bertram's body, lying at the window of the shop.

## Cast

* Lana Parrilla as Rita Castillo
* B.K. Cannon as Dee Fillcot
* Jordane Christie as Vern Loomis
* Matthew Daddario as Scooter Polarsky
* Veronica Falcón as Catherine Castillo
* Nick Frost as Bertram Fillcot
* Virginia Williams as Grace Berk
* Jessica Phillips as Joan
* Kerry O'Malley as Mavis
* Warren Kole as Detective Mike Rohbin
* Carol Mansell as Aunt Martha
* Cynthia Quiles as Brenda
* Carson Fagerbakke as Judy
* Jack Davenport as The Narrator