Two bullets were fired on Wednesday’s “All’s Fair,” bringing the firm’s Thanksgiving from hell to a shocking conclusion. And because a holiday meal is nothing without dessert, the Hulu drama served up one more twist that changes everything we thought we knew about this group. To quote Sarah Paulson’s Carr, “This is a lot to take in. Too much, really.”
Picking up directly after last week’s cliffhanger, “Thanksgiving Part Two” found the partners of Grant, Ronson & Greene being held at gunpoint by Marcus Weller, who previously threatened revenge on Allura after she helped his ex-wife get full custody of their children. When Marcus finally pulled the trigger, however, it was Carr who took the bullet, jumping in front of Allura to save her life.
But it’ll take more than a gunshot to keep Carr down (“You think I haven’t been shot on Thanksgiving before? Not my first time at the rodeo!”), so she continued to taunt Marcus until he fired a second bullet. Carr was his target this time, yet it was Glenn Close’s Dina who got shot, intentionally shielding Carr from taking another hit.
And where was Allura’s well-paid bodyguard while all of this was going down? Raul was largely confined to the bathroom after daring to sample Carr’s famous Pretzel JELL-O Loaf Surprise, but he managed to pull himself together long enough to help the group apprehend Marcus. (Honestly, Allura and Brody did most of the work. Raul merely provided a distraction. Fire this man immediately!)
That’s when “All’s Fair” shifted its target to the audience, hitting us with a twist we never saw coming: When Dina was in law school, she got pregnant from a one-night stand and gave her baby girl up for adoption. Dina never thought about trying to find her, but she changed her mind after last week’s ill-fated flight to Martha’s Vineyard.
After a bit of sleuthing, Emerald discovered that the baby Dina gave away all those years ago… is Carr!
Carr reacts to the news that Dina is her biological mother
For obvious reasons, no one was more floored by this revelation than Carr, who responded with what felt like 10 uninterrupted minutes of unhinged, uncomfortable laughter. The first hurdle to overcome was that the parents who raised Carr never told her she was adopted — even though they’re both apparently Japanese, which Carr clearly is not.
Then there was the shock of Carr actually being the biological daughter of her mentor, the woman she now primarily blames for destroying her life. “That’s my origin story?” Carr asked. “I don’t even look like her, thank God. I mean, she looks like f***ing Wayne Gretzky!”
But as Carr thought about Dina, now in a medically induced coma after taking a bullet for her, she began to soften. “I don’t know what to do,” she told the girls. “What do I say? Am I supposed to call her mom?” With Dina’s prognosis “uncertain,” Carr was encouraged to speak with her mother for what could be the last time, resulting in another powerful performance from Sarah Paulson, an expertly crafted cocktail of genuine heartache (“Why’d you give me up?”) and gallows humor (“If you die, I am going to f***ing kill you”).
Unfortunately, Carr didn’t remain soft for long. The doctors informed everyone that Dina will need another surgery, and her blood pressure is being closely monitored; it’s too low to safely operate, and she risks suffering permanent brain damage if it gets any lower. Allura and the other partners said Dina would want to be resuscitated, but as her next of kin, the decision is Carr’s to make — and she has other ideas.
“Dina is too prudish to want mouth-to-mouth from a complete stranger,” Carr told the ladies, adding that, as Dina’s daughter, she stands to inherit 25% of the law firm if her mother dies. It was an unfortunate turn, but it was also extremely on-brand for Carr, who will always zig when you expect her to zag. So Carr has decided to “sleep on it,” waiting to make any DNR-related decisions until after she’s inspected Dina’s will.
Is Glenn Close leaving All’s Fair?
Now for the question on every viewer’s mind as we await Carr’s decision: Would “All’s Fair” really kill off Glenn Close’s character? It would certainly shake things up, both on screen and off; not only is Dina a key character on the show, but Close’s involvement brings considerable prestige to the underestimated legal drama.
If you don’t want to be spoiled, you should probably stop reading now.
Fortunately, it doesn’t look like we have anything to worry about on that end. Look no further than the official logline for Episode 7 (“Frenemies”), streaming on Wednesday, November 25: “As tensions reach a breaking point, a controversial hiring decision threatens to tear the firm apart. Meanwhile, Dina gets a second chance, and an unlikely suitor catches Emerald’s eye.”
Unless our reading comprehension skills have gone completely out the window, we’re pretty sure that implies Dina will survive her latest brush with death. And that’s good, because we can’t imagine the show without her at this point.
OK, let’s talk: Were you shocked to learn that Carr is Dina’s daughter? And do you like the twist, or was it a step too far? Drop a comment with your predictions for the rest of Season 2 below.
