Dollar Store
Alex leaves her abusive partner Sean behind and takes her daughter Maddy with her in a desperate attempt to escape. They end up in a city far away from their home, but Alex is determined to make a new life for herself and Maddy. ..
Halfway up the road, Alex runs out of gas, prompting her to stop by the station to fill up. With $18.00 to her name, Alex’s remaining cash goes down. Unfortunately she has no place to go, and is forced to sleep out in her car.
Alex is forced to leave her council form and head to a DV shelter. She’s not an abuse victim or homeless, but she’s stuck because she doesn’t have the proper documentation.
Alex’s interview flows beautifully, with exposition about her past in a natural way. She points out her rough upbringing, a flamboyant mother and a revolving door of high schools. ..
Jody, who is looking for a job to support her mother, applies to Value Maids. The company is willing to interview her, but Jody has to find care for her mother first. Her mother is a free spirit and has a sleazy boyfriend, Basil. ..
Alex heads to her interview while leaving Maddy in Paula’s care but it’s a tough gig. She’s starting immediately, with a 3 hour clean. What originally starts out as a lucrative deal, soon whittles down to scraping by on pennies, given the ferry ride across to Fisher Island and the need to buy her own supplies.
The woman who owns the house that Alex is given to clean is pretentious and rude. She berates Alex for showing up 30 minutes late and acts nonchalantly when Alex passes out on the job upstairs from exhaustion.
Alex tries her best to clean as best she can, scrubbing the house and throwing away piles and piles of food.
Alex just about makes the ferry ride back too, and the minute she gets signal back on her phone, it blows up with missed calls from Paula. Given the lack of signal – and her mother’s inability to actually listen – Paula has rung Sean to pick up Maddy. She’s currently at his trailer.
Alex heads inside, where she’s greeted by painful memories from the previous night. Sean is clearly a violent drunk, throwing glass around and shouting profanities at her. The previous night, Alex had to pick glass out of Maddy’s hair, which was the breaking point for her and something she’s not willing to do again.
Maddy throws her toy out the window, prompting Alex to rush out to try and find it. A car smashes into the back of Alex’s car, fortunately Maddy is okay but she has to pay for the damage. ..
Alex and Maddy are in a bind. They’ve been driving around with their car taken away, and now they have to find a way to get it back. Alex comes up with a plan, but it’s risky and will require some hard work. The pair spend the night trying to figure out how to do this, but they’re quickly running out of time.
The Episode Review
The show looks like it could be a hit, with a well-edited opener, great acting and an engrossing story. There’s definitely echoes of Pursuit of Happyness here, especially with that constant crippling line of poverty looming.
The divide between rich and poor is growing more and more visible every day. The amount of food that Regina has Alex throw out is astonishing – and all of it looks absolutely fresh and fine to eat!
Abusive relationships can be difficult to identify and even more difficult to escape. The anger and resentment that is often subtle can create a much larger picture that many people in abusive relationships will relate to. All may seem well on the surface, but the truth is that most people in abusive relationships are victims. ..
Maid is a captivating show from the beginning to the end. It looks like it could lead to something very special in the next episode. ..
