It seems that y’all had a good bit of interest in the first Dirty John Recap so it’s time to take a look at episode three. It’s midnight, but I am in the mood for a scripted show, even if it is based on real life. Plus I’m in a weird go to bed at five or six am with the TV on, wake up for the morning talk shows, fall asleep during them and the wake up “for the day” around three pm. So might as well get on it now, right?
We have two simultaneous scenes going on. One with four men, and another four women. On episode two one of Betty’s friends cries to her about her husband cheating on her. Since he got caught he has been pretending he wants to stay in the marriage. But, he is meeting with Dan and two other guys about how to protect his assets in a divorce. Did anyone ever explain to me why Dan wears a red rose on his lapel all the damn damn? For someone with facial recognition issues like me, it’s great. But still weird as fuck. The wife told the ladies that the cheater wants them to go to counseling. Meanwhile, he’s planning to fuck her over. Straight men are such assholes.
Dan Rakes In Enough Money For An Upgrade
Especially Dan. Betty is trying to raise a tribe of kids, keep house and drill Dan on his law studies and type up all of his briefs. On a typewriter.
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Then we are back to I guess what we would call present day where Dan has left his law firm to start his own. Dan and Betty go out to a fancy dinner where Dan is congratulated by a few guys for his first million dollar malpractice settlement. Betty mentions it wasn’t that long ago that they were living on food stamps in Boston. Yeah, probably not a good thing to bring up. I’m sure she will pay for that. As soon as the guy leaves he asks her why the hell she brought it up. She says so people will know how hard he has worked to get where he is. He says he doesn’t want people to think they know him when they don’t. She apologizes and they move on.
Betty Takes A Stand
Next, we see Dan’s office has gone from just him, to a large firm. And he got his first pair of contacts! No more glasses. Then we are back to the expensive restaurant. Betty again brings up how far they have come eating at fancy restaurants all the time. Dan is pissed. Again.
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The cheating guy has proposed to the homewrecker and they are getting married at the end of he month. He tells Dan this late at night at the office. Meanwhile Betty is telling the abandoned wife, Yvonne, that no one is going to that wedding. So of course Dan is going to make her go with him. I think that is Betty. It could be one of the other women. Either way, I think Betty will end up having to go. In fact all of the other women are going. Betty refused to go. Dan told the guys she was sick with the flu. I’m shocked. I thought for sure she would go.
Massive Therapy Needed
Betty takes the kids to mass by herself and sees a flyer for Marriage Encounter a weekend trip for married couples to work on their marriage. Dan is not interested. Betty says she is worried about the marriage. Dan doesn’t look at her, much less touch her anymore. Dan says he doesn’t believe in Catholicism anymore. Betty is shook. But Dan agrees to go anyway.They hug it out. It is very awkward. The two of them basically talking to each other in front of the priest. Dan said everything that Betty wanted to hear. He bought himself some time.
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In the next scene Dan is bitching at Betty over spending too much money. Even though she explains to him what all the credit card purchases were for. He’s pissed. Apparently, the thousand dollar charge he was bitching about was for his tailormade shirts. Not for her. Mystery solved. Then we see them on the beach trying to figure out what country club to join. The money is pouring in and so is the new furniture and other fancy things. Life is good. For now. Betty seems happy.
She’s So Beautiful
At the country club, Betty is chatting and doing a bit of oversharing with the new snobby rich friends. That will come back to bite her. The maitre D arrives to tell her their table is ready and she goes off to scoop up her husband who is having a conversation with another man. She walks up behind him and hears him saying, ” She’s just so beautiful.” And Betty seems concerned as they sit down. Clearly, she is concerned he is having an affair. So here we go.
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Later that night after dinner, they are home getting ready for bed. She asks him who he was talking about. He says a new girl in the office that the guy, Mitch, has a thing for. Only Mitch doesn’t work for him. Dan says he works in the building and she’s a receptionist. Betty asks what her name is. He pretends not to know. He says it is something with an L. Laura? Maybe? And just like that she knows. She stakes out the receptionist and learns her name is Linda.
Get Rid Of Her
Next we see the two on the beach with the kids. Things seem off. Then we see them at a later date. Dan says he has hired an assistant. It’s Linda the receptionist. Betty asks him how a receptionist is going to assist him in litigating multimillion dollar cases. Does she have a degree? Has she ever worked in a law office? Can she type? He says she’ll interview clients and do research. Betty asks, “Is she just so beautiful?” Dan says she is being childish. Betty tells him to get rid of her. Followed by “I mean it. Get rid of her by the end of the month or you can get out of this house.” Wow. When did she grow a pair? He doesn’t respond.
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Cut to Betty shopping her ass off. She also calls the office and asks for Linda. She hangs up when she picks up. When Dan comes home that night, very late I might add, she confronts him about why Linda is still working as his assistant. Dan says that she made a big mistake. She doesn’t decide who works for his practice, and furthermore, if anyone is going to be getting out, it’s her. I’m glad she killed them both.
Even though we know how this story ends, it’s so revealing to see more of the details on how they got there.
Disclaimer: I watched the Meredith Baxter movies many times as a kid (my mother watched a LOT of Lifetime!), and I more recently listened to the “Once Upon a Crime” and “My Favorite Murder” takes on the Betty Broderick case. I’m now listening to “It Was Simple”, the LA Times’ kinda-sorta companion podcast series to the TV show. There’s just so much more to this case than what we saw on TV 25-30 years ago, and IMHO this USA series is just scratching the surface on how complex and horrifying this love-turned-hate story truly is.
I still struggle to find Betty’s exact place on the “victim-perpetrator spectrum”. Some days, it seems like a pretty straightforward murder case. Other days, I feel like she should have been found not guilty by reason of mental health. And then other days, like today, I look at the evidence, especially the evidence that never made it into either of the trials, and I really wonder if the system actually was rigged against Betty all along.
You should totally be recapping this. Or at the very least telling us everything in comments!
A combination of all three plus Betty and Dan played out their own version of Dante’s Inferno ande there was no Virgil to aid them on their journey.
You are so right! I thought I knew this whole story…..I did not!!!!!!
Too bad Betty didn’t shoot Dan somewhere in one of those parts of the South where “he desarved to die” can be a valid defense. Of course the system was rigged against her, & if Betty had really good defense her venue would have been moved out of San Diego County. I still believe her mental torture began when she was perimenopausal & by the time she did the crime she was likely full-blown into menopause. Dan & Linda seemed to think her rage was hilarious. I’d sure like to be able to take a peek at her gyncologist’s file. Bet a nickel she never got any estrogen in prison, & a dime says she’ll never admit a bit of responsibility, & I don’t think she should. On top of everything she’s probably got richly deserved PTSD. If anyone ever needed a friend, it was & probably still is, Betty Broderick.
I use to tell my sister if she was any more laid back she would be dead.
Due to lack of estrogen during her menopause she needed to be caged.
The day she physically went for me with a wine bottle and stopped herself before she bounced it off my head due to sugarless tea is a story I tell all my perimenopausal friends.
Hindsight is a wonderful gift.
Mother and Grandma swam in the sea, went for long walks and drank tea.
Betty was dealt a bad hand of cards…Will this show make a difference for her….that would be a wonderful sight to see if Betty would allow it or if she had a friend to assist.
Unfortunately it breaks my heart that Betty may never get out.
Same here, TT.
I was Betty, about two years ago.
I am still heartsick and beaten down.
It’s getting better, but wow.
Men suck.
They just do!
Yes they do. But only the straight ones. Most of the gay ones are lifesavers.
You are so right about that, TT.
My best friend, a gay man, and my cat Fred save my life every day!
There are lots of good straight men.
But they’re all taken.
Or I’ve been with them already!
True freedom for me cane when I found I could be happy without a man. (Or a woman. Just single me.)
I never believed that would be possible.
? to that, No No Nanette!
I too am a Betty. My ex cleaned out the entire bank account and left me 2 cents because he told me that was what I am worth. Seven days after our divorce he married a woman that no one knew. My kids and I were shocked. They immediately filed for full custody of the kids and used it against me that I was single and they are a family. I am a Betty. I still struggle today, but I am so much better without him in my life!
I hope it gets better for you. And for the kids. You made it through the shock. And the first horrible months/years. You have amazing strength and fortitude. You deserve so much better than him.
xo Joey.
Betty will be up for parole in a couple of years but considering she still hasn’t accepted any responsibility for her actions it is doubtful she will get out. I remember seeing interviews with her back n the 80’s and I think she does have some mental issues that you can bet have not been addressed in Prison.
Betty was denied parole in 2017 and her next parole date is 2032…she is 72,
Love this series! Thanks for the recap
Not that I’m advocating killing people… BUT… if any 2 assholes went looking to get killed, it was Linda and Dan. Linda not only screwed Dan and then married him, but she sent Betty horrid ads for weight loss programs and pictures of herself with Betty’s old friends, etc… on multiple occasions.
I don’t think BETTY deserved to kill them. She deserved happiness. (They both made that very difficult for her to achieve.)
BUT if there were a death penalty for being mean, petty, gaslighting assholes — these two would top the list.
I think Dan played both Betty & Linda and unfortunately Dan did not want Betty to be happy regardless of Betty’s faults.
If Betty had found a new partner Dan would have lost his shit.
I think that Dan would have loved it, because then he wouldn’t have to pay her spousal support anymore.
Dan wanted Betty to have absolutely nothing from after the decades that she helped to support him, his career and their family.
Betty’s an intelligent, pretty, self-sufficient woman, who poured her entire sense of being into her selfish user of an ex-husband.
Dan would have loved it however I do wonder if a little part of Dan would have wanted to squash any happiness for Betty PERIOD…
Your comments regarding Betty….Spot On, I agree with you 100%
Betty still deserved happiness….however I am not sure what happiness means to Betty and I doubt she does either…..I feel sad for their children.
That sickens me to my stomach, Dan the Man was so manipulating….
I was Betty at 19. I didn’t kill anyone I just decided to work my ass off and live a better and happier life than my ex. 31 years later, he is on wife #4, miserable and dating what I am pretty sure will be wife #5 when wife #4 finds out about her. Sometimes the best revenge is a happy successful life.
Living well ALWAYS is the best revenge. Because it is about the wronged party living the best life. The assholes then mean LESS than nothing.
I really wish she had gotten away with it. Or at least was out of jail by now. He fucked with her head.
Yep!
Another Betty here. It was his secretary. The gaslighting was psychological warfare with me being accused of killing a few of her tires. I wasn’t guilty. So naive at the time I didn’t know why I was being accused. It escalated and he had me seeing a therapist. That resulted in the therapist seeing both of us, and my ex filed for divorce soon after.
The divorce lasted 18 years. It kept him from having to get remarried. Finally a court appointed mediator told him all the money went to legal fees, there’s nothing left to keep her from getting. He was better at and enjoyed the fighting. It’s the seemingly endless battles that wear us down. Especially if we realize we can never win. I got to stay in my nice home throughout the battle, and that was enough. I wish Betty had been able to win at least one skirmish, other than last adult standing/alive. Dan should have been smart enough to have known she needed that to give her a reason to go on.
I truly feel that Dan was a narcissist who resented that his success was due to everything that Betty did for him in the early years of their marriage. He wanted everyone, especially his fellow classmates, associates and friends, that it was only him that contributed to his own success.
About the rose…it was in Episode 1, Betty pinned a rose on his lapel for some reason? Good luck, maybe? Or it made him stand out? I can’t recall. After that, he must have wore one all of the time.
It was on his first day of work (or job interview). She was echoing what he said to justify spending money on a CUSTOM-TAILORED lab coat (instead of paying the power bill). Image = Confidence = Success. She said that as she pinned in the red rose. Kind of funny how he kept up with HER idea after he threw out everything else about her.
She should have named her gun ICS! (Image = Confidence = Success)
I think it just represents when he’s ‘into’ the marriage. Because he loses it when he’s no longer interested. At least it seems like that to me. So far
I’m late to comment, but I’m only just watching this now, and I was wondering about this too. They’re at trial against each other, and he’s still wearing the rose to court. (I’m at episode 6 now.) Makes me wonder if he did it to further agitate her, or perhaps on some level he still felt some sort of an emotional connection to her and their life together. Or maybe by then he didn’t think twice about it — as someone mentioned it was a lawyer thing — and they did it precisely to show how she had helped mold him into everything he was now, yet he denied her any credit for it, like Nanette mentioned above. In any case I find it interesting.
I think it was just another level of gas lighting. It was kind of “their thing” and he liked to parade Linda around in front of her when he was “doing their things” again.
And it’s never too late to comment! Welcome to the site, I am way more batshit crazy during the COVID Crap. Most everyone else is hold up as well as can be expected.
It REALLY pissed me off when he told her he was rejecting Catholicism. AFTER keeping her pregnant through all of those pregnancies and miscarriages.
A good defense lawyer today would have used the hormonal thing as something that had a HUGE IMPACT on her mental state. The emotional state of mourning the loss of child after child AND the physical part of hormonal state. It could have been YEARS of being in a state of postpartum depression. That would have affected EVERYTHING. Made it ALL so much worse. Not as much was known about postpartum depression back then.
I wanted to slap that shitty grin off Dan’s (Slater’s) face. If I had been a friend of Betty’s and seen what was going on, I may have been tempted to do that. Or humiliate him at work. Or broken into their home and replaced the salt with saltpeter in all of their salt containers. Can you just IMAGINE him if his wiener wouldn’t work!
No Nanette, not another one….I am still not over the 3 way with BG…Peekee. -.now it’s Dan’s Weiner which also sounds like a bad name for a diner.
I’m off to watch The Professor and the Madman…hope I fall asleep and don’t have crazy dreams about a hotdogs and diners.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Dan underestimated Betty. He screwed her over seven ways to Sunday and she snapped. I Bust the Windows Out Your Car by Jazmine Sullivan should have been playing when Betty said :”Get rid of her….”
Great Song..on My Playlist.
Betty bust the windows out her own car when she tried to bust down the house with the kids in it.
My choice would be “Crazy” by Gnarls B due to the Melody as well as it links to a song called Last Man Standing”
Crazy! Yes!
Great recap! I’m hooked on this show even though I know the ending.
The rose was something Betty put on his lapel when he became an attorney and made his own practice. It’s an attorney thing- my father and my grandfather who were both attorneys always wore rose pins on their suit lapels, I don’t know the exact meaning. The actual rose flower on lapel seems a bit much, but perhaps our attorney friends can explain!
Interesting. None of the other attorneys were doing it. Either way, it helps me recognize him on the TV. lol
Sorry. I commented above too.
To me it was symbolic for his loyalty to her. He also motions to it at one point when he says the word ‘husband’.
Hes no longer wearing it during significant moments in episode. Presumably when he’s no longer interested in her
Oh, What an interesting comment – I hadn’t noticed that….Thanks
I obviously don’t condone murder, but I can see how she was driven to this point. I remember watching the 2nd trial in my early 20s. I felt for her, but the prosecutor learned from the trial and asked questions about the night of the murder she didn’t ask the first time. I remember seeing the MBB movies and didn’t think they gave Betty a fair representation. I do think Betty probably has and had mental health issues, but Dan was definitely a narcissistic personality and he knew how to push Betty’s buttons. Seeing the marriage encounter weekend was so hard because he was setting her up. Dan had an interview during the divorce with the San Diego Reader where he said he hadn’t been the husband or father he could have been. However, when the article that had an interview with Betty also was about to be released, Dan threatened to sue the newspaper. I don’t think Betty should be excused for her behavior, but someone should have tried to get her help. The unfortunate fact is that at that time, mental health wasn’t considered an issue. Betty actually had a new boyfriend before the murders, but she’d already been beaten down in court while often not being able to say what she needed to because if no fault that she lost her shit. And no, she has no opportunity for parole until 2032. She probably won’t live that long. I don’t think she’ll ever admit true remorse the way the parole board wants and that is because she is still in the mindset of being the wronged party and other things I can comment on later in the show.
I am loving this show!
Despite the subject matter being a little too close to home.
I’ve always loved Slater, he plays such a great creep.
Also adore Amanda Peet.
She plays Betty to the hilt.
The 70’s fashions! ?
And décor!
Loved the Cyndi Lauper song in the beach scene.
Well done!