This week’s all-new installment of The Couple Next Door on Starz deals with the inevitably messy fallout of last week’s couple swap. While Evie (Eleanor Tomlinson) and Danny (Sam Heughan) enjoyed a passionate romp — that continued despite a torn condom! — Pete (Alfred Enoch) and Becka (Jessica De Gouw) had a lot less fun. Pete ultimately couldn’t go through with polyamorous swinging, while Becka’s night was ruined by the discovery she was the victim of revenge porn. What drama would unfurl in The Couple Next Door Episode 4 “The Miracle”? Why, the natural escalation of each and every storyline, of course!
**Spoilers for The Couple Next Door Episode 4 “The Miracle,” now streaming on Starz**
The Couple Next Door Episode 4 naturally opens with a delusional Evie so high off of her orgasm that she urgently wants/needs/begs Danny to confirm that this won’t be a one time thing. Evie is so incapable of mature behavior, that she not only assumes Danny’s thoughts must be all about her for the rest of the episode, but she also doesn’t care at all about her actual husband, Pete!
When Evie discovers that she has become pregnant via the encounter, she doesn’t think, “Oh, crap, I got pregnant with my best friend’s husband’s sperm because I totally lied to him about being on birth control, and this is a really shitty situation I’ve thrust upon multiple people I care about.” No, she takes the news as sign of a “miracle” and gleefully returns to her parents’ weird fundamentalist Christian living room cult. Things are so back for Evie and Pete’s marriage that Evie conveniently forgets to even tell Pete that she’s pregnant. He only learns the news from Evie’s well-seeming sister.
Meanwhile, it’s not like Pete’s all that plugged into Evie’s rapid descent into madness. He’s still mostly obsessed with investigating some shadowy cabal operating in the heart of suburban Leeds. The fact that he’s certain Danny is involved only makes his work all the more addictive. By episode’s end, he and his cute journalism partner are stalking Danny as he breaks into a warehouse. It’s all very different from the entertainment journalism I do primarily over Zoom.
While everyone else in the show descends into deeper pits of insanity, Becka asserts herself as the only sane character in the bunch. She’s not mad at Pete for rejecting her, but she is irate about being the victim of revenge porn. Later, she kindly offers free therapy to her very abuser, Alan (Hugh Dennis). Becka is just that decent of a person! Becka is also clever enough to piece together that Danny is up to something he’s lying about. She follows him to his secret baby mama’s apartment and approaches Lena (Deirdre Mullins) on her own, calmly, politely, and not at all like a crazy person.
So Evie is preggers and horny for Danny. Danny is still in trouble, moonlighting for a criminal, to pay child support for his sweet, secret, deaf kid. Pete has no chill and the creep is now wheelchair bound, turning the tables on his situation with his wife. Still, here are the three intrusive thoughts I had watching The Couple Next Door Episode 4 “The Miracle” on Starz that won’t let me go…
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Becka Deserves Sainthood — And Sam Heughan Agrees
Photo: Starz Throughout this week’s episode, I kept writing in my notes that Becka is so pure, Becka is so wonderful, Becka is so kind, Becka is so rational, and Becka deserves to be made a saint. When everyone else around you is “Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs,” but still you maintain a moral compass, that is bad ass. That is Becka.
When DECIDER chatted with Sam Heughan ahead of The Couple Next Door‘s premiere, he, too, had nothing but the most superlative praise for Becka and the “incredible” actress who played her, Jessica De Gouw.
“I think she really made that role her own and she’s such an intelligent actress. She always questioned and tried to help understand and improve Becka’s stance on things.”
“You know, we were trying to discuss what it means to be in an open relationship and actually it’s the fact that they love each other so much,” Heughan said, “they can share with other people just to see their partner happy.”
That’s how much Becka loves! How selfless Becka is! She winds up being the exact opposite of Evie..
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Should Evie Even Be Trusted With ANY Child, Let Alone Her Own?
Photo: Starz Oh, Evie, how my general opinion of you keep precipitously falling!
I can deal with a woman being a little delulu over a hot man. I mean, who among us has not had that one person we’ve dogged with texts in the hopes that they were crushing on us, too? However, Evie keeps showing more and more signs of severe mental instability.
This week, I noticed that Evie barely does her job as a teacher. Like, I get that this is not a show about teaching — and it’s not like we get all that much classroom time in Abbott Elementary, either — but Evie is wholly checked out of her job. Her eyes aren’t even on the children.
Take that, plus the fact that SHE KILLED THOSE FISH and I wouldn’t trust her with any child, let alone one of her own.
Maybe this really is all about those koi, as I’m really still upset about the fish. Or maybe The Couple Next Door is a show about how getting to sleep with Sam Heughan just one kind is enough to drive a woman insane.
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(Laughing Nervously) I’m Sorry, Creepy Alan Almost Died While Breaking and Entering Danny and Becka’s House and Becka Didn’t Know For How Long?? (Laughs/Sobs)
Photo: Starz While I understand why Creepy Alan’s poor wife Jean (Kate Robbins) maybe didn’t advertise the fact that she’s married to a perv who broke into a neighbors’ house to masturbate, I find it hilariously improbable that no one gave Danny or Becka a head’s up that a man had a stroke in their house? Like…what?
Becka doesn’t learn about Alan’s condition, or the cover story that he was found in her house because he was “confronting” the actual criminal, until she makes small talk some time after the fact with Jean. Has it been weeks? Days? Heck, even hours seems too long. Like wouldn’t the authorities let them know about this weird event? Especially since Danny is a cop!?!?
I can maybe buy that these characters live in a warped version of reality where a milkman still comes around with glassed of milk, but no one at the police station thought to let their coworker know an ambulance had to take a creepy neighbor out of his house on a stretcher? The mind, it’s boggled!
