‘Claws’ Recap: Desna & Jenn’s Friendship is Tested + Roller Gets Unexpected Help to Escape

Desna and Dean are preparing for their weekends.

Desna is in the mirror practicing what she will say to Uncle Daddy. She wants out of the business. Desna is going to suggest his lover Toby launder money through her old salon. She wants to back off and focus on her new shop.

As she is praying about it, Dean comes into her room naked, asking about how he looks for an art exhibition. He tells her that his “performance piece” requires him to be nude. He then asks how his chest and butt look. Virginia will be driving him to the exhibition.

He then calls Virginia his girlfriend and Desna is not pleased.

She yells to Dean, “She’s not your girlfriend!”

Jenn is disappointed in Bryce, again.

Meanwhile, Jenn is at home, pleading for Bryce to stay home. However, Bryce can’t because Uncle Daddy is bringing in heavy hitters from up north to show off the clinic.

Jenn scoffs at Bryce, because she is concerned he will get himself too deep in the mafia’s business. So she dumps all of his breakfast, including syrup into a paper bag, aggressively telling Bryce, “have a nice day.”

Desna confronts Virginia about Dean.

Desna gets to the shop and makes a beeline for Virginia, who is straightening up. She walks up to Virginia, grabs her arm and asks her, “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Desna is pissed Virginia is going with Dean to South Beach. When Desna says Dean thinks she’s his girlfriend, Virginia playfully says, “That’s so sweet.”

“No, it’s not sweet dumb-dumb. It’s not sweet, it’s dangerous.” – Desna

She warns Virginia not to lead him on and tells Virginia to make it clear that they are just friends.

Desna then asks her what she’ll do if Dean has one of his episodes.

“What will you do if Dean stops in the middle of the street to draw the ’20% off’ sign from Bed, Bath and Beyond?” – Desna

Virginia brushes this off and assures Desna that she will take care of Dean. Virginia also tells Desna that Dean is more capable than she realizes.  She says, “Maybe you should let him off his leash,” and gets in Desna’s face, causing Ann and Polly to break them up. Ann sits Desna down and tells her Jenn called out again.

Jenn is at home, sitting on the bed surrounded by many luxury items, when a news report about the Coombs’ death comes on the news. Desna calls again and she doesn’t pick up.

She calls Hank Gluick from the Jewish food store.

Dean and Virginia leave for their stay in Miami.

Back at the shop, Dean comes via Taxi to pick up Virginia. He presents her with a corsage he made. Virginia calls it beautiful. Desna walks out and reminds him to keep his phone charged at all times and to not give money to homeless people.

She then warns Virginia to tell him she’s not his girlfriend and to not lose sight of him. She also hands Virginia a full length, baggy pajama set.

“Dean has urges just like any other man, and I don’t want him tempted by your kibbles and bits.” – Desna

Virginia replies, “You can trust me, I promise I’ll take good care of him.”

Dean and Desna hug with Dean promising to get her a souvenir.

When Dean and Virginia drive off, she expresses disappointment in Dean choosing Virginia.

“I spent all my life raising him, and he picks Gang Bang Wang as his first girlfriend.” – Desna

Ann and Polly console Desna, letting her know that everything will be okay. Polly reminds her that she did a great job raising Dean.

A girl named walks up and says hello to Polly. Polly identifies her as her neighbor, Marnie. Polly asks where Marnie’s mother is. Marnie explains her mom is locked up and the state is trying to put her into foster care. She needs a ride to the bus station so her mom’s friend Slick can find her some “dates in Jacksonville.” Polly is disturbed by this information and offers to take her to get something to eat.

Roller and his captor, Miss Honeychurch are in the car and she’s freaking out. She is totally nervous how her p*bic hair sculpture will be accepted at Art South Beach but Roller keeps her calm. She then gives him sleeping pills but he doesn’t swallow it. She warns him that she will kill him if he tries to escape.

Desna learns why Jenn doesn’t want to come into the salon.

Desna meets with Toby about running the old salon. When Toby brushes it off, she calls him out. She tells him that she knows about the good grades he got in community college. He also tells Toby running this salon will keep Uncle Daddy’s respect, keeping his wandering eye on him.

After a short thought, Toby agrees. She then gives him the details of money laundering. She mentions getting someone Toby trusts, and mentions Jenn is that person for her. Toby then tells her that Jenn isn’t really sick. She’s actually going on shopping sprees, filling up her car with new bags.

Desna heads to Jenn’s mansion and knocks on the front door. Jenn doesn’t answer the door or intercom. Desna then goes around back by the pool, and sees Jenn dancing with Hank. Desna tells her that what she’s doing with Hank is wrong.

When Desna asks what’s wrong, Jenn tells her that she doesn’t want to work at the salon anymore. Since Bryce is doing well at the clinic, she doesn’t have to work. Desna is disappointed in this change of heart from Jenn.

Polly is eating lunch with Marnie, learning what happened to Marnie and her mother. As they are eating, Dr. Ken sits down with them. He then gives Jenn a flirtatious eye. When he goes to get the ladies some water, Marnie thinks she should go after Ken.

“You should totally smash that. My mom said doctors make the perfect husbands.” – Marnie

When Marnie asks a ride for the bus station, Polly then tells Marnie she should hang with her.

Ann slowly begins to open up to Arlene.

Desna walks into She She’s to talk to Uncle Daddy. She walks in to see Uncle Daddy winding down from torturing another business owner. He lets her know about his anniversary party and says the owner cancelled his venue reservation. Desna throws a suggestion of where else the party could be hosted and she will talk to her friend who runs the place to reserve it.

Uncle Daddy is happy about this and thanks Desna for jumping in.

Ann is out on a picnic date with Detective Branch. As Ann tries to kiss Arlene, Arlene stops her. She is frustrated with Quiet Ann because she won’t open up to her.

“If you expect this to go anywhere, I need to know more than how you like your p*ssy licked.” – Arlene Branch

Ann eventually answers two questions about her personal life and Arlene is pleased by this development, going in to kiss her.

Dean defends Virginia’s honor.

Desna stops by the clinic and sees Bryce and Uncle Daddy with their potential investors. She mentions they got everything set up for his party. He then introduces Lamont and Circus to her. Circus takes a keen liking to Desna, wanting her to show her around the business if they jump in as investors.

Uncle Daddy mentions she will be at the party. “Miss Desna will be at the party tonight.”

Dean and Virginia are in Miami and Virginia is coaching him up. She is doing what she can to make sure he is calm on the stage.

“If you get nervous, just look at me. Act like it’s me and you.” – Virginia

As they are talking by the pool, a man comes up throwing insults at the two of them. Virginia tells him to go away but he throws more insults at Dean.. Dean gets up, telling him to treat her like a lady.

Dean ends up punching him in the face, knocking him to the ground. Virginia then quickly escorts them away from the pool.

Later on, Ann and Polly bring Marnie over to the house as Desna gets ready. Desna tells them she hopes the party will put Uncle Daddy in a good enough mood, that he’ll say yes to her request to have Toby handle the money laundering.

Bryce shows up next to drop off Jenn’s keys to the salon. Desna is really disappointed in his as this means her quitting is serious. She isn’t sure she can run Glint without people she can trust.

Dean, Roller and Virginia arrive in South Beach.

Meanwhile, the Russian Mafia breaks into Miss Honeychurch’s place looking for Roller. They see a computer with South Beach hotels listed. One of them gets onto their phone, saying that Roller is alive but isn’t at the house.

Miss Honeychurch and Roller arrive at Art South Beach. Roller says he needs his hands free. As Miss Honeychurch cuts his hands free, she freaks out, hearing critical voices in her head. This causes her to stop freeing Roller’s hands to his disappointment. She tries to leave again but Roller persuades her to stay again.

Dean and Virginia are walking into the Art South Beach galleries for Dean’s exhibit. She coaches Dean, letting him know that he will be okay. Dean is nervous about this but his eye contact with Virginia keeps him calm. When he and the other art pieces strip naked, the artist is most pleased with Deans body. Virginia is also taken back by his appearance and is turned on by it.

Uncle Daddy and his wife are being sprayed down with tanning oil for their event. She notices how Uncle Daddy is glowing with happiness. He tells her his investors are in for the clinic’s expansion, and how Bryce impressed them.

They talk about how they’ve been married for 30 years. Uncle Daddy mentions their secret for a great marriage is picking the right woman. Then his wife walks away as Toby walks over for his tanning.

Dean and Virginia share an intimate moment in Miami.

After the exhibit, Dean and Virginia are in their room. Virginia notices Dean drawing, still impressed with what she saw from Dean physically. She plays the warning in her head from Desna about leading him on but seems to ignore it, biting her bottom lip as she stares at Dean.

Dean then gets up, asking Virginia if she is mad at him. He mentions how she is not shy and isn’t usually quiet. She then has him sit next to her on her bed and then kisses him.

She asks if was that okay and Dean says he is interested in doing more of it. They kiss and he asks, “What do I do now?”

Virginia replies, “What do you wanna do?”

Dean responds by gently grabbing her chest. Virginia smiles, and kisses him as they fall onto the bed.

Roller finally sets up his escape.

Back at their hotel room, Roller is still convincing Miss Honeychurch to go into Art South Beach. She’s still saying her critics are out to destroy her. She’s smashing the furniture in the suite as she yells out. She then jumps onto his lap, pointing a gun to his head. Still cool, Roller still motivates her to kill it at Art South Beach instead of killing the both of them.

This motivational speech turns her on and she straddles him. As she is distracted on top of him, he manages to sneak a knife from the table, hiding it in his blazer sleeve.

Virginia realizes sleeping with Dean may have been a mistake.

Virginia and Dean and laying down after their bit of romance. She’s trying to let him down easy. She calls him a special, kind person and wanted his first time to be special. However, she then tells him she is not looking or a boyfriend.

Dean gives her a response she wasn’t ready for.

“It’ll be weird for you to look for a boyfriend when you got me.” – Dean

Virginia shakes her head, mouthing the word s**t to herself, realizing it went way further with Dean than she expected.

Desna and Jenn’s friendship is tested at Uncle Daddy’s party.

It’s the night of Uncle Daddy’s anniversary event and Desna is at the party with Ann. They run into Jenn who is drunk. Desna sees her, walks over to her and takes her drink from her. Jenn in turn calls her a murderer.

Jenn then runs over to Uncle Daddy who is with his buddies. She tries to tell Uncle Daddy the truth about Desna and the Coombs when Desna walks over. She manages to get her from Uncle Daddy and pull her to a corner of the party.

Jenn and Desna are yelling at each other, with Jenn throwing a very sharp verbal jab at Desna.

“You were my best friend, and you destroyed my family to save yourself.” – Jenn

Jenn then tries to strike Desna, which causes Ann to grab her by the throat, throwing her against a wall. Jenn cries out running off as Ann stares in disappointment at Desna. She tells Desna, “We’re supposed to be family.”

Later on, Ann and Desna are by themselves. Ann tells Desna she should’ve come to her first, before any of this happened.

Bryce and Uncle Daddy are talking to Circus and Lamont. While Circus and Lamont are impressed with the money Bryce is generating for the clinic, they are really impressed with how he handled to Coombs.

“We know he can drop a body when need be.” – Lamont

Bryce is taken aback by this and by Lamont passing lines of coke to snort.

As this is going on, Jenn is over by the bar drinking and Marnie and Polly are with Dr Ken, as he brings over crab cakes. Polly notices Jenn drinking which is serious and heads over to the bar.

However, Jenn stops when she sees Bryce snorting lines off of Lamont’s turtle. Bryce says he deserved a reward, as Uncle Daddy said for the Georgia Boys investing in the clinic.

Jenn responds, “Says the crackhead,” to which Bryce quips, “Says the alcoholic… who treats Desna like s**t. What has she done to you?”

Jenn then envisions telling Bryce that Desna killed Roller and set up the Coombses to take the fall. In this dream sequence, Bryce shoots Desna straight in the heart, killing her.

But in reality, Jenn just walks away with a bottle. Desna runs after her and explains everything to Jenn, from how she confronted Roller about the money, to him choking her out to Virginia shooting him to free Desna. She also told Jenn about Dean being molested by the Coombs.

Polly brings Marnie a gift of nose plugs so she can become a mermaid. Marnie responds by saying she can’t be a mermaid. Polly says she needs to keep having dreams to get through the hard parts of life. Marnie asks, “Is this why you pretend to be other people?”

Polly ignores that question and tells Marnie she deserves a good man who respects her when she gets older. Marnie points out that she should take her own advice.

Polly agrees and then goes to the DJ to request a song. She asks Dr. Ken for a dance and he accepts. Bryce and Jenn are also dancing. He promises to reconnect with Jenn and to go back to being sober. Jenn is happy to hear this but knowing Desna’s secret starts to weigh on her.

Desna meanwhile goes over to Uncle Daddy and asks to have Toby handle the money laundering. He surprisingly agrees to this.

Ann and Polly walk over to Desna thinking he said no. They cheer and celebrate when Desna tells them the good news.

“I’m out!” – Desna

Roller gets unexpected help with his escape.

Miss Honeychurch brings in Roller and gives him another pill. He fake swallows the pill spits it out as she walks to show off her exhibit. As Miss Honeychurch is presenting, Roller rolls away from the exhibit in the wheelchair. Miss Honeychurch is taken aback from the positive praise she received from the exhibit.

Meanwhie, Virginia takes Dean back to Art South Beach for another exhibit. Dean strips nude and poses with the other men in the performance piece. Virginia is right there, cheering him on, keeping eye contact with Dean when he needs it.

Desna heads to Ben’s house and they start making out at the front door. After they have a moment, they get interrupted again by Virginia who calls telling her that Roller is alive. Desna thinks Virginia must be high and Virginia accidentally hangs up the phone as she tries to flee the exhibit with Dean. However, they see Roller as he is cutting himself loose from the wheelchair. Dean calls out his name. He can’t run to them because Miss Honeychurch is on his trail. She shoots in the air, causing chaos. When they get to the front doors, Honeychurch appears to have him cornered, but the Russians swoop in and throw him into a van.

What are your thoughts on the episode?