Another Monday night means another episode of Fox’s Filthy Rich, unfortunately.
The show explores the life of wealthy televangelist family matriarch Margaret Monreaux (Kim Cattrall), who discovers and must deal with how her husband Eugene (Gerald McRaney), believed to be dead, fathered three other illegitimate children.
By this point in the series--7 episodes in--we’ve seen pornographic websites come and go, ‘bitch’ used as an empowering term, and a pregnant devout Christian woman discover she’s attracted to women, all while portraying so-called Christian men in the worst light. During November 9’s episode “Corinthians 3:17,” however, there is a silver lining about right decisions made. Yopi (Allana Ubach), the mother of one of those three illegitimate children, Antonio (Benjamin Levy Aguilar), reveals she resisted the pressure to abort him.
Yopi isn't exactly the most honest character in the show. While she's explaining to Antonio, a fighter, that she wants him to throw a fight she's set up for him, viewers finally see her having a truthful moment:
Antonio: Tell me the truth for once right now. Tell me the truth!
Yopi: You want to talk about it?
Antonio: Yes, I want to know!
Yopi: You want to talk about it?
Antonio: Yes, I want to know!
Yopi: I'll tell you all about it. When I got pregnant with Eugene's baby, they gave me money, to get an abortion and disappear. A million bucks. But I could feel that something special... was growing inside of me. Un Guerrero. And I couldn't go through with it. So, when they found out I had you... They took my money, and they held me down, and they broke my hands so I couldn't ever fight again.
Antonio: I'm gonna kill them.
Yopi: No! You're not gonna kill 'em! That's why I never told you anything, because I know you'd go crazy. Shut the door!
Antonio: What do you expect me to feel?
Yopi: That it was all worth it. You are everything I hoped for. Tu eres MI Vida. MI bendición. And I thank God every day for you.
It’s clear that Christian men are all portrayed as bad men in this series. They’re hypocrites who use and abuse women and are full of sexual improprieties, to put it politely. And yet, this is the most real and raw the show has felt thus far.
While Yopi may be as much of a hustling and immoral figure herself, the scene humanizes her. And thank God it’s not under the guise of how empowering and badass she is for getting even with men, including through taking part in the pornographic websites owned by Ginger Sweet (Melia Kreiling), another of Eugene’s illegitimate children.
Though it is a fictional television show--and a sensational one at that--Yopi’s story is not unique. Many women are pressured or coerced into their abortions, to the tune of 64 percent, a position no woman should ever have to be put through. That Yopi resisted the pressure and kept her son, despite the cost, brings a sense of true vulnerability to the show, for once.
Antonio is one of the more likable characters on the show, perhaps the most likable; a devoted son to Yopi and father to his son, Jesus. Yopi is not only lucky to have him there, but us viewers are as well.
