Thony’s situation just got really bad. 

The poor woman can’t seem to catch a break, constantly getting caught up in battles that aren’t her own. In the final moments of The Cleaning Lady Season 2 Episode 5, her situation somehow managed to take a turn for the worse—worse than when she was wrapped up in Hayak’s business—when she offered herself up as a CI for Garrett while promising to deliver Robert Kamdar on a silver platter. And Kamdar, as we’ve seen from our brief interactions with him, is a very dangerous man to cross. Not to mention, he kind of owns Arman at the moment, which makes this a very confusing and problematic situation for the extraordinary character reduced to a “thug in a suit” for his forced dealings with the criminal mastermind in Vegas. 

Thony was pushed into a corner when Garrett caught her and Arman with a truck full of drugs and a duffel full of money. There were very few viable options available to them at that point, and survival was top of mind. Thony has always been resourceful—she always finds a way—plus, she promised to help Arman get out of a bind, so she told Garrett she would become his informant, thinking she was doing the right thing by everyone, including herself since she can’t risk going to prison. However, if I’m being honest, getting caught in the crossfire of Kamdar’s criminal empire sounds worse than getting arrested. If Kamdar finds out she’s working for the FBI, well, let’s just say, she won’t be able to take care of Luca either way. Kamdar is ruthless. 

Arman didn’t have much of a say in the matter, but you could tell that he was very much against her rogue plan. Arman wanted to take the fall and set Thony free, but she would never allow it since she was there in order to help him in the first place. If he got arrested, he wouldn’t survive prison a second time, and there was no way he’d find the funds to get himself out. 

Arman is undoubtedly going to feel guilty about the position Thony has been put in because he’s the reason she’s in it; his persistence to push street drugs to turn a higher profit got them into yet another mess. Arman and Nadia wanted to take control of their drug empire after deeming Thony’s ethical methods not lucrative enough, but in the process, they failed to assess the danger that came with the territory. Arman had laser vision to free himself from Kamdar’s clutches, while Nadia only wanted to get back to her carefree life. If Arman would have listened to Thony and trusted her, things may have turned out differently.

Mostly, it didn’t sit right with me how dismissive Arman was of Thony’s hesitations. Selling drugs of any kind without a license is illegal, but if there was no way around it, Thony wanted to make sure that she was at least doing a good thing and putting out good into the world. She actually cares about what happens once the drugs leave her hands. 

It was cruel of Arman to spit back all the things he’s done for her and hold it over her head, even saying he “killed for her,” referring to the shady motel employee. All of those things were valid, sure, but it hurt to hear Arman list them out as if his intentions were purely selfish in every situation. Let’s not get it twisted, Thony has gone to bat for him as well with the limited resources at her disposal, so it wasn’t fair of him to point fingers; it was a low blow and created a bad taste. And I get it, Arman is feeling the pressure of working for Kamdar in many ways—he’s losing his status, he’s not able to focus on his business, and he’s reduced to simply being a thug and teaching the very people he used to work with a “bloody” lesson. He beat the man to a pulp because he was so angry about his situation; he’s losing himself in the process, and it’s not sustainable. Once Thony saw the effect it had on Arman and how much he was suffering, she understood why he was feeling the pressure of paying back the money. Time was not a luxury they had, and thus, she agreed to help him move the product. If she had just given it to her dealer, maybe they could’ve avoided the run-in with Garrett, but, unfortunately, what’s done is done. 

And Thony played the only card she could at the moment when they were ambushed and put on the spot. 

Garrett may work for the FBI, but he’ll look the other way if he can get what he wants. On some level, he knows that Thony isn’t a threat and is simply wrapped up in the wrong business to provide for her family. And while he hates “handsome” Arman and wants to take him down, he wants to save Maya and bring down Cortes more. 

Being a cleaning lady has some benefits, including overhearing some tense and private conversations. That’s what landed Thony in this mess to begin with, but in this case, seeing Kamdar meet with Cortes was her saving grace because she was able to spin that and hand it to Garrett in exchange for her and Arman’s freedom. I use freedom loosely, however, because while Kamdar owns Arman, Garrett now owns Thony. 

And Kamdar just so happens to be the missing piece of Garrett’s puzzle. When Thony copied Maya’s phone, he leveraged it to get himself back on the Cortes case, and the FBI found out the new player in town was “a Brit.” Garrett was desperate to find out who the Brit was, and lo and behold, Thony had the information he needed. It pays to have friends in high places, don’t you think, Garrett?

Garrett cares about Thony, so while he’s determined to save Maya, he also won’t let anything happen to Thony if he can help it. But I’m not sure how deep Thony can go as a CI since she was already made by Maya. If she’s loyal to Cortes, this is bound to blow up in their faces. 

And I can’t underscore how dangerous that will be. 

Arman will also be around, so he’ll do his best to protect Thony, but he’s not exactly in the best headspace or financial space. And all of this takes away from their goals of being free and legit. 

However, it does keep them revolving in each other’s orbits, which I was worried about when Arman told Thony they were done. 

It seemed as though he no longer felt like he had a use for her partnership, but they can’t seem to shake each other.  Thony went against all of her beliefs and everything she stood for simply because she cares about Arman. His demeanor was tense the whole time he was working for Kamdar, including when he was with Nadia, but when he saw Thony, everything changed. You can tell he feels safe with her and like he can be himself around her. He doesn’t have that with Nadia, who is still playing some kind of game. It had to hurt Arman to see her laughing and flirting with her ex-boyfriend while he was basically groveling to pay off his debts, with  Kamdar abusing his power by embarrassing Arman every chance he got. Nadia cares on the surface, but the minute things get hard, she doesn’t seem interested in staying the course. She’s blameless, immediately making it about herself and becoming the victim when Arman brought up all the things he’s doing to pay off the debts, even giving him grief about “his cleaning lady.” There’s so much jealousy exuding from her, it’s actually pushing him right into Thony’s arms. And there’s a gentleness about Thony that is welcoming and comforting—she has a calm and compassionate presence, and Arman likes the man he becomes when she’s around.

Thony doesn’t just talk to the talk, she walks the walk. Even when Arman flung the list of things he’s done for her back in her face and ended their partnership, when he called and asked her to help, she came. When she saw how hurt he was, she held his hand and told him if he helped her clean, they would be able to make the meeting. Nadia has never offered to do any of the dirty work herself, and a man who is down will remember who lifts him up. 

Neither of them are consciously aware of their feelings, but it’s love. Pure love. As long as they are in it together, nothing else matters. And, as we’ve seen previously, they make a killer team. Thony and Arman are now even more tied together, and they have this secret that will bring them closer and push Nadia away even more.

And that’s the thing–while hings may look bleak for Thony and Arman right now, I actually feel bad for Nadia. At least they have each other,  while she’s all alone living in this delusion and not realizing she’s just a pawn in Kamdar’s games. She’s falling for his sweet words and empty promises, but really, he’s an opportunist who thinks he can take anything. They deserve each other. 

Elsewhere, Thony and Fi finally got their cleaning business, The Cleaning Ladies, off the ground, and while the customers didn’t come rushing in, they did manage to land a contract with a former showgirl-turned-event planner. Fi was understandably stressed about the situation since they had no customers and all the ladies needed the work to pay the bills, so when they got their first opportunity, she gave it her all. And her efforts were noticed and rewarded as the client was impressed with her work ethic. She didn’t even mind that Fi forced her kids to work so that she could get the job done!

Fi has been under a lot of pressure lately as everything is coming at her from every angle a million miles a minute, just like Thony. Neither of them have actually dealt with the grief, loss, and situation surrounding Marco’s death, so eventually, I think they’ll likely crack, but Fi’s breaking point was JD, her ex and Jaz’s father, announcing he’s moving to Vegas. She explained it put a lot of pressure on her to live up  to the comparisons of a more established parent, but honestly, JD seems fairly normal and really cool. He even came to help clean, which goes to show that he doesn’t think less of Fi at all. I sense a reconciliation—I just hope he’s ready to deal with the criminal empire that Thony and Fi are involved in. And hopefully, the new event gig that they landed doesn’t provide more problems than it’s worth. 

What did you think of the episode? Thony and Arman might have a shot as no one would think Arman would be crazy enough to work with the feds again after getting busted before.

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