Meet The Joneses – The Cleaner Episode Review

Meet The Joneses – The Cleaner Episode Review – Soccer Mom Drug Ring

August 19th, 2008 · No Comments

The Cleaner Episode ‘Meet The Joneses’ depicts “soccer moms” in a drug ring. The Cleaner, William (played wonderfully by Benjamin Bratt) is contacted by the husband, Richard, to help his wife. He tells William that she just isn’t sleeping anymore and that she is still taking pain pills for an old injury. He is very concerned. William advises the husband that he will look check out the wife for him.

William is also having issues at home of his own though. Melissa, his wife, is getting very frustrated at William not helping out enough. He is constantly forgetting promises he has made in regards to helping her. On this day he was to rent her a car, because hers broke down, but he forgot. With this frustration, Melissa has decided to make William take more responsibility. She is leaving him in charge of the kids, alone, on Tuesday and Thursday nights. She feels she is due a break. William agrees.

Back to the drug mom, William and Arnie decide to take a look at Barbara’s (soccer mom) house and her banking records. They discover she has many prescription bottles from all over town. They then decide to contact the doctors to see if they will cut Barbara off. Darnell plants a tracking device on Barbara’s car. He is concerned though that tracking her will interfere with his new online friend. He is trying to make a date with her. William advises Darnell that the job comes first.

Akani and Arnie decide to pose as husband and wife at the playground so that they can infiltrate Barbara’s group. They go to the playground with a “rented” kid. The kid is pretty funny, but obviously not interested in playing the part. Akani and Arnie’s attempt at entering the circle were rebuffed. However, they did witness a very important event. Barbara was sitting with many soccer mom and dad’s. They were having a meeting about their drug runs. Cash was collected from the other parents. William and his crew now believe Barbara and her friends are taking turns running to doctors and then supplying the group with drugs. This way, they feel, it will make the doctors less suspicious and then they can continue with their drug habit.

William tries, in vain, to make his son go to the baseball game with him. He feels that this is the way to really bond with him. But, Ben won’t have it. Melissa first tries to persuade him to go with his dad, but in the end she realizes that Ben has his own issues with his father to work out. She decides to stop pushing him. She also tells William that he should talk to his son, but William is too stubborn to do so.

William decides to meet with Richard about his wife. He informs him that his friends and wife are running a drug circle. He also states that it is time to take action and freezes all of Barbara’s accounts. Barbara is starting to lose control. She has visited her doctor and found out she was cut off. She has tried to access her accounts and could not. She is starting to look disheveled. Barbara the soccer mom feels her world spiraling out of control. She was late to her own child’s birthday party but she still maintained she was in control and fine.

Her rock bottom finally took place when she needed drugs so badly that she slammed her hand, multiple times, into a drawer. When her husband returned home she was high. She was so high that she didn’t know where her children were. Richard was furious. He tells her it is over and that she is going to rehab. He takes her by the hand and kicks her out of the house. She begs and pleads. William appears and tells her it is time to go. She reluctantly goes with him.

In the end, even though William has his own struggles, he is proving to be most helpful to those out there still trying to find their way. Every day William talks to God and he assures him that he is doing everything possible to keep up his end of the bargain.

The featured song from Meet The Joneses is:

Song: “Said and Done”