This article contains spoilers for Margo’s Got Money Troubles Episode 7.
Episode 7 of Margo’s Got Money Troubles escalates the fallout of Margo’s online presence in devastating fashion, pushing every character towards a breaking point that feels both inevitable and tragic. “Lariat Takedown,” written by Eva Anderson and David E. Kelley, stands as the show’s strongest episode to date, with the ensemble delivering award-worthy performances. It is also an instalment that makes Apple TV’s decision to submit the series in Comedy categories throughout the upcoming awards season all the more baffling, if not outright misguided.
Picking up directly after Episode 6, “Lariat Takedown” establishes the impossible position Margo (Elle Fanning) finds herself in. During a meeting with Lace (Nicole Kidman), Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Jinx (Nick Offerman), the show lays out the reality of Mark’s custody claim, which, while legally understandable, is nevertheless devastating. Lace explains that regardless of how Mark (Michael Angarano) behaved after he received word of Margo’s pregnancy and Bodhi’s birth, the state of California still recognises his parental rights. Margo can agree to shared custody, challenge him in court at enormous financial cost, or attempt mediation.
Pfeiffer continues delivering career-best work throughout the episode. Her line delivery remains immaculate, particularly during her rant about Mark filling Margo with “college intellectual fuck juice,” which is both hilarious and still somehow restrained given the circumstances. Shyanne is well aware of the hypocrisy surrounding Margo, even if she occasionally struggles to articulate it appropriately. Something emphasised later when she breaks Elizabeth’s (Marcia Gay Harden) jaw. While it’s not going to help Margo’s case, it is entirely deserved, particularly as Elizabeth believes Mark was preyed upon by Margo.
That protectiveness emerges again when she insists that Margo present herself differently for mediation. She does her makeup, chooses a conservative outfit, and encourages her to look like a breastfeeding mom rather than the internet caricature Mark plans to weaponise against her. It feels cruel, but the sequence perfectly encapsulates what Margo’s Got Money Troubles does best in highlighting how systems designed to appear impartial disproportionately punish women with fewer resources.
The mediation scenes are among the strongest, though the episode offers plenty of high-stakes drama. Angarano plays Mark with infuriating self-assurance, conveniently basing his concerns around Margo’s financial instability, her living situation, and her OnlyFans work, repeatedly positioning himself as the reasonable adult protecting Bodhi from dysfunction. If anything, he himself fails to recall how the pair came to this situation in the first place, given that he singled out his promising student and embarked on an affair with her.
Crucially, the episode never lessens the misogyny underpinning his argument. Mark insists Margo will never secure a respectable career or relationship because of her sex work and fears Bodhi growing up around women involved in similar industries. It is horrifying, but reflective of the way society continues to view women whom it no longer considers ‘pure’ or respectable.
Elsewhere, the episode continues to explore Jinx’s mental state. Offerman has delivered astonishing work all season, but “Lariat Takedown” may showcase his finest performance yet. His scenes with Susie (Thaddea Graham) initially carry some of the episode’s few lighter moments – even if there’s an undercurrent of sadness throughout – particularly when she attempts to make plans while dressed as Shadowheart from Baldur’s Gate 3. Jinx already feels detached from the people around him, and there is a growing sense that something is seriously wrong. It seems this is tied to the Las Vegas trip and the back injury sustained after fighting Lace.
The upset itself arrives with little warning, something familiar to those who have ever been around somebody with addiction struggles. Margo and Susie discover Jinx unconscious in the bath with a needle in his arm, a distressing sequence that director Alice Seabright matches the urgency of. Their frantic attempts to revive him play out in real time as Susie performs CPR while Margo administers naloxone she had secretly kept nearby. Fanning and Graham excel here, enough to break your heart as the pair do everything they can to save Jinx’s life.
Offerman and Pfeiffer impress further, as Jinx heads to a treatment centre. Their scenes together carry years of affection, resentment, and tenderness that neither Jinx nor Shyanne knows how to handle. It’s easy to hope for development to occur between them, but Margo’s Got Money Troubles continues to succeed at portraying complicated adult relationships that cannot be reduced to romance or reconciliation. This is partly explained when Jinx admits he has abused opioids since 2004 after a wrestling injury led to multiple surgeries. The title “Lariat Takedown” suddenly takes on much heavier meaning. One wrestling move altered the entire trajectory of his life, and the consequences continue rippling decades later.
What follows proves equally gut-wrenching. Margo reveals she manages Jinx’s prescription medication because his opioid addiction has resurfaced after his back injury, though he has evidently been skimming them since Vegas. Tonight, however, he used heroin. The admission reframes much of his behaviour throughout recent episodes and reinforces how carefully the series has seeded warning signs around his relapse.
If the episode were not upsetting enough already, the closing stages introduce a 730 evaluation that Mark orders, as well as a visit from Child Protective Services. Margo returns home to find CPS and a public health nurse waiting with Susie and Bodhi after an anonymous complaint. The complaint could easily lead back to Mark, but given Kenny’s (Greg Kinnear) silence at the hospital, it does not seem that answers will come easily.
CPS must examine Bodhi, inspect the house, and drug test all adults in the home. Even Susie faces questions about their online content despite explaining that nothing they capture is illegal. Jinx’s role in these scenes proves especially heartbreaking. He explains his relapse, confirms he is entering a methadone programme, and removes himself from the household at Margo’s insistence, despite the choice breaking her.
“Lariat Takedown” strips away any illusion that Margo can outsmart the consequences closing in around her. With phenomenal performances from Fanning, Thaddea, Pfeiffer, and especially Offerman, the penultimate episode pushes Margo’s Got Money Troubles into devastating territory ahead of its finale.
