Imperfect Women Recap ‘Crush’: Her Best Friend’s Husband

Imperfect Women Recap Episode 2

This show recap contains some book details/ spoilers.

When I wrote the recap of the first episode, I had not yet read the book this show was based on. As of this writing, I have already started reading it, and I can comment on some of the changes made so far. In general, I think the changes have been for the better. Whether my opinion will shift as the story goes on, well, we will see.

First off, the book was set in London. Robert, a human rights lawyer, and Nancy, a book translator, were both from wealthy families. In the show, having Robert and Nancy come from opposite sides of the social divide provided their marriage with texture and built in conflict. Robert was from old wealth. Nancy, as Eleanor pointed out to Detective Ganz when she referred to her friend as a Pasadena socialite, had a rough life before Robert – alcoholic mother, abusive stepfather, trailer park. The picture perfect wealthy man’s wife had scars. The callousness of Robert’s family toward Nancy had bite because they would not have considered her to be one of them, regardless of her long and relatively successful marriage to Robert. 

In the book, Davide was a French author whose books Nancy translated. Turning him into a painter for the show gave it the opportunity for some striking visuals, including that episode one painting of Nancy. Davide told Mary and Eleanor that Nancy wanted him to paint her scars. He also called them out for not seeing what Nancy was not hiding, that she was drowning in her misery. 

The biggest change so far was Eleanor’s characterisation. Implicit to a work of fiction entitled ‘Imperfect Women’ is the understanding that the characters would be flawed. Show Eleanor was glossed with wealth and success, and a long history, especially with her beloved father, with Robert. Book Eleanor worked in what she described as a ‘drab gray office’, and lived in a flat above a sweet old woman. The show removed her relationship with Irena and the guilt she felt because of something too book spoilery to discuss here. Her relationship with Robert in the book was mostly through Nancy. In the show, Eleanor and Robert would take boat trips with Eleanor’s father. Show Eleanor was the social equal of Show Robert; her family was so wealthy that they bankrolled her extensive charity work.

In both the book and show iterations, Eleanor had spent most of her adult life being in love with Robert. Was I entirely comfortable that Eleanor and Robert became lovers? Not at all. Can I accept that it makes sense thematically? Yes.

Life, a friend of mine shrugged a few years back when we were discussing a story shared by a reporter of her experiences on the field, including an affair with a married man. Human beings are messy. Eleanor, with all her wealth and social clout, was messy. She was sleeping with a man who worked for her. She genuinely loved Nancy, but after she died, the thought occurred to her that this was her chance with Robert, and that perhaps, Nancy would understand. She had spent over two decades on the outside of the glow of Robert’s love for Nancy. How much of her decision to be there for Robert and Cora, to always be there, to be at their house, to help with Cora’s birthday, to drive with Robert to Ojai with Nancy’s things because looking at them every day hurt him too much, was Eleanor simply being a good friend? How much of it was because she was drawn to Robert, and Nancy’s death gave her the excuse to be near him, to be helpful to him, to gain his gaze finally, after all this time, without Nancy’s ethereal presence between them?

Eleanor had been furious at her brother Donovan for warning Robert away from her in the halcyon days of their youth, before Robert’s relationship with Nancy cemented into a marriage. Donovan had pointed out that she and Robert were like minded people who would have been the perfect couple, if the rest of the world did not exist. Donovan did not trust Robert’s old money family, which was why he did not want Robert dating his sister. 

Eleanor’s fury aside, not just at Donovan’s past interference, but in his decision to have her followed (he was the one who sent the men who photographed her and Robert at the ballet), did Donovan truly prevent Robert from falling in love with Eleanor? Eleanor and Robert did meet first, on that fateful night at university, but then Robert met Nancy on the same night, and as far as we know, he has had his gaze fixed on her since then. In the book, Robert claimed not to remember meeting Eleanor, and assumed they met through Nancy.

That Robert seized a moment of comfort with Eleanor was understandable when he was the grieving husband who found out his wife was having an affair mere minutes before the cops came and told him she was dead. On top of everything else, he had to deal with being a suspect in his wife’s murder. Eleanor was always there, offering her help, and, rightly or wrongly, he sought comfort from her. But, as Eleanor found out on the night that they first slept together, right there in Nancy and Robert’s Ojai house, with boxes upon boxes of Nancy’s things that they together moved from the Pasadena house, Robert already knew of Nancy’s affair. He wrote her a letter apologising for how angry he got, for how he scared her. Was he playing Eleanor this whole time?

Through all this, Eleanor held a secret. Why else would she insist to her lover Jordan that on the night of Nancy’s murder, she was already with him after 10pm, when he was certain she did not arrive at his place until one in the morning? Jordan thought his mandate was to be discreet about their relationship, but Eleanor told him that should the police ask about her, he could tell them she was at his place. Eleanor was none too subtly coopting Jordan into providing her with an alibi at around the time Nancy died. 

And what of Mary, from whom Nancy hid her affair? Whilst Eleanor was busy with Robert, Mary had opened her own investigation into Nancy’s death. She had been so intent on getting the police to follow the leads she generated, that when Eleanor picked her up at the police station, Detective Ganz warned Eleanor that next time, Mary would be in handcuffs. Was Mary’s single minded determination to find Nancy’s murderer a product of her grief and guilt that her best friend did not confide in her in the final year of her life? Or something else?

With 'Crush', Imperfect Women remained from Eleanor's point of view. Was this because she knew the least of the mystery, or the most? I suppose we'll find out.

Rating: B

Strays

🏠Despite his objections, Robert’s family hired a PR team for him. It was them who released the photo of Davide with Nancy laid on his lap, to pressure the police into arresting him, which they did, but on a robbery charge. He was eventually released.

🏠Donovan also had a man tailing Eleanor, he said, because Eleanor had a tendency to be unpredictable following a tragedy. What Eleanor went through or did after her father died, we do not yet know.  

🏠Eleanor persuaded Robert to push through with Cora’s 17th birthday party, but following Cora’s upset outburst over Robert removing Nancy’s things from the house, Cora herself decided to cancel the party and return to her boarding school.  

🏠Young Marcus now worked at Eleanor’s office.

🏠Eleanor’s conversation with Mary about taking something hinted at a possible addiction or mental health issue.

🏠Whilst Mary and Eleanor were at Davide’s studio, he casually mentioned an accident that Nancy claimed was her fault. Both Mary and Eleanor were adamant it was not her fault. 

🏠About the photo of Nancy and Davide that got out, Davide said it was at a party, and Nancy was with another guy. All he could or would say about the guy was that he was White; he even refused to look at a photo of Robert.  

🏠The fishing rod hanging on Eleanor’s wall that Jordan asked about belonged to her father, as did the car she drove. 

🏠There was some clunky dialogue here that I hope won't be a feature in future episodes.

🏠I am currently about a third into the book, and I'm hopeful I'll find time to finish reading it this week.

Episode Title: Crush

Episode Writer: Aaron Fullerton 

Episode Director: Nzingha Stewart

Original Release Date: March 18, 2026

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