'The Madison' Episode 3 Recap: Is Abigail Going To Stay In Montana?

As per usual, episode 3 of The Madison opens with a flashback to a time when Preston was still around. And again, as per usual, Preston is in Montana, talking to Stacy on the phone because she is in NYC. This time around, the topic of their conversation is Abigail, who is going through a divorce with her husband, Dallas. Stacy is of the opinion that since Abigail will be expecting to fall back on her parents (her parents’ money, to be specific) for support after going through this tumultuous phase of her life, they should subvert said expectations by cutting her loose and letting her figure things out on her own. Preston says that that ship has sailed, and at this stage, all they can do is give Abigail a cushion to land on every time she falls, because she has grown too accustomed to that process. Stacy believes that she is young and has an ample amount of time to work on herself, but Preston remains steadfast in his belief that Abigail is too spoiled to trudge through the complications of life to be beaten into shape as she is nearing her 40s. Well, now that Stacy’s family is under her control and she doesn’t have to consider Preston’s opinion regarding how she wants to run this ship, can she execute her lifelong plan of making Abigail self-sufficient? Let’s find out.

Spoiler Alert

Abigail and Paige Get Into A Fight

Russell wants to celebrate the fact that Cade’s baking soda paste tactic has worked, and the swelling on his eye, which was caused by a hornet sting, has as good as disappeared. But since Abigail and Paige decide to get into a fight over pancakes and elk sausage (and by “fight,” I mean a full-on brawl), Russell has to postpone that celebration and momentarily exit the house, along with Bridgett and Macy. Stacy arrives to put a stop to this nonsense and orders the girls to clean up the mess they have made. Before leaving the house, she makes a remark about how the girls’ bad behavior is a result of her own bad parenting, which is why they have forgotten that they are in Montana to honor their father’s memory, but the way Abigail and Paige act, they seem psychopathic. Apologies for calling them “girls,” but they are full-grown women. If you are battling your siblings in your 30s or 40s like you are 10 years old, then that’s probably a sign of mental health issues. Unlike what The Madison tries to say, “tough love” and “throwing one into the deep end” won’t fix these problems; ideally, people like Abigail and Paige should be put in a psychiatric hospital so that they can get proper treatment. And if your reaction to my assessment of these two women is that I haven’t grown up in a chaotic household, all I will say is that every family that’s as unstable as this needs medical help, not a show centered around them that’ll depict their “evolution” into a normal household because they shifted from the city to the great outdoors. I mean, Russell is used as the punching bag because he has mommy issues and isn’t wild and rowdy, but realistically speaking, this is the most normal person in the family. If they took a page from his book, they wouldn’t have to live in Montana to get some life lessons; just saying.

Stacy and Abigail Meet Cade’s Family

Stacy asks Cade to take her to the sheriff’s office so that she can collect Paul’s pickup truck (for all that talk about loving the environment, he sure loved to destroy it with his choice of vehicles), and Cade heeds her request almost immediately. Since Paige and Abigail are done cleaning up their mess, Stacy orders the latter to come to the sheriff’s office with her and then to Cade’s house so that the girls’ “thank you” note can be hand-delivered to Cade’s wife, Kestrel. While meeting Kestrel, Stacy asks her about the school situation in Montana, because she fully plans to keep her family here and is pretty happy to learn that it’s not a “safe space” like schools in the city. After bidding Kestrel farewell, the trio hits the highway again to get to the sheriff’s office, and Cade gets Stacy to talk about how he met Kestrel, and for some reason, the terminology that Cade uses confuses the hell out of Abigail. This is just stupid writing. As someone who isn’t from the “great” United States of America and has an average hold on the English language, I can understand what Cade is talking about. However, in order to show how out of touch Abigail is just because she is a “city gal,” does she have to be dumbed down to this extent? And this doesn’t happen once, but twice! When Cade talks to his police friend, Van, regarding a horse in Abigail’s presence, she seems clueless. Of course, they are talking about an animal; what else could the people of Montana be talking about in those terms? I think there were better ways to show that Abigail is “posh,” but I guess Sheridan has opted for the most braindead route in existence. Anyway, while all that’s going on, Stacy gets permission to take Paul’s vehicle home. She reaches the brink of losing her composure when she spots a gun in the glove compartment, but since Abigail checks on her, she calms down. Abigail thinks that they can drive back to the ranch on their own, but Cade advises her to just follow his car to the ranch so that they don’t get lost since they are new there.

Stacy Abandons Abigail

En route to the ranch, Abigail and Stacy get into a tiff regarding the former’s future plans, or the lack thereof. Stacy says that she’s going to sell Abigail’s house, because technically it is Stacy’s house, so that Abigail and her children can permanently move to Montana and spend the rest of their lives there. This causes Abigail to freak out, and she orders Stacy to stop the car so that she can get off; Stacy obliges Abigail’s request and abandons her in the middle of nowhere on the highway. Cade spots that drama unfolding and tells Van to come to Abigail’s rescue, and, of course, the damsel-in-distress gets a ride from the knight in shining armor. In the meantime, Cade catches up to Stacy, who seems to be contemplating using that gun in the glove compartment on herself, but since Cade is there, that thought exits her mind. Given how Cade has lost family to suicide (Sheridan’s writing when it comes to the topic of suicide and death is surprisingly poignant), he offers to hold onto the gun for her, and maybe since Stacy doesn’t exactly trust herself currently, she hands over the weapon to Cade. The next thing that Stacy does is call up Liliana and ask her to come to Montana, because she’s slowly starting to realize that she has bitten off more than she can chew. She had spent decades depending on Preston, and now that she has to take care of things herself, she feels a little rudderless. However, asking for help from your best friend isn’t a sign of weakness; asking for help is never a sign of weakness, period. It shows that you are pragmatic and know when you are out of your depth. Given how Liliana knows what Stacy is going through, she promises to board a plane as soon as possible and reunite with Stacy.

Abigail Will Stay In Montana For Van

Stacy heads to the ranch to have dinner with her family, while Abigail goes to Cade’s ranch with Van to spend some time with them, Kestrel, and the rest of their family. Kestrel notices something brewing between Abigail and Van, and she signals her husband and her boys to head home so that that romance can blossom. Abigail and Van talk about their respective kids and the status of their respective spouses (Van’s wife is dead, and Abigail’s husband is dead to her), and then Van takes Abigail home (to her home, not his). After getting there, the two exchange a kiss and exchange numbers as well. This plot development is celebrated by Abigail’s family. Stacy watches all this unfold from afar and goes into flashback mode again, so that we can see Kurt Russell and Michelle Pfeiffer naked in a bathtub talking about taking care of their on-screen 35-year-old adolescent child. It’s another version of the argument they were having earlier, where Preston wanted to protect Abigail all her life while Stacy wanted to throw her into the deep end so that she could learn to swim. In the ending of The Madison, episode 3, after seeing Abigail fall in love with Van and deciding to stay in Montana a little while longer, Stacy arrives at the conclusion that she was right all this while, and Preston was wrong. I think both of them are wrong. Preston’s overprotective nature doesn’t make any sense, but how can Stacy see Abigail leaving one man and then leaning on another as a win? How’s that going to help her figure out who she is as an individual and help her be self-sufficient? Oh wait, I know; the show is going to peddle the notion that you don’t need to figure out stuff on your own when you have a partner who loves you, or something along those lines, right? If Sheridan does anything other than that, I will be surprised.

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