Of course, not all of the jokes were of the off-color variety. I laughed quite a bit at poor Pete (David Starzyk), who kept trying to tell Melanie (Valerie Bertinelli) that he loves her, too, as she said to him in last summer's finale. Unfortunately, with Pete frequently arresting Melanie's friends, she doesn't have much patience for him. I found the situation bizarrely amusing. It seems Pete is being set up to stay around for a bit, so I'm glad they worked it out when Pete finally accepted his girlfriend's law-breaking friends, and began to let their behavior slide. I just hope he doesn't lose his job.
I was also pleased to see Elka show some real compassion. I worship Betty White, and have before it became recently trendy again, but Elka is often portrayed fairly mean-spirited, especially towards Joy, whom she doesn't care for. This week, Elka and Joy used their time behind bars to bond, rather than trade barbs. It was a welcome step towards cementing the friendship of the four central women, as Elka is definitely part of their group by this point.
Victoria (Wendie Malick) was the lone actress who wasn't really featured as much this week. That's OK; she'll surely get her turn. The series is generally pretty balanced to its four stars, all of which are, in fact, stars. Victoria was around, she just didn't have a rich solo story. I guess with everything else going on, it was just Victoria's turn to take a breather.
Hot in Cleveland airs on TVLand Wenesday nights at 10 p.m.
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