In S01E05, “My Pet”, Molly continues seeing (and dominating) Neighbor Guy, and starts seeing Pet, a man into puppyplay, complete with costume and collar. However, she hasn’t told either of them about her cancer. She orders Neighbor Guy to finish himself off and goes into the bathroom to finish herself off with a vibrator.
Neighbor Guy opens up about his own past (sexual and otherwise) to Molly, but she still keeps everything secret from him.
Because of her own medical emergency, Molly’s friend Nikki is unable to take care of her on her chemotherapy appointment day. Molly reluctantly calls on her eccentric, estranged, recovering drug addict mother, Gail. This is also how Gail learns that Molly’s cancer has returned.
Gail arrives and demolishes Molly’s carefully established boundaries. She informs the rest of Molly’s family about her cancer, and invites multiple people to visit her during her chemotherapy. This includes Molly’s estranged husband, who is also seeing another woman. In retaliation, and under the physical and mental influence of chemo, Molly calls Pet, who shows up in costume. This is enough to make everyone else go away, to Molly’s satisfaction.
Back at Molly’s apartment, Pet and Molly have their golden shower scene, as they had previously discussed. When they come out, however, Gail disapproves and informs Pet that Molly just had chemotherapy and her body is full of toxins. Uncertain if this will show up in her urine, Pet panics, and Molly can’t cut off his costume because the chemo makes her clumsy.
Neighbor Guy has to come over to cut off Pet’s collar and costume, and Gail mentions again that she had chemotherapy, to Neighbor Guy’s surprise. This leads to Molly coming clean to Neighbor Guy about her cancer, and why she broke her leg when she kicked him in the dick. Molly insists that she doesn’t want to have a “tragic love story” and tries to break it off with Neighbor Guy. Even though he is devastated by this news, Neighbor Guy asks that she continue kicking him in the dick.
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s rare to see a non-professional female dominant in mainstream media. Molly is an interesting case, as the dominant role meets her need for control in relationships, but it also fits with her intimacy issues and her inability to have an orgasm with other people. It’s a way to vent her frustrations and anger too, though not in a harmful way.
This episode also explores the recurring question of the relationship between kink relationships and intimate relationships, as seen in Secretary, Fifty Shades, Preaching to the Perverted, Exit to Eden and other works.
One pet peeve I have about this story is that, despite cancer, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and related conditions, Molly is still sexually desirable, the epitome of pretty white lady. (She’s also lucky enough that she’s on her estranged husband’s health insurance.)
