Season 2, Episode 04:
End of a Marriage
Peter arrives at the hospital and speaks to the obstetrician Alex was blackmailing, who tells him that Alex lost her child. He goes into her room and apologizes for his actions with Robin, and she agrees to forgive him on the condition that he stop seeing Robin and have another child with her.
Adam calls in the staff of Communique to announce that he is moving the head office of Brock Global Communications to New York, and has bought out the building the magazine is located in. Despite the staff's fears, he assures them that Communique is a vital part of their growing empire and will staying in the building, while the original offices will be repurposed for the executive suites.
He also meets with Gil after and asks him to leave the brokerage he was at to work for him. He also asks him to give a deadline for the buyout offer to Dianna before he leaves. Gil meets with Dianna and attempts to get her to sell her stocks, but she threatens to dump them on the open market unless Brock meets with her in person that night. Adam reluctantly agrees to meet her that night when he hears about it.
Carrie is sipping coffee at work when she receives a wine bottle with an invitation to meet at the Zinc Bar that night. Gil also drops by to speak with her and Rachel, and lays out his reasoning for Dianna continuing to bother Adam before going back to his brokerage to tender his resignation.
That night, Carrie goes to wait for her admirer at the Zinc Bar with Nikki and Linda. When Linda tells them that Adam was caught up with an unexpected business meeting that night, Carrie reluctantly reveals that he's having dinner with Dianna. Linda decides to head back as Carrie is given a drink from her admirer, only to discover that it tastes horrible. When she questions the bartender, he tells her that the man who ordered it for her has disappeared...
At the Tavern on the Green restaurant, Adam is still stonewalling Dianna, who is still trying to play games with him. He reiterates to her that he's only there because he wants to buy her stock. Despite her attempts to rekindle their relationship, he tells with no uncertainty that he doesn't have any love for her and wants her to get out of his life. Dianna realizes that Linda has gone to the restaurant to find him and intentionally makes her jealous, leading her to storm off.
Adam attempts to smooth over the situation with Linda the next day, but she tells him that she has no time for games and forces him out.
At the same time, Allan goes to meet with Dianna at her hotel and proposes trading an amount of his shares for an equal amount of her shares in Brock Communications. She agrees to take the matter under consideration before he leaves, then goes to Adam and reveals the plan to him before insinuating that Allan will eventually control Rush Media.
Carrie is at work when she receives another gift from her secret admirer. When she opens it, she's horrified to discover a dead rat inside. Rachel laughs at the gift while Carrie reels in shock.
Gil is cleaning out his desk at work when he's greeted by a surprise visitor — Mark Merrill, who arrived to get the deposit he had previously invested with the firm. Gil asks where he was, and Mark tells him that he couldn't make his marriage with Stephanie work, so they agreed to call it quits. When he tells Gil that he came back to Manhattan to work on a new novel, the latter offers to set up a dinner for him with Jordan, who he says could help publish his work. Mark eventually gives his incomplete manuscript to Jordan that night while they eat.
Alex is walking with Linda and Peter in Central Park, and tells them that she's looking forward to spending more time with the family. When Linda points out that she's never heard of the obstetrician Alex went to, the latter quickly makes up an excuse and changes, leading Peter to start question her motives.
Dianna goes to sign the deal with Allan the next day, but before she can finalize her signature, Adam busts his way into the office and tells her that he won't led it stand. The matter eventually results in Allan sucker-punching Adam and having to be dragged off by his lawyers. Adam drags Linda out of the office and calls her out for making trouble for him. He eventually smooths over the matter by offering her a seat on Brock Media's board of directors, and tells her not to make any waves.
Peter goes to the obstetrician who handled Alex's miscarriage and asks for him to transfer her records over to another family doctor. Peter eventually threatens the doctor's job unless he comes clean with his dealings with Alex. He eventually relents and reveals her fake pregnancy and blackmail attempt. Peter realizes that he married Alex for nothing.
When Peter gets home, he confronts her with the knowledge that he knows her scheme. The situation escalates and she pulls a knife on him to stall him. She threatens to kill him if he attempts to leave. When he tells her that their marriage is over, she attacks him and they struggle with the knife for a few moments. He eventually stops her by throwing her onto the couch, then discovers that she fell on her own knife and is dead. He reels in shock at what he's done.
The next day at Communique, Rachel reveals to Carrie her dinner with Gil, Mark and Jordan at the Zinc Bar the night before to. When Carrie goes to Jordan's office to dissuade her from getting involved in business dealings with Mark, he catches her in an elevator, throws his hand over her mouth and threatens to make her life a living hell for the things she'd originally done to him. She flees from the elevator and hides behind a pillar, horrified by what's happened.
Adam eventually makes amends with Linda about his meeting with Dianna and they agree to go out for dinner that night. When she goes to leave, Dianna confronts her and tells her how much she sucks for divorcing Allan and beginning a relationship with Adam, but Linda laughs it off before leaving.
That night, Peter is attempting to explain that Alex bailed on the marriage and was talking about killing herself to Linda when a pair of detectives arrive at his door and reveal that they found Alex's body in the Hudson River. They arrest him on suspicion of murder and take him away as Linda looks on in shock...
Tropes:
- Asshole Victim: Considering how Alex was built up to be an increasingly-unhinged stalker, it's hard to feel any sympathy when she dies by her own hand.
- As You Know: When Dianna and Allan scheme to take over Rush Media via their stock swap, she asks him to explain the deal once more just before they sign it, even though they've spent the day in negotiations. This is done purely so the audience understands what's happening.
- Ax-Crazy: Alex, who attacks Peter with a knife at the end of the episode.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Mark comes back to New York, after having left with Stephanie at the end of the previous season.
- Nikki also returns, having been absent since the end of the first season (not including the
unaired scenes from the second season that only aired in overseas syndication).
- Bus Crash: Stephanie is said to have been placed in a sanitarium after her triumph over Rachel in the first-season finale and subsequent departure back to Seattle with Mark.
- Character Death: Alex.
- Convenient Miscarriage: Alex leads Peter to believe she suffered from one of these, when it was actually a ploy she enacted with the help of the fertility doctor.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Adam tells Gil a story about how Dianna set his pickup truck on fire 35 years earlier when he made the mistake of... not calling her for two days due to being busy at work.
- If I Can't Have You…: Alex comes to this conclusion after Peter discovers her machinations, and tries to murder him as a result.
- It's All My Fault: Stated verbatim by Peter at the beginning of the episode.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Peter, once he realizes how badly he's made things after trying to hide Alex's body.
- My Secret Pregnancy: Alex tries to do this after her "miscarriage", but it fails spectacularly.
- Sanity Slippage: Alex attempts to murder Peter at their home, which results in her falling on her own knife and stabbing herself.
- Spotting the Thread: Linda figures out that something is wrong with Alex's alibi for the miscarriage when she figures out that the obstetrician (that Alex was blackmailing) wasn't on any of the advisory boards for the hospitals she volunteered at.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Everyone gives Peter hell for attempting to hide Alex's body by throwing it in the river.
- Woman Scorned: Alex, once she finally goes off the deep end.
