"Pride Comes Before a Fall" offered a small glimpse of what Amanda was like in high school towards the rest of the women, and it was fantastic.

Like I briefly mentioned last week, I was getting sick of Amanda just taking everything the women had dished out at her - and watching her old, mean self come back to play for just a little while offered up some much needed retaliation. Which ended up working towards mending their friendships, amazingly. I was half-expecting them to further take up arms against her.

Plus, watching Amanda take down Carlene in one cold, brutally honest verbal smack down was awesome. She definitely wins this week’s GCB quote competition with:

Amanda: You couldn't become a star even if Hollywood was destroyed by a meteor. | permalink

The women are a lot more fun when they’re together versus when they’re at odds, and Amanda’s officially sanctioned javelina-ing of herself proves that. No matter how many tear downs Carlene has had, and no matter how strong of a façade she puts up, she is still dealing with her past. All of the women are - in way or another - and all of the torture they suffered through from Amanda in high school only compounds their insecurities.

Carlene is facing a lot of the same struggles that so many women are presented with. Society dictates you lose your own dreams when you decide to have a family, and while new ones come along for the ride, and women love their families unconditionally, that is still a difficult thing to come to terms with. Carlene is focused on her marriage and on her children and the only time she gets to live out what she loves to do is on that church stage.

So why wouldn’t she try to leverage herself in to the lead role?

Speaking of the play, it was slightly awkward, but who knew Mark Deklin had such a fantastic set of pipes? He and Kristin need to sing a duet together.

Finally, we need to talk about Sharon, who enlists Gigi in helping her sell her Losin’ it With Jesus meals on the local home shopping channel. I’m usually a big of Gigi and her humor, but tonight mostly fell flat. I loved when Gigi opened up to Sharon about how insecure she felt in her abilities as a mother when Amanda ran away, and it explains why she’s at times hesitant around Amanda. But aside from that her and Sharon weren’t that fun to watch.

I would much rather Gigi goes back and shares scenes with Amanda and gossip about the ladies in hushed whispers with her.

Two other thoughts:

1. Pastor vs Pastor. kudos to GCB for continually opening up Pastor John with witty one-liners.
2. This week in Carlene injuries: taking out the stain glass windows in one ice cube and bamboo cleanse weighted harness.

What did you think of tonight’s episode? Be sure to head on over to our GCB quotes page to see more of our favorite one-liners.