‘Good Girls’: Dean Says He Has Cancer

Good Girls fans learned about an unexpected health scare when Dean Boland (Matthew Lillard) revealed he has cancer.

The reveal came as Dean’s wife Beth (Christina Hendricks) was hosting a birthday party for their son during the latest episode, entitled “Atom Bomb.”

Gang leader Rio unexpectedly shows up to the home and Beth argues with him and shoos him away. Dean, who has not been living at home, sees Rio and becomes suspicious that Beth has a secret boyfriend.

He confronts her inside the home and berates her with questions. She brings up Dean’s past affair with his former secretary, Amber Dooley (Sara Paxton).

Beth eventually has enough and demands that Dean leave the house. He reminds her that he is still her husband and she quips back that she “needs to get on that.”

Distraught at the implication of a divorce, an emotional Dean tells Beth he has cancer. The estranged couple stares at each other in silence as their kids fill the kitchen, unaware of their father’s reveal.

Dean does not specify what kind of cancer he has.

This reveal will go one of two ways.

The first is that Dean actually does have cancer and has kept it form his family until now. We have not seen that much of Dean’s life since Beth kicked him out, so it is totally possible that he has been diagnosed in secret.

His condition would bring the family together, but the treatments would give Beth yet another reason to live a life of crime.

However, there is a second way this story arc could go. Dean could be lying about having cancer.

Dean has been painted as a liar since his affair and financial mistakes were revealed in the pilot episode. His desperation has only increased since being kicked out by Beth, and he possibly wanted a way back into the family dynamic.

Regardless of his intentions, fans of the show were firing off their reactions on Twitter after the moment aired. Some are shocked by the reveal and others are suspicious of his motives.

“I did NOT see that happening!” one fan wrote. “Damn Dean!”

Viewer Karen Curnock added, “Don’t believe him for one minute. He cheats, he lies..”

Good Girls airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.

Photo Credit: NBC / Steve Dietl