Three Womenis a 2024 limited TV series that premiered on Starz and, over 10 episodes, tells the stories of four women who are all in the process of radically changing their lives. Limited series andminiseries include some of the best TV showsever, with the smaller format striking the perfect balance between the tightness of a movie script and the ample room for character and story exploration a TV show can offer. Starz’sThree Womenpremiered in September 2024 with a weekly release of 10 episodes.
TheTV series stars Shailene Woodleyas Gia, DeWanda Wise as Sloane, Betty Gilpin as Lina, Gabrielle Creevy as Maggie, Blair Underwood as Richard, and John Patrick Amedori as Jack. With a 33% onRotten Tomatoes,Three Womendid not end up being the massivehit that other Starz series likeOutlanderbecame. However, with three weaving storylines, viewers should be able to find something they enjoy in the 10-episode show. Based on the 2019 book of the same name by Lisa Taddeo,Three Womenintimately explores the moving portrait of women reclaiming their lives.
Episode 1
Three Women
The first episode ofThree Womenoutlines the story going forward. Gia is a novelist struggling to come up with the next idea. To find her next plot, Gia decides to venture across America, where she runs into three women perfect for a novel about American sex. Lina is a married woman struggling to find happiness in her marriage. Sloane is a wealthy mother with a delicate open marriage with her husband. Maggie is a young woman who has lost her way after having an affair with her married English teacher in high school. Gia has got her story.
Episode 2
Cord
“Cord” focuses on Lina, exploring her marriage. In the episode, Lina’s husband Ed (Sean Meehan) is shown not to be solely uninterested in sex, but uninterested in touching Lina in any way. Worse yet, he denies her feelings about the situation, saying they are just in her head. At a crossroads, Lina meets up with a high school friend, Aidan (Austin Stowell), and the pair immediately kiss, despite both being in marriages. Lina shares what she did with her women’s group and with Gia, with whom she’s gotten closer, and they are all surprisingly in support.
Episode 3
Sloane
Episode 3 ofThree Womennaturally deals with Sloan, as the title suggests. Gia is not in the picture as much as Sloane’s family life is more deeply explored.Her mother, Dyan (April Grace), was overly critical during Sloane’s childhood and continues to be so, leading to Sloane being hyper-obsessed with working outand creating an eating disorder in Sloane. Sloane and Richard’s open marriage gets more strained as Sloane becomes increasingly infatuated with an oyster salesman named Will (Blair Redford), and Richard even admits he’s not interested in an open marriage.
Episode 4
Maggie
Maggie is the focus ofThree Womenepisode 4. The details of Maggie’s past are shown and help illustrate how her English teacher Aaron (Jason Ralph) was able to get his claws in her. As a 16-year-old living in Hawaii for a summer, she began a physical romance with a 31-year-old guy. When that ended,the wounded Maggie found comfort in her teacher who groomed her from freshmen year until they consummated the relationshipher senior year. Aaron never went to jail, and Maggie struggled afterward. However, the end of the episode sees her committing to becoming a social worker.
Episode 5
Gia
With the three women ofThree Womencovered, episode 5 covers Gia’s story, and she has quite a tragic one. The audience already knows both her parents passed away, but it’s also revealed that Gia had a miscarriage. She was previously in a relationship with a man named Jack, buthis overeagerness and her reticence made the pairing uncomfortable and difficult. When Jack accidentally got Gia pregnant, Gia was terrified, but losing the baby was even worse. This past combined with the pressures of needing a book fast are all driving Gia to the edges of her sanity.
Episode 6
Climax
“Climax” goes back to following each of the three women inThree Women, resulting in shorter screen time for each. In Sloane’s story, she and Will are growing even closer and the ever-compromising Richard finally allows him into their home. As Will and Sloane begin to hook up, Richard looks on distraught. Lina finally leaves Ed, who’s so unaware, he can only laugh in disbelief. Her night with Aidan, however, is romantic and loving, everything she wanted. Maggie’s story is much less titillating as she gives her court testimony about her sexual liaisons with Aaron.
Episode 7
Two Women
InThree Womenepisode 7, Jack is now back in Gia’s life, and it seems that she is once again pregnant. Jack has dropped everything to move across the country and help her raise the baby. While Gia is still unsure about all this change, Lina is very sure about her decision with Aidan, even dropping her kids off at Gia’s so she can rendezvous with the married man. The two friends are having opposite experiences. Gia is unsure about a man ready to be with her, and Lina is certain about a man with other commitments.
Episode 8
Twilight
InThree Womenepisode 8, “Twilight”, the extent of Maggie’s affair with her teacher, Aaron, is discussed in detail. The reality of the situation is shown to the audience, but the fiction created by Aaron and his lawyers is what the judge hears. This was clearly a case of Aaron grooming the underage Maggie. He even usedthe vampire filmTwilightas a way to explain his feelings for her when they were together. Painted as a homewrecker who seduced an innocent man,the case looks bad for Maggie, who is still reeling from her father’s suicide.
Episode 9
Sex On Drugs
“Sex on Drugs” begins a few months after episode 7, and Gia is annoyed with Sloane for not committing to her book yet. A much more pregnant Gia catches up with Sloane, who tells her about her life. Sloane’s feelings for Will are only growing more intense, and her friendship with Will’s girlfriend, Lily (Lola Kirke), only complicates matters. To make things work, Sloane suggests a foursome between everyone, and with psychedelic mushrooms involved, things get messy. People get jealous, relationships get strained, and Richard forgets to wear a condom with Lily.
Episode 10
Her Name
TheThree Womenfinale, “Her Name”, mostly ties up the loose ends of the story. Maggie told her story and bravely confirmed with Gia that she could use it. While some still blame her, she now has a more confident outlook on life, and a chance meeting with a guy her age on an airplane suggests she’s ready for a healthy relationship.Sloane finally confronts her mother about her bad parenting and reconciles with Richard, seemingly coming to terms with her love for him.
Three Women Showrunner Laura Eason Explains How Real Life Crept Into The Starz Show & Made It Better
Three Women showrunner Laura Eason discusses making the author a character, working with Shailene Woodley and DeWanda Wise, and key takeaways.
Lina’s story ends with her realizing that her infatuation with Aidan is unhealthy, and she determines to become a more present mother to her son, Ryan (Finn Brown). Her relationship with Aidan is left up in the air. Gia’s story is the most complicated. She does give birth to a healthy baby, but how Jack will figure into her story remains a question mark.Three Womenwas 10 episodes of probing looks at the sex lives of women in modern America, in all its shapes and forms, and like in real life, not everything ends with a tidy bow.
Cast
“Three Women” follows the intertwined lives of Sloane, Lina, and Maggie, each facing unique challenges in their personal and romantic lives. Sloane, a successful businesswoman, explores the boundaries of her open marriage. Lina, stuck in a passionless marriage, finds herself in a transformative affair. Maggie, a young student, navigates the repercussions of a controversial relationship with her teacher.
