Book 4 is more of the same and while these posts aren't exactly real time, if I had listened far enough at that point I would have written them all up together. Telemachus visits Menelaus and hears more about how cool his dad Odysseus was. More of the good guest / good host ethic--M. welcomes our hero's son without recognizing him, and fetes him anyway. Then there's some weird caginess I don't understand where M. has recognized him but holds back to see if Telemachus is going own up to his identity. Why? He's you buddy's friend, he's not running scam. We don't get to see the end game as Helen wanders downstairs and blurts out "Hey, Tel, haven't seen you since you were a kid!".
I remember being surprised Helen and Menelaus have no hard feelings Run off with another man for a decade, start a continent-spanning war that destroys a city. Who cares? This is a picture of domestic bliss, the power couple acting as perfect host and hostess. Helen tosses out a "What a shameless whore was I!" lament* but they've clearly moved on.
Then we're back to the suitors to see how the worst guests ever are doing. The guy who loaned Telemachus the ship starts wandering around asking everyone if they've seen him, because he needs his boat back to do an olive oil run or something. The suitors realize T. is probably gathering up support for kicking them out of the house, and respond by upping his game: They will ambush him and kill him. Athena shows up in disguise and is clearly not going to stand for this, but it's a bit of a cliffhanger--the next chapters will move to the ends of the Earth as we finally catch up with Odysseus himself.
*This is literally the line in the Fagles translation.
Oh, and if memory serves there will be even fewer good depictions of women than you might expect. In this case it's more fun to stick with the conceit that this is the series reboot under the original show runner. Homer writes this scene with H. and M. together, someone points out that the first version ended with them not exactly as love birds, and Homer just shrugs and plugs in a reference to lampshade the problem.
