Loveday Writing

Later, Julia goes to see Leon to inform him that she is hosting Thanksgiving at her apartment this year, with the Bechley family now expanding and she has invited Donovan, telling Leon about him for the first time. Leon says no due to his desire to maintain their own tradition. Meanwhile Roxy visits Isaac to give him a novelty gift and he tells her he’ll be working through Thanksgiving so he can send extra money to his family in Sudan. Roxy invites him to Julia’s Thanksgiving if he wants to come later on.

Meanwhile, Julia meets up with Donovan. Donovan tells her that his kids are spending Thanksgiving with their grandparents in Florida, Julia invites him to her Thanksgiving dinner. Roxy meets Hannah at the diner, Hannah tells her that she came from Chicago by bus, Roxy asks her to go the Institute to do the DNA test, but Hannah tells her she did a DNA test she ordered online and it was positive. Hannah is clearly dodgy, but when she tells Roxy that she is a big fan of hers, Roxy immediately bonds with her.

Later, Julia discusses changing the name of the Institute with Isaac and shortly after Leon arrives to give the staff their Thanksgiving bonuses, just before Julia was about to tell them that the Institute hasn’t been making enough money to provide bonuses. Leon tells her that the bonuses have come from his personal bank account as his problems are not hers or the staff’s fault. Leon finds Julia’s draft logos for the Institute name change, which forces her to come clean about it. He reluctantly goes along with it and tells her he’s changed his mind about Thanksgiving and he will go to her dinner.

Meanwhile, Edie gives Tim’s parents, Cornelius and Gladys, a tour of their office and she receives a text message from Lorenzo asking her if she and Amanda are fighting. Later, Edie and Julia continue dinner preparations when Roxy arrives with Hannah, clearly drunk or high. Leon arrives early and tells Julia to freeze her eggs, correctly guessing that as Donovan already has two teenagers that he doesn’t want another child.

Eventually everyone arrives, including Gladys, Cornelius, Genevieve, and Isaac. Roxy and Hannah come downstairs and Leon is immediately suspicious of her, asking who she is. It isn’t until dinner is about to get started that Leon asks Hannah how old she is, she tells him she is 19 and a half. He tells her and everyone else that he stopped “donating” 22 years ago, and that he remembers every patient and he doesn’t remember anyone named Bloom. Hannah admits that she lied, lashing out at Leon, Edie and Roxy for lying, and tells Roxy it was easy to trick her due to her desperation to be liked. Roxy gets upset and asks everyone to leave her alone when she steps outside. Donovan arrives moments later, explaining to Julia that he’s late because his phone and car died, and couldn’t get a cab due to the holiday. He upsets Leon when he wants to carve the turkey and Leon leaves.

Meanwhile, Genevieve is shocked to find out from Edie that she and Tim are trying for kids. When Genevieve goes to see Edie in the kitchen, she tells Edie that she knows she’s not following her heart and asks if there’s someone she needs to see. Genevieve drops Cornelius’ bottle of cognac to give Edie the excuse to leave the house to see Amanda. We hear from Tim that Edie texted him to tell everyone that she’d meet him, Cornelius and Gladys at home.

Isaac comes to comfort Roxy. He tells her that she needs to deal with her addiction. She says she will and asks him to get her a glass of water. While he’s gone, she steals a piece of paper from his prescription pad. Later, Donovan listens to the voicemail Julia left asking if he had second thoughts and they both laugh it off.

Later, Genevieve meets Leon at the diner. He brings up what she said in a previous episode about him needing to feel bad about his actions for a while. He asks her how long he’s supposed to feel this way. She tells him she can’t say and she doesn’t think anyone can.

The episode ends with Edie going back home with cognac, with Tim, Gladys and Cornelius waiting, clearly not happy with her. The episode’s final moments show Roxy parked in front of a pharmacy and writing a prescription on the paper she stole for painkillers.

Overall I felt that this was a bit of a filler episode. I appreciated the exploration of a con artist trying to claim they were a Bechley child as that was only a matter of time. I enjoyed seeing the awkward interactions between everyone that was at Julia’s, although I did feel that Leon’s animosity towards Donovan was a little cliché. I felt that this episode was a filler as it’s providing a springboard for drama and subplot progress in the next episode, specifically with Edie having to explain her suspicious absence to Tim and Roxy stealing a piece of paper from Isaac’s prescription pad, which would be putting his career at risk. It will be interesting to see these dramas and subplots play out in the next episode.

Stray Observations:

-Both Julia and Isaac refer to the Institute as a clinic, in the pilot, the clinic was called The Bechley Institute. So I guess it’s a clinic now.

-Julia asks Roxy what the emoji is that Donovan sent her. Roxy makes it clear it’s not necessarily a positive one. When Julia texts Roxy and Edie asking if inviting Donovan to Thanksgiving dinner was a mistake, Roxy sends her the same emoji.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “That is not tasty.” “It is not cooked yet.” (Roxy-Julia when Roxy bites into some raw sweet potato)
• “That ringer is on the desperate setting.” (Roxy to Julia on her ringtone for Donovan)
• “Is this a good sign or a bad sign?” “Let’s call it…medium.” (Julia-Roxy on the emoji Donovan sent Julia in response to the heart emoji she sent him)
• “You and I have a perfectly good tradition. I order us a small heirloom bird for the two of us, I disarticulate it for the two of us.” “Other people call it carving.” (Leon-Julia on Thanksgiving)
• “Do emojis have preferred pronouns?” (Donovan to Julia on the emoji he sent her)
• “These two are a little less clinic and a little more garden supply.” (Isaac to Julia on her proposed logo design for the Institute name change)
• “How old is he?” “Age appropriate…and not my brother.” (Leon-Julia on Donovan)
• “Wow, you went there, straight to the ovaries!” (Julia to Leon when he tells her to freeze her eggs)