Loveday Writing

This episode had the gang split up into pairs, so I’m going to review it character by character.

Joyce and Shelly – Joyce and Shelly spend the episode at Joyce’s alma mater, Vassar, as she is endowing a new fellowship for women in print, to pave the way for female journalists that will inevitably break publishing ground after her. Shelly had tried to talk to and open up to Joyce about her life in previous episodes, only for Joyce to dismiss her. This episode had these issues come to a head.

When they get to the campus, Joyce leaves Shelly alone to attend a meeting with the college’s president. Shelly manages to befriend a woman named Doreen, who happens to be Joyce’s old professor who Joyce is planning to ask to write a prologue for the book she is working on. However, to Joyce’s dismay, Doreen does not remember her and gives Shelly the same advice that she gave her and has based her on writing on. Joyce is also shocked to learn that Shelly actually did go to college for a semester, however she had to drop out after their mother left to help their father take care of Joyce, who was eight years old at the time. These revelations are too much for Joyce and she needs air.

Later, Joyce walks in on Doreen having oral sex with a naked Shelly. This leads to the long overdue confrontation between them, with Shelly calling Joyce out on her recent selfishness. Afterwards, Shelly leaves to spend the night with Doreen.

The next morning, Joyce brings Shelly “apology scones” only to tell Shelly that they both said things they didn’t mean, only for Shelly to make it clear to her that she stands by what she said. Shelly also informs Joyce that she is going to extend her stay in Poughkeepsie, and tells Joyce to spend time with herself to figure out what to focus her book on.

On her flight home, Joyce hooks up with a man in the bathroom, he pretends to not know who she is, only to reveal that he does and asks her to sign his copy of Rolling Stone, which has her on the cover, and that he plans on bragging about this hook up to his friends. The episode ends with Joyce looking at the cover and hearing the man’s words with a disappointed look on her face.

Doug and Tina – Doug and Tina spend the episode away from the office at the retirement party for Tina’s mother. It’s revealed in this episode that Tina’s mother had run a generations-long family stationery business and with her retirement, her son, Marvin will be taking over. It’s made clear by Tina to Doug that due to their intertwined romantic and professional past, her family is not a fan of him.

Later, after some direct insults and awkward moments, Doug is stuck at the children’s table and talks to one of Tina’s nephews, Benji. Benji agrees to give Doug insights on the family and why they hate him in exchange for a Minx subscription. Later, he buys Marvin a drink and Marvin tells him that Tina was supposed to take over the store instead of him, but didn’t, due to Doug giving her a job.

Later, Marvin gives a toast revealing that he plans on pursuing his “dream” of becoming a long-haul trucker, which leads to a big fight between him, Tina, their sister, Ruby, and their mother. Tina reveals to her mother that she was always going to leave the family business, just like Marvin tried to do and Ruby did by getting married and having a family. Tina then informs everyone that she has been promoted to run Minx International and will be going to Europe.

When Doug and Tina are in the car about to leave, it’s revealed that Doug didn’t know about the promotion. Tina tells him that Constance promoted her whilst he and Joyce were in Las Vegas. When Doug asks Tina why she didn’t tell him, she tells him that she was unsure of how he would react. This belief of hers contrasts Doug’s desire to always tell her his news, good or bad, which in turn is one of the reasons why he loves Tina and wants to marry her.

The next morning as Doug is trying to sleep in and Tina is up and ready to leave, she finds the engagement ring and has a scared and shocked look on her face.

Bambi and Richie – Their subplot was relatively minor, as they spent the episode high on Purple Nurples and MDMA.

Richie tells Bambi at the beginning of the episode that he now has an agent and his agent has told him that he needs a self-portrait to go with his portfolio.

Whilst they are on their trip, Bambi and Richie realise that they are friends that work together but not family, and that they need to leave as they have so much more to give. Bambi puts make-up on Richie, which looks great through their high eyes but looks awful in reality. However, Richie uses and re-does the make-up on one side of his face for the self-portrait he takes later on in the episode.

Overall, I felt that this was a solid episode with character development all-round. Joyce has finally been called out on her selfishness and inflated ego, Shelly’s talent is finally being validated, Doug and Tina’s relationship appears to be on the rocks as they are both in different places, and Bambi and Richie are finally realising, or at least are on the road to realising that they may have to leave Bottom Dollar to fulfill their talent and potential. I also appreciated how many callbacks there were to previous episodes.

It will be interesting to see where everyone goes from here now that there are two episodes left of the season to go, and that the Rolling Stone cover has finally been released.

Stray Observations:

Episode title – Doug to Tina, describing their romantic relationship.

-According to Shelly, on Joyce’s sixth grade report card she was described as being “aggressive with words.”

-Richie originally came to LA to act and dance.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Drugs are great for inspiration!” (Bambi to Richie)
• “You brought this sack of shit!” “Hey Ruby, good to see you.” (Ruby to Tina on Doug, then Doug to Ruby)