Welcome back to my weekly review and recap of “You’re the Worst.” To catch up on previous coverage, click here.
The rate at which Linday’s life and stability is crumbling around her is equal parts hilarious as it is troubling, making her the most interesting character of season two so far. Kether Donohue is on a roll this week as she realizes just how lost she is without Paul around to take care of her and, more importantly, pay the bills. She wakens to find that the power is out, that the water is cold and that her toast remains “just bread” as she tells Paul over the phone, trying to manipulate him to fix everything for her. He tells her, quite frankly for Paul, that she needs to pay the utilities and figure it out on her own since she is no longer his problem.
Everything to do with Lindsay in this week’s “Side Bitch” is fantastic, as Donohue throws herself into every scene. The only time I found myself wanting more was the scene between Jimmy and Lindsay when she turns down his offer to give her a ride home. This is a pairing I’d love to see more of, on such opposite sides of the comedy and personality spectrum, Chris Geere and Donohue deserve more scenes together. Lindsay leaves the lunch, believing (in my favorite line of the episode) that she’s “…like Reese Witherspoon in that commercial for backpacks.” Soon she finds that even the task of walking home is too much, finding herself lost even after she steals a little girls bike.
She ends up at the doorstep of her sister (and seriously I cannot get over how weird it is to watch Janet Varney in this role after being such a huge Legend of Korra fan) and get’s the backhanded support that Becca is known for, managing to tear her little sister down even when offering her a couch to sleep on. Tragic as Lindsay has become, she spends her night in borrowed sweats getting high on prescription pills until Vernon arrives and Lindsay, hallucinating that he’s Paul, tries to kiss him until he pulls away. Realizing who it is she asks him if he believes she’s useless and he responds by telling her that sure, she’s not useful in the tradition sense, but she’s a good friend and she makes people happy. If someone would have told me that Vernon would have been the character delivering some of the most oddly heartfelt lines of the season, I would have laughed in their face and yet here he is. His comment is genuinely kind and honest and Lindsay is visibly touched.
Elsewhere, Edgar and Dorothy are cementing themselves as the two kindest and most put together characters on the show with Dorothy a welcome addition. She gets to rant about sexism in comedy and how if she brings it up to her male co-workers that they just claim she isn’t funny or doesn’t get it and considering the current dialogue on the subject, it’s very timely. However, Dorthy’s best moment comes after her improv group is disbanded and she, in a state of shock, tells Edgar that she’s realizing she may have just wasted her 20’s and part of her 30’s on a project that was going nowhere. It’s poignant in a way that You’re the Worst doesn’t always get to be and she brings a warmth to the show and particularly Edgar who, more than any other character, deserves a bit of happiness in his life.
And then, finally, we get to learn what Gretchen has been up to when she’s been driving off into the middle of the night as Jimmy busts out his sleuthing mustache to track Gretchen down late at night after spending the day obsessing over the idea that she may be cheating on him. What he finds instead is equally as heartbreaking, a little bizarre and just funny enough to keep it from being depressing. Gretchen has been disappearing at night to have time to cry alone in her car while playing Snake on her burner phone. Gretchen assures him that the relationship is fine and Jimmy leaves pleased that they’re in the clear as Gretchen cries in her car against the skyline on an abandoned road. Gretchen is messed up, and she gets sad and needs her time and they’re not the couple that would want to share something like this. It’s a satisfying ending to the storyline but I have to wonder if this is something that’s going to be touched on again or if it was simply a three episode bite sized arc? If anything it clearly points out that our couple is far from ideally happy and are still working on their own personal issues.
“Side Bitch” is a sigh of relief after two episodes that were so largely inconsequential while this weeks episode has everything that makes You’re the Worst such a terrific show with it’s humor and heart.
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9/10
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