You're the Worst 2.10: A Right Proper Story

Chris: Jimmy's family might be my favorite people in the show because they gave me my favorite joke with the "Cary can't carry the groceries" bit. But beyond that, A Right Proper Story serves several purposes, it provides further insight into how his upbringing molded Jimmy into the insecure worst person ever that he currently is and also, it takes the veil off Gretchen that she tried to put up and pretend that she is okay. For the most part, Jimmy's family showing up is detrimental to just about everything and everyone with the exception of Jimmy's relationship with his father which was touched on during an episode in season one. Communication was the main focus of this episode, Jimmy and his father finally communicated and resolved a lot of issues and then we have Gretchen who isn't properly communicating and it's making things way worse for herself and her relationship.

Alexa: The title “You’re the Worst” could easily apply to most people on this show, but I think now we may have met the actual worst - Jimmy’s family, especially his two older sisters. Jimmy seems downright kind and normal compared to this lot, which I’m sure is the point. The way a person acts around their family reveals a lot about them and their upbringing, as we witnessed with Gretchen’s parents last season. In fact, given what we know of Jimmy, I expected his parents to be of a similar ilk, a posh but less evil version of the Malfoys. But much like with Gretchen’s family, Jimmy’s family is a bit of a surprise yet they make so much sense for his character. His strained relationship with them explains a great deal about his personality. His outward self confidence masks a host of insecurities thanks to his family’s constant taunting. But it’s clear he also craves their approval to a certain extent, and his heart-to-heart with his dad was genuinely touching. Also, I want more Sam and Lindsay subplots. Their dynamic was such a fun detour from all the family tension.

Joel: After the previous episode, jumping into this episode almost feels like a bit of whiplash. In the first few minutes of the episode, we’re back to focusing on the larger than life aspects of these characters. Jimmy’s over the top reactions to finding out his letters got sent when they weren’t supposed to lets us know that we’re back to the style and pace of a standard You’re the Worst episode, but if you’re binging the show, it honestly takes a few minutes to get back into the feel of what a usual cold open for this show is supposed to be like.

However, if the previous episode was the show’s most uncomfortable look at the harsh realities of life, this episode feels like the antidote, introducing us to Jimmy’s family who may be the most cartoonishly terrible people we’ve met so far. Jimmy’s father and sisters show up and their attitude toward...everything really, is just so absurd that it gives us a chance to distance ourselves from the show. It feels like You’re the Worst is giving us a parade of terrible people doing terrible things for us to consume for entertainment. For the most part, these aren’t overly fleshed out characters, but instead just a group of vehicles for nasty, funny things to be said in british accents. (As Lindsay observes these are Alabama English people.) While Jimmy and Gretchen (and most of the “worst” people on the show) are good people with specific reasons for why they’re so terrible and dysfunctional, Jimmy’s family are just over the top nonsensically bad. However, more importantly, they manage to be quite funny while being terrible, and after the previous episode, somehow their rudeness and insults ends up feeling like a breath of fresh air.

We do get a few moments of really great character work between Jimmy and his family, with the scene between Jimmy and his father being the obvious one. It’s a pretty paint by numbers moment, that follows the formula of a thousand father/son reconciliation scenes that have come before it, but again, so much of this episode feels like it was designed to counter the feelings that came from the previous episode, a sweet scene between father and son where everything goes in the direction it’s supposed to feels very welcome in this moment.

I also want to take a moment to talk about Gretchen in this episode. Gretchen’s depression has been the focal point of the last several episodes, but I continue to be impressed with how it’s portrayed on screen in each episode. When Gretchen first decided to fake “getting better” for Jimmy a few episodes ago, I was dreading the big moment where this lie would blow up, but we get that moment at the beginning of this episode and it’s almost nothing. Yes, Jimmy reacted loudly and negatively, but he was already at a ten by that point and Gretchen pretty much gave him nothing. It was such a small moment in the episode, but we watched Gretchen fake it until the point where she didn’t care. It’s a single line, but it sets up Gretchen for the entire episode, were she is emotionally, and it pays off at the end when Jimmy almost demands that she listen to him complain about his family. Gretchen tells Jimmy that she can’t which has been backed up by her actions throughout the entire episode. It’s frustrating because it’s clear that Jimmy needs to vent about the weekend, and he’s very much entitled to that need, but it’s something that Gretchen can’t give him right now. And her actions throughout the entire episode point to that, but Jimmy hasn’t been paying attention to Gretchen because he’s been focused on his family which is the reason he now needs to vent to her. It’s a vicious cycle and one that doesn’t end by the end of this episode, and from the looks of it isn't going anywhere good.