You're the Worst 2.9: "LCD Soundsystem"

Chris: I hate this episode. I hate it so much. This amount of cringe makes my skin crawl but I understand what it’s trying to get Gretchen to understand. Gretchen sees this family as potential for what her and Jimmy could possibly be one day, a married couple with everything seemingly put together while still being somewhat cool and edgy. Gretchen wants this so badly that she can’t help but inject herself into their lives in some way just so she could get a closer look. She almost kidnaps a baby just so she could try out what being a parent could be like for a few moments. She actually steals a dog just so she can get inside their house and interact with them. And that’s when it all goes south and realizes that her perfect family she’s been watching has their own problems just like everybody. Still, I hate this episode.

Alexa: Much of this episode teetered on the edge of “Scott’s Tots”-level discomfort, but ultimately I found it to be an effective representation of Gretchen’s internal struggles. It was cringe-worthy enough watching her hang out in her neighbors’ bushes, but I sank deeper and deeper into the couch with each choice she made - culminating in basically kidnapping their dog! But the episode does a great job of showing us these people through Gretchen’s eyes. On the surface they appear to have a content, stable life. They’re incredibly likable and it’s easy to see why Gretchen longs to be like them. They’re sort of sweater people with a slight edge. But when she actually meets them and sees the cracks in their idyllic family, it’s devastating. And Aya Cash kills it with her performance in those last few minutes. She slowly, quietly deflates at the revelation that the husband is miserable until she’s completely consumed with sadness, because it reminds her that a different life may not actually make her happy. For a moment, she allowed herself to believe an alternate reality could exist for her, but in the end it makes her depression seem all the more hopeless, and it’s a crushing thing to witness.

Joel: This might be the most uncomfortable episode of television I’ve ever seen. While a good portion of this show relies on cringe comedy (“Look at these people saying bluntly rude things and making people uncomfortable.”) this episode is a different type of discomfort, one that feels like I’m looking in on a series of deeply private moments that I’m not supposed to be watching. The episode strips away the standard trappings of a You’re The Worst episode and feels like it’s own, entirely different thing. This episode feels different in every way from all the previous episodes of this show. The pace of the dialogue is different. The structure of the episode is different as well, with more time dedicated to the slower moments of the lives of these characters. Usually, there’s a performance aspect about the lives of our usual main characters, from their over the top adventures, to their bold, extended rants about this thing or that.  All of that is stripped away here, and while there are some light hearted comments made by these characters, this episode doesn’t really have what you could consider funny moments or really jokes at all, at least not the beat of jokes we’ve grown accustomed to.

Justin Kirk and Tara Summers play Rob and Lexi in this episode and both do a brilliant job bringing these characters to life almost immediately. Because of the jarring differences between this episode and other episodes of this show, it’s almost easier to view this as a short film focusing on the lives of Rob and Lexi. Even when Gretchen and the other characters are finally introduced, Rob and Lexi still remain the main focus of the episode. This feeling is driven home by a brief moment in the bar where Gretchen interrupts Jimmy’s writing process (i.e. playing darts with Edgar). This scene feels like an actual episode of You’re the Worst, with faster dialogue, snappier retorits, and an elaborate plan (Jimmy’s punishment system), but Gretchen seems out of it, still partially caught in the world of Rob and Lexi’s short film.

Rob and Lexi represent, at least for the purposes of this episode, a possible future for people like Gretchen. Rob and Lexi have a kid, a dog, a house, and all the trappings of the modern American dream and they seem to have done it without becoming the dreaded “sweater people.” Their walls are still decorated with posters for “The Pixies,” they still have spontaneous morning sex, and they’ve both managed to secure hip, cool people jobs. The couple that we see (and Gretchen sees) at the beginning of this episode is pretty close to the ideal couple. And they represent a finish line. Yes, things are terrible now, but look at this. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

But as we progress throughout the show, more things start to be revealed, as we start to get a more complete view of Rob and Lexi. While, they’re still the same couple we see at the beginning, and there’s never a dramatic reveal to show who these people really are, getting to know their lives changes them from an ideal couple to two complicated people. Rob in particular, seems to not be entirely happy with where he is in life. It’s not something that you would necessarily call unhappy, but his cool person job is starting to feel more frustrating, with more roadblocks and disappointment than a dream job should have. We see him playing in his garage band, but it’s hard to tell if he’s genuinely enjoying himself, or if he’s playing out of some obligation to his younger, hipper days. Once Gretchen shows up in their life to return their dog, we see how Rob and Lexi aren’t on the same page with everything the way they first seemed. Lexi wants to treat their guests as adult guests making a house call, while Rob latches onto them as friends hanging out, staying up late and drinking.  

Finally we get a moment where Rob and Gretchen are alone. You almost expect Rob’s dissatisfaction with his life lead to making a pass at Gretchen, the setup is all there, but that doesn’t happen. Instead Rob talks about missing the old days, back when he was young. It’s a bit of nostalgia, mixed with a bit of regret, mixed with a bit of “roads not taken.” There’s nothing shocking or drastic in what Rob says in this moment. It’s a feeling that most people have felt before looking at their lives. Where Gretchen sees adults living an adult life, Rob sees kids too busy pretending to be adults to get to do the kids stuff, and wishing for one more chance at the cool kids table.

This utterly breaks Gretchen. Remember, for the better part of the episode, Gretchen has been emulating these people to the point of not only stealing their dog, but repeating phrases she overheard them say just to try and get that feel of being in the world of grown ups. Now what was supposed to be a light at the end of the tunnel, turns out to be another tunnel. There’s so much to unpack in these final moments of the show. For three episodes now, we’ve seen Gretchen try to deal with her depression, from the first episode, where she ignores it or refuses to acknowledge it, to the next episode where she resolves to simply fake being better for Jimmy's sake. Now, this episode, she finds an endpoint. Something representing a possible future, one where everything she’s dealing with now is a memory, one where things are right, things are working out, and she’s achieved ideal adulthood. The relationship of Rob and Lexi was like a final lifeboat in the storm, and Rob unknowingly destroyed that by shattering the illusion of this perfect life.