Chris: First of all, I hate Jimmy’s attempt at a beard. We get a look at what exactly Jimmy has been up to and it all makes sense, he’s keeping himself occupied with his DIY skills he discovered last season with the treehouse. As someone that hated the fact that he bailed on Gretchen previously, I was hoping to see him in a much more distraught with what he’s done but YTW instead went with something more Jimmy appropriate. Jimmy is simply avoiding his life at all costs but after witnessing Bert’s denial paired with the arrival of his book, Jimmy decides that he’s been in denial long enough. What Jimmy does for Bert at the end might be one of the nicest, least selfish things we’ve ever seen him do all in the name of someone doing what’s best for themselves. Of course, that act of kindness does have a bit of an asterisk because he did kind of steal Burt’s car. Sure, he left money but he still took the car without consent.
Alexa: I spent most of this episode just glaring angrily at Jimmy. I know he isn’t good at handling his feelings, but fleeing to a retirement park for three months is a new low. It’s bad enough that he left Gretchen stranded on the hill, but at this point his friends probably don’t even know if he’s still alive since he’s ditched his phone and email. I was mad enough when he abandoned Gretchen after what should have been one of the happiest moments of their lives, but seeing the way he’s chosen to deal with his actions made me all the more livid. But Chris is right - as much as I want to see Jimmy express his remorse, running away from his problems is much more true to his character. I also wanted to smack some sense into grumpy old Burt, who embodies what Jimmy will surely become one day if he doesn’t take responsibility for his decisions and continues to push aside everyone who loves him. But since Burt slowly starts to change his ways by the end of the episode, perhaps there is still hope for Jimmy after all.
Joel: So I thought Jimmy was just going to abandon Gretchen on a hilltop, and that would be bad enough. Maybe Jimmy would disappear for a weekend because he needed to think things over. Just doing that would be plenty of cause for Gretchen to be furious with him, and for his actions to have a serious impact on the future of their relationship. But apparently Jimmy has been gone for three whole months at the start of season four. Jimmy’s gone and found a whole new place to live. He’s off the grid. He has a whole different life complete with it’s own routine and it’s own guest stars.
Honestly I wasn’t too wild about this episode. I get that we have a three months later Jimmy episode and the next episode will likely be a three months later Gretchen episode, but at least on the Jimmy side of things, it really felt like there wasn’t enough information that needed to be doled out to make up the entire episode. It was clear that Jimmy was going to not go home until he decided to eventually go home, and no matter where the evental kick in the pants came from, the story doesn’t really feel like it started until the very end of the episode. Most of what we got in this episode was based around the character Bert, and obvious harbinger of what Jimmy’s future might be if he doesn’t confront his actions. I’ve been a fan in the past of focusing on a supporting character that only appears for a single episodes, but Burt was a much more blunt storytelling device than characters like Rob and Lexi were. It’s obvious what he was there to represent and even if it was effective, Jimmy’s reasons for his actions at the end of the last season were barely explored and as a result, it felt like the season didn’t really start until the final moments of the first episode.
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