Chris: For all the positive steps Jimmy may have taken,and Gretchen for that matter, they still tend to fall into their same traps. This episode harks back to season one when Jimmy and Gretchen were obsessed with being even when it comes to sexual partners outside of their relationship. However, Jimmy exploits that mindset when he knows he messed up and thought he could get away with it if he can get Gretchen to get even. Also, This Brief Fermata very much felt like the writers went "oh man, we can say the f-word now" and did so to an almost annoying extent. I've never been one to care about strong language but this episode felt like a kid who is away from their parents for the weekend and wants to cram as much swearing in as they can.
Alexa: Remember when I said Jimmy is the responsible one now? Yeah, I take that back. After some significant character growth, he takes several big steps back this episode. If he just owned up to Gretchen about the blowjob from the florist, it would be messy and difficult but ultimately I think they could work past it. Instead, he orchestrates Fuck Week as an elaborate deceit to make them “even,” thinking if Gretchen hooks up with someone else the slate is clear and he doesn’t have to admit his own mistakes. Just a few weeks ago when he got his advance check, he put his future with Gretchen above everything else. Now, he’s back to prioritizing what’s best for himself and trying to save his own skin. It doesn’t help matters that Gretchen seems to be evolving into a stable adult now. She’s trying at work and for the first time actually seems to really care about her job. She has no interest in hanging out at bars and hooking up with guys. She just wants to go home and talk to Jimmy. And the thought of her sleeping with someone else is clearly killing Jimmy. But because he can’t just communicate with Gretchen, his convincing “I’ve been sleeping around all week” act ultimately does lead her to hook up with someone even though she doesn’t really want to. And of course, the truth about Jimmy’s blowjob from the florist does come out, so now he and Gretchen have to confront not only his indiscretion but the fact that he went to such great lengths to lie about it. Open, honest communication has never been Jimmy and Gretchen’s strong suit. Their poor communication leads to most of their problems, and if they can’t come to terms with that, their marriage will never work. As much as I want to see Jimmy and Gretchen end up together, another flash forward of Jimmy in the empty house certainly indicates their issues could be insurmountable
Joel: This whole time I’ve been assuming that the arc of the entire show was going to be about two terrible, selfish people who were able to find something to love and care about (each other) and in the process, they would be dragged, kicking and screaming, into adulthood. But as we approach the halfway mark of the final batch of episodes for the entire series, I’m not sure that’s actually the direction we’re heading. First of all, we have the flash forwards, that are obviously suggesting a future where Jimmy and Gretchen aren’t together anymore, But at the same time, even in the “present day” parts of the episodes, I’m not sure that this is a story that’s headed toward a reasonable happy ending for these characters, at least not one that is along the lines of what we were expecting.
While the first chunk of this season has portrayed Jimmy as a person who has actually grown and matured over the past four season, concluding with last episode’s failure to be a bad boy anymore, this episode seems to chuck all of that out the window. After Jimmy’s encounter with the florist at the end of the previous episode, Jimmy constructs an over the top, elaborate plan one that involves his fiance having sex with other people, in order to get rid of his guilt. It’s a plan that involves days of deception on his part, and one that he’s sure can’t backfire on him, because he’s too evolved of a person to have to deal with such small minded emotions as jealousy. This is textbook season one Jimmy. In fact, this feels remarkably similar to the season one storyline, where Jimmy and Gretchen were trying to keep their “outside of the relationship” scorecards even. I don’t know if this is poor character development on the show’s part yet. This may be You’re the Worst making an argument the you can’t change a person’s nature, and that as soon as Jimmy is confronted with a hard task (talking to Gretchen) he goes right back to his worst self. However, right now, it feels like four years of character development are being ignored just to move the story in a certain direction
Comments
Post a Comment