You're the Worst 5.9: "Bachelor/Bachelorette Party Sunday Funday"

Chris: This was by far my favorite episode from this season so far and I’m hoping this is a sign that the show will reign everything in before the show wraps up in a few short episodes. This episode felt like the first time everyone was actually playing their characters rather than caricatures of what everyone expects their characters to be. We get to see the reaction of the group finding out about the 3-way and how it upsets Lindsey which leads to possibly the most reasonable discussion she has had with Paul since the end of their marriage in season 3. The meat of the episode seems to address how much Jimmy despises change which might explain why he hasn’t progressed as much over the course of the show compared to the rest of the main cast. Not to excuse what he’s done but this might explain why he messes up so often, he is either consciously or subconsciously sabotaging himself anytime it feels like anything is changing (i.e. the florist situation because he felt like he wasn’t a bad boy anymore). In the end, Jimmy realizes he is willing to change if it’s for Gretchen. Now I guess we’ll wait and see how he handles her new pill situation.

Alexa: One last completely off the rails Sunday Funday is exactly what “You’re the Worst” needed to reinvigorate the back half of the season. I know I’ve harped on several things about this season that are not working for me, like the lack of Lindsay and Edgar and the fact that Jimmy’s and Gretchen’s character development is all over the place. But this episode does what Sunday Funday does best, getting the entire gang together for some absurd shenanigans that lead to some significant truths about our core characters. Even Paul F. Tompkins is a fun addition here. As much as I love him, his role this season feels like a weird afterthought to me, an unnecessary rehash of Edgar’s work troubles from last season. But having that outsider’s perspective here is a fun twist. The jokes are particularly spot-on in this episode, from the T-shirts everyone wears for the occasion (Paul’s “Alive Roger Ebert” descriptor is absolute perfection) to Jimmy Venmo-ing Paul $1,000 to spill the news about Paul impregnating Becca. The close confines of a party bus makes for an exceptional setting for the group’s secrets to come to a head. The uncomfortable reality that Jimmy and Gretchen are not on the same page at all about some major life decisions is probably the most honest examination of their relationship we’ve seen in a while. It makes sense without undoing previous character development like some of the creative choices we’ve seen in other episodes this season. It’s also right on target for a staged murder to be the thing that makes Jimmy and Gretchen realize that despite their differences, they really want to be together. But it wouldn’t be “You’re the Worst” without a sudden dose of seriousness when Edgar tells Jimmy that Gretchen has been stealing his pills. We only have four episodes left, and it seems that Jimmy and Gretchen’s poor communication skills will continue to be an issue.

Joel: After season four’s Sunday Funday episode barely acknowledged the idea, it’s nice to see our final Sunday Funday outing dedicate the whole episode to the Sunday shenanigans of the entire group (plus Paul F. Tompkins). Cramming everybody onto a claustrophobic party bus for Jimmy and Gretchen’s joint bachelor/bachelorette party is a great way to force the tension in the group to rise to the surface, and is one of the better episodes so far this season. After the previous episodes bizarre take on the side characters, this feels like a return to form for Paul at least, forcing him to always exist just out the outside of the main action by having him stuck driving the bus instead of actually getting to hang out with everyone else. Jimmy more than willing to pay $1,000 to humiliate Paul fits the dynamic perfectly, and this almost feels like how the Becca/Vernon/Paul storyline should have been handled from the beginning.

The main focus however is on highlighting how much Jimmy and Gretchen still don’t seem ready to be married as we discover several major “pre-wedding” conversations that they still haven’t had and seem to disagree on. The really interesting part however is not during Paul F. Tompkins interrogation on the bus, but in a conversation that the two characters have while getting supplies for the party. You’re the Worst will often explore the ideas of character growth and how that can change a person, and it becomes clear that Gretchen and Jimmy have a fundamentally different outlook on how their future will unfold together. Gretchen talks about changing and growing, and how that’s ok. She might be a different person in five years, and in fact she should be a different person five years from now. She’s a different person than she was in episode one and that’s a good thing. Gretchen sees a future where she and Jimmy can grow and change together as they move forward in their lives.

Jimmy, on the other hand, has a well documented disdain for the idea of changing or growing. Despite, several moments in the show where Jimmy is forced to acknowledge that he’s grown as a person, whenever he’s confronted with a new example of his personal development and growth, his first instinct is to deny it and then go about proving that he has not, in fact, changed or grown as a person. Jimmy’s outlook seems to be that he loves Gretchen the way she is, and she loves him, so why would either one of them want to change anything when they’re both happy with the way things are right now?

In both cases Jimmy and Gretchen have a vision for the future that includes the other person. It’s not that either one of them are being selfish or unwilling to consider the other person’s feelings. It’s just that they don’t see eye to eye on things. By the end of the episode, we get a big moment that proves to Gretchen and Jimmy that they are really perfect for each other, and any doubt they might have in unjustified. It’s these big moments and grand gestures that continue to pull Gretchen and Jimmy back from the edge. They’ll have a fight, or run into an obstacle that their relationship may not be able to survive, and it will all be ok by the end of the episode, because one of them will do something grand and sweeping for the other (in their own twisted way.) These are great moments and they play out great in a tv show narrative, but You’re the Worst has always aimed to subvert the traditional love story, and I’m not sure that a string of even the grandest gestures can make a marriage work forever if there isn’t a strong relationship supporting them.