Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Unwanted Romantic Attention?

Last time: Zoey Clarke has a pretty good life. She has a good job she loves as a coder at SPRQ Point, a tech start up company, and is trying to get a manager position there. Her boss Joan does seem to support her as does her best friend Max. And Zoey is close with her family, though they have been going through a tough time as her father Mitch is suffering from a degenerative disease that has robbed him of his ability to move and communicate.


When Zoey gets an MRI to find out if her headaches are something to worry about, an earthquake hits San Francisco. Entire music libraries appear to be uploaded to her mind and when she leaves, people start singing to her. However, they seem to appear to have no idea what’s she’s talking about and Zoey realizes only she can hear the songs, which are expressions of people’s innermost thoughts.


Through the songs, she learns a colleague named Simon is dealing with some internal angst and she starts bonding with him after learning his dad committed suicide the year before. She understands his grief due to her father’s condition and starts to feel an attraction to him…until she meets his fiancée, Jessica. Zoey then learns her best friend Max is in love with her and has to deal with that just as she lands the manager position.


And that brings us to this, the second episode. This was actually the first I watched and it was nice to revisit it almost two months later.

Strike up the SPOILERS!


Zoey wakes up and music starts to play. She looks confused as she starts to sing before giving into the routine. As she sings “I Got the Music in Me,” she starts to pick up all the major players – Mo, David, Maggie, Mitch, Simon, Joan, Max, Leif and Tobin. It culminates in a group performance in the middle of San Francisco…and then a piano drops on Zoey. And some brass instruments.

Everybody’s a critic, I guess.


Don’t worry, the show didn’t just kill it’s main character. It was just a dream and Zoey is a bit unnerved by it. Mo pops over to her apartment and agrees to help her figure out how her powers work, which Zoey appreciates. She can’t have them interrupting her day, especially as she’s trying to make a good impression as manager.


First, though, Zoey joins her family at her father’s doctor appointment. They get some good news – it appears that the new medicine is working and is slowing the disease’s progress. He has Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), which I just learned was the same disease show creator Austin Winsberg lost his father to. So some of the things the Clarke family goes through mirror what his own family experienced as well and man, this show just can’t stop serving feels.


She then heads to work and Joan pulls her aside to see how’s doing with her promotion. Specifically Joan wants to know if she has any ideas she wants to implement. I know Zoey was an internal hire and already knows the team but they do need something of an adjustment period to get used to the fact that Zoey is now their supervisor, not their peer. If she goes in changing things too soon, she runs the risk of alienating them – and we can already tell they aren’t thrilled by this decision. Zoey wants to focus on team morale and Joan advises her not to implement crazy hat day before sending Zoey out to address her team.


Zoey opens the meeting by saying they are the best team and then saying she has come up with some ideas to help them improve. Leif pushes back, saying she already thinks they are the best so how can they get better? Leif is being pedantic and an ass and is most likely pushing back to push back. Zoey then gives them journals, saying she’s kept one since she started at SPRQ Point and thinks it will be a great place to record their ideas. And it’s not a bad idea, honestly, but I think a team lunch would’ve been a better place to start. Then introduce the journals.


(Which I hope she didn’t pay for out of pocket).

(Leif believes he's playing "Devil Advocate." He's just being an ass)

As she continues to flounder through her meeting, she hears music and nearly groans. Max starts to sing again. This time he performs “Sucker” by the Jonas Brothers, dancing around Zoey as she begs him to stop. When he finishes, she ends the meeting and runs off.


She takes a call from her brother. He says he figured out a way to help their father communicate. David has given Mitch the buzzer from a game they played. He buzzes once for “yes” and twice for “no.” They know it’s not perfect but they agree it’s a start. Zoey says she’ll visit later.


Max finds her later and says that he won the lottery. Well, the food lottery that is. He was able to get a reservation at Hand Picked, a farm to table restaurant that apparently has its own cow so they can make their own butter. Apparently it’s super exclusive and almost as hard to get into as Hamilton. He invites Zoey to come with him but she gets all weird now that she’s heard his true feelings for her. She tries to play it off all casual and trying not to commit but is very grateful when Simon comes to talk to her.


She asks if he wants to talk about his dad but he actually wants to talk work with her. He explains that they are going to have a party to launch their new smart watch and he wants to work with her department to send some push notifications to the watches. Zoey takes his idea and runs with it, suggesting a scavenger hunt using clues sent to the watches that ultimate lead the invitees to their offices for the party. Simon loves it and Zoey gets so into it, she throws the football they’ve been tossing between each other too hard, breaking a humanitarian award he had in his office. She apologizes but he takes it in stride. Zoey still slinks out of his office, explaining she didn’t play many sports growing up.

Zoey meets up with Mo at a coffeeshop and says that she had another song experience. Mo starts taking notes so they can figure out how Zoey’s powers work. They also give Zoey their best noise-cancelling headphones to see if that works. Zoey gets to try it out immediately as the barista (Stephanie Styles) starts singing Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” But it’s not the upbeat bop proclaiming that Houston is looking for love but a soulful ballad where the barista and the other customers share how lonely they really are.


Zoey hands the headphones back to Mo, saying they don’t work because the music is inside her head. She calls them heartsongs and Mo asks her what’s going on now because they just sees bored patrons in a coffeeshop. Zoey explains it to them and they ask if this is the first time Zoey has interacted with someone while a song has been going on. She says it is – which is true. While she was on the phone with her mother during her first encounter, she kept pulling the phone away and did not talk to Maggie while anyone was singing.


The heartsong gives Zoey an idea and she greets the barista, calling her Autumn. Autumn is happy to see her and Zoey asks if she likes farm to food restaurants. Autumn does and is dying to eat at Hand Picked. Zoey then asks how Autumn feels about Max and she says that she thinks he’s cute. Zoey starts doing some matchmaking, hoping to redirect Max’s feelings from her to Autumn.

(Say hi to Autumn)

She brings Autumn back to SPRQ Point and lies that she has something on Thursday but suggests that Max take Autumn. He is disappointed but seems to have a connection with Autumn, so Zoey considers that a victory.


Until a little while later. Max confronts Zoey and says she’s been acting weird. He asks if this has to do with her new power, which makes Zoey freak out. She pulls him to the side and asks him what he means. To her relief, he’s talking about the fact that she’s now his manager and she decides to roll with that, saying she’s trying to put some distance between them because their professional relationship did have to change. Max’s feelings get hurt and he storms off.

(A relieved Zoey who now has an excuse)

The thing is, Zoey is technically right. Their relationship does have to change because she is now his manager. And I know the framing doesn’t really support this because we are seeing this as Zoey trying to avoid her friend’s deep feelings for her. Which is also not cool. But as his manager, she does have to put some distance between them or people might accuse them of favoritism. There is an imbalance because she makes important decisions about his job now. Would she start giving him better projects? Higher raises? If it came to it, would she choose to keep him over someone else? They can still be friends but he has to realize their work interactions would definitely have to change.


(Apologies now. I work in HR and there are some issues that annoy me throughout this show. It got to the point that during one episode, I actually tweeted my astonishment there was an HR department ).


Zoey heads home and finds her mother has torn the place apart. Concerned, she asks what’s going on. Maggie says it’s harder to communicate with “yes/no” questions than they thought as Mitch has been trying to tell her something all day long but she can’t figure out what he wants. She even took out her old hula skirt when she thought Hawaii was going somewhere but it was a dead end. (But she is proud to say the skirt still fits – you go, Maggie!)


Zoey sits next to her father and starts talking to him. He then starts singing “Moondance,” serenading his wife even though only Zoey can hear him.

(Sing it, Peter Gallagher!)

Honestly, this was the moment I absolutely fell in love with the show. Who wouldn’t want to watch Peter Gallagher croon “Moondance”? It fits his vocal stylings a lot better than ‘True Colors” from last week, in my opinion. But I also loved that Zoey was able to connect with her father despite his condition because she can hear his inner heartsongs. It was an absolutely beautiful storyline and I was hooked.


When the number ends, Zoey asks her dad if whatever he wants to tell her mom has to do with the song “Moondance.” He buzzes that it does and so Zoey now has to figure out what that means.

Zoey discusses it with Mo, who says the song means Mitch wants to enjoy some sexytimes with Maggie. Which means Zoey has to address her parents’ sex life. Because that’s what we all want to think about, right?

(Told you this was my new favorite reaction gif)

Before she can broach that subject, she first has to get through her work day. She addresses her team, wondering why they haven’t given her the timeline they need for the presentation about the scavenger hunt plan? They seem to be purposefully dragging their feet and Zoey decides to just do it herself, all while Joan is watching.


And she does nothing.


Her direct report is having an issue.


And she does nothing.


She doesn’t pull Zoey aside and give her advice to dealing with a difficult team. Or go over to give her silent support as she rightly reads her team out for insubordination and warns them that this could cost them their jobs. She just does…nothing.


Zoey ends up working all night long and Simon wakes her at her desk the next morning. He asks her if she needs more time but she says she has everything ready. She rushes off and collides with a colleague, getting coffee spilled all over.

This isn’t Zoey’s best day.


But she nails the presentation, even though she’s dressed in whatever she could find in the lost and found. Or rather, what was ever lying around for the interns. Joan sends her home to get changed and tells her to get her team together.


After getting some rest, Zoey goes to visit her parents. She asks her mom if she and Mitch are having sexytimes and Maggie assures Zoey that they are more than fine in that department. Zoey then says that Mitch really responded when Moondance came on the other day and based on the lyrics, she thought maybe he was trying to tell Maggie he wanted to get it on. But Maggie does think she knows what it means.

Max then stops by with some dessert for her father. He says he had a good time with Autumn but he also wants to keep being Zoey’s friend. They decide to figure out a way to do so with Zoey being his manager and then he goes to spend some time with her dad.

(Aww)

The next day, Zoey gets some advice from Simon about managing people. He encourages her to connect with them and build relationships with them. It’s pretty good advice. Go, Simon!

So what does Zoey do? She takes out her journal and reads her first thoughts about each of her coworkers (after skipping a few who were no longer there). All of her words are positive and praising her team and so they soften up to her.

I’m a bit torn about this scene. On one hand, it’s good for managers to show that they respect their direct reports’ skills and abilities. But on the other hand, it shouldn’t take a manager stroking their team’s egos to get them to DO THEIR DAMN jobs. It takes on another layer with the fact that Zoey is the only woman on the job and the men weren’t responding to her until she assured them that she thought they were all the bestest people ever. But having Zoey read from her journal resolves the storyline a lot faster than having her using positive affirmation over time would.

Anyway, it seems everything is wrapped up. The scavenger hunt and party is on track, Maggie figures out what Mitch wants and puts on a performance of “Moondance” for him, and Max and Autumn seem to be getting really along. And maybe Zoey is regretting setting them up?

(Goals)

Zoey needs a management course.

And maybe a stiff drink.

She may not have a handle on her powers just yet but she and Mo are studying them, trying to figure it out. And I like that she dubbed them “heartsongs.” It seems appropriate.

Next time: Zoey needs to help her boss.