Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: Failure is Always an Option

Last time: When Zoey heard Mo singing a rather sad song, she learned that he was hiding his true self from his church for fear of being run out – again. She felt lost in helping him as faith isn’t a big part of her life. Mo’s pastor, Pastor Steve, gave her some advice about looking for sign posts to show that she was on the right path. It certainly gave Zoey some thing to think about.


David started to spend time with Mitch and they watched his wedding video to listen to Mitch’s father of the groom toast. It caused Mitch to cry. David and Emily realized that there was a lot Mitch was going to miss and they decided to resolve their argument about finding out the sex of their baby (she for, he against) by having a gender reveal party. (It was a boy).


Joan tried to pretend that everything was great following the end of her marriage to Charlie but it was clear she was just trying to distract herself from the pain even before she sang “Wrecking Ball” to Zoey. Zoey convinced Joan to be kinder to herself.


Throughout the episode, Zoey heard the songs of her agoraphobic neighbor Bonnie and tried to engage with her. Bonnie finally came out and let Zoey walk her to Mo’s apartment. It was just the sign Mo needed and he returned to church to make a joyful noise as himself – dress and wig and all.


Believe it or not, that is the short summary of the last episode. I had something else written that was like twice the length and I was like “I just pretty much recapped it again!” I do need to work on summary lengths, which was a problem I had with Once Upon a Time too. I need to start nailing down the major points and covering them.


Anyway, onto this week’s episode…

You gotta fight for your right to SPOILERS!


We open in the Clarke family house. Maggie has brought down some of David’s and Zoey’s old childhood toys and other items for Emily and David to pick through. Emily is surprised by how much Maggie saved. She picks up a Cabbage Patch Kid doll and says that Zoey didn’t strike her as that type of kid. Zoey confirms she was not as David reveals it was his. As was the Care Bear. Emily teases him, saying it was no surprise he became a public defender. For her part, Zoey had a bunch of science related toys and said they were her gateway drugs to her coder lifestyle.


Maggie tells Emily to take whatever she wants before excusing herself. Concerned, Zoey follows her and hears her mother confirming that she will meet Jessica at the flower market. She asks why her mother was being secretive and Maggie says she feels guilty working without Mitch and doesn’t want him to feel bad. Zoey assures her that it’s okay and she’s sure her father would be okay with her working.


Zoey then tells her mother that she’s no longer texting Simon back. She says it’s a bit difficult but the right decision for her. Maggie continues to support her.

Leaving the kitchen, Zoey rejoins her brother and sister-in-law. Emily asks if David wants to put their crib together that night but he says he needs to work late to prepare for the O’Reilly case. She looks disappointed but understands how busy pre-trial prep can be. But then she starts singing “Just Give Me a Reason” and he joins in as Zoey watches in amazement and growing concern. Though the choreography is absolutely gorgeous, how they keep trying to get close but end up pulled apart over and over.

(Gorgeous)

After the song, Zoey asks David and Emily if they are okay. They both insist they are fine before leaving. Zoey calls BS.


Zoey then calls Mo and says she just heard her first duet. Mo has just woken up and is not in a mood to talk at the moment so they make plans to meet up later for drinks. Mo asks for a place with good potato skins.

At work, Joan announces that they will be going over the anonymous peer reviews Zoey had them conduct with each other. This catches Zoey off-guard but Joan insists everything will be fine.

My HR senses are tingling and telling me it was, in fact, not be fine.


Joan just focuses on the negative aspects of the reviews, though Tobin is absolutely thrilled to be labelled just “Adequate.” He believes in keeping the bar low. Max is less thrilled to hear that he’s just coasting and lacks initiative. And Leif is devastated to hear that people find him smug and unlikeable. He asks to know who submitted the feedback but Joan insists it’s anonymous.

In case you were wondering, this is NOT how anonymous peer reviews are supposed to work. Only the manager and HR should see them and then extrapolate what are the person’s strengths and weaknesses and use that to build a professional development plan for them. They should not see (or hear) the actual peer reviews. 


Zoey asks about her own peer reviews and Joan says that it wasn’t useful, mostly driven by misogyny and that the important thing is that she thinks Zoey is doing a great job.


Well, at least she has Joan’s support.


That evening, she meets up with Mo at O’Reilly’s sports bar. She tells Mo about the duet she heard and Mo confirms that David and Emily have some issues. But he cautions her about getting to involved and Zoey is only happy to agree because she’s had enough of interfering with a marriage after Joan and Charlie.


Max then joins them and says that Autumn will join them in a minute. She saw a rainbow in an oil slick outside and wanted to savor the moment. Zoey says that Max seems less enthused by Autumn since returning from Napa and he says that Napa was a bit much for him. While he was first charmed by her flower child, free spirit vibe, he says that she would just run through a field for like an hour while he wanted to enjoy Napa. Autumn then pops up and says she hopes he’s not talking about Napa without her before launching into how gorgeous Napa is.


Zoey then hears some music and excuses herself, following the sound to a bunch of billiards tables. She finds her brother there, singing “You Gotta Fight For Your Right to Party” along with some other guys. He’s surprised to see Zoey there and then explains he’s there to blow off some steam with the guys. He asks her not to tell anyone and she agrees, though she’s not comfortable with the fact he’s lying to his wife.

(Party on, dudes!)

The next day, Zoey goes to get some advice from Simon. She asks him how Jessica would react if she found that he was actually playing pool at a bar when he told her he was working late. He says he would be a dead man. Zoey then reveals she found her brother doing just that and doesn’t know if she should be worried or if she should let her sister-in-law know. Simon says that if David’s really just blowing off steam and it’s just a one-off thing, she didn’t really need to worry and it would all work out. She thanks him for the advice.


She’s about to leave when she turns back, asking him what’s wrong. He asks her how he can always see what he’s truly feelings. Zoey says that it usually takes a whole song and dance routine (ha!) for her to  figure out how someone is feeling but that’s just…easy…with him. Simon tells her that his father’s birthday is approaching and he’s feeling down. He has told Jessica and she’s planned to take him to a basketball game to cheer him up but he’s still expecting some sadness and grief that day, which Zoey assures him would be totally normal. She also tells him that if he needs her, she’s only 50 feet away. He thanks her and she leaves.


Zoey hears some soft music and it leads her to a relaxation pod. She opens it to find Leif singing “Everybody Hurts” inside. He says that the review hurt him and he’s worried. Zoey tries to reassure him but he reveals that he lives in his brothers’ shadows – both have very prestigious jobs. And are his younger brothers. He worries he’ll never go as far as them and curls back up in the pod, asking for some time. Zoey gives it to him, patting the pod and deciding to let him wallow for a bit.

(We've all had these moments)

Maggie and Jessica spend some time together and Jessica is impressed that Maggie and Mitch had their own coffee book. Maggie tries to downplay it but Jessica praises her work. She asks Maggie what it was like to work with Mitch and Maggie says it was great, that it made them stronger as a couple. Zoey then enters and there’s some discussion about how Zoey always tended more to science, including dissecting earthworms, before Jessica bids them a goodnight.

(Maggie being humble)

Zoey notices a real estate listing and asks if her mom is looking at a new house. Maggie explains that she ran into a previous client at the flower market and she had bought a new house. The client asked Maggie to work on her lawn and gardens like she and Mitch had with her old house. Zoey thinks that’s amazing but Maggie wants to turn it down. Zoey asks why and Maggie says that it wouldn’t be working with Mitch, which she enjoyed. And she also feels like it would be a betrayal.

Music starts to play and Mitch jumps up from the couch, singing “It’s Your Thing” and encouraging his wife to pursue her passions and dreams. Zoey dances along with him and it’s clear that she’s starting to get more into these performances. And when the song ends, she tells her mom that she thinks Mitch would be supportive of her. She then asks why David wasn’t there and Maggie says he needed to work late on the O’Reilly’s case, which Zoey finds very interesting.

(Dance party!)

She surprises her brother at O’Reilly’s, telling him that it’s one thing if he wants to lie to his wife so he can blow off steam but that it’s entirely something else if he does it to their mother. She wants him to start talking.


David explains that he’s having some jitters now that he knows he’s having a son. He reminds Zoey that he wasn’t the most masculine boy growing up and he worries that his son will be the same. When Zoey points out that he could be the opposite, David says then he wouldn’t be able to connect or guide his son. So he’s trying to work through his issues and just needs some time to deal with them. He asks her not to tell anyone, including Emily. She zips her lips.


At work the next day, Zoey has to deal with Max, who is freaking out over his relationship with Autumn. He explains that her parents are going to be in town and she wants him to meet them. And he’s not sure if he’s ready to meet the parents. Maybe the relationship is moving too fast. Zoey tells him to relax and not to stress about it. He decides to do that before wondering if he’s just coasting and doing the same thing he does at work in his relationship. Before Zoey can respond, she gets a call from Emily. She answers and says that she can meet with her sister-in-law.


Emily and Zoey walk along a marina, drinking coffee. Zoey says they don’t usually hang and she thinks this is nice. Emily agrees and asks Zoey how she is. Zoey barely gets two words out before Emily says that something is wrong with David. Zoey realizes why Emily really called her and they sit. Emily asks if she’s done something to drive David away and Zoey tries to comfort her sister-in-law without giving too much away. But when Emily asks if he’s having an affair, Zoey has to give a lot away. She tells Emily that he’s been going out to a bar to blow off some steam because he has pre-baby jitters. Zoey assures Emily that David is just neurotic and not a cheater. Emily thanks her.

(Poor Emily)

Zoey returns to her office and leaves a voicemail for David, warning him that she had talked to Emily and possibly let more than she should’ve slip out. She ends the voicemail and finds Leif still singing “Everybody Hurts” as he wallows around the office. Zoey goes to Joan and says that they broke Leif. She wants to know who wrote the negative feedback in hopes of having Leif and the person talk it out. Except it was Joan who wrote it. She says that she finds anonymous peer reviews to be too passive-aggressive but agreed to do it because it was Zoey’s idea. She doesn’t want to clip Zoey’s wings but she did want her team to hear some negative feedback that is still true. Joan tells her she needs to manage and being a manager means sometimes giving bad news.

Okay, I’m glad that Joan is supportive of Zoey and she’s right that managers have to be able to deliver bad news. However, the fact she wrote all those negative comments is over the line. If she managed the team before promoting Zoey or was always somehow involved in managing the team before now, she should’ve addressed these issues earlier. And her comment to Leif was unnecessarily cruel, no matter how true. Which is also why you don’t read the comments verbatim to people. You take them and put them into a professional context. So she really needs to talk to Leif because she has the problem, not Zoey.


That night, David calls his sister and lays into her for telling Emily about his baby jitters. He reveals that Emily hadn’t wanted children and that she only agreed because he had assured her that he would be all in. Now she was freaking out because he had doubts about being a father. Zoey apologizes, saying she couldn’t have known. David tells her that she doesn’t know everything about his marriage – which fair – and that she screwed up. He says he won’t be able to talk to her for a while.


I…I don’t know if we’re supposed to feel sympathy for David here. I think I’m going to save my thoughts on this for the end but I don’t know how the writers intend for us to view this storyline. I really don’t.


In the morning, Zoey goes to Mo for some advice. Mo doesn’t seem to be too upset that Zoey woke him up again – even if he does have a guest in his bed. Zoey explains everything that’s going on and Mo notes that Zoey seems uncomfortable with failure. She says that she doesn’t fail (it was confirmed earlier that she got a perfect score on the SAT) and Mo asks if her parents were super hard on her. But it was the opposite. Mitch and Maggie praised her for everything and so she wondered if she was really as good as they made her seem. So she worked even harder just to prove to herself that she deserved all that praise.


So pretty much Zoey’s had Imposter Syndrome her whole life. Mo says that he just got a good look at Zoey’s inner workings and then explains about a time where he was asked to design berets for a designer of some sort. The designer didn’t like Mo’s unusual berets in the end but they led to him getting another type of job. He pretty much tells Zoey that failure is always an option and that failure can lead to something greater.

(It's certainly a look)

Max and Autumn go for a run and Autumn goes over everything she wants to do with her parents while they are visiting, including a trip to Alcatraz because her dad was in prison. (Wha?) Max is out of breath and asks her to stop as he’s more a weightlifter than cardio guy. (Next episode will prove that). She lets him catch his breath as she admires the water. She continues going on about how great they are when he just blurts out that they should break up. He says that she’s all about the journey and feels they were side quests on their way to happiness. Max asks if Autumn is mad but she says she can’t be upset if that it’s his truth. They then have an awkward moment about continuing the run and he tells her to go ahead, promising to yell if he needs help.

(Actually a cinnamon roll. Too good, too pure for this world)

Zoey walks into Simon’s office, puts a basket on his desk and starts to walk off. He stops her, asking what the basket is. She says it’s a grief basket, with everything he might need to help him get through his dad’s birthday. He thanks her and she hopes it helps, though she warns that the Oreo package in the basket may not be completely full. Simon checks and gives her an amused smile as she leaves.


She then decides to deal with Leif, finding him writing in his journal. He lifts it up to show he’s been drawing a self-portrait of him depressed. Zoey says she got the results from her peer review and reads them over. There’s a couple valid points (she needs to delegate more), a couple non-valid points (her penchant for wearing cardigans over collared shirts), and Leif’s comment (he should’ve gotten the promotion). Zoey says that those hurt but she’s going to take the notes and grow. Leif is still waffling before Zoey decides to be straight with him. She says that he can be overconfident to the point of being arrogant (referencing the fact she heard him sing “All I Do is Win” in the premiere) but that he’s a good coder. He just needs to tone down the attitude. Leif thanks her for finally admitting that she wrote the comment and leaves. Zoey is pretty sure he didn’t understand what she was trying to tell him.

(Oh no. Not a sad clown)

That night, Maggie talks with Mitch about working for their previous client. He buzzes that he agrees she should take it. She laughs before saying that if he doesn’t want her to keep the business going, she will close it down. Maggie hands him the buzzer and tells him to buzz now or forever hold his peace. He does not buzz.


Zoey eats Chinese food in her apartment with a facial mask on. Max Facetimes her and tells her that he broke up with Autumn. His story about it is interrupted when Simon texts Zoey to say he’s outside her apartment. He rings the doorbell and Zoey has to quickly hang up with Max. She hides the Chinese food and takes off the facial mask before opening the door to let Simon in.


He says that he was going through some old messages from his dad and found one just days before his death. Simon says that there was a clear change in tone and that it now looks like his dad was calling out for help. He wonders if maybe he had returned the message sooner, his dad would still be alive. Zoey comforts him and tells him he can’t blame himself, that he did everything he could for his dad but sometimes it just isn’t enough. He accepts her comfort and they proceed to have a moment.

(Aww)

It seems clear that Simon should probably leave but that neither really want him to. Especially when he starts singing “Should I Stay or Should I Go” as he dances around Zoey’s apartment. The song – and the episode – ends with Zoey pressed up against her door and Simon standing very close, looking ready to kiss her.

Uh oh.


Overall, I liked the theme of the episode – being open to failure and growing from it. This show is all about Zoey’s growth and accepting failure is part of that. So bravo to the show for how they handled it.


And while the whole plot with the anonymous peer reviews made my HR skin crawl, it was entirely believable. Many managers misunderstand and misuse this system. And some are like Joan, believing that negative feedback is more important and having absolutely no filter when giving it. So while she is definitely an HR nightmare, she’s an HR nightmare that is grounded in reality.


I thought they would have Max and Autumn go on for a couple more episodes but I’m not surprised they broke up. I am sorry that this might mean no more Autumn. I love that sweet flower child.

I also thought Maggie’s storyline was well done too – hesitant to move forward with the business she had done with her husband for years but realizing that it was her passion. And Mitch being supportive. They really are a great couple.

Now onto David and Emily…as I said, I don’t know if we’re really supposed to sympathize with him or not. I mean, yes, he asked Zoey to keep a secret and she didn’t. So he is right to feel betrayed. But nothing about his secret painted him really in a sympathetic light. I especially tensed up when he talked about having to talk Emily into having a child. Maybe I’ve spent too much time reading the AITA reddit but that never really ends well. If having a child was so important to David, maybe he and Emily shouldn’t have gotten married. And then to add on the comment that he hid the fact that he liked (or may still like) musical theater because Emily hates it…I mean, you can like something and your partner not like it. Hiding it doesn’t bode well for a relationship.

(I am also a bit concerned about Emily’s characterization. They seem to be lying a bit hard on an Asian stereotype – never emotional and always logical).

From everything we’ve seen, it does seem like Emily and David love each other and accept each other despite being opposites. And the show is ultimately not about them so there will be a lot we don’t see. But this whole matter just leaves me a bit uncomfortable and wondering if a possible second season (which we hopefully will get) might deal with the realities of a new baby and how they both adjust to parenthood – as well as see if there’s any other part of their personalities they may be hiding from the other.

Maybe it’s setting up their own failure…or maybe I’m just too focused on their plot point.

Next time: Drama ensues at the engagement party