Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: Zoey’s Turn

Last time: Zoey and Simon agreed to go back to only being colleagues. Max then surprised her with a flash mob song performance that freaked out her, leading to her ultimately telling him about her powers. He didn’t believe her and she tried to prove it to him. Max only believed her after she confessed that she heard him singing love songs to her and then set him up with Autumn to divert his feelings from her. That hurt him and he wondered if they were even friends. Zoey apologized and promised to do better, though she couldn’t sort out her feelings for Max just yet. They agreed to maintain some distance though there did appear to be some hope for their friendship.


Meanwhile, Leif and Joan were eagerly moving forward with the Chirp. Zoey felt out of the loop as manager and Tobin felt as if his best friend was moving on from him, especially when Leif missed their spelliversary (the anniversary of them winning the national spelling bee). Zoey got him to open to Leif, who said he wanted to run SPRQ Point with Tobin and they reconciled. Then that night, she caught Leif and Joan kissing after a late night work session.


And Maggie decided to hire a care giver to help with Mitch. She thought she found the perfect one but Nancy’s cold and clinical approach ultimately was not what they needed. Instead, they hired Howie, who bonded with Mitch and proved himself to be an able care giver.


Thankfully, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist will be coming back for a second season! I can’t wait to see what happens next and what new songs they decide to use this time!

You have to learn to pace yourself/SPOILERS!/You’re just like everyone body else/SPOILERS!


Zoey makes herself some toast as she talks to her mother. Maggie asks her to send out invitations for Emily’s baby shower and Zoey insists it won’t be a problem. Emily, though, doesn’t like baby showers and doesn’t want it to even suggest that it could be a baby shower so Maggie advises avoiding storks. Zoey promises to do that. Maggie then asks if she will be coming to her father’s appointment that day and Zoey says she will as she’s excited to meet Howie, who is entertaining Mitch. Maggie says that he’s unconventional but is working out wonderfully.


At SPRQ Point, Zoey tells Max that she’s making her way through all of Jim Carrey’s movies. She’s up to Liar Liar but it doesn’t sound like Max is eager to rejoin Movie Night. He’s holding firm.


When the elevator doors open, Tobin greets Zoey by saying that something is not his fault even though he was responsible for coding it. She asks him what’s not his fault and it turns out that the SPRQ watch is glitching so everything is now scheduled for Christmas. Tobin promises to fix it as soon as possible and that Leif has told him to goof off less and work more. Zoey just wants him to fix it.


Spotting Leif and Joan in her office, Zoey then tells Max about how she saw Leif kissing Joan and singing “I Put a Spell On You.” He asks if it’s witchcraft or professional asskissing and Zoey figured it might be both. Leif then asks Zoey to come into Joan’s office so they could take with her and both Zoey and Max note how he used the plural.


Zoey enters the office and Joan tells her that Danny Michael Thomas, SPRQ Point’s founder, is coming to visit their office. She and Leif are going to pitch him the Chirp that day and want Zoey to work on a 6 month implementation timeline. Zoey, though, thinks they can do a 9 month timeline but Joan and Leif pressure her to agree to six months before sending her on her way.


Simon then comes out and asks her if she has anything on the watch bug as tech bloggers are reaching out to him for comments. Zoey says they are working on a fix and she asks him if he knows Danny Michael Thomas. He does, saying he got his job after they snuck out of a conference together and bonded at the hotel bar. She says he’s coming in and he tells her that Danny is eccentric but a genius. He also tells her not to stress and that everything will be fine, telling her that if she needs to, she can take ten deep breaths. He says it’s part of the new meditation routine he’s started to help him deal with life. She asks if it’s working and he reminds her that he just started. She says she doesn’t need something like that and then excuses herself, saying she has to go to her dad’s doctor’s appointment. He says he hopes it goes well and she thanks him.


At the doctor’s office, Howie regales them with some crazy story and makes them laugh. The doctor then comes in and asks Howie to give him some time with the family. Howie understands and leaves, saying he and Mitch have a lot of plans so he hopes it doesn’t take too long. The doctor sits down and then tells them that the disease is progressing faster and that Mitch only has a few weeks left. Zoey backs away, unable to hear anything and we only hear her heartbeat as she returns back to SPRQ Point in a haze.

(Aww, look how happy they are)

Once she enters the lobby, a woman asks her if she’s okay. Zoey then starts singing “Crazy” as she dances around the lobby. It seems now instead of hearing other people’s heart songs, she’s singing her own. She continues as she rides up the elevator. We then cut to Max, who watches as she exits, singing out loud and doing some dance moves and looking like a crazy person. He asks her if she’s okay or if she’s maybe feeling “crazy.” Zoey realizes he heard her singing and then is horrified to learn that she was singing out loud. He asks her if anything is wrong and she just brushes him off, hoping it was a one-time thing.

(Happening in Zoey's head)

(What was really happening)

Zoey then gets a call from her family. Maggie asks her how she’s doing since she left the office so quickly and Zoey says she needed to get back to work but she’s doing fine. She asks how Maggie is doing and Maggie starts to choke up. She hands the phone to David, who tells Zoey that their father wants to have a family meeting that night so they could discuss his wishes as they approached the end. It’s too much for Zoey and she says that her company’s founder is coming into town so she’s not sure how late she will be. She asks David to fill her in later before ending the call.


She is then called into a meeting with Leif and Joan, who want to run through their presentation with her. But Zoey hasn’t had enough time to prepare and LEIF goes at her. Even if this is his project, he shouldn’t be going after his supervisor and her supervisor needs to reel him in. But Joan is just as high strung and doesn’t.


The stress again gets to Zoey and she starts singing “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” She tries to fight it but her powers prove stronger, forcing her to sing the song and dance around the office. Though this time, there isn’t really musical accompaniment or background dancers. It really does look like Zoey is having a nervous breakdown.


When she finishes, Joan asks her if she’s high. Zoey says she’s high on life and tries to play off a song as a way to alleviate the stress and have a play on their watch troubles. Joan asks her if she needs to go to the hospital and Zoey says she’s fine. At this point, this is probably the point where you should dismiss the person’s subordinate and send the person home to rest with maybe an EAP referral because that is clearly a sign that something is wrong. Instead, Joan just dismisses Zoey and tells her not to get up to any more Zoey shenanigans.

Maggie calls Zoey but she ignores it. Max tries to talk to her in hopes of helping her figure out why her powers are glitching. He tells her to approach it like one of her own cases and they track the source back to her father’s doctor’s appointment. She refuses to talk about it and says the only solution to her problem is a vacation from SPRQ Point and her family, neither of which she could do at that moment. Tobin then interrupts to say that he’s fixed the Christmas issue. Unfortunately, the Fourth of July is gone. Zoey tells him to just fix it as her stress increases. It gets worse when Simon tells her that Danny Michael Thomas has arrived. She says she’s not ready and he offers to distract him by giving him a tour of their rooftop garden. She thanks him and continues to work.


Leif finds her in a pod and asks her about her song choice. He says it didn’t seem like it was making fun of their watch dilemma but more of an accusation. Like maybe she saw someone kissing someone. Zoey cracks and confesses that she saw him kissing Joan. She tells him that she doesn’t know exactly what he’s up to but she doesn’t approve. Leif says he’s just enjoying the company of a smart, witty and beautiful older woman (who just happens to be his boss). While it does seem that Leif wants to climb the corporate ladder, it’s also becoming clearer that he might have actual feelings for her and doesn’t just see Joan as a rung on that ladder.


Unfortunately, Simon can’t delay Danny Michael Thomas for long and he soon enters. Everyone gathers around him and absolutely falls over themselves to try to kiss his ass. He is every stereotype of the tech start up genius CEO and he’s trying to be hip and woke. There’s even a point where he mentions his “birth parents” and you just know he’s not adopted and is just referring to his actual parents. He points out that the cereal bar was his first idea and everyone praises it. Zoey nervously says that they experiment and some times have a bread bar. He asks who likes bread and everyone tries to pretend they don’t before he reveals he loves bread, making everyone laugh – loudly and fakely.

(This is Danny Michael Thomas)

Everyone gathers in the nest for the meeting. Joan and Leif present the idea for the Chirp and then turn it over to Zoey. She’s ready to talk when she hears music start up. Once again, she tries to fight it but she ends up singing Billy Joel’s “Pressure.” It’s a full fledged musical number in her head but we again cut to Max’s perspective, which shows Zoey is just dancing crazily as she sings the song – including the accompanying music. He jumps in and sings along with her, trying to keep up with her moves. When she finishes, she tries to explain that it was part of her presentation about the Chirp. Danny Michael Thomas doesn’t know what to make of her and Joan pretty much throws her out.

(Now that's what I call an assist)

Zoey lies prostrate on the floor while Max sits in one of the swinging chairs. He apologizes for ever doubting her powers because he knows no one would ever do something that embarrassing of their own accord. She thanks him for jumping in and he says that she was lucky he knows every Billy Joel song since it was required for an East Coast kid like him. But Zoey is still touched that he would risk his job for her like and starts singing “I’m Yours” to him.

(Aww)

Max asks her what that song meant and Zoey tried to play it off as possibly platonic. But he’s pretty sure it means she has romantic feelings for him. She’s saved from figuring it out when Joan snaps at them to join her in her office. They sit down and she yells at them for smiling, saying what happened was not funny. Max points out that he’s smiling for a different reason but Joan doesn’t want to hear it. She continues to lay into them before Tobin pulls them away, saying he’s still having issues. Zoey asks Max to help Tobin while she continues to ignore another one of her mother’s calls.


She flees to a meditation room and starts to count to ten while taking deep breaths. However, Simon was already in the room but he invites her to join him. He tells her it’s his new favorite place. She tries to make small talk but she hears music and so apologizes for whatever was about to happen.


What happens is that she sings “I Want You to Want Me” while dancing suggestively with him, including crawling around the room. When she finishes, Max finally speaks up and she realizes he saw the whole performance. She chases after him and he lays into her for singing to him and then singing to Simon. He pretty much casts her as a villain for being confused, though she argues that she didn’t know she felt that way until she sang it. He’s not buying it though and storms off. Zoey follows him into the men’s room and they continue arguing, even when Tobin enters – and doesn’t blink that Zoey is in there. Max points out that Zoey sang a love song to him and a song about lust to Simon before leaving. She leaves as Tobin wants to gossip, saying the rumors about someone in HR are totally true.

(Excuse me while I fan myself)

We’ll dive more into this argument later. Let’s continue with the recap right now.


As Zoey tries to return to her desk, Joan waylays her and asks her to come with her. She says that Danny Michael Thomas thinks Zoey is weird and that she was surprised Zoey said it would take twelve months to implement the Chirp. Zoey apologizes, saying she tried to make it not be a year but it just couldn’t happen. Joan then says that Danny Michael Thomas is giving them the money. Joan tells Zoey that she really swung for the left field with her pitch. Joan tells her that next time she decides to go for something different to just let her (Joan) know so she can back her (Zoey) up.


They head down the lobby and Joan asks Zoey why she didn’t say the timeline they wanted was unrealistic. She says she tried but Joan doesn’t quite realize that she and Leif steamrolled over her. Joan, though, does assure Zoey she can talk with her about anything. So Zoey reveals that she knows about Joan and Leif. She also warns Joan that Leif may not have been in it for the right reasons. Joan promises that she is not serious about Leif and that it was a mistake she won’t be repeating, though she keeps finding excuses to put it off. When Zoey gives her a look, Joan promises to end it.

(That laugh seems a bit forced there, Joan)

Zoey returns upstairs and goes to talk to Simon about what happened. They talk a bit but the important thing is that he kisses her. And then they part, both as confused as ever.

(Hot damn)

Back at her desk, Tobin rolls over and tells her that everything is fixed now. Zoey thanks him. He asks if he’s going to face any repercussions since it was his mistake in the first place. Zoey says that he found it, identified the problem and spent all day working to fix it. She tells him he made up for it and just tells him to be more careful in the future. He agrees.


Max gets ready to leave and tells Zoey that her mother called him, worried because Zoey wasn’t answering any of her calls. She says she was busy but she’ll call her family back. They have a few tense moments before he starts to walk away. At that point, Zoey finally tells him that her father only has a few weeks to live and she’s not taking the news well. He does his best to reassure her and encourages her to go see her father.

(Max still has some issues with Zoey)

So Zoey heads home and finds her mother getting the bed ready. Maggie asks her how she is and Zoey apologizes for ignoring her. She admits she’s scared to talk to her father but knows she has to do it. Howie gives them some privacy, saying Mitch is busy watching shows about surviving in the Alaskan wilderness. Zoey goes and joins her father, turning off the TV so she can talk to him. In the end, she ends up singing “How Do I Live” to him as he cradles her.

(Excuse me, I have something in my eye...)

Maggie then enters and we learn it was all in Zoey’s head, so her powers seem to be going back to normal. The three of them sit together and watch some TV as we end on a sad looking Zoey.

(Somewhat happy ending?)

That was an interesting episode! I loved how her powers “glitched” on her, realizing that she needed to talk to someone. It would be better if that someone had a degree and office hours but Max is a good start. Maybe next season we can see Zoey in therapy and at one point she has to help her therapist.


Because Zoey definitely needs a therapist. And maybe a vacation, though as she noted it is not a good time. But she needs one. Or at least a long weekend.

Okay. Now onto the Max and Zoey fight…

I understand Max’s frustration. He’s laid his heart out for her and she hasn’t really done the same. And when it appears that she does, she then turns around and sings a song about wanting another man. It can’t be fun to be trapped in a triangle, especially when one part is already engaged to someone else. And he did have a point that one song was about love and the other was about lust.

But Max is also seeing things in very simplified ways. Much like Zoey had a very ordered view of the world at the start of the season, Max does too. People are complex and they are allowed to be complex. They can have feelings for more than one person at the same time. And it can be hard to sort out. Though I feel Zoey is avoiding doing that, it’s not Max’s place for her to figure it out immediately. Especially given EVERYTHING else she was going through, even if he didn’t know her father was dying. She was having the day from hell and while he started out by trying to make it better, he then made it worse. She’s stressed enough, dude. She doesn’t need to work out her feelings just so you can stop angsting about it.

While I think both Max and Simon are viable options, I don’t think Zoey is in a place to make a big decision about romance just yet. She needs to focus on herself and her other issues.

Next time: Zoey helps Howie.