Last time: Zoey took a “grief vacation” with her budding relationship with Max but struggled to have some sexytimes with him. Max and Mo hit a snag in their budding business when he asked Mo to sign a contract. Zoey had her first crisis as director and Leif struggled to manage his team. In the end, Zoey and Leif decided to shake up the team to end the frat-like culture that had developed, Mo and Max had a heart to heart where he decided to trust Max, and Zoey and Max finally had some sexytimes. Also, Emily’s sister Jenna showed up to help with the baby but was more of a nuisance than a help until Maggie took Jenna under her wing.
So far I’ve really been enjoying the second season and it sounds like audiences are responding. I am nervous though as it seems Zoey will go on hiatus after episode six and NBC debuts a new Tuesday lineup. It’s unknown when it will return and where it will be on the schedule. Those aren’t moves that help shows and usually hurt them.
Hopefully, though, Zoey comes out stronger.
Nowhere to run, baby, nowhere to SPOILERS!
Zoey wakes up in a darkened room but there’s no other furniture but her bed. She starts singing and dancing as she tries to leave her room. She then makes it downstairs, still singing about how there’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. All the rooms of her house are empty and she sits on the couch, highlighting her father’s empty spot.
She sits up with a gasp and Max wakes with a start. He asks what’s going on and she tries to play it off. He’s not fooled and she admits that she’s been having recurring nightmares about being stuck in the house. And that she’s only getting a couple hours of sleep a night. Max suggests that it’s time for her to move back to her apartment and she agrees, saying her mother seems to be in a better place. She promises to talk to Maggie in the morning before we get our title card.
 |
| (I can't remember what Max said but...shirtless Skylar Astin. So we all win) |
Emily kneels in front of her son’s crib asking who would wait until the morning to fall asleep. David is prone on the floor saying their son doesn’t respect them and blames her side of the family. She starts to lay down next to him when Jenna comes in. David threatens to kill her if she wakes the baby but she continues talking – not loud but probably not as softly as she should around a sleeping baby. She talks about how bare the nursery looks and offers to decorate for them. Apparently she’s gotten into photography and offers to do a photoshoot so they could put lots of pictures on the wall. They agree and Jenna leaves, finally giving them some peace to sleep.
 |
| (Night-night, you two) |
Maggie greets Zoey and Max in the kitchen and seems to be in a good mood. Zoey figures that means she might be more open to the conversation about Zoey moving home so she goes to talk to Maggie. She finds her mother in her greenhouse and Maggie is getting ready for a big pitch, her first job since Mitch’s death. Zoey hears her mother singing “Someone You Loved” and realizes her mother isn’t as confident as she’s pretending to be. So she gives her a pep talk and tells Max she’ll talk to Maggie that night, after her meeting is over.
Zoey heads into work and Simon notes how big her cup of coffee is. She asks him if sleep is important and he asks her how much sleep is she talking about. Zoey confesses that she’s having nightmares and he says he had them too. She asks him how to make them go away and he replies that they’ll just go away on their own, though they may make an appearance here or there. Zoey is not thrilled with the answer and he reminds her that reducing stress can help as well. She, though, reminds him that she just became the director of the Fourth Floor and so has added to her stress, not reduced it. But Simon has a solution for that: delegate!
So Zoey decides to delegate. She puts everyone in charge of different things – including making George in charge of bringing back their food bar on a very limited budget and asking Tobin to manage the softball team. He says he has a connection to get them uniforms and seems excited about the team. One of the new coders, McKenzie, reminds him that it has to be a co-ed team and then reveals she’s the only one who has ever played softball. Zoey reminds Tobin to be inclusive before hurrying off to put another department in charge of decorations.
Well, this is going to blow up on Zoey. While delegating is a good thing and something good managers should do, you don’t just assign tasks willy-nilly like Zoey is doing. She should be looking at her teams’ strengths and figure out what they would handle best. It seems McKenzie has experience with sports so maybe she should be in charge of the softball team. And maybe the accounting team might be better to figure out an affordable food bar option rather than making decorations.
Maggie goes to her meeting and the contractor, Roger, meets up with her. He shows her around his project before looking over her plans. She watches him and her spirits fall when she realizes he’s not thrilled with her ideas. He says that they look beautiful but he feels they are too safe. That she and Mitch used to take risks and he wants that “magic” again. Maggie asks for a second chance and promises that she will take risks. He gives it to her, eager to work with her again.
At home that night, Maggie and Zoey talk about how her pitch went and Zoey offers to help her. They have dinner and talk about it as Jenna enters the kitchen. Zoey hears her singing “One Song Away” and grows annoyed at another heartsong interrupting her. But she covers well and suggests that Jenna should help Maggie. Jenna jumps at the chance while Maggie hesitantly agrees, probably less about Jenna but more about working with someone who isn’t Mitch.
Zoey heads into work the next morning and Simon notes her coffee cup is bigger. She says the dreams have continued and she hasn’t been able to reduce her stress just yet. Zoey then also tells Simon that she and Max are dating but he reveals he already knew. Max told him so that it wouldn’t be weird between them since they are friends. He tells Zoey that Max makes her happy and so he’s happy as well. It’s all very adult and it seems they can still be friends.
Back at the house, Jenna guides Maggie through some exercises to loosen herself up. She then does some free association with Maggie and gets her creative juices flowing. Jenna tells her to grab her pad and pencil and start drawing.
 |
| (Maybe I should try this next time I have writer's block?) |
Max and Mo meet with a real estate agent to look at a place for their restaurant. Except Mo is on the phone with Eddie and it’s not going well. Max apologizes and the realtor shows him around the place, which looks like a fixer upper but that with a little TLC, could be a pretty cool place to have a restaurant.
Done with his call, Mo insists that the place is horrible and is more like a crack house. The real estate agent offers to show them other places but points out that the building itself has a liquor license. Apparently there are licenses that can be given to just specific addresses and not specific businesses. So if they buy the building, they can assume that liquor license and not have to wait for their own. Max convinces Mo that will help them tremendously so he agrees to take the place but plans to completely renovate it.
Despite drinking a tall order of coffee, Zoey still dozes off at her desk and briefly revisits the nightmare. George wakes her and tells her he solved the bar problem. He suggests serving hard boiled eggs and Zoey signs off on it.
 |
| (George and his egg) |
That night, Max makes Zoey dinner and talks about his day. Zoey is zoning out because of a lack of sleep and Max asks her if she’s been listening. She tries to pretend she has but it’s clear to him she hasn’t. She apologizes and says she’s still thinking about the dreams. Zoey explains that Simon said that they’re normal but she’s hoping they stop soon. Max gets weird that she talked to Simon about them and I’m not sure if he’s more upset that she went to Simon for help or that he knows Simon can help her in a way he can’t.
 |
| (Max can rock an apron) |
There is a momentary blip and Max realizes that he was just singing to her. He asks her what it was but she refuses to tell him. And this understandably makes him more upset as once again, Zoey has an insight into him that he can never have with her. Added with the fact that Simon understands Zoey’s grief in a way Max never could, he could reasonably be feeling shut out of Zoey’s life. So it’s understandable that he’s frustrated and leaves.
This is the first time the audience hasn’t been privy to a heartsong and so it’s intriguing. What was Max singing to her? What does it reveal that the show doesn’t want the audience to know yet?
Hmm…
Things get worse for Zoey at work. George tells her that the eggs aren’t a good call and have gone off. He looks near tears, no doubt upset to have let her down. McKenzie then storms in with the jerseys that Tobin got for the softball team. She reveals their team name is “Brogrammers” and that the logo of someone at bat has the silhouette of the man holding the bat in such a way that it looks like an erect penis. Zoey calls in Tobin and orders him to send the jerseys back. Though he tries to protest that “Bro” is gender neutral in California, she also insists that he change the name while ordering George to get rid of the eggs. She then dismisses them.
Maggie returns to the work site and talks with her friend, showing him her new plans. She explains it all and he loves her new design. It is exactly what he wanted, even if he didn’t know it. The job is hers.
Zoey tries to work without falling asleep when a softball crashes into one of her glass walls. She storms out to find the coders all wearing the jerseys she had ordered to be sent back and them practicing in the office. Zoey asks Leif why he allowed it, especially since they seemed to be on the same page about cutting down on the games in the office. Leif promises they are but he says they called him coach and he figured it wouldn’t be too bad. Zoey flips out on them and yells at them to take off the shirts and to mail them back like she ordered. The coders then all team up to sing “Hard Knock Life” to her as they do just that.
 |
| (Zoey means business) |
Look, Zoey should not have yelled. It’s not really a good thing for managers/directors to yell at their subordinates, no matter how frustrated or stressed they are. But “Hard Knock Life” might be going a bit too far, guys. She’s just breaking up your boys’ club and making you do what she pays you for – work. You’re not abused and neglected orphans in the Great Depression. Chill.
At home, Zoey tells Maggie that she’s going to move back home. Maggie is supportive and apologies if she’s been holding Zoey back. She says she’s doing better and that Jenna really did help her. Zoey is glad to hear it.
 |
| (Aww) |
In the morning, Emily and David agree to ask Jenna to leave so they can focus on their baby. But Jenna then comes in and tells them that she will be working with Maggie on her project so she’ll be staying even longer! Emily and David realize they are stuck with her for the foreseeable future.
Zoey and Max make up after the dinner incident and cuddle in her apartment. As they watch wrestling, Zoey drifts off and returns to the nightmare. Except she’s now relocated to her apartment and dances around it, trying to get to the door. When she does, she opens it and finds herself standing there. Except she’s wearing the red dress she wore when dancing with Mitch as he died in the finale.
 |
| (Creepy) |
She sits up and Max wants to know about her dreams but she refuses to talk about them.
At SPRQ Point the next morning, Simon finds Zoey dejectedly swinging in the office. She tells him that she’s still having the dreams and finally tells him what she’s dreaming about. He notes that she literally was in her own way and Zoey takes that in, deciding to figure that out later. She asks him what else she can do and he tells her to be patient. He says she’s taken some good steps forward – she’s moved back home and she’s talked about her dreams with him. He tells her she’ll get there – it’s just going to take time.
 |
| (Another shallow moment - Simon's smile) |
That night, Max makes him and Zoey dinner and tells her that Mo and Eddie broke up. I’m a bit sad because I thought they were cute together but I guess they just couldn’t get Patrick Ortiz back. Oh well. But it’s clear that Zoey is not listening and when Max pushes her, she grabs her laptop and says she has work to do. She walks away from him as music begins to play.
Max then follows her and starts singing “Say Something I’m Giving Up on You.” Zoey does her best to ignore it but she keeps hearing him as does the audience. And one has to wonder if her heart is breaking from the pain in Max’s voice just like the audience’s is. Because it’s clear he cares about her but he can’t help her if she won’t let him. There is honestly only so much he can do before he has to give up. And he’s approaching that point.
So Zoey decides it’s time to have a difficult discussion with Max. She admits that she’s not in the right headspace for a relationship and that she needs to do some work on herself. And it’s not fair to Max for him to keep giving of himself while she finds herself incapable of doing the same of herself. He asks if she’s breaking up with him but she suggests that they only take a pause. Max agrees and promises to continue supporting her, which she appreciates.
And on that sad note, the episode ends.
Well, that was quick.
We really don’t have much of a timeline for these seasons. Like I was trying to figure out a timeline for season 1 and figured it took place over the span of a few months. And I think it’s already been a month or so in this season but it’s hard to tell. So right now, it definitely seems like Max and Zoey moved too quickly.
It seems they went from casual to very serious in the span of a couple weeks, maybe a month. I’m not sure if they got caught up in the rush of a new relationship or if the theory of the podcasters I listen to are right that since they were such good friends, it allowed them to enter a deeper aspect of their relationship a lot sooner than if they had started as strangers. Either way, it seemed Max was constantly by Zoey’s side. And given that she had spent the weeks since her father’s death with her mother, I don’t think Zoey’s had any time to just be by herself and to focus on herself. I think she really, really needed that and that was the message of her nightmare – there’s nowhere to run or hide from her own grief. That she needs to face herself and start processing it so she can move on.
You know what title I hope we see soon? Zoey’s Extraordinary Therapist. Because she needs one. When Zoey was talking to Max in the end, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was depressed. That would be interesting to explore.
I’m not really invested in any of the ships – though I’m still not a big fan of ZoMax despite being a big fan of the Best Friend Triumphant trope. But I also didn’t take this pause to be “Yay for Simon” either. However, I do appreciate that Zoey and Simon are still building their friendship. And I’m glad she has someone who can guide her through this process, especially if she won’t go to therapy.
We’ll just have to see where this goes.
Next time: Zoey tries to be more positive.
No comments:
Post a Comment