You're the Worst Season 2 Episode 12 Review: Other Things You Could Be Doing
Caralynn Lippo
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You're the Worst Season 2 Episode 12 featured so many serious decisions and crazy revelations that it felt more like a season finale than a penultimate installment. It was amazing and I'm beyond thrilled that You're the Worst has gotten the go-ahead for season three.
Peak TV prevails once again!
We left off on You're the Worst Season 2 Episode 11 with Jimmy finally giving in to his carnal desires and kissing Nina the bartender passionately. "Other Things You Could Be Doing" picked up right there. Not gonna lie, as much as I hated what was happening, it was pretty hot.
Until the shoe came off (Jimmy's foot fetish, rearing its fetishy head once again) and the mood was killed by Nina's TERRIFYING black toes.
Jimmy: Oh my god!
Nina: What? Oh, stop. Skiing is rough on the feet.
Jimmy: Skiing?! It looks like these things got caught in the gears of a clock!
I gagged. Audibly.
Nina invited Jimmy to her cabin, hoping to "do this the right way" ("do this" meaning "help Jimmy cheat on his mentally ill girlfriend"). Obviously we didn't see what Jimmy and Nina chatted about, so it's entirely possible that he lied to Nina and told her that he and Gretchen broke up, but the knowing way that she responded to his request to not knock when she arrived to pick him up would indicate otherwise.
Of course, if this was any other kind of (inferior) show, that would have been that: Jimmy would have gone off for secret cabin sexytimes with Nina, abandoning Gretchen despite her admittedly crappy behavior. Maybe he would have had a regret/reconciliation arc.
Maybe he would have shouted at Gretchen that they were "on a break." Maybe they would have reunited. Maybe he would have gone off and started a real relationship with Nina.
But no. Jimmy stayed, and the resulting reunion between Jimmy and Gretchen was by far one of the most emotional and beautiful scenes of TV I've ever witnessed.
Let's back up a bit and look at how Jimmy wound up making that decision, which was perfectly in character and perfectly developed.
Jimmy arrived home and found Gretchen inert, lying unresponsive in the living room. He was surprised to find her home, since she'd temporarily moved into Lindsay's house. It was pretty obvious (especially by the end) that Gretchen had returned home for Jimmy, try as she might to insist on being alone.
Gretchen claimed that Lindsay drove her away with Lindsay's new, apologetic outlook on life – Lindsay, as Gretchen put it via text message to Jimmy, wouldn't stop apologizing to her for stuff.
For a terrifying second before Gretchen started communicating by text message with Jimmy, I thought she might have OD'd on something, which was a totally plausible outcome of her self-medicating. Luckily, Gretchen was not dead. Just dead inside, according to her. The whole thing was very upsetting, but the texting was really funny at the same time. Again, I marvel at how effectively they've blended tragedy and comedy.
The first sign that Jimmy would not be leaving Gretchen came when he found himself unable to pack his bag and leave her alone in the house without making sure she was okay. That's a little thing we like to call "true love" – despite how awful Gretchen was acting towards him, Jimmy wanted only good things for her. He wanted her to recover, even if he couldn't be the one to initiate that recovery.
This was a remarkable point of character development for self-involved Jimmy, and a huge change from the Jimmy of You're the Worst Season 2 Episode 8 who was beyond smug when he thought he'd "cured" Gretchen's depression by organizing a fun day of events.
Jimmy organized a sort of speed-dating style intervention, where all of the best recurring characters filtered through his living room, planting themselves in front of emotionless Gretchen. Each in turn tried to either pep-talk her into feeling better (Sam), apologize to her (Lindsay), or distract her with their own self-involvement (Vernon, Becca).
This sequence was easily the funniest part of the episode. I particularly loved Sam listing off "great minds" who had suffered from depression... only for Honeynutz to whisper to him that all of the people he'd listed had killed themselves.
Some of the most legendary geniuses of our time suffered from depression. David Foster Wallace, Hemingway, Spalding Gray, Boner from Growing Pains...
Sam [to Gretchen]
Of course, that all didn't work, but it did finally get Gretchen standing up on her feet (Jimmy's small, pleased reaction to seeing that was a wonderful moment). At that point, Gretchen voiced what the audience (and Jimmy) needed to hear from her: her admittance that her behavior was unacceptable, and her belief that she was now stuck like this.
Tragically, she'd arrived at the conclusion that she should cut Jimmy loose and wished him well. This nicely mirrored Jimmy's selfless love for Gretchen; like Jimmy, Gretchen preferred Jimmy be free and happy with another, rather than stuck and unhappy with her. It was completely beautiful.
Gretchen: I'm scraped out. I'm... that car we sent to Mars, flipped upside down so the sun can't reach my solar panels. I've always been able to flip myself back over eventually but... I ran out of times. This is how I am now. And it's not okay with you. Nor should it be.
Jimmy: Okay. I suppose it's good that this happened now, instead of like... ten years down the line.
Gretchen: Yeah...
Jimmy: I'll be back in a couple of days.
Gretchen: I'll be out by the time you get back. Have fun. You deserve it. Whoever she is.
But that had nothing on the final scene: Jimmy had a change of heart about escaping with Nina to the sex cabin. He dove behind bushes, hiding from Nina and not responding to her texts. Which caused her to go totally bonkers, cementing her as not a cool chick. She stormed off when she caught sight of Jimmy hiding. Good riddance, Nina.
Jimmy finally realized how he could be there for Gretchen. He put together a blanket and pillow fort around the two of them and watched over her. Everything about the scene was gorgeous, from the soft focus coming in as Gretchen woke up and spotted Jimmy underneath the fort with her, to her heartbreaking realization that he hadn't abandoned her. Chris Geere and Aya Cash rocked this episode. Completely flawless.
Gretchen: You stayed?
Jimmy: Yeah.
Gretchen [crying]: You stayed.
In other relationships' news, Lindsay, on her new post near-death experience kick, realized (with Becca's help, weirdly) that she needed to let Paul go. Lindsay popping up at Amy and Paul's frisbee date, glass of red wine in hand, to deliver the divorce papers was wonderful.
Kether Donohue has done an amazing job at portraying Lindsay's gradual, realistic character development and growth throughout the season. Amy and Paul are now free to be together, so I absolutely predict a wedding soon.
Which will absolutely have a wrench thrown in it by Lindsay's successful turkey baster pregnancy. Put down that red wine, Lindsay.
I'm SUPER hesitant to believe that the turkey baster insemination worked, but do we know for sure whether Lindsay has slept with anyone else this season? It doesn't appear that she has. The baby is probably Paul's. I wasn't thrilled at the idea of this storyline before, but the fact that it is happening when Lindsay has finally managed to move on makes it much more interesting, dramatically.
Lastly, Dorothy and Edgar, being the most adorable and stable couple, decided to move in together – with Edgar finally moving out of Jimmy's house. And they're getting real furniture!
This was a natural progression that made sense. Edgar and Jimmy have been growing apart all season, as Edgar and Dorothy have grown closer. It will be interesting to see how the dynamic changes between the two men once Edgar moves out.
You're the Best:
- Shitstain, making an incorrect reference to Peaky Blinders... because he and his long-term girlfriend Jacqueline have been binge-watching Rectify instead. Adorable.
- Vernon, stress-eating steak sauce popcorn while venting about his "friend" Kasha (the online sex worker who controls his money).
- Dorothy's Maury Show jokes.
- Edgar mistaking a middle-aged lesbian in the shadows for Jimmy at the improv show.
- Henry Rollins, just for being there (virtually).
- "New phone, who dis?"
You're the Worst:
- Becca, because of course Becca is anti-vaccination. OF COURSE SHE IS.
- Rob, desperately attempting to glom his way onto Gretchen's and Jimmy's lives in a transparent attempt at reclaiming his youth. And he has an emergency credit from his dad? Hard pass.
- Edgar's crass talking baby improv bit. No please.
- Jimmy when ignoring Killian's serious life problems. PLEASE HELP THIS NICE MUSTARD SANDWICH-EATING YOUNG MAN, JIMMY.
- And finally Nina, plotting a secret getaway with a guy she knew was in a relationship and then going full psycho on Jimmy via text message. Go away forever, Nina. Goodbye to you and your weird frostbitten feet.
The season finale of You're the Worst airs on Wednesday, December 9th. Be sure to watch You're the Worst online here at TV Fanatic to catch up on anything you've missed before the finale!
Caralynn Lippo is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
