Many of Dr. Ken’s plotlines kick off by Ken making a mistake, overcorrecting, and making the situation worse. Tonight’s episode was a refreshing departure that shows that bad and weird things can happen even when all parties involved are trying to be mature about it.
Ken starts the episode bummed he hasn’t heard from the event committee for the annual Welltopia banquet. He has been the MC for the last five years running and thinks that his recent appearance at the Laugh Factory is sure to guarantee him the gig. He’s upset when Pat announces he’ll be hosting this year, but not as upset as Clark and Damona expect him to be. Both brace for a major blow-up, but, aside from a trash-can kick, Ken doesn’t respond all that immaturely. He complains to Allison about it (it’s sure convenient that Allison now works in the building and surely doesn’t have any patients she could be helping instead of listening to her husband during her work day), but is convinced by her arguments. As Allison tells him, he can afford to be generous to Pat about hosting the banquet. Ken actually takes her words to heart. It’s absolutely refreshing to see characters actually listen to each other in a sitcom.
Instead of doing something destructive to get back at Pat, Ken decides to buy him a celebratory bottle of scotch. Unfortunately, on the quest for the scotch, he does something destructive to Pat. After Ken gets into an argument with Siri, he accidentally backs his car into Pat’s “Boyy Toyy” shiny red convertible. When he apologizes, no one believes he didn’t do it on purpose. It doesn’t help that valet Juan-Julio pulls up the security footage and the entire practice hears Ken screaming “I hate you!” before the crash. He may be screaming at Siri for giving him directions to a licorice store instead of a liquor store, but Pat takes umbrage all the same.
Ken actually did nothing wrong, but still has to confront his jealousy toward Pat. When Pat is stranded on the side of the road in a very sketchy neighborhood, Ken decides that he will take the high road. Instead of accepting the committee’s offer of MCing in Pat’s place, Ken decides to go pick Pat up. In the car, where, according to Pat, all awkward conversations should be held, Pat admits that he gave himself the MC gig. He was upset about Damona’s blossoming relationship with her new boyfriend and wanted something to help his self-confidence and show Eric that he wasn’t a loser. Ken understands and, in a genuinely sweet and funny moment, walks in to see his wife absolutely killing it as the host.
Ken is extremely supportive of Allison’s standup and accepts her lie about not all her material being about him.
One thing that the marketing materials focused on in this episode was the appearance of star Ken Jeong’s daughter, Zooey Jeong, as Dave’s new friend, Emily.
This storyline was also sweet. Molly and D.K. are extremely worried when Dave’s classmate, Emily, begins showing up outside the kitchen door and staring at him. They manage to get rid of her, but Dave misses her. Molly encourages him to talk to her and she becomes his official girlfriend, which means that she gets the privilege of standing and staring at him inside the house. Molly and D.K. still think it’s weird, but accept that it’s none of their business. And the sprinklers did little to deter her, so it’s probably best to leave her be.
Clark and Damona face their own relationship issues that come to a head at the banquet. Both think that they are happy in their relationships, but don’t understand the other’s. Clark points out that Damona and Eric fight more than they talk, and Damona tells Clark that it’s unhealthy not to fight with Connor sometimes. Both try to fix their imagined problems, but realize that they just deal with relationships in different ways. Clark may now have to watch all of Stranger Things (which is totally worth it!), but both couples go home happy.
With three engaging plots and plenty of heart, this was my favorite episode of the season so far. Let me know what you thought in the comments!
