Never Ben Jealous
I kind of have mixed feelings about this episode. I hate that the primary focus was on Ben purposely trying to ruin Danny and Riley’s relationship, but at the end of the day, it lead to exactly what I’ve been waiting for, so I’ve decided it was all worth it.
The drama all starts when everyone realizes that Ben is still Riley’s emergency contact. Danny is kind of upset about this but he says it’s because Riley and Ben weren’t even really a thing. Now, usually I’m on Danny’s side when it comes to most things involving Ben but this was just way out of line. As much as I wasn’t a fan of Ben and Riley, they most definitely were a pretty serious thing. Ben interprets Danny’s reaction as jealousy, which Danny completely denies. Now Ben is upset that Danny isn't jealous of the time that he and Riley dated so he sets out to find ways to make Danny jealous by convincing him that Riley isn’t over their relationship. This sets the scene for all the crazy things that follow. Everything starts out innocently enough, with Ben just planting pictures of him and Riley in her bedroom, but he always ends up in a compromising position with Riley when Danny walks in the room. Even this doesn't seem to make Danny jealous, which of course bothers Ben even more. The main reason I was annoyed with this storyline was that Ben has been doing so well - surprisingly well - with this whole situation. I wanted him to confront his feelings about everything but I didn’t really want it to happen in this way. Oh well, it is what it is.
Riley ends up confronting Ben about how frustrated she is that everything is always about him and how she wishes she didn’t fall for two brothers because life would be so much easier. She’s confused why, instead of him just being mature (which, in his defense, he has been up until now) he’s all of a sudden trying to destroy her relationship. Finally, in an emotional moment, she begs him to let her move on. This was the first of my favorite scenes and one I’ve been waiting for since the season began. I only wish that Ben got to have a bit more of a say in how she hurt him as well. Later, during the banquet, Ben and Danny get into a huge fight over Riley, which leads to a great, and long overdue, heart-to-heart. Danny explains how he watched the girl of his dreams be in love with Ben for years so of course he’s jealous. He was lying about his jealousy because he’s just tired of it and wants to get past it all. Danny also thanks Ben for stepping up and making things happen between him and Riley and Ben gives him his blessing, saying he’s really happy for them. This fight and heart-to-heart is everything I’ve wanted from this season. To me, the only weird thing about this season so far, has been Ben’s attitude towards Danny and Riley. Obviously the events from the end of last season really hurt him, but he hasn’t really acknowledged those feelings other than making a few jokes here and there, and Danny hasn't really acknowledged the situation either. I’ve been waiting all these weeks for a serious conversation or confrontation, just to get everything out in the open because I think it’s the natural progression of the story and it feels weird leaving it unaddressed. I’m very happy with the end result of this episode because finally some of these feelings were brought up.
While all of this drama was happening with the love triangle, Tucker is having some love troubles of his own. He’s started seeing Sondra again (aka the girl with the really annoying voice) but he realizes she has a much more tolerable voice after she's had a few drinks. This leads him to spend all of his time drinking with her, which leads to some good laughs in an otherwise slightly more emotional and serious episode. Also, on top of her Danny/Ben drama, Riley is giving a speech at a banquet for a very important (and elderly) real-estate attorney. Bonnie is having hard times with her real-estate business so she sets her eyes on him as a investor. He ends up dying at the party, which you wouldn’t think would be funny but it actually really was, especially Bonnie’s reaction.
Favorite Quotes:
“Ben, we got a problem.” - Tucker
“Is it that my best friend likes to walk around town carrying a stuffed bear?” - Ben
“How’s it going with Father Time? Can you ask him what happened to the dinosaurs?” - Tucker
“Hey Tuck, about to head out.” - Danny
“Away game?” - Riley
“Yeah, just for us. The other team’s playing at home.” - Danny
“I’m going to knock you dead, sir!” - Riley
“Not going to be that hard.” - Bonnie
The Return of the Mommy
This episode is centered on the return of Angela, Emma’s mom. It all starts with Ben seeing her on TV in a new show called “Cop Girl”. Later, she comes to the bar asking to see Emma and offering to help out with money now that she has this great new role. Ben initially refuses her help but he’s having a hard time getting Emma into a preschool. So, when she bribes Riley into convincing Ben to let her spend an afternoon with Emma in exchange for use of her local preschool connections, Ben allows her to see Emma. For a second I thought she was going to kidnap Emma, but thankfully it turns out to be much less dark. Angela just wants to use Emma for a People Magazine interview to make it seem like she’s juggling being a single mom and starring on a TV show. When Riley finds out, she gets Mary Hart to come and interview Angela and confront her about all her lies. However, instead of letting Mary expose Angela, Ben says that she’s been a great mom and has been there from the start. This leads to a really great moment where Ben explains that he wants Emma to find out the truth about her mother on her own terms and not to read about it as some news story. Ben is actually a really great dad (which I already knew) but it was just nice to be reminded of it and it was great to see him being so mature. I really loved it!
Meanwhile, after Mary Hart fired him a few weeks ago, Tucker thinks that he’s being stalked/threatened by Mary as retaliation for his blog posts about her. In the end, it turns out it was Bonnie, after she thought that the blog was about her because of their similar looks and lifestyle choices. Also, when Bonnie wasn’t messing with Tucker, she took over as bar manger while Sam was away on vacation. Much to Ben’s frustration, she basically completely takes over and starts making all these theme nights, the best one being a ladies happy hour featuring shirtless bartenders! All in all, it was a pretty fun episode!
Favorite Quotes:
“I have a hit TV show.” - Angela
“I’ve seen it. Let’s not get carried away.” - Ben
“I’m trying to keep out the devil.” - Tucker
“Don’t worry. Mom’s pretty busy at the bar right now.” - Danny
What did you think of these episodes? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!
About the Author - Kate Sidwell
Kate is a 24 year old, USA based, Psychology/Public Health Researcher - but that’s just her day job! In her spare time she is an avid TV watcher (some may even say addict!!). Some of her favorite shows are Jane the Virgin, Bates Motel, The Flash, Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Rookie Blue, Silicon Valley, Beauty and the Beast, Sleepy Hollow, The 100, The Mindy Project, Pretty Little Liars, Once Upon a Time, The Royals, Orphan Black…so pretty much too many to count and a huge variety! She’ll give pretty much any show a chance! She also devotes a lot of time to her tumblr (
eat-sleep-breathe-tv.tumblr.com) where you can find her reviewing and commenting on most of these shows and just generally fangirling! She’s excited to be writing for SpoilerTV on Complications, Baby Daddy, Proof, Switched at Birth, Secrets and Lies, and Minority Report!
