They always want money, or you have jury duty, or your grandma sent you a check for your birthday, and then you feel guilty that you never call her, and then you can't get out of bed for a month.
Fix Me, Dummy
Jimmy: The five most truly free moments of a human's life in ascending order... leaving parents' home, dumping a girl hard, deciding to eat a whole pizza, hammocks... and finishing a writing project.
We start this episode with Jimmy going on about how he turned in his book proposal, and how free he feels while Gretchen gives him a handjob. Gretchen takes her hand away from Jimmy's pants to take the new pills her psychiatrist gave her, and complains about having to see a therapist. Dorothy, who is crashing there until she moves to her new place, is disgusted by the whole scene but asks what's the difference between those doctors.
Gretchen: A psychiatrist is like "Here, take this pills, ho". A therapist is all "Oh, tell me your sh*t. I couldn't make it as an actor".
Edgar is happy about Jimmy giving him his book proposal to read for a preview, and wants to give him his notes, but Jimmy says he doesn't care about his opinion, that he only gave it to him for some easy praise and that he's already sent it anyways. Though, after that, he obsesses about it all day, he even highjacks Gretchen's appointment to talk about it. The therapist, Justina Jordan (Samira Wiley) lets him at first, because she'd thought he'd help with Gretchen's story, but by the end of the session, she talks to her directly and tells her to make a to-do list with only one thing she's been putting off. Reluctantly, and taking advantage of the "safe space" to insult Justina, Gretchen chooses opening the mail as a the task in her list, which was her only task at Jimmy's but she was avoiding it for her own personal reasons. This is a scene that turns funny into heartbreaking in a second, which is one of this show's best qualities.
Gretchen: They always want money, or you have jury duty, or your grandma sent you a check for your birthday, and then you feel guilty that you never call her, and then you can't get out of bed for a month.
We move on to Lindsay, who is playing nurse with Paul, with disguise and everything, and has even convinced him he backed into her knife and not that the knife was pushed into him. After that, she takes his credit card and leaves him alone on the couch, unable to move. She goes to meet Edgar, Jimmy and Gretchen for lunch and slips up about the "accident", they're all a bit shocked but everyone is more focused on their own problems. Gretchen is mad at her therapist for giving her homework instead of fixing her, and Jimmy is obsessing about the notes until he finally caves and asks Edgar what they were, he's even willing to go with him to Dorothy's new place to take his notes apart.
When they get there, he realizes some of the notes actually help, and ends up asking for advice from random people on the street. Edgar, on the other hand, is focused on helping the many homeless people that live next to Dorothy's apartment, he starts using his comedic skills to make them better signs so they make more money. And there, is where Dorothy finds him a while later, she says he was supposed to be helping her but, in the end, they agree he can do both. That was a nice moment, since Edgar appeared to be going off the deep end for a little bit but she grounded him. So, for now, it looks like things with Edgar will be a bit more subtle than I'd thought.
Gretchen, still raving, barges into her therapist's office to tell her she quits, but she's kicked out since Justina was with another patient. Instead of leaving, Gretchen waits outside and, once the patient's gone, she tells Justina she's offended by the suggestion that she could've fixed herself at any moment and everything was her fault, the therapist tells her she's free to leave and Gretchen does so out of pride. Later, she asks for Lindsay's help to stalk her, so they can follow her and egg her house, but they both fall asleep and Justina knocks on the car window to tell them to stop, and that they are horrible at stalking. When she's about to leave, Gretchen yells that being vulnerable makes her angry, and that softens Justina, she says it's understandable but she has to do something about it, that bottling things up will only make her explode eventually, after that she says she'll see her the next week.
So, when Gretchen gets home, she finally dares to open a piece of mail and, once she sees it's easy, she starts opening every single one until she finds one directed to Jimmy telling him his father died. In that moment she hears Jimmy coming and instinctively hides the letter. He's excited because he sold his original book proposal and starts saying he'd never doubted it for a second. The episode ends with Gretchen looking heartbroken in the middle of all his happiness, finding herself in a position that bears way too much responsibility.
I'm guessing at first Jimmy will be in total denial but eventually his heartbreak will be very hard on both, since Gretchen can barely stand her own, and neither of them are really capable of handling their feelings in a healthy way.
So, what did you guys think about this episode? I would love to read your thoughts.
Note: English is not my first language so I apologize for any mistakes.
