While the awards dinner of last week allowed Dr. Ken to use all of its major players, tonight’s episode takes a step back and focuses on one character relationship: between Ken and his father, D.K.
The relationship hits a major snag in the first act of the episode when Ken and Allison go out for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with their coworkers. It’s a Welltopia tradition to take out new employees for lunch to get to know them, but Allison soon discovers that everyone has a frighteningly specific knowledge of some of her flaws and more embarrassing moments. Unlike the plots from the past couple of weeks, Allison’s annoyance with Ken doesn’t make it past the opening credits. The show has bigger things to consider at this point.
The inclusion of D.K. into the main cast has been both strange and seamless. All of a sudden, D.K. shows up and is living with the family. His plots have mostly been with the kids and actor Dana Lee works well as the slightly kooky grandfather. Still, D.K.’s change in circumstance had to be addressed at some point. The revelation that he and Ken’s mother got a divorce more than two years ago comes less from an organic storytelling point and more from necessity. D.K.’s in the cast, In-Sook is not.
Instead of just letting In-Sook stay in Korea taking care of Ken’s grandmother forever, the show comes up with a plot that allows Ken to grow up a little bit and see his parents as people rather than just family.
After Pat spots D.K. with an affectionate blonde who is probably not his real estate agent, Ken confronts D.K. and D.K. confesses the truth about the divorce. Ken isn’t just hurt about the fact that his parents got divorced, but that his parents didn’t tell him about it. While they thought his sister Wendi could handle the news (she was our rock!), they knew Ken would spiral out of control. Even if Ken keeps up appearances around D.K., he proves his parents’ fears correct. He immediately starts obsessing about his childhood. He never had any clue that there was anything wrong with his parents, and a chance remark starts him off on a new (but not unexpected) obsession about his own marriage.
Allison enjoys the sudden attention Ken shows her and the stolen flowers he brings, but assures him that they are solid. He doesn’t really believe it. Instead, it takes a frank conversation between father and son to assuage Ken’s fears. While Ken and Allison argue, it allows them to healthily express their feelings and get over their issues. Ken’s parents weren’t so lucky. They tried to always agree with each other, and slowly drifted apart. Ken leaves the conversation with faith in his relationship and a new understanding of his parents.
Now – that doesn’t mean that the revelation that his mother has a new “friend” isn’t going to send him into a completely new spiral.
Neither Ken’s coworkers nor the kids get much focus this week, but do have fun, slight storylines. After seeing D.K. at the Cheesecake Factory, Pat instantly deems him to be a playboy who can help him up his own game with the ladies. D.K. goes along with it just enough to get Pat to pay for his drinks.
Meanwhile, Molly is taking AP Psychology and has decided to psychoanalyze her entire family. She manages to get Dave and the almost-always-silent Emily over their fears of breaking up. I’m definitely rooting for those two crazy kids.
Ultimately, this episode wasn’t as funny as Dr. Ken has been lately, but addressed an important plot point and provided new insight into an important relationship.
What did you think of the episode? Let me know in the comments!
