Quick Refresher: After hiring a new bartender who has a following and a trendy signature drink, Max and Caroline find their business booming so Caroline decides to say goodbye to all of the various establishments she frequents because of her lack of money. Meanwhile, Han gets addicted to the cacao powder that is in the bartender’s signature drink right as he is trying to enter a Duck Stamp contest. Eventually, Max fires the new bartender after she sees him selling cacao powder to Han. This leads Han and Caroline to set up another "drug" deal to try and get more. Additionally, Sophie finds herself unable to take care of her own appearance because she is too busy focusing on Baby Barbara’s appearance.
I have to say - Han freakin’ crushed it in this episode. His “addiction” to the cacao powder was absolutely hilarious and Matthew Moy sold it perfectly. It also had some nice continuity because we know that Han has a bit of an addictive personality after we learned about the debt he built up from betting on women’s tennis. The ridiculousness of this combined with the randomness of a Duck Stamp drawing contest gave Han some really funny scenes in an overall strong episode. As I mentioned when reviewing “And the 80’s Movie”,
2 Broke Girls is especially funny when it has random and quirky plots, and Han and Caroline participating in a back alley chocolate powder drug deal definitely falls under that category. Keep these types of stories coming, writers!
Of course, we can’t talk about Han’s hilarious chocolate powder addiction without talking about it’s source: the M&C Dessert Bar and Clint, the new bartender. I really enjoyed how the writers developed the business this week. It was great to see the girls get a taste of success through Clint and his following. Even though it didn’t work out with Clint, these episodes do a lot of work in building the dessert bar’s brand awareness and will make it way more believable if/when it has a following of it’s own. The writers have been using this kind of “one step forward, two steps back” story telling method for Max and Caroline’s business and it’s been working really well to make their journey realistic and powerful. If they had succeeded in season 1, the show would be over by now and we would’ve been rolling our eyes the whole time. Also, by putting the girls ahead for an episode, we were able to see the Caroline Channing Goodbye Tour, which was absolutely hilarious.
The only thing that fell a little flat for me was Sophie’s storyline with Barbara. It’s not that it was bad or unfunny, I just want to see more screen time dedicated to Sophie and Oleg as parents. The strongest episode of the season remains “And the God Mama Drama”, in part, because it focused on how ridiculous Sophie and Oleg are as parents. I really hope the writers cash in on the two of them learning how to be parents together because at a certain point, they won’t be “new” parents anymore and it won’t be nearly as endearing or funny.
Overall Grade:
B+. A quirky and funny episode that developed the dessert bar, but stumbled a little with Sophie’s storyline.
Favorite Quotes:
Caroline: Soon, I’ll be able to buy clothes from places that don’t also sell gas!
Max: They still have post offices? I wonder if my wanted poster is still up.
Han: It is. You’re a cute kid!
Oleg: Sophie, I want you to see that we don’t have to be the sexy couple anymore.
Caroline: Anymore? When were you guys the sexy couple? That weekend you went to amish country?
How did you feel about Han’s addiction? Let me know in the comments!
