"You knew it was a snake when you picked it up. You knew who I was. You don't get to act surprised now."
You're The Worst manages to be funny and heartbreaking in a single scene, and it's happened more than once, the amount of drama and character development in this comedy, plus the quality of writing and acting, make this show a gem in today's TV landscape. And all this, was perfectly portrayed in these two episodes that conclude a wonderful season, in my opinion their best season yet (and I hold the other two in very, very high regard). Being two completely separate episodes, I didn't understand the need to air them together, but episode 12, and every emotion it depicted, is what gives the last episode the weight it deserved, and that could've been less effective if they were a week apart. So, please bear with me, because this article might be a little long and is filled with many brilliant lines this episode delivered. Now, let's get to this emotional roller-coaster of a finale.
You Knew It Was A Snake
Gretchen's sleeping on the couch and is woken up by Jimmy reading his book aloud to her.
Gretchen: Why the hell would you read me literature? You know I don't like good things.
He says he stayed up all night, trying to prove to her she was wrong about him not being successful, and that he managed to write 35 pages in one sitting. She agrees to take it all back, but she says now it's his turn to retract his hurtful words, but he says he's sticking by them and they start arguing, leading to the main event of the episode, which will be the fights the three different couples will have simultaneously.
Edgar and Dorothy are fighting because she implies that Edgar only got hired for being a Latino, therefore a minority, and he's deeply offended by it. It was the only way found to make peace with his success and says minorities have a certain advantage. This is the first time I didn't like Dorothy that much though her pain is understandable, just not what she implied. Edgar of course, does not agree with that one bit and says there's a part for her, a pretty white girl, in every script ever written.
Dorothy: Not in Glengarry Glen Ross or 700 Sundays. Besides, don't you read? People just, like, they hate women now. You don't even have to hide it anymore.
Edgar: Yeah well, you never read "Cut to funny brown guy with perfect features". You have the advantage.
Dorothy: Yeah. Because it's such and advantage to be constantly sexually harassed. And it's so advantageous to be cast as "Pretty Girl Number 3" or "Overworked Mom".
She has a point there, but this begins a game of passing the blame where the people at the breakfast table start pointing to the next person as the main villain, Jimmy say it's not him because immigrants suffer a great deal, and if anyone is, it's the "white American male" pointing to Paul, who defends himself as well saying bad things happen to them too, thinking of course of Lindsay who's the reason he's there, since she's crashing on the couch. Edgar and Dorothy go to is bedroom to continue the fight and he says, maybe, she only likes him when he's struggling and she's the more successful one, but she says she was never successful. Collette Wolfe's acting was on point as Dorothy is coping with the idea that she might never make it.
Dorothy: I'm a 30-something failed actress living in a disgusting K-Town studio. I haven't gone to the dentist in years. My agent told me to gain 20 ponds so I could at least audition to be the kooky aunt.
Paul finally decides to stand up to Lindsay and they go to Jimmy's room to have it out. But she shuts him own saying it's her body, her choice, misinterpreting and misrepresenting everything the Women's Rights movement fights for. He says he should've left her when Vernon proposed it and she says she should've never agreed to play the perfect wife role when she was dying inside.
Lindsay: You use your niceness to stifle me, and then you make me feel guilty.
Paul: You stabbed me!
Lindsay: We both did things we regret.
He starts freaking out and trying to break things in Jimmy's room, saying he should've never married her, that she's selfish and there's something truly wrong with her and that he doesn't understand why she decided to ruin his life. Lindsay makes him stop and think about the situation.
Lindsay: You knew it was a snake when you picked it up.
Paul: What?
Lindsay: You knew who I was. You don't get to act surprised now.
Up in the living room Gretchen and Jimmy are also going at it saying everything these past few weeks and, eventually, the duration of their relationship have brought up.
Jimmy: Sometimes I look at you ans I think "How did this person get in my house?". It's like I've lost the thread of a novel, and all of a sudden, there's this messy short woman who's clearly important to the story. So, I'm flipping back, thinking "I don't remember that character being introduced".
Gretchen: Tell me about it! Some days it's like I un-blacked out from a week-long bender, and now I'm in this weird ass house with sharp corners.
Both start imagining how their lives would be and whom they had imagined would've been their partner. Jimmy's mind was set on a classy violinist and Gretchen's on some rockstar-actor. In my opinion people with whom they could never truly be themselves, people who they wouldn't fit in with. But Jimmy insults Gretchen's fantasy and she throws him er breakfast sandwich and tells him she's sick of being judged by him, that she'd just gotten rid of her mom's voice in her head and she didn't need his voice torturing her as well. They get interrupted by the news that Vernon and Becca's baby was born, a little girl named Tallulah, and then listen to the other people arguing, the people in relationships who they thought they were better than. This scene, and especially the coming dialogue were written and delivered brilliantly portraying both their respective heartbreaks.
Jimmy: Such idiots.
Gretchen: We're not better than them.
Jimmy: Oh, speak for yourself. I'm not the one who flung my sandwich like an upset chimp at the zoo.
Gretchen: I threw it because I realized I was living I was living with a uptight dildo whose personality unmakes itself anytime something bad happens.
Jimmy: Says the woman who spent weeks catatonic on the couch in crusty yoga pants.
Gretchen: I have a clinical goddamn illness!
Jimmy: Oh, right. So you just win because your condition is listed in the DSM?
Gretchen: No! I win because I'm doing something about it. You're just lashing out and putting me under a microscope!
Jimmy: It just happened! He just died! Right, I am still grieving, Gretchen. Jesus Christ!
Gretchen: But I was here first!
Jimmy: Where?!
Gretchen: Here! In sh*t, miserable! There just isn't room for you to be broken right now too!
Jimmy: How is that okay?
Gretchen: It's not. It is completely unfair.
Jimmy: No, this isn't supposed to... One person is supposed to be in the hospital bed, and then the other uncomfortably sleeping on that little couch, just sneaking home to shower and... walk the dog.
Gretchen: Right? Right, Jimmy. And yet...
Things start to cool down for everyone as Edgar tried to convince Dorothy that she'll bounce back and Paul realizes he wanted a family so badly that he was willing to ignore the million signs that he and Lindsay weren't meant for each other. Edgar gets a message from Doug Benson offering him a job as a writer for three months, he hides it from Dorothy which is sad, but also understandable given the situation, and Lindsay and Paul hug. She thinks this is a good moment to ask Paul if he'll throw away the prenup, and he whispers in her ear, before leaving.
Paul: You stabbed me. You cuckolded me. You ruined my life. Better lawyer up, bitch.
Jimmy and Gretchen go to the bedroom and sit on the bed to keep talking.
Jimmy: You told me we could leave at any time.
Gretchen: Right.
Jimmy: So, why didn't you? I've been mean, I've been angry, I've been judging you.
Gretchen: Which was our promise, from the beginning.
Jimmy: If you were serious about leaving, then you would've gone by now.
Gretchen: You didn't leave either.
Jimmy: I know. I don't know why.
Gretchen: I think this may be impossible.
Jimmy: But can't that be okay? I mean, the vast majority of all human effort, however great or minuscule, ends in failure. So what are your options? You just admit pre-defeat because the odds are that you're gonna be right? Or you do it anyway? Maybe we're a success... regardless of the outcome, because... we tried. Maybe there's a beauty in the struggle against near certain failure.
Gretchen: Is that enough? A beautiful struggle?
Jimmy: Maybe.
Gretchen: It's all gonna suck one day, so enjoy it now, stop rocking the boat, and that's goddamn it?
Jimmy: It's like in my book.
Gretchen: Ugh, no more book. Gretchen tired.
Jimmy: In chapter 12 Kitty is headed to Lisbon to follow Take That on tour, but instead, she stays with Simon, even though they have no possible future. Oh God! That makes perfect sense. That's why they stay together. They are mirrors of you and I. There is a love forbidden, thus... doomed.
Gretchen: Why is it forbidden?
Jimmy: Well, because they're half-siblings.
Gretchen: Wait, what?! Jimmy, we talking incest?
Jimmy: How did you miss that?
Gretchen: I wasn't listening that good.
Jimmy: Look, when i came up with this story I was falling in love with you... even though it was scary and wrong. I thought I was avoiding my feelings by writing my book, but it was you who was fueling me this whole time.
Gretchen: Fueling you to write about a couple of horny sibs? Gimmie.
And she says this last part so excited about incest that it's actually creepy. She now suddenly needs to read what she inspired, so Jimmy starts reading her "The Width of a Peach" from the beginning. When they get to the last chapter, Gretchen is desperate to know how it ends but he says he's not finished yet and he's tired. They fall asleep saying they haven't figured anything out yet, though it does seem like they have found something somewhat tangible that is to blame for keeping them together.
No Longer Just Us
The second half of this finale begins with Jimmy reading the end of the book to Gretchen at a bar. She loves it and he's thrilled, not only because she's finally as excited about his book as he is, but because it pushed him to defy the concept of family itself.
Jimmy: A theme that I hadn't planned of exploring was the fallacy of the very concept of the familial paradigm in art. I mean, the idea still persists that family, somehow, automatically prescribes closeness. Family is portrayed as a safe harbor, but nay, is is often the very Charybdis that yanks us to the fathoms.
In that moment he gets an alert of a creepy murder nearby and she begs him to take her. In this episode he seems to be absorbing every bit of her quirkiness and loving it, it's so cute his crazy in-love face every time she does something bizarre, we haven't seen him this happy in a very long time. Also over breakfast, Edgar tells Lindsay he's afraid of telling Dorothy about the job and hurting her feelings, but Lindsay gives him a pep talk and tells him he should put himself first and take command of his future.
Lindsay: You got to speak up and tell people what you want. You are the master of your own destiny. Don't be a martyr. I was a martyr. I almost martyred my husband, but I didn't.
He gets excited about the idea but he quickly changes his mind and decides to go to Doug's office to resign. He talks for a second to the receptionist, Dutch (Steve Agee who was also the pizza delivery guy on season 1), and asks him if he would leave his job for a relationship. In that moment Doug calls him to his office but Edgar changes his mind again and leaves with a new idea for a sketch, he sees Dutch again who really misinterpreted Edgar's question and not only did he mail his letter of resignation to Doug but is practically willing to elope with him.
Dutch: I'm willing to try this with you, dude. I really don't think I'm gay but, is my life so perfect that I can afford to be closed off? And, when you think about it, homosexuality really suits my life-style, sitting around, chugging cold ones, playing vids... Assume you got to suck a dick once in a while, but whatever. I've put weirder things in my mouth.
Edgar: I was talking about me and my girlfriend.
Dutch: What? Oh, no! I just told Doug Benson I quit and to kiss my gay ass!
He goes to tell Dorothy the goods new and that he has decided that growing and being successful in something will make him a better person and, therefore, a better partner, but se tells him it's about time he accepts she'll never make it and that she has decided to move back to Jacksonville. She says he doesn't love her, he just pities her, which is unfair since thins is the first time ever she has been in a worse situation than him. He says he'll go with her but she refuses. In this moment her take is as heartbreaking as it is real, I'm going to miss her though I'd like to see who comes to fill her place as a part of the group.
Dorothy: I want you to have your dream.
Edgar: But what about your dream?
Dorothy: Not everybody gets their dream.
Over at Jimmy's, Paul and Lindsay are in divorce negotiations and, once again, she proves her inadequacy in very subject matter. She seems happy because she thinks she can take a lot of money from him but he grounds her, telling her how hard everything is going to be for her on her own and realizing that it makes him very happy. Of course he does that in a cartoonish villainous voice followed by and evil laugh.
Paul: I'm finally getting what I want, and what I want is to watch you burn!
But all his excitement goes away when Vernon and Becca arrive and he says to Vernon he's ready to run away but he refuses, he says he hadn't met his daughter when he said all those things and now he could never leave her. Becca casts him out of the family and a very sad Vernon supports her decision. Lindsay asks her sister to go back living in her house and tells her about the abortion, Becca says she's jealous since it'll be at least 18 years now until she can divorce Vernon and be free.
Jimmy and Gretchen's adventure gets shady as they spot a DUI check-point and have a sequence where they get disguises and ditch Gretchen's car, Bond-style. While they walk they start looking at the kids on a school playground and Gretchen says she'll care the hell out of her kid once she has one. Then she gets an alert that tells her where Justina is going to be and they decide to go look for Jimmy's car and go heckle her on the way to the murder site.
It turns out she was waiting for her because she wanted to show to all her friends who was this person she talked about, she treats Gretchen a little bit like a circus monkey but then she says she's leaving to follow her boyfriend who got accepted into the dramaturgy program of the University of Iowa. They have a very sweet scene where they says good-bye and that they'll miss each other, in their own way, and that maybe they can have Skype sessions.
Justina: When you first came to me you were out of touch, even with your most rudimentary behavioral patterns, but you have done the work, and you have grown so much. And I'm proud of you.
Gretchen: Bitch.
Justina: Bitch to you too, Gretchen.
I'm going to miss their scenes together so much, but I do hope they have those Skye sessions so at least we can have a little bit of that. I also kinda hope she dumps that horrible boyfriend of hers and comes back. Also it was very sweet how proud Jimmy looked of her too.
The talk with Becca made Lindsay realize she needs actual freedom and decides to take up Dorothy's lease. Edgar helps her get set up as they share how they feel, he says he's a bit relieved because lately Dorothy was bumming him out and he feels guilty, but Lindsay says that's okay that's she's also changing and, even though she's alone and poor, she fells good. I like how these two are helping each other become better people, and this suddenly reminded me about that crush Edgar used to have on Lindsay. Maybe that would be fun to explore, but given how things were with Paul, I'm afraid to see her do that to someone else. Maybe I would prefer to see a true platonic friendship as they help each other to grow.
Gretchen and Jimmy finally make it to the crime scene on the top of a hill, and he smiles as she fangirls over the creepiness. Then he starts explaining how he made the murder up, and crafts the first proposal on TV to ever make me cry.
Jimmy: This world is absolutely lousy with people, and I hate them all. I hate everyone... but you.
Gretchen: Yeah, I hate everyone else too.
Jimmy: You did something really horrible for us. You went to therapy, and for me you did this. And thus, you deserve as grand a gesture in return. And since I am 100% psychologically sound and do not need therapy of any kind... Gretchen, extraordinary, confounding Gretchen, she who emits more energy than a dying galaxy, despite not washing her legs, together we transcend the mundanity down there. Separate, it shall eventually consume us and turn us as mundane as them, and allow that to happen, simply because we're scared, would be a criminal act.
He puts the ring on her finger and they hug and kiss. He says he's going to go to the car to get something for them to lay on, but she interrupts him mid-step as The Hollywood Bowl fireworks start.
Gretchen: This fits you know? You lost your dad, but... you gained me. We're a family. That's pretty cool, right? We're no longer just whatever we were. We're no longer... just us. We're a family now.
He continues is way to the car, processing everything she just said and, since this show could never be comfortable giving us a true happy ending, he freaks out, gets in the car and, crying, leaves her there, alone, in the middle of the night, under the fireworks.
I think an engagement would've provided enough drama for them, but him leaving will add a deeper layer of pain, I'm sure. No matter how they resolve it, even if he turns around minutes later, nothing will be the same, but then again, this sow has surprised me more than once. And Lindsay's snake line is absolutely perfect to describe both of them, they knew what they were getting into, even if they always manage to surprise each other and break each other's heart over and over again.
Overall, this finale was amazing, brilliantly acted and written, as always, but in this one they were all at the top of their game. They made me laugh and cry and, in the end, they left a bitter taste in my mouth, which is something they clearly love to do. I'm excited to se what's next and thrilled we get another season to explore this characters, and to enjoy the impeccable writing and acting.
What did you guys think of the season finale? How do you think they'll move forward? Are you excited for next season and its possibilities? Will you miss Dorothy and Justina? Would you like the Edgar-Lindsay relationship to be explored? In which way? I'd love to read your thoughts.
Note: English is not my first language so I apologize for any mistakes.
