2 Broke Girls goes back on the road in this episode as Han announces he’s closing the diner for the day because his therapist told him to take a day off to focus on himself. Han’s therapist also suggests that Max talks to her dad and when Han tracks him down, the gang decides to head to Rhode Island to meet him. Unfortunately, Max’s dad stands her up, which makes Han have a meltdown because he is the one who set everything up only to see Max abandoned again. Seeing this, Max pays a stranger to pretend to be her dad and also sees that she doesn’t need her father since the diner gang is her real family.
What a season of growth it has been for Max, with this episode being no exception. Although it was heartbreaking to see Max’s dad continue to abandon her, it was a pretty important moment for her. Although she sometimes uses humor and witty insults as a defense mechanism, I think the moment in this episode where she realized her dad wasn’t coming illustrated how far she has come from the girl we met in the first episode. She was able to admit that she’s disappointed he didn’t show up and even pretended that he did to make Han feel better, which was especially important considering Han is always the butt of Max’s jokes. Like with her mother, I don’t know if we will ever meet Max’s dad, but I am okay with that because having parental issues is one of the things that I think really bonds Max and Caroline. They both have been extremely let down by the people who are supposed to protect them and, even though they are broke as hell, have gone after this joint dream together and found success and friendship.
Aside from Max’s growth, the other thing about this episode that really warmed my heart was that the diner gang was all together. I feel like we don’t get to see the 6 of them on an adventure as often, so to see them all supporting Max and making her laugh through a difficult situation was wonderful. It reminded me a lot of the season 3 finale with Max’s graduation, really illustrating that even though Max (and Caroline’s) blood relatives are terrible, she has an even better family. Plus, having the diner gang together in a completely different diner provided the best comedy of the episode. Between Earl encountering a younger version of himself and Sophie saying “hey everybody” to no response, poking fun at the studio audience always cheering Sophie’s entrance (which I know is very polarizing among
2 Broke Girls fans), I found myself laughing the most seeing the diner gang spend time in another (gross) diner.
That being said, the rest of the episode’s comedy fell a little flat for me. Caroline’s competitiveness with Han and Oleg’s car navigation system made me chuckle, but otherwise the writers relied on some of their more tired, over used jokes, like insulting Han or making jokes about Earl’s age. I understand that the episode needed to have some of Max’s mean jokes to Han to set up the ending with her protecting him, but it still felt a little gratuitous and the jokes weren’t particularly funny. I still thought this was definitely a good episode, but after a string of hilarious episodes, I was hoping for a tad bit more comedy.
Overall Grade:
A-. A heartwarming episode that reminded us who Max’s real family is, although I wish it was a little bit funnier.
Favorite Quotes:
Han: Here’s his name and number. He lives in Rhode Island - America’s least exciting state.
Oleg: I had her convert everything to inches. Makes our trip sound bigger, doesn’t it?
Caroline:
(To Max) We should plan a march…
Caroline: You started this! And after I finally got her over Randy. The night terrors just stopped - I was terrified of her at night. You can sleep with a cheap taser now!
Han: I already do! For the same reason!
Did you laugh more than I did during this episode of
2 Broke Girls? Let me know in the comments!
