WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.
Not much stings worse than the loss of a beloved pet. As the title suggest, the focus of this week’s episode is surrounding Pickle the guinea pig and her untimely demise.
I remember having a guinea pig myself for a while. His name was Bear because I thought I was clever, and no one quite instills in you just how much work caged animals are until you have one. Bear ended up being given to a friend because little me wasn’t nearly responsible enough!
This one’s for you Bear.
After Pickle’s death, which occurs due to an accidental misstep on Rory’s part during an impromptu dance party at Will’s, all of the kids are pretty cut up about the loss - except Pickle’s actual owners, Emma and Amy. Douglas has instilled in both of them a suspect method of grieving, “repress, replace, move on.”
I appreciated finding out some more backstory about these characters this week. Learning about Rose (or Rosé) and how Douglas has dealt with her passing gives us more history and layers to these characters.
The history lesson didn’t end there either as we also learn that Graham has never actually met his father. Angie has been trying to pull double duty as both mom and dad since he was born and she wants to ensure she’s enough for him. She even bought herself hardcover military fiction for Father’s Day and if that isn’t commitment to her cause then I don’t know what is.
It’s why she takes offense when she sees the growing bond between her son and Will, who have dubbed themselves best friend. For Angie, it’s threatening to see Graham take to another male so well and it makes her feel like she’s lacking something. This leads to her scheduling an emergency colonoscopy to compete with Will whose also scheduled one per Graham’s request (he takes colon health very seriously apparently).
All of this culminates in a very funny scene where Leighton Meester gets to play a woozy, half-delusional Angie whose fresh off her sedation and attending Pickle’s funeral.
Of course, both of these plotlines are resolved as tidily as they can be. Douglas winds up having a meltdown in a pet shop that makes him realize he needs to teach his daughters the power of expressing their feelings. Angie and Will have a heart-to-heart pre-colonoscopy about his place in Graham’s life. All is well amongst our parents it seems.
In all fairness to Miggy, corkscrews can be a pain in the ass. I, myself, still haven’t mastered the art of it either! He has a meltdown that results in a trash bin full of broken wine bottles before the Winebrarians take pity on him and come to his aide.
Sophie is also there for some reason, in real life I’m not sure she’d be allowed but she’s very cute and funny as she struggles to put together Pickle’s “In Memoriam” slideshow containing only two photos. I loved when one of the mom’s lampshaded this by asking point-blank: “whose kid is this?”
FAVORITE JOKES
- Poor Raj.
- Will joking about Angie having an angry dad face.
- The twin’s asking whether their mother made really good pretzels or was excellent at Twister when Douglas takes them to the strip club she worked at.
AN ALL NEW EPISODE OF SINGLE PARENTS AIRS WEDNESDAY, OCT. 17 @ 9:30 PM ET/PT ON ABC.
