Zoey and Simon’s simmering will they/won’t they came to a boil this week in “Zoey’s Extraordinary Night Out,” and it all - quite literally - went up in flames.
The next day, Zoey and Max go out for a cup of coffee, and Max explains to Zoey that his and Autumn’s breakup was completely casual and mutual. As he says this, of course, Zoey hears Autumn behind the counter angrily spitting out the lyrics of Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name.” Turns out the breakup was not as breezy as Max thought, and Zoey officially needs to find a new favorite coffee shop.
But Zoey has much more pressing troubles than caffeine: it’s the day of Simon’s engagement party, her mom is arranging the flowers for the venue, and now Jessica is calling and texting her nonstop - she can’t know about her and Simon, can she? Luckily, the answer is no - she just wanted Zoey’s advice about a surprise she had for Simon. In fact, Jessica even tells Zoey that she is about the only girl in Simon’s life that doesn’t make her feel jealous (bad judgment, anyone?). Even so, Zoey and Simon talk and agree to remain friends, and Zoey informs him that she won’t go to the party, to avoid any awkwardness between herself and Jessica.
A disheartened Max finds a new (and especially hilarious) wingman in Mo, who spearheads an entire makeover for the hapless slacker, who, according to Autumn “dresses like a third grader.” This leads to a wonderfully awkward scene where Zoey walks in on a half-naked Max and she, as well as we as an audience, discover that Max is actually totally ripped (I’m not saying we should get #HotMax trending, but I’m also not not saying that). And it's not just Zoey who sees Max in a new light: he himself is given a brand new sense of self-confidence throughout this episode, on top of a new wardrobe.
Zoey, newly without plans, is invited by Joan to go out for a drink after work. Joan is celebrating her newfound singlehood, and as Zoey soon finds out, intends to go hard. Several shots and one dance number to Kesha’s “Tik Tok” later, Joan and Zoey are both solidly wasted, and Joan decides that they should go to Simon’s engagement party after all.
Joan is actually one of the few characters who personally moves forward a bit in this episode, although possibly in a bad direction. At the beginning of the episode, she expressed a desire to develop a follow-up to the highly successful watch project from episode 3. At the party, she has a revelation stemming from the fact that she doesn’t recognize half the people who talk to her like they know her. The resulting idea? A piece of tech that uses facial recognition software and connects to social media to identify people, and then communicates to you who they are through an earpiece in the user’s ear. It’s a funny idea for anyone who has been greeted by someone you don’t remember, but to be honest, it also feels really creepy, and feeds into a lot of the AI-related fears in today’s society. Am I wrong?
While the wild night out solved a lot of Joan’s problems, it did pretty much the opposite for Zoey. In fact, Zoey was barely at the party at all before she realized just how badly she likes Simon (and just how drunk she is). Luckily, Maggie is also at the party, and the mother and daughter step aside to talk about Zoey’s feelings, her closeness with Simon, and the pair’s near-miss the previous night. Unluckily, Jessica was standing nearby, and heard the entire conversation.
Meanwhile, Mitch’s best friend Paul came to visit and take care of him while Maggie and Zoey were at Simon’s party. The two reminisced about old times in a side plot that was actually remarkably sweet. I’ve found it really interesting how the “Zoey” writers are able to so richly develop a character who can’t speak or easily communicate. Kudos, too, to Mitch’s portrayer, Peter Gallagher, who is doing much of the same work, bringing a personality and “voice” to Mitch without actually using a voice, and with limited movement.
Back at the engagement party, Simon steps up to give a romantic toast to Jessica. On the outside, it's a beautiful moment, but if you happen to have powers that allow you to hear peoples' inner thoughts through song...maybe not so much. Jessica sings “Say My Name” by Destiny’s Child to an oblivious Simon - and when she reaches the lyric “Could it be that you are at the crib with another lady,” she looks right at Zoey! Clearly Jessica knows their secret, and so Zoey goes up to her to apologize and explain. Things don’t quite go the way Zoey would’ve liked, though: not only does she almost immediately get kicked out of the party, but she also accidentally knocks over a candle and, in a twist of symbolic irony, lights a rose display with the words “Simon and Jessica” on it aflame.
So, after quite literally burning a few bridges, Zoey runs out of the party in tears, followed by a concerned Max. Of course, that’s when she gets even more bad news: Paul slipped taking Mitch up the stairs, and her dad had fallen. Zoey needed to get to him and her mother at the hospital, but because of a basketball game in the area, there were no cars available to pick her up. With Zoey desperate, drunk, and at a personal low, the newly-confident Max took the lead in a gentlemanly gesture, finding one of those pay-to-ride scooters for Zoey to ride and all the while proving his devotion to her happiness by singing The Proclaimers’ “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).” Not to ruin a nice moment, but were either of them aware that those scooter things only really go about 5 miles per hour? They’re insanely slow.
The episode wraps up with a montage of the post-party aftermath, both good and bad: Joan working on developing her new product; Mo flirting with an attractive guy from Jessica’s bridal party; Simon quite literally sweeping up the ashes of his relationship with Jessica. Zoey’s dad injured his back, but was otherwise okay, and he, Zoey, Maggie and Max ended up back at the Clarke house. When Zoey goes to see Max off, he tells her that he will “always” be there for her, and the two end up in a veeery similar position as that of Zoey and Simon at the end of last week’s episode. Again, though, nothing happens, and Zoey looks fondly out the window to see Max reprising “I’m Gonna Be” as he walks off into the night.
This was my favorite episode of Zoey so far, by a lot. I feel that much of the plot points teased in this first half of the season were addressed or resolved, with the promise of much more on the horizon. I also liked that the writers seemed to finally be shaking up the formula somewhat: the past episodes have mainly focused on Zoey solving other people’s problems, but now it’s becoming clear that Zoey’s powers have caused some issues for herself that might not be able to be solved in a snappy 43 minutes plus commercials. It's about the drama of it all, people!
Side note: we also learned this week that Zoey keeps a protractor in her tote bag. To be honest, this was the biggest question I was left with: in what universe does Zoey, a millennial computer programmer living in a small apartment in San Francisco, even own a protractor? What does she use it for? Why did she buy it in the first place? I can think of only a few professions in which a protractor is necessary, and although she's supposed to be a bit of a nerd, I don't think that means she'd just carry a protractor around wherever she went for fun, do you? Sure, I’m amused by the bit, but I also want answers, show!
Anyway, what did you think of this week’s episode? Who do you think is a better match for Zoey: Simon, Max, or none of the above? And what do you think will happen in the back half of the season? Let me know in the comments!
Zoey’s Extraordinary Quotes-List:
Zoey: He sang “Should I Stay or Should I Go.”
Mo: And you told him he should…
Zoey: Go!
Mo: Either way, it’s trouble - it says it right there in the song.
Joan: Yeah, I was invited to (Simon’s engagement party) too, but I have no interest in hanging out with a bunch of 20-somethings talking about artisanal beer all night.
Zoey: In our defense, we also talk about nut milk.
