Written by Daniel Levy, “Honeymoon” is a new high point for Schitt’s Creek, exploring the various dichotomies in the show’s central relationships by staging two dinner parties, one for the adults, and one for the barely-adult, intertwining them in moments where Schitt’s Creek neatly – and hilariously, given the wine metaphor David eventually uses – unpacks David’s sexuality, and how his father comes to reconcile with it.
However, that’s not all “Honeymoon” is about. While with the younger characters of the show, “Honeymoon” begins to push forward some of the season’s bigger stories, with David and Stevie (who are adorable from wall to wall in this episode), and Mutt and Alexis all going through various relationship dramas, mostly due to a lack of communication and honesty from one party to another. Alexis lies to get everyone to the party, and Mutt lies to Twila every time she asks him why he’s being so withholding; by comparison, David and Stevie coming forth and dealing with the uncertainties and awkwardness in their budding relationship (away from the party) make a nice contrast to each other, adhering to the show’s core tenant that truth, no matter how uncomfortable it may be to approach, is what keeps families and communities together.
It approaches this through Stevie and David, in an interesting fashion, with Stevie trying to figure out whether David was actually gay or not. In the aftermath of last episode’s festivities, Stevie confronts David on this – to which he goes on a lengthy monologue to explain his pansexuality that offers one of the most clever sexual metaphors I’ve ever heard, clearing the air and paving the way for their equally honest conversation later in the episode, when they both swallow their pride (and put the ugly memories of what they saw in that ceiling mirror) and pursue the first thing they’ve enjoyed in Schitt’s Creek in a long time.
Over with the adults, “Honeymoon” takes on a different, equally reflective bent, as Moira reveals why she hates the town so much, and Roland helps Johnny come to terms with his son’s constantly shifting sexual interests. Moira’s story is really just funny, but her reflective nature sets the stage for Roland and Johnny, which finally, finally humanizes the town’s mayor and sheriff a bit. They’ve always been presented as good-hearted people, but their simple-minded nature is something the show’s always judged them for (along with the Rose clan): in “Honeymoon,” it’s that same perceived lack of intelligence that makes Roland’s solution for Johnny so simple and poignant, cutting through all the patriarchal paranoia about how if David had just picked one gender to like, then he wouldn’t have been so confused.
That scene, of a pot-addled Johnny and Roland eating ribs, is uncharted territory for the show; for the first time, their interactions are playing to something more than comedic irony, and rather two men reaching to each other to heal wounds left by their sons. Johnny feels bad his son didn’t have an easier (or easy to understand) life, and Roland regrets that his son lives in the woods, resisting against his family name. Clearly these two men made mistakes with their sons along the way, and Roland reaching across the aisle – and more so, Johnny accepting this – is a huge emotional boon for Schitt’s Creek, achieving new levels of connection between two fathers, as well as with their sons.
It’s those emotional components that really help Schitt’s Creek elevate itself above the entertaining, but much more superficial story of “hey, look at these uptight people around these rednecks!” That show is easier to tell; working it’s way through the complicated relationships between generations – or just David’s complicated relationship with the various definitions of sexual orientation – that give Creek some nuance, light touches of pathos that accent a terrific, hilarious script that isn’t satisfied with just riding the coattails of previous episodes. “Honeymoon” pushes characters together and forces them to examine their twisted realities, and in the process, it delivers the most satisfying episode of Schitt’s Creek yet, right down to the wonderful final scene, that reinforces just how much these angry, depressed weirdos really love and support each other, as much as they resist it.
[Photo via Pop TV]
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