The second season of You’re the Worst has dealt with a lot of heavy issues: depression, divorce, frustrations, disappointments, betrayals. There’s been a lot of resistance to change by the show’s core characters, and for most of them, it’s come at a great cost. I’m not just talking about Jimmy and Gretchen’s relationship: from Lindsay’s many mistakes to the long-running (but finally concluded) feud between Sam, Honeynutz, and Sh*tstain, Season 2 of You’re the Worst has featured people either afraid or unwilling to grow, regressing to old and/or self-destructive behavior in their desperate gasps to not evolve. That all comes to an end in “Other Things You Could Be Doing,” a thoroughly messy, overstuffed, wildly promising, and heartwarming episode of television.
There’s just so much stuff for “Other Things You Could Be Doing” to try and address in the course of 22 minutes, it’s hard for it all to land with equal weight. Edgar probably gets the short end of the stick here, but it’s really his story that sets the stage for the entire season. Edgar’s been the one character willing to put himself out there this year, to truly open himself to another human being and try to evolve. He got a job, a new passion, and a girlfriend, but as he explains to Dorothy, nobody else sees that change in him but himself (and Dorothy, of course, though the only previews to his previous trauma she gets are his random rants that she uncomfortably ends). But Edgar has changed his life so naturally and thoroughly that it’s hard to recognize the guy on stage during the lame show he and the rest of his improv group put on. However, he’s still the same guy who desperately wants the approval of his narcissistic friend; he’s just unable to look in the mirror and realize how much he’s changed.
For Edgar, that’s been a good thing: he’s plowed forward with his life, trying new things and falling in love (boy, him asking Dorothy to live with him is an adorable moment). On the other end of the spectrum is Gretchen, who is stuck in the mud from the changes she’s gone through, those affected by a chemical imbalance in her brain (probably the ‘worst’ kind of change), an individual who becomes so despondent in this episode she tells Jimmy he “deserves” to have an affair with a great woman, if only for him to stop trying to fix her and move on with his life.
But what Gretchen doesn’t realize – and admittedly, Jimmy at first – is that they’ve all grown this season. Lindsay’s moved out and started to move on with her life, Gretchen allowed herself to invest in a relationship (before she began falling apart, of course), Becca’s having a baby: each of these stories is their own mix of tragedy and triumph, striking a balance in the beauties and ironies of life as You’re the Worst finds its characters pushing forward into new phases. of their lives Nothing shows that growth more than Jimmy, who instead of leaving Gretchen to have a weekend of sex with Nina, builds her a tent in the living room, and cuddles her in the darkness of the night.
He finally realizes he can’t “fix her,” and he’d rather be next to a broken Gretchen than with anyone else. In You’re the Worst‘s twisted world, this is the biggest proclamation of love Jimmy could ever offer, something more genuine and heartwarming than probably anything that happened in his relationship with Becca. Just one look at Gretchen’s face when she incredulously asks Jimmy “You stayed?” signifies the magnitude of this moment; and how it acts a proxy for every other character going through fundamental shifts and changes in their lives. If there’s one constant we should be able to count on in those times, it’s love, and while Jimmy may be a terrible friend to Edgar, there’s no denying his love for Gretchen, bubbling to the surface in a closing moment that brought tears to my eyes, and warmth to my heart.
It’s such a touching moment that I’m willing to forgive this episode’s messy second act, with its too-long montage (though I love that Jacqueline has Sh*tstain watching Rectify; we all should follow her advice) and overstuffed narrative. Add in the Edgar/Dorothy moment we’re offered a few minutes prior, and it’s no surprise the flaws of the episode fall quietly into the background. The second season of You’re the Worst has challenged its characters and audience, and with the end of “Other Things You Could Be Doing,” this harrowing, anxiety-inducing season of television appears to be coming to a cathartic, hopeful end – a terrific change of pace I hope the show doesn’t completely abandon in its last hour of 2015 (which I can say, because You’re the Worst got renewed for a third season this week). Maybe I’m just riding that high and forgiving “Other Things” for its overcrowded-ness , but there’s no denying how good those final two minutes feel, an emotional catapult the show really needed before its season finale.
[Photo credit: Prashant Gupta/FX]
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