The Season Two Premiere of Speechless picks up a few weeks after the Season One finale. The episode opens with Dylan talking to Ray while he is sleeping and messing with his dream about his girlfriend Taylor. When Ray wakes up he realizes that it’s actually noon even though it’s dark in the house. Jimmy and Maya quickly realize that the fumigators are there and the family escapes the tinted house just in time.
While outside JJ calls from camp and the family get’s to meet his friend Alexa. After JJ starts talking about all of the things he has done at camp and how having a disability is no excuse there, the DiMeo’s realize they can’t use JJ as an excuse anymore and need to get their act together.
So they enlist the help of Kenneth, who takes time away from his summer vacation of living on a boat, to come and tell them all the things they need to change which he does in the form of a song (which is amazing by the way). After giving them advice Kenneth leaves leaving the DiMeo’s to clean on their own.
After cleaning the house and mowing the lawn Maya, Jimmy, and Dylan decide to make even more changes to their lives. Dylan gets a Job mowing lawns, Jimmy decides to actually be on time for work and Maya asks the neighbor to be added to her calendar so she can have her life.
When Jimmy shows up to work on time he is shocked that there are actually parking spaces open in the parking lot, coffee in the coffee machine and doughnuts for the morning meeting. Dylan mows a lawn for ten dollars and a medal and Maya goes to the gym with her neighbor.
Meanwhile, Ray doesn’t know what do to now that everyone got their act together and he has no one to criticize. He says that it won’t last but it does which drives him crazy and Jimmy’s boss gives him a promotion because he has been on time the last few weeks.
When JJ comes back from camp he notices his family is acting differently. Once Kenneth comes back to take care of JJ he quickly realizes he is out of practice lifting him after not doing it all summer, so he practices on Ray.
While talking to Kenneth, JJ, and Ray, Dylan finds a note in JJ’s bag that he didn’t know about. After reading the note JJ goes to find Maya to talk to her but because she is so busy with her calendar she fails to realize how much JJ needs her.
Meanwhile, Ray is upset because his girlfriend Taylor is back in town and he is not the same person she fell in love with. Jimmy tells him that he knows it has been a tough summer for him with everyone doing well but things will get worse.
Later that night Maya finds JJ watching a slideshow of pictures from camp. JJ shows her the letter Dylan found in his bag from Alexa asking him to meet her after the goodbye bonfire so she can have her first kiss. JJ didn’t see the letter until after he got home so Maya decides that the family is going to take a spontaneous road trip to find her so JJ can have his first kiss.
Maya wakes everyone up in the middle of the night by telling them the fumigators are there so that they can get an early start on their road trip to “somewhere” which makes Ray extremely happy because he feels like he has a purpose again.
After looking at Alexa’s Instagram Dylan finds out that Alexa and her family are in Chicago on their way to the Grand Canyon. Jimmy calls off of work for two days and Dylan throws the money she made out the window. Kenneth uses the radio from the boat he borrowed to try and help locate Alexa’s family’s van using their license plate.
While Jimmy stops to get gas JJ tells Maya that the trip was a nice idea but he is wasting her time. He says that he already holds her back enough because she got organized better when he was gone. Maya tells him that he taught the family to be spontaneous and that he makes them who they are. (This scene captures again just how fantastic the show is at getting the feelings of people with disabilities and the feelings of those who love them so right.).
Over the radio, someone spots Alexa’s family’s van at a motel an hour away from where the DiMeo’s are but things don’t go exactly as planned when the van stops because Jimmy forgot to actually get gas.
The van gets towed to a gas station where Maya sees Alexa’s family’s van. Kenneth is able to lift JJ and set him at the picnic table. JJ is able to sit up for twenty seconds like he learned at Camp, just long enough to get his kiss from Alexa before falling over and Jimmy having to catch him.
Jimmy takes the family to see the Grand Canyon, even though it’s dark and they can’t actually see it, they decide to take a picture anyway. Maya gets fed up with her phone going off and she throws it into the Grand Canyon.
At the very end of the episode Ray’s girlfriend, Taylor comes to break up with him before something inevitably goes wrong, but Ray says no and that everything is going to be ok and just as they are about to kiss the fumigators tent the house.
Overall I think this was an amazing start to the season with all the hilarity and heart that made the show great in Season One, while at the same time being a show that is more confident in what it is.
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