After teasing a big, season-ending story at the end of last week’s episode, it seemed possible – and almost necessary – for Ground Floor to get back to basics a bit, which “The Mansfield Who Came to Dinner” does… for the first two acts, at least. Continuing its season-long trend of going big in the third act, “The Mansfield Who Came to Dinner” quietly turns from a simple fish-out-of-water story (and a broad story about new couples constantly sleeping together) into yet another resonating climatic scene.
The opening beats of “The Mansfield Who Came to Dinner” are broad strokes that become layered as the episode continues: Jenny invites Mansfield over for dinner (for her custom Meatload dish) to thank him for paying for college, while Brody worries about her finding out he changed some of the answers on her first college test. In the B-story, Harvard won’t stop bragging about having “coitus… non-interruptus” with new girlfriend Lindsay, who gets a kick out of dressing up her new Harvard doll. Oh, and Threepeat can’t stop with making literal gestures preparing for a spot on the news: by construction, all three of these stories are designed to seem fairly superficial.
However, when all parties (save for Threepeat, who spends time with Derek learning about the latter’s years as a commercial star) end up in Jenny’s studio apartment, the episode takes a hilarious, and surprisingly cathartic, turn. Brody helping Jenny on her test is revealed to be more than just his smugness; he doesn’t think she’s taking the opportunity seriously, and wants to make sure she doesn’t flunk out. While this particular beat hasn’t really been established on-screen (we don’t see her slacking off at all; in fact, she just started taking classes), Jenny’s laissez-faire attitude towards life is well-established on Ground Floor, and it’s not a stretch to imagine her behavior leading to Brody’s reactions in the cold open.
What brings it together is how Mansfield brings this to light, and how it informs the seemingly pointless (save for laugh factor) secondary plot of the episode; Mansfield speaks to the two couples about being honest and holding back and letting things fester only brings further resentment. Is this an attitude informed by his own recent conflict in the second-most important relationship in his life, the conflict that shaped the first six episodes of the season? “The Mansfield Who Came to Dinner” again doesn’t explicitly make this point shown – but it shows that the show trusts the audience’s ability to infer, to understand characters on more than the superficial level they can in a 20-minute window, in an apartment that “looks like a stage play” (not only a witty remark, but a nod to its own old-school format).
And Mansfield’s speech about being open ends up in not one, but two meaningful resolutions: Lindsay and Harvard’s infatuation comes crashing down to earth when they finally express their frustrations (Lindsay: “There’s more than one position!” Harvard: “I’m tired of being dressed like a Ken doll!”), and Mansfield, understanding his prodigy, puts voice to Brody’s actions while reminding Jenny that like everything else Mansfield does, her education is an investment by him, one he doesn’t want to see fail (and not for financial reasons; this is a man who discovers new rooms in his house on a daily basis).
Jenny and Mansfield’s emotional connection remains one of the show’s best; though Ground Floor often gives attention to Mansfield and Brody’s prodigy/mentor relationship, it’s the friendship between Jenny and Mansfield that really bridges the two worlds (or more realistically, floors) of the show in interesting ways. In many ways, he’s becoming the father she never had; an idea expressed at the end, with Mansfield wrapping his arms around both Jenny and Brody, kissing their temples while they watch Threepeat pop and lock his way through the newscast (a hilarious C-story that adds a nice little friendship between him and Derek, smartly playing to Threepeat’s constant anxiety for humor).
Heading into the two-part finale (which is called “The Proposal”… so, duh) beginning next week, “The Mansfield Who Came to Dinner” is a classically-designed episode of multi-camera television, a light take on the different economic classes that exist on the show (Brody to Jenny: “You’re going to have to rent forks!!!”), and a meaningful third act that reinforces one of the show’s central relationships. It’s not a particularly essential episode of the show, but it’s a half hour that allows itself to draw back the drama a bit, while still finding meaningful stories to strengthen its relationships, an important move heading into what appears to be an ambitious season (hopefully not series!) finale.
[Photo via TBS]
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