Last week’s Man Seeking Woman episode was fantastic with our trip to Hell. Things finished on a surprisingly high note that gave viewers the feeling that Josh might have discovered a new, less bitter, way to view dealing with ex and finding a new girlfriend. Josh is a long term project, there’s no doubts about that and it’s what drives the show, but that doesn’t mean we can’t see some good character development so the show doesn’t feel like it hasn’t done anything with the character since episode one.
In this week’s eighth episode, “Branzino,” Josh seems to have reverted back to his old ways and forgotten many of the revelations from last week’s episode where he had this positive outlook on life and was ready to let things fall into place. While we don’t know how much time has passed, the episode opens with a great montage of Josh and Mike getting excited over a large influx of relationship response letters. They are crafted and written just like college acceptance letters, and similar to high school seniors, Josh feels like life and death are determined by the content of the letters. It seems like all are, sadly, rejections, until Josh notices one unopened letter from “Rachel,” who is a small liberal arts girl that enjoys poetry and fine dining. Mike suggests that Josh defer the acceptance and hope he finds something else, but Josh doesn’t want to risk missing out on a girlfriend completely and decides to accept with no hesitation or further research.
Here we are yet again, finding Josh in another relationship built on the foundation of his loneliness and need for companionship rather than true love. Josh is trying to make it work badly, but everything immediately seems so forced when we see his reaction to Rachel’s favorite food being soft boiled eggs. They go on “Late Night With Mom” where Josh’s mom awkwardly grills Rachel, poking fun at the length they’ve been together, but they eventually win her over by telling her they are hosting a real dinner party.
The dinner party feels like another forced attempt by Josh and Rachel to appear as a legitimate couple. Josh is abandoning who he is as a person in order to say the same things as Rachel and give off the impression that they are the perfect couple. The night gets ruined (or saved, depending on how you look at it) by a drunken Mike being himself: drunk, belligerent, and unafraid to speak his mind. In reality, he’s just calling the situation for what it is, but Josh and Rachel see him as their uncontrollable pet that needs to be sent away. Josh takes Mike to a “bro shelter,” and he tries to rationalize doing so with the fact that Mike is 27 and still slamming shots and going to strip clubs every weekend with no plans to settle down anytime soon. Right after he signs the papers, he realizes that these are the reasons he loves Mike, and he shouldn’t try to change his best friend to improve his three-week-old relationship.
The fact is Josh and Mike need each other. After he sets Mike free from the Bro Shelter, we see Josh and Rachel deciding to get surgically combined to one another. They’re already together all the time, and without Mike, Josh completely loses his independence. We even see Liz taken aback by the decision because she and Leo have been together for four years and still appreciate and respect each other’s need for alone time. Josh and Rachel soon learn the hard way that they aren’t actually soul mates, but they really ended up digging their own grave by trying to accelerate the relationship.
In the end, the couple decides to split, and we find Josh back in the strip club next to his best friend, Mike. No matter how many times Mike has to deal with being kicked to the curb for a little bit while simultaneously watching Josh go through clingy relationships, he’s always going to have an open seat waiting next to him. Yes, Mike can sometimes be quite a lot to deal with when his “bro” personality doesn’t fit into the environment, like at the dinner party. However, he is and always will be a dedicated best friend who always has Josh’s back.
“Branzino” wasn’t anything groundbreaking. It wasn’t Man Seeking Woman‘s best episode, but it communicated an ever important global theme: don’t take your friends for granted. A best friend is something special that develops organically. With that comes someone who will always have your back regardless of your best and worst qualities. Mike is a total bro, but Josh is extremely needy; neither one of them is perfect, but without each other, they would be much worse off. I really loved this episode of Man Seeking Woman because it preached a simple but great theme while also showing the value that Mike brings to the table and the depth of his relationship with Josh.
[Photo via FXX]
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