Things continue to get a little more complicated with every episode when it comes to the Don’t Bothers and their trajectory as it keeps moving them away from the Mighty Ducks. Just when it was apparent that the team still needed a ton of practice and a real miracle to pull them upward and get them into a winning frame of mind, something else comes along and makes it clear that they still need a lot of work if they’re going to shine as brightly as they want to. In fact, two members of the team had to do a quick assessment as it was made clear that Maya is still wanting to hang out with her cool friends, while Lauren initially felt as though she’d been kicked to the side, becoming Maya’s hockey teammate and nothing else. Funnily enough it turns out that Lauren was just as hurtful when Maya, attempting to apologize, was made to feel as though she didn’t belong in Lauren’s world when it came to talking to Lauren’s cosplay friends. If the lesson wasn’t clear enough, it’s not just the cool kids that exclude people from their own private groups, and all the justification in the world doesn’t help when it comes to doing the same thing that drives people to create their own peer groups. Thankfully this little problem was helped along by Nick of all people when he noted that Lauren and Maya weren’t working together, as one rousing speech later, the two were back on the ice and functioning as a team once again. And to make things better, by the end of the episode the two young girls had buried their dispute as Maya took to dressing in cosplay while Lauren tried a bit of a makeover, though it’s likely she’ll go back to her cape eventually. The point is, recognizing one another as equals was a fundamental step forward, and it’s progress.
The real curve ball came when Evan’s father showed up, and as one could guess if they just started watching, his dad isn’t exactly a prize since he’s the type that doesn’t have much to do with his son, despite the fact that Evan idolizes him. This is more than obvious when Gordon agrees to accompany Evan to his father’s gig, which is all well and good since Evan is impressed while Gordon is less than enamored of the guy. But for Evan’s sake it’s obvious that things haven’t been said about the guy that often, and Gordon isn’t about to start, as he and Evan’s father bond just a bit over several plates of spicy wings, which was an odd scene, but oh well. The real character of Evan’s dad is shown when he takes a gig out of town and is bound to miss his son’s game, which is no doubt heartbreaking for any kid. But sly old Bombay figures out a way to make Evan happy by driving his father to the Ice Palace instead of to the airport as planned, telling him the tale of his own father and how his old man was proud of him, and how he wished he could be there. In other words, Bombay drove Evan’s father to the rink to show him just how much his presence meant to his son. And to be certain, it lit Evan up in a way that was unbelievable, and actually gave people hope that Evan’s father would be redeemed somehow. But then, as one might have expected, the other shoe dropped and one had to remember that people don’t change that quickly.
After the game, when Alex was about to speak to her ex about how nice it was to see him show up to a game, she overheard the guy talking on the phone about how ‘some crazy guy’ kidnapped him and drove him to the ice rink. Yep, just when the deadbeat dad was about to get a little bit of redemption he was shown to be a truly pathetic individual that couldn’t even bother to tell the truth. One can’t help but hope that Evan’s father won’t be a big part of the rest of the season, but it does feel as though there are too many unresolved issues there to just let sit like this. In the meantime, it kind of sounds as though Coach T got wind of Evan’s stellar performance on the ice and sent one of his players, Evan’s former teammate, to tell him that his former coach wants to talk to him. A person doesn’t have to be a genius to think that Coach T might actually try to snag Evan away and put him back on the Ducks just to give the Don’t Bothers an even tougher time winning, as this would leave Sofi as the best player on the team. Anyone that says this kind of thing can’t happen might need a reality check.
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