Unraveling the Darkness in ‘All About That Paper’
In the opening scene of “All About That Paper,” Gretchen accidentally tells Jimmy to “check in” with her later, which Jimmy mocks until the opening theme begins. The phrase is seemingly forgotten, only referenced when Jimmy and Gretchen text each other throughout the day, not realizing they’re doing the very thing that disgusted them hours earlier. However, Gretchen’s reaction to blurting out ‘check in’ is telling and comes with devastating consequences at the end of this week’s You’re the Worst, propelling the season forward with an ominous closing sequence.
Low-Stakes Storytelling and Future Implications
Before the masterful final scene, there are nineteen minutes of low-stakes storytelling, marking the first time You’re the Worst has openly constructed stories for future episodes to pick up on. Edgar gets into improv, Paul files for divorce from Lindsay, and S**tstain and Honey Nutz begin to spin off from Sam’s success. There’s a lot of suggestion towards movement in this episode, without many stories actually going anywhere. Keeping Gretchen and Jimmy separated for the majority of the episode for the second week in a row also helps with this: with their relationship holding steady at “healthy,” the middle acts of “All About That Paper” can slowly begin to hint towards the deeper, darker stories lurking at the heart of You’re the Worst‘s sophomore season, like Lindsay’s growing depression and Gretchen’s growing insecurity with her fast relationship.
Money and Inspiration: A Recipe for Conflict
The biggest suggestion, and one that could provide the easiest realistic avenue for conflict, is money. Jimmy’s clearly going broke trying to make ends meet, to the point he’s asking Gretchen for rent and considering doing research for a whacked-out writer to keep money coming in while he tries to find inspiration for his second novel. It seems pretty clear that Jimmy may not find that inspiration until his life takes a turn for the worst. Given the timeline of the show, it’s a solid assumption his first book came near to, or after his break-up with Becca, the moment in his when he gave up romanticism and the idea of having a true partner in life. Given how well things are going with Gretchen – and how much this changes Jimmy’s attitude; look at him playfully joking around about “checking in” with Gretch – it’s safe to say Jimmy is desperately searching for inspiration, which for self-destructive people like Jimmy, only comes at the darkest of times.
Pregnancy: A Recurring Theme in Season 2
Another prominent theme in this episode of You’re the Worst – and really, this season, given Lindsay’s storyline – is pregnancy. Maybe this is just a commentary on what happens to people as they ‘mature’ into lame-o’s, but there’s a distinct pattern forming with the women on this show in Season 2: Becca is pregnant, Lindsay is trying to get pregnant out of spite, and Gretchen both has a friend who is pregnant and just coined the term “abo-bo” as slang for “abortion.” Birth – or at least, the potential of it – is ingrained into Lindsay and Gretchen’s stories this season, which naturally puts both of them in different sorts of existential crises. Lindsay regrets the decision she made to give up her hand-sexing husband, while Gretchen’s resolve in her quickly advancing relationship is beginning to dissolve – which brings us back to the final scenes of the episode, two of the most disturbing and haunting sequences this show’s had to offer.
Disturbing Final Scenes and Powerful Performances
The first of them – Edgar watching Lindsay desperately insert things into herself – is a return to You’re the Worst‘s darkest sensibilities of Season 1. Furious that Paul really wants to divorce her (and reeling from the fact he can “finish regular” with Amy, arguably the most hurtful insult he’s flung at her), Lindsay removes the frozen condom from her fridge, tries to heat it, and then burns herself trying to insert it via turkey baster. This all happens while Edgar stands at the doorway, first trying to conjure up the courage to tell her how he feels, and then wincing in horror as she flies around the kitchen, trying to spatula the contents of the condom into a coffee cup she’s been drinking wine out of, all done through a mixture of drunken tears and mascara streaks. Kether Donohue’s performance as Lindsay, which really hasn’t had many notes to hit so far this season, really captures the character’s burning anger and depression in that scene in a powerful way: it not only gives some much-needed pathos to her steady mental breakdown but serves as an important precedent to the final scene, bringing volume and energy where those final moments just bring silent dread and fear.
Boy, those final moments: watching Gretchen pick up her clothes and sneak out of Jimmy’s house, burner in hand, is just so wonderfully constructed. Throughout the episode, Alex Hardcastle (whose direction has gone completely unrecognized by me to this point – what a jerk!) uses a lot of extreme close-up to accentuate characters making dramatic points: Lindsay yelling at Paul, Becca screaming at Vernon, Paul yelling at Lindsay as she runs away. After a shadowy sequence following Gretchen out the door, the episode closes on another one of these close-ups, and Gretchen is silent as the night, the anxiety in her eyes pairing with the shock in her face throughout the episode when she realizes how quickly Jimmy is falling back into old relationship-loving patterns. When he deposits that rent check (and when she tells him she’ll “check in”), it all becomes very real for her, triggering her need to self-destruct and destroy anything meaningful in her life.
Where is Gretchen Going?
The question that remains is: where is she going? It’s not something I’ll try to answer here, even though I have my theories, but the point is made quite clear that Gretchen is desperately reaching for a bailout button she can push, the rapid maturation of her and Jimmy’s relationship into people who both pay to live in the same house and share breakfast every morning a terrifying proposition for her. We may not know where Gretchen is going, but we know what she’s feeling in those silent final moments, another great example of just how masterfully defined You’re the Worst‘s characters are (and how rewarding the writing is, by the same token), and a reminder of how devastatingly powerful relationships can be over our lives. For all intents and purposes, “All About That Paper” is where the real story of Season 2 begins, and boy, does it set up some devastating stakes for what may follow.
Other thoughts/observations:
- Gretchen’s impression of Edgar and Lindsay’s children is riotous: “Let’s do heroin! How do we use a phone?”
- Jackie and S**tstain are exclusive now? Everybody’s getting into serious relationships!
- Jimmy spends most of the episode with an eccentric writer who does random crap – not that exciting, but we do get to see how uncomfortable he is in a strip club.
- “The one with the C-section scar!” “Which one?”
- Sam’s panic fort is this week’s most adorable detail.
- Now, if Jimmy had just taken that catalog job, Vernon would be reading him right now! What a great callback.
- “Make a little chaos.” Oh, I think Gretch has that one handled, Jimmy. Be warned.
- Sam and his boys fighting is a great little visual gag that doesn’t get enough justice. Watching them try to toss silverware around is a great little moment.
[Photo credit: Byron Cohen/FX]
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