"The First Supper"
Clunk. That's the sound this episode made as it hit the air. You may be wondering how a show could make a physical clunk sound, but (and imagine some dramatic flare here) they found a way! It's almost as if after last week's great momentum, the powers that be decided that they didn't want to give us too much funny too fast, and so they churned out an awkwardly paced and plotted car boot of an episode.
On the upside,
Fred Willard's Marsh was on fire tonight, and doing his proprietary shtick that I've loved since
Best in Show. From his opening where, after reporting that Jason Shaw, a Steeler, was dating a supermodel, and exclaiming, "Now that's one person I'd like to trade places with for three hours," only to insist on explaining that he meant he wanted to exchange the football player, and very emphatically
not the supermodel, I knew he was back in fine form. In fact, Marsh and Gary's shared scenes were, to borrow a term, "the adorablest," of the episode. Gary's robotic delivery in reporting a story about a house fire for his demo reel, and Marsh's coaching ("You're not hungry!"), once again had me, if not exactly on the floor, at least chuckling wholeheartedly.
The other two storylines, however, had me reaching for my Tums. We get it: Montana's an insecure knockout, Ryan's an insecure nerd - it's kismet! Her speechless reaction to finding out that the Steelers player (with whom Marsh wants to trade places and whom she'd been dating) was cheating on her with a supermodel was pretty amusing ("You're looking at a major depression here"), but her subsequent breakdown seemed more like an excuse to watch Ryan ogle her in a towel than anything else. To give them credit, though, Ryan's reaction to Montana's lament that she and Jason were supposed to spend Christmas in the Bahamas ("Montana, if it makes you feel better, I don't think I could have given you the time off") was actually the most unexpectedly sweet line of the night. No, not enough to make them the adorablest, but it does merit an honorable mention.
Getting to what could be considered the main plot of the night, Kelly continued to want to keep Gracie in the dark about Chuck. Gracie, seeing Chuck show up at the same restaurant in which she and her mom were eating, invited him to join them. They quickly bond, thus throwing Kelly into a moral crisis as to whether it's right to keep them a part. Lucky for her, Chuck isn't as keen on reuniting after Kelly starts going through the laundry list of activities involved with raising a child, thus preserving this dilemma for another week.
Here's hoping we get back to the sublime of last week's fish massacre, or at least give poor Gary "How much do you think this pumpkin weighs" Crezyzewski some more airtime. Gary, you'll always be an anchor to me.
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