A review of tonight’s You’re the Worst coming up just as soon as I come over for your Saturday morning yoga brunch/crossword jam…
In many ways, “Odysseus” is the real start of season four. The two-part “It’s Been” effectively showed what Jimmy and Gretchen’s lives have been like since he ghosted her after the proposal, and established the role reversal with Edgar and Lindsay as the responsible ones who are having sex in Jimmy’s bed. They were necessary, and really good episodes, but they were establishing the emotional stakes for when the story really gets going, as it does nicely throughout “Odysseus,” as Jimmy returns to LA, Gretchen hides out with Ty — and then with Ty’s friend Boone (Colin Ferguson from Eureka, amusingly wry and grown-up in a show where everyone else is immature) — and the two ex-lovers finally confront each other, twice.
The first, at Jimmy’s house, is brief but wickedly funny, as Gretchen storms in to perform the entirety of the text communication Jimmy has had with her since the proposal — “HEY! DOT! DOT! DOT!” — in the same terrifying manner with which she sang the “One Week” lyrics to Lindsay last week. The second, outside Lindsay’s apartment, is even better. It starts out quiet and honest, as Jimmy offers a sincere apology and a deflated Gretchen accepts it and moves on. But then Jimmy can’t help being Jimmy, and he has to turn an I’m Sorry into an I’m Sorry But It’s Really Your Fault by bringing up her comment about them being a family. Without realizing it, it’s the kindest thing he could have possibly done for Gretchen, because his monstrous self-pity in that moment gives her the jolt — a jolt that sex with Ty and Boone couldn’t — she needs to finally come back to life. Before, she perhaps had closure, but was defeated and sad. Now, though? Now she has something worth getting out of bed in the morning: getting revenge on Jimmy Shive-Overly for how badly he hurt her(*).
(*) It’ll be interesting to contrast the rest of this season with what Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has planned for its own “comedy revenge for a bad break-up” arc.
Season three had its moments, but seemed to be lacking in a big unifying idea akin to what the first two years each had. Gretchen vs Jimmy, though? That is something I am very much on board with, especially as portrayed here.
What did everybody else think?
Alan Sepinwall may be reached at sepinwall@uproxx.com. He discusses television weekly on the TV Avalanche podcast.