S02.E05: Zoey’s Extraordinary Trip

[ElectricBoogaloo]

6 hours ago, Seelouis said:

Why does the kid who grew up next door to Zoey have an Australian accent?

The show never specified how long Aiden has lived next door to Zoey's parents. We know that she remembers him as chunky, but that doesn't mean he was a toddler. She could have been talking about a chunky 10 year old kid. Zoey's age was confirmed to be 29 in this episode. The average student is 22/23 when they graduate from college and Aiden went traveling in Thailand after college for an unspecified time. The age gap between Zoey and Aiden is probably 6-7 years which means he was 11-12 when she left for college. It's entirely possible that Aiden's family moved into the house next door just before Zoey finished high school.

But even if he moved when he was younger than that, his accent is still very plausible. The older you are when you move, the less likely it is that you will lose your accent. A kid in my class moved from South Africa to California in eighth grade. When I saw him at our high school reunion, he still had his South African accent. My classmate's sister moved here from Australia when she was in elementary school and she never lost her accent either.

[ams1001]

2 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

The average student is 22/23 when they graduate from college and Aiden went traveling in Thailand after college for an unspecified time.

The actor is 22, FWIW (not that that necessarily corresponds to the character's age). 

[TJbarnaba]

I really wish they would develop Zoey as a character instead of continuously placing her in relationship situations. 

[KaveDweller]

22 hours ago, springbarb said:

I'm not sure why Zoey was so invested in making sure Danny Michael Davis stayed at Sprq Point. I guess she could be worried about the company, but it's not like that would be inevitable--and the guy was just imprisoned.

She said she thought everyone would lose their jobs if he sold the company.

That's not necessarily true, depending on who bought it and what they wanted to do. But it certainly is possible.  If she can get Danny Michael Davis to put energy into the company, it would probably turn around from it's current slump.

[Shanna Marie]

On 2/2/2021 at 11:21 PM, giovannif7 said:

My beef with this episode - how do you hire a successful Broadway musical actor like Chip Zien to play Max's father, then not have him sing a note?

Yes, exactly! I think I would have given up after hearing Zoey's "rebel" list which was mostly stupid and self-destructive. Picking strawberries without wearing sunscreen when you're a fair-skinned redhead isn't rebellious. It's just stupid. But I saw Chip Zien's name in the credits and I was looking forward to his musical number, so I stuck it out. But no. Why hire him in a musical show and not use him? Maybe they're setting him up for a future episode, though it doesn't look like there's room for him to come back.

[possibilities]

Zoey convinced Danny to stay at the company because she promised to help him get his passion for it back. I wish she had been able to convince him to care about the rest of the people who would be affected by him selling to a random buyer, because keeping such a self-absorbed person interested to me seems like it will always be a dicey proposition. If he doesn't care about the impact of his actions, he will always be a problematic leader. 

 

I know it's a much harder task, to get him to care about others than to get him to stay because of his own selfish reasons. But fundamentally, that's what I'd think would be a more sustainable solution.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I feel like I should admit that when I first saw the title and description for this episode, I thought that Zoey would be going on a road trip with Aiden or maybe Max and his dad. This was not the trip I was expecting!

[ItCouldBeWorse]

 

On 2/3/2021 at 11:15 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I was afraid that Zoey being high would lead to her missing breakfast with Max and his dad which would lead to her either lying to Max about what happened or telling him the truth and having him get jealous/upset, so I was glad that they didn't spend the entire episode on Zoey being high and that she showed up to breakfast as promised.

Me too.

On 2/3/2021 at 11:15 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I found it odd that after Simon's one phone call to Zoey (when she was out of the office on a personal day, I might add), he didn't try to bring up the issue with her in more detail at work. I guess he either felt like he already made the effort to communicate an issue with his boss or he thought she wouldn't understand (as demonstrated by her response being "we'll take care of it" and hanging up).

Agreed.

 

[bros402]

22 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I feel like I should admit that when I first saw the title and description for this episode, I thought that Zoey would be going on a road trip with Aiden or maybe Max and his dad. This was not the trip I was expecting!

My thoughts exactly. However, the drug trip was enjoyable, and, well, one of the only times Zoey could go "whoa people are singing" and not sound totally insane

[topanga]

On 2/3/2021 at 2:38 PM, stonehaven said:

Yeah, I am realizing that I don't laugh or even feel amusement watching this show..although the musical numbers are nice, even if the choreo is a bit spastic.

I was yelling at my TV when Zoey took the drug. I am a prude but I don't need to see the glorification of party drugs on my TV....especially, when kids can die from them and women are often taken advantage of during and the Opioid crisis is still a thing...very, very, tone deaf writing.

I loved this show last year but it is slowly becoming an "Oh yeah, I guess that's on" leaving 9-1-1 as the only show I really look forward to.

They have lost something when they killed off Mitch and this show is so morose now that the joy is hard to find.  I wish they hadn't made Roger a jerk but had built up a nice romance instead. I mean, older people do meet and fall in love and they still have passions and work too.

I'm just glad I'm not alone in not loving this show as much as I used to.

I'm still enjoying the show, but I agree that it hasn't been as compelling as it was last season.

Why can't Mitch come back either in fantasy sequences or in people's musical numbers? There are usually randos who pop up to sing and dance when the number takes place outside or at the job. Why couldn't Mitch pop up? I wonder if Peter Gallagher is available?

On 2/4/2021 at 1:09 AM, Agnes Bean said:

100% agreed. This bothered me SO MUCH. It would have been one thing if they portrayed the problem between Max and his dad being that his dad used money to try to control or manipulate him ("Yeah, he'll pay for anything I want, but he always expects something in return" kind of thing).  But that was not it at all! Max's problem with his dad was very clearly said to be that his dad always wanted him to come back home and work for the family business. Offering the money was a real, concrete way his dad was saying "I understand that's not what you want, I am supporting you in what you want to do instead."

And honestly, while "Numb" was great a great number, even that I thought was poorly timed. His dad came to this investor meeting, listened to the pitch, and then shared a bunch of ideas he had about the business -- and that's what set Max off? Because...what? He just wanted his dad to gush about what a great idea it is? I know the dad is in a very different line of work, but he's apparently a successful business owner himself, and the show gave us no reason to think he was being critical for the sake of being critical, as opposed to maybe actually having some helpful feedback (certainly the questions we saw him ask, like "wait, how do you make money?" made perfect sense to me). 

That entire plotline made Max seem like a spoiled brat. So his dad rags on him about moving back East and not becoming a dentist. Big whoop. I agree with you--he listened to the pitch, and he was willing to invest even though he wasn't completely sold on the concept of the restaurant. It sounds like no one was, so Max should've taken the money his dad offered. He wasn't even concerned if he never made the money back. He actually said, "I'm glad to be in a position where I can help you." If that's not being a generous parent, then I don't know what is. 

 

 

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, topanga said:

Why can't Mitch come back either in fantasy sequences or in people's musical numbers? There are usually randos who pop up to sing and dance when the number takes place outside or at the job. Why couldn't Mitch pop up? I wonder if Peter Gallagher is available?

I wonder if Peter Gallagher would have made a few appearances if not for the difficulties of Covid quarantine procedures ––but it seems if that were the case we would have heard about it in an interview. And they could have shot his parts via Zoom and enhanced the low resolution post-production to make the distortions look like they were deliberate effects for Ghost Dad. Curious. 
 

 

1 hour ago, topanga said:

hat entire plotline made Max seem like a spoiled brat. So his dad rags on him about moving back East and not becoming a dentist. Big whoop. I agree with you--he listened to the pitch, and he was willing to invest even though he wasn't completely sold on the concept of the restaurant. It sounds like no one was, so Max should've taken the money his dad offered. He wasn't even concerned if he never made the money back. He actually said, "I'm glad to be in a position where I can help you." If that's not being a generous parent, then I don't know what

Yes. Exactly. Max was being both a “spoiled brat” and an idiot. I hated that plot. It made no sense. Mo should have lectured Max on Privilege and Entitlement until Max got off his Diva high horse and apologized to his father and thanked him and hoped he would still back him. And then Dad would have given Max the money because he is a great dad. Sheesh. 😒  🙄  
The “heart song” Max did about wanting to be himself does not mean he gets to be an idiot. I thought the whole point of Zoey seeing the songs is that people don’t show those feelings IRL and act like idiots. 

[possibilities]

Max was kind of immature and self-absorbed with Zoey earlier this season, as well, not wanting to deal with her grief and wanting her to listen to him blather about his day and just be there for him all the time. I wonder if they are doing it on purpose to make us hate him.

It was out of character for Mo to not call him on it, though.

[springbarb]

I wonder if Mo was equating it to the discussion he had with Simon and the reporter earlier--he saw Max as sticking to his principles and not selling out to the man. Even though the two situations aren't comparable at all.

[bros402]

Yeah, Max not taking the money from his dad was just dumb - his dad was understandably unsure - since 50% of restaurants fail in the first year.

[hnygrl]

I remember in the finale, the final dance, Mitch said he’d always be there for her, she just needed to learn how to listen. I took that to mean the songs/dances would continue...you know, look at dad’s photo, cry, feel all the feels, and voila, there he is, singing, dancing, smiling, making her feel better. 
 

Did not think this season would be them glorifying illegal drugs with zero negative consequences and self centered ness taken  to the stratosphere. 
 

They better fix this. 

[KaveDweller]

20 hours ago, bros402 said:

Yeah, Max not taking the money from his dad was just dumb - his dad was understandably unsure - since 50% of restaurants fail in the first year.

And I'm wondering....did Max and Mo do any testing to see if people are actually interested in a restaurant where you actually order from other places? It doesn't sound like it, since otherwise they could be showing it to his dad and other investors.

[FnkyChkn34]

On 2/3/2021 at 9:18 AM, Pj3422 said:

Re: the Chirp. Did the writers ever see that episode of “Better Off Ted,” where none of the motion sensors in the building would recognize people of color? 
 

Didn't Chicago PD (or was it Law & Order: SVU?) also do an episode or two on this?  I remember something about security cameras with facial recognition but they weren't nearly as good at recognizing people of color as they were white people.  I think it was CPD because they then arrested someone based on this faulty ID and they were wrong.

[seacliffsal]

So, after taking six weeks off, Zoey still has personal days?  I know I shouldn't view this through my own perspective, but having both my mom and dad die (different years) and having only five days bereavement leave, this leaves me bewildered and a bit bitter (sigh).

I think the show is getting awfully close to stereotyping the age demographics.  The programmers going to Hard Knock Life because their supervisors expect them to work during work hours, Max being insulted and numb because his father would like him to be a part of the family business (and even stated they could use someone for tech/IT), Max being insulted because his father didn't fully believe in the business even though he was willing to fund the restbar, neighbor guy telling Zoey not to worry about consequences (while he is living at his parents because, you know, he's not worried about a career), and other attitudes from this season all seem to feed into an unwillingness to work or face challenges-everything should be handed to people while they are being told what special snowflakes they are.

[Guest]

That episode was just bad. From start to finish.

[Notwisconsin]

i didn't think that the title was literal.

[Cowgirl]

On 2/3/2021 at 12:38 PM, stonehaven said:

I was yelling at my TV when Zoey took the drug. I am a prude but I don't need to see the glorification of party drugs on my TV....especially, when kids can die from them and women are often taken advantage of during and the Opioid crisis is still a thing..

Ugh.  Me too!  I managed to watch through them all ending up at her mother's house, but then I just couldn't take anymore.  This episode and all subsequent ones are just languishing on my DVR.  Reading everyone's comments has helped some, and maybe I'll get through the rest of the episodes now.

I love all the comments on this thread. All I have to add is that this show used to be good at managing a balance of pathos and joy.  Now it's all just ... bad.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Max sings Numb by Linkin Park