S02.E12: Zoey’s Extraordinary Session

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

In therapy, Zoey reflects back on her unexpectedly profound first day working at SPRQPoint.

Airing Sunday, May 9, 2021.

 

[ciubecca98]

extended promo

[shapeshifter]

Does Peter Gallagher have a COVID no-haircut hairdo in that clip? I can’t recall how it was early in the show. 

[ams1001]

Leif's flashback man-bun. 😂

 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Mo sings "Shut Up and Drive" by Rihanna

 

[surfer]

LOL, Noah Weisberg singing that ridiculous version of "Pure Imagination" was pretty awesome given this:

[funnygirl]

I really enjoyed tonight's episode. My favorite of the season thus far. (Hi Mitch!) 

YMMV

[shapeshifter]

I would have liked this episode earlier in the season. 
Much earlier.
Now it just seemed cringey.

[phalange]

Definitely my favorite episode of the season. It was great to have Mitch back and to hear him sing to Maggie. I also loved seeing how everyone met: Zoey and Max, Zoey and Mo, David and Emily. And it's cute that Zoey/Max and David/Emily met on the same day. Or in David and Emily's case, met again. 

I was wondering how they were going to incorporate music into a flashback episode and it worked perfectly, IMO. Danny Michael Davis singing Pure Imagination is completely on brand because he is just that extra. Max and Leif basically having a sing-off to Thinking Out Loud was hilarious and the harmony was excellent. All to end up with uncooked hot dogs for lunch, lol.

I still want Zoey/Max to be endgame, so I enjoyed seeing their early dynamic as a team and as friends. As soon as it showed DMD announcing who got the job, I knew Max was actually the one who got it. It was very sweet of him to insist the job go to Zoey instead, and that he's kept their coffee machine invention all this time.

[Brian Cronin]

I can get Zoey choosing Max and Simon being cool with it.

I can get Zoey choosing Simon and Max being cool with it.

But how could Simon possibly be cool with Zooey choosing Max, breaking up with him and then choosing Simon, then breaking up with him to go back to Max? How could ANYone be cool with that? This looks like it is heading to some messy, messy waters.

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I would have liked this episode earlier in the season. 
Much earlier.
Now it just seemed cringey.

I feel the same way. I was a good episode but it shouldn’t have been the penultimate episode.  The pacing and story development of this season has been so bad. I knew she would end up back with Max but this was one of the worst possible way to do it and it makes her look awful. 

1 minute ago, Brian Cronin said:

I can get Zoey choosing Max and Simon being cool with it.

I can get Zoey choosing Simon and Max being cool with it.

But how could Simon possibly be cool with Zooey choosing Max, breaking up with him and then choosing Simon, then breaking up with him to go back to Max? How could ANYone be cool with that? This looks like it is heading to some messy, messy waters.

Yep. This was so unfair to Simon. 

Edited May 10, 2021 by Guest

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Awwww, it was so nice to see Mitch again! I hope that we get another flashback or dream sequence or something next season so that we can see him. Once a season isn't too much to ask, right?

I was curious to see how they would manage to incorporate singing into an episode that takes place before Zoey got her powers. Danny's grand entrance and Mo singing while driving made sense, as did Mitch singing to Maggie. The other two songs (the guy at SPRQpoint singing Miley Cyrus and the whole Ed Sheeran song to solve the puzzle) seemed a bit more shoehorned in, but they still worked in the context of the show so I was fine with both.

I wasn't as interested in the plot of this week's episode as I was seeing how Zoey was processing it all with her therapist. I think she has needed an impartial person to talk to for a LONG time so I'm glad to see her finally being completely honest and dealing with everything she's been through in the last year.

When Mitch told Zoey that he liked Max, it made me wonder if one of her subconscious issues about being with Max is tied up with her dad's approval of him. If she really makes a go at it with Max and things don't work out, she could feel like she's letting her dad down. Now that he's gone, he can't give his approval anymore so no matter how much she likes someone else, she will never get his blessing to be with someone. But at the same time, that means the stakes aren't as high if she's with someone else. I think if she really tries to be in a relationship with Max, she will feel the pressure to make sure she doesn't screw it up (on a subconscious level).

[Trini]

Aw! I wondering how they would incorporate songs in this flashback episode, and I thought they did a good job inserting singing; although, yes, some were more natural than others.

So that was the second (third?) mention of Zora; I hope we meet this former friend of Mo's eventually.

Danny Micheal Davis (and poor Tony!) continues to crack me up every time with his ridiculous antics.

I missed Simon. :(  But I knew we wouldn't see much of him.

It was nice to see Mitch again, and him and Maggie in particular; cool to see how everybody met. I do question why everyone was at Mitch and Maggie's house? Did Zoey still live there? Why was David there? Max was kind of off-putting at first; but he came through in the end.

Figured they'd circle back to Zoey/Max; what I didn't like was the therapist telling Zoey theirs was a love story. I don't have a problem with the statement, but I generally hate when other characters tell a character what they're feeling, or if they're in love or not. I think that should have been a realization for Zoey to come to and voice herself.

9 hours ago, Brian Cronin said:

... But how could Simon possibly be cool with Zooey choosing Max, breaking up with him and then choosing Simon, then breaking up with him to go back to Max? How could ANYone be cool with that? This looks like it is heading to some messy, messy waters.

They should have never made it so messy. But will Zoey and Max even get back together? There's a chance, but he's got a good thing going with Rose, who doesn't read his mind.

If Zoey can get over Max, then I'm still rooting for her and Simon; but she needs to tell him about her powers, but now I'm 80% sure we're not going to get that.

Edited May 10, 2021 by Trini

[Guest]

There is zero chance that no one told Zoey the truth about DMD’s first choice on who to hire. 

One thing that bugged me was that this felt really inconsistent with Zoey’s journal entry from her first day at Sprq Point. It wasn’t a lot to match and they didn’t even try for the most part. 

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, Dani said:

There is zero chance that no one told Zoey the truth about DMD’s first choice on who to hire. 

One thing that bugged me was that this felt really inconsistent with Zoey’s journal entry from her first day at Sprq Point. It wasn’t a lot to match and they didn’t even try for the most part. 

True. But that plot hole is barely a divot compared to everything else.

It just seems like there was probably so much shuffling the deck of the story and possibly the production for *reasons* (pandemic and other) that the show now looks like “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”  

[ams1001]

7 hours ago, funnygirl said:

I really enjoyed tonight's episode. My favorite of the season thus far. (Hi Mitch!) 

YMMV

I liked the episode, but I had just come home from my parents' where they decided Mother's Day was a good time to tell us about their funeral pre-planning that they just set up. So watching Zoey worrying about possibly losing her mother was...oof.

I did enjoy the fact that all the singing in the episode was actually real. 

I also figured when David mentioned plans with his girlfriend it wasn't going to be Emily, and I wondered if we knew how they met. So I was glad to get that backstory. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

9 hours ago, surfer said:

LOL, Noah Weisberg singing that ridiculous version of "Pure Imagination" was pretty awesome given this:

I saw him on this tour back in 2019!

46 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

I liked the episode, but I had just come home from my parents' where they decided Mother's Day was a good time to tell us about their funeral pre-planning that they just set up. So watching Zoey worrying about possibly losing her mother was...oof.

I had a similar reaction because like Maggie, Mr. EB recently failed his stress test so he now has a CT and an echocardiogram scheduled. Listening to Mitch, Maggie, and Zoey react to the situation was making me anxious because it hit a little too close to home.

[ams1001]

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I had a similar reaction because like Maggie, Mr. EB recently failed his stress test so he now has a CT and an echocardiogram scheduled. Listening to Mitch, Maggie, and Zoey react to the situation was making me anxious because it hit a little too close to home.

Hope everything's okay! My parents don't have any specific immediate health issues, but they are 76 and 81. I appreciate that they want to make things as easy as possible for us when the time comes, but it's weird to see a picture of where their urns will go.

7 hours ago, Trini said:

So that was the second (third?) mentions of Zora; I hope we meet this former friend of Mo's eventually.

Yes, I need to put a face to this person now.

7 hours ago, Trini said:

It was nice to see Mitch again, and him and Maggie in particular; cool to see how everybody met. I do question why everyone was at Mitch and Maggie's house? Did Zoey still live there? Why was David there? Max was kind of off-putting at first; but he came through in the end.

I think she might still live there at that point? 

Mo mentioned he could quit driving for Uber (or whatever it is) because he just got a job as an apartment manager. So now I need to know if it is coincidentally the building Zoey already lives in? Or her finding a place in that building later is a coincidence? Or does she reach out to Mo somehow when she's looking for a place? I wonder if they will answer this.

[Trini]

7 hours ago, Dani said:

There is zero chance that no one told Zoey the truth about DMD’s first choice on who to hire. 

...

NDAs? But even without that, I could see Leif holding on to that piece of info so he could reveal it at the most opportune (or inopportune) moment.

[chaifan]

9 hours ago, Brian Cronin said:

I can get Zoey choosing Max and Simon being cool with it.

I can get Zoey choosing Simon and Max being cool with it.

But how could Simon possibly be cool with Zooey choosing Max, breaking up with him and then choosing Simon, then breaking up with him to go back to Max? How could ANYone be cool with that? This looks like it is heading to some messy, messy waters.

I completely agree, but also feel the same way about Max.  I analogized this to the Bachelor/Bachelorette shows in an earlier thread - I don't know how someone can be ok with being "picked" as "the one", when just a day ago the other half of the couple was seriously contemplating spending their life with someone else.   If I were Max I'd always be worried that Zoey had an inherent attraction to Simon.  I don't know how I could proceed in that type of relationship, always waiting for the other person to change their mind, again.

I really did like this episode, though.  Loved seeing Mitch again, loved the intro of everyone.  Leif's manbun!  Someone needs a costuming/styling award for that alone! 

Here's my best case scenario...  Zoey internally chooses Max, but chickens out and doesn't tell him.  He goes off to NYC with Rose, and the whole pop up restaurant thing happens in between seasons.  Season 3 starts with a 3-6 month jump in time.  Max is back, Rose is in NYC, but they're still a couple, and he is 98% over Zoey.  Simon and Zoey have amicably broken up (because she was in love with someone else, duh), she has never told Simon about the heart songs.  So there's always a little tension in the Zoey/Max/Simon world, but the love triangle is essentially over.   TPTB could end all this by simply having Max not come back, or Simon gets transferred, finds a new job, whatever.  But I love both Skylar Astin and JC Stewart, and I don't want either of them to leave, so this is my best solution. 

 

 

 

[dubbel zout]

David's girlfriend seemed completely OOC for him. But maybe that was the point, so that when we saw him bump into Emily at the hospital we weren't upset they ended up together. Did we know she had been a sort-of student of his?

[ams1001]

19 minutes ago, chaifan said:

I really did like this episode, though.  Loved seeing Mitch again, loved the intro of everyone.  Leif's manbun!  Someone needs a costuming/styling award for that alone! 

I'm not sure which was worse, the bun or later when he took it down.

How long as Zoey been at the company? Wondering how long ago the flashbacks were.

[Machiabelly]

Am I the only one who thought Max and Zoey had been friends since school?

[shapeshifter]

32 minutes ago, Machiabelly said:

Am I the only one who thought Max and Zoey had been friends since school?

Zoey's parents did seem (in early episodes) to have known Max long enough for Max to have been someone Zoey had known since they were kids.

[Mermaid Under]

Quote

Am I the only one who thought Max and Zoey had been friends since school?

No, I thought they implied that the families had known one another for awhile.  

[FnkyChkn34]

3 hours ago, ams1001 said:

How long as Zoey been at the company? Wondering how long ago the flashbacks were.

There was a tell in the episode, but right now I've forgotten what it was - sorry.  They mentioned a movie premiere or album release or something like that that would have given us a reference.

[roctavia]

I'm hoping the therapist meant love, like friendship love, since there are different kinds of love... and we can love people different ways at different points in our lives.   That he was pointing out to Zoey that this particular memory wasn't just about loss, but forming another important relationship in her life. 

I would like to see Max go off to New York and Zoey be okay with that. She wants to be with Simon. I think last episode the therapist was correct that she was more freaked out about losing her friend to New York, not that she loved Max so much and needed to be with him. At least that's how it played for me. not that she can't have some confusing feelings in there, too... but still. 

Max can go away and she and Simon can have some great months together and then i'm sure if we get another season it will all hit the fan then and we'll be stuck in love triangle hell forever.

[FnkyChkn34]

Max is obviously still in love with Zoey though too.  The way he looked at the coffee robot and then was distant with Rose as she booked their tickets...  This isn't going to end with either of them just getting over each other and everything's fine.

[roctavia]

5 minutes ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

Max is obviously still in love with Zoey though too.  The way he looked at the coffee robot and then was distant with Rose as she booked their tickets...  This isn't going to end with either of them just getting over each other and everything's fine.

Oh, for sure, I fully expect them to end up back together at some point... but it'd be good if they have some distance about it.... let them be with the other people for awhile and then next season (assuming we get a next season) they whole will they/won't they stuff with start up again.  

Or at least that's how I would do it, since it seems like there is no option but the triangle...

[ams1001]

5 minutes ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

There was a tell in the episode, but right now I've forgotten what it was - sorry.  They mentioned a movie premiere or album release or something like that that would have given us a reference.

Hmm...The Ed Sheeran song maybe? I just looked it up and it came out in 2014. (I know exactly one Ed Sheeran song and it's not that one. I'm almost as bad as Zoey, at least when it comes to current music.)

[Sarah 103]

1 hour ago, Machiabelly said:

Am I the only one who thought Max and Zoey had been friends since school?

No, you are not.

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

Zoey's parents did seem (in early episodes) to have known Max long enough for Max to have been someone Zoey had known since they were kids.

I was super confused because I was sure Max and Zoey had known each other since high school, if not earlier. Watching this episode made me wonder why I was so sure they had known each other before SPRQPoint. 

 I like the idea of Zora being a character you never see, but keep hearing about. Sort of like Tino, (My So Called Life) Maris (Fraiser), or Vera (Cheers). 

 

[Guest]

5 hours ago, ams1001 said:

Mo mentioned he could quit driving for Uber (or whatever it is) because he just got a job as an apartment manager. So now I need to know if it is coincidentally the building Zoey already lives in? Or her finding a place in that building later is a coincidence? Or does she reach out to Mo somehow when she's looking for a place? I wonder if they will answer this.

They may have changed it but Mo was supposed to have already been the building manager when Zoey moves in. Mo recounted their rocky start last season.

“Your first week here, you said, "Ma'am, will you help me hang my shower drapes?" I don't know which to be offended by more, you calling me "ma'am" or you calling them "shower drapes."

4 hours ago, ams1001 said:

How long as Zoey been at the company? Wondering how long ago the flashbacks were.

In one of the first episodes they say she’s worked there for 5 years. So it’s probably around 2015. 

1 hour ago, Machiabelly said:

Am I the only one who thought Max and Zoey had been friends since school?

I could see why people would think that but they established they met on their first day a SPRQ Point in the first few episodes. 

[FnkyChkn34]

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

Hmm...The Ed Sheeran song maybe? I just looked it up and it came out in 2014. (I know exactly one Ed Sheeran song and it's not that one. I'm almost as bad as Zoey, at least when it comes to current music.)

I rewatched and found it... 😉 Tobin asks the "hot girl" if she caught the new Furious 7 trailer.  Furious 7 was released on April 3, 2015, according to Wikipedia, so I would assume that a trailer would be released a few months before that.  "Thinking Out Loud" was released in September of 2014, so we've narrowed it down to that 6 month window. 

I'm guessing it was spring of 2015, just by the way they were dressed?  No heavy coats, but also not raining...  I remember visiting San Francisco in June, and it was still jacket weather, so I don't really know.   

[funnygirl]

1 hour ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

Max is obviously still in love with Zoey though too.  The way he looked at the coffee robot and then was distant with Rose as she booked their tickets...  This isn't going to end with either of them just getting over each other and everything's fine.

Zoey and Max love each other. Max, as we know, has loved Zoey for a long time. And Zoey is just now starting to come to terms with her feelings that she's repressed for so long because of her fear/trauma around losing people who are important to her. It's why she's kept Max in the friendzone because it was safer than risking losing him. 

Dating Simon and Rose doesn't change their feelings. The timing hasn't been right, frustrating though the back and forth triangle has been. But I predict the triangle officially (and thankfully!) ends in the season finale. I think one of Zoey's "Extraordinary Goodbye"s will be her and Simon breaking up, hopefully amicably. Max, for obvious reasons, will be a goodbye albeit temporarily. He'll still go to NY for the pop-up because his business is important to him, which Zoey knows, but I think there's a good chance she finally opens up and expresses her feelings for Max before he goes. 

She's single while Max is away - hopefully still in therapy - and should there be a season 3, we see where growth, healing, and that space takes them. 

Edited May 10, 2021 by funnygirl

[tennisgurl]

I forgot for a second that we were going to have a backstory episode, so I got a serious gut punch when Mitch showed up in the kitchen. I wish they had done this episode a bit earlier in the season, there is a whole lot that needs to happen in the main plot before the season ends, but I really liked this origin story for this part of Zoey's life. I was wondering how they would fit songs into an episode set before Zoey got her powers, and I think they did a good job with it. Some of the songs were a bit show horned in, but most of them really worked, especially Danny Michael Davis announcing himself to his perspective employees to a super extra remix of Imagination, which is totally on brand for him, and Mitch and Maggie singing Dream a Little Dream of Me, which was extremely bittersweet. 

So is the reason Zoey struggles so much with her feelings about Max because she associates meeting him with her moms health scare which also makes her think of her dads sickness and death? Or just that she associates him with her dad in general, because it seems like they knew each other pretty well? Like she associates Max with her life with Mitch and she associates Simon with her life after Mitch got sick and passed away? Even if its all subconscious, she could feel like Max belongs to a different part of her life and that's why she cant commit to being with him. For some reason I thought that she and Max met when they were in college, or that they knew each other and Zoey's family for a long time, so I was surprised that they just met when she started working at Sparkpoint. I guess there was no confirmation that they have known each other pre sparkpoint, I think that was just the vibe I got from them for whatever reason. 

Honestly, I am fine with Zoey being with Simon or Max, I like both of them a lot and I like them both with Zoey for the most part, but I am not going to be fine with her jumping back and forth from both of them over and over. If she leaves Simon to be with Max again then that should be it, I don't know how Simon could be with her again, it would be a bit much for Max to take Zoey back this time after she just broke up with him and got with Simon the last time. I thought that Zoey picking Simon because she was ready to be with him when she wasn't able to be with Max was settling is, but Zoey isn't done waffling yet. Zoey constantly breaking up with one guy and getting to another just makes Zoey look uncaring and wishy washy, Simon and Max both deserve not to have their feelings jerked around. 

Certainly a big day for the Clarke's. Zoey gets her dream job and meetings her best friend/love interest, her other best friend/musical mentor/landlord, her boss who she will get high with one time, and her workplace rival, Emily has a heart attack, goes into surgery, and comes out, and David ditches his girlfriend, who is basically Mona Lisa from Parks and Rec, and reconnects with his future wife. And all in just one day. 

[KaveDweller]

How awful is SPRQ Point/Danny Michael Davis for telling all those people they got a job, only to spring the news that they were pre-hires and there was a competition? It sounds like everyone thought they had a job and Leif had even quit another position, so it wasn't just Zoey misunderstanding.

[dubbel zout]

1 hour ago, KaveDweller said:

How awful is SPRQ Point/Danny Michael Davis for telling all those people they got a job, only to spring the news that they were pre-hires and there was a competition? It sounds like everyone thought they had a job and Leif had even quit another position, so it wasn't just Zoey misunderstanding.

Seriously. Leif even yelled at Tobin for not giving him a head's up about it. You'd think being a pre-hire would be known as one of those SRPQ Point quirks that gets passed along, NDAs or not. (I took the NDA as not being able to talk about the specifics of what happened last year during the competition, not that you couldn't mention the pre-hire situation in general.)

[shapeshifter]

Danny Michael Davis is the exaggerated personification of that horrible boss most of us have had.

Edited May 11, 2021 by shapeshifter

[DCCFan197605]

This episode was one huge fast forward for me.  Save for “Shut Up and Drive,” it felt like a waste of an hour.   

[possibilities]

18 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

David's girlfriend seemed completely OOC for him. But maybe that was the point, so that when we saw him bump into Emily at the hospital we weren't upset they ended up together. Did we know she had been a sort-of student of his?

Hm. I thought Emily was the TA and he was the student. But I could easily have misunderstood.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

19 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

Did we know she had been a sort-of student of his?

 

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

I thought Emily was the TA and he was the student. But I could easily have misunderstood.

David was the TA.

Emily: I haven't seen you since...
David: We decided it was inappropriate for you to be dating your TA?
Emily: I mean, you were helping teach a class on legal ethics.

[rwlevin]

My father-in-law died yesterday so I just caught this ep today and it has hit so close to home, you have no idea. Not to mention, my family usually has tragedies occurring during important events (IE, I’m turning 40 tomorrow). 

I was an intern at Microsoft years ago and this episode really reminded me of that experience, especially puzzle day-although we weren’t vying for a job.

This was a great episode. And I just love when Peter Gallagher makes light of his eyebrows.

[D Angel]

I can buy that SPRQPoint and DMD might have some kind of problem-solving competition to determine who gets hired.

BUT, it seems that everyone there for the competition believed they were already hired and some (if not all) quit their jobs and or moved to SF to take the job, which they only would have done if they had received something in writing offering them the job without any conditions that they hadn't already met when they showed up for their "first day".

So surprising them all with this new condition to secure appointment would constitute breach of contract since an offer letter and acceptance IS a contract. Now, employment in most states is "at will", which means they could all be fired on their first day, but I have no idea what the law is in California. But the contract is still in effect whether the company can't or won't actually give them a job and anyone not ultimately hired could sue for damages such as lost wages from a job they left based on the SPRQPoint offer, and moving expenses, lease obligations and so forth. If the company was simpy insolvent, someone taking all those steps only to find they weren't hired after all would probably end up with nothing.

SPRQPoint has tons of money to pay settlements, not to mention the damage to their reputation from lying to new employees. There's no way corporate counsel would even let DMD set up such as scheme. So this episode premise fell flat for me and sounded more like a writer's ignorant notion of how a cutting edge tech company might work.

Zoey said that Max was hired the "next month", perhaps because DMD and his lawyers realized they had screwed up, or maybe Max threatened to sue.

Otherwise, this would have made an excellent S2 E4 show, not the next to last show of th season. As others have mentioned, getting Zoey into therapy immediately after her nightmares would have set up a very strong narrative arc for the rest of the season. Instead we got drifting. Entertaining, but not particularly compelling, unlike S1 which was terrific.

[shapeshifter]

41 minutes ago, D Angel said:

Zoey said that Max was hired the "next month", perhaps because DMD and his lawyers realized they had screwed up, or maybe Max threatened to sue

Zoey said Max was hired because Danny Michael Davis “fired his own cousin for telling people that he was his cousin.”

 

About the bait-and-switch of the hiring, it’s possible nothing was in writing. Lief seemed to have moved there for the job on the strength of his friend’s word alone. 

[Cthulhudrew]

Does every musical dramedy have to end up with the main character on a therapist's couch? Just wondering if I need to be concerned for my real life.

[Court]

On 5/10/2021 at 1:48 PM, roctavia said:

I'm hoping the therapist meant love, like friendship love, since there are different kinds of love... and we can love people different ways at different points in our lives.   That he was pointing out to Zoey that this particular memory wasn't just about loss, but forming another important relationship in her life. 

I would like to see Max go off to New York and Zoey be okay with that. She wants to be with Simon. I think last episode the therapist was correct that she was more freaked out about losing her friend to New York, not that she loved Max so much and needed to be with him. At least that's how it played for me. not that she can't have some confusing feelings in there, too... but still. 

Max can go away and she and Simon can have some great months together and then i'm sure if we get another season it will all hit the fan then and we'll be stuck in love triangle hell forever.

Yes!!! I realized that Max/Zoey pairing bothers me because why can't they just be best friends? Why can't they be platonic? I promise you it happens with no one pining away for each other. 

Also, I'm Team Simon anyways. 

[bros402]

On 5/10/2021 at 10:27 AM, ams1001 said:

I'm not sure which was worse, the bun or later when he took it down.

How long as Zoey been at the company? Wondering how long ago the flashbacks were.

They mentioned the Samsung Galaxy S7 being explosive - the S7 launched March 2016. The Note 7 had the battery issue, and it launched August 2016, and the battery issue was discovered a few weeks after launch.

They also mentioned a new trailer for Furious 7, which premiered in April 2015 (looks like trailers were Nov 2014 and Feb 2015).

The S7 wasn't unveiled until Feb 2016, so stuff probably leaked a month earlier.

Unless they said the S6 instead of the S7, but I am pretty sure I heard S7? Unless I mixed it up with Furious 7. So we're in Winter/Spring 2015 or 2016. Galaxy S6 was announced March 2015, but rumored starting Jan 2015)

[Lady Calypso]

I liked this episode a lot. I think having it was important for the season for many reasons, mostly for the fact that it brought back Peter Gallagher and allowed him to really get some good scenes, But it also makes me a bit sad that we didn't get this episode as the pilot and grow the show from here. As much as I loved season 1, it put a timestamp on Peter Gallagher's role on the show and he definitely has helped elevate the show a little bit. We didn't get much of a chance to really know Mitch as a person because it was all about Mitch's illness in season 1.

So it was so nice to see Mitch/Maggie scenes. It was sad that they had Maggie sick instead of Mitch, but I also thought for a second that they might hint at Mitch's illness in these flashbacks, maybe even showcase him starting to get sick. I'm glad they mostly avoided that.

I think this episode really helped me understand Zoey and Max's friendship because I haven't been able to really get invested in it this season or even last season. This helped me really enjoy Max as a character (I love that he willingly gave up his spot at SPRQPoint for Zoey because I think he recognized that she deserved it, since she put in the entire coding for the product) and his banter with Zoey was great. 

The songs this episode were definitely forced in, for the most part, but some were very enjoyable. Danny Michael Davis' performance fit in well because of course he'd perform for the pre-hires to get them excited. And I enjoyed the Max/Leif sing-off. And Mo's tiny scene singing Shut Up and Drive was delightful.

I loved seeing Emily and David see each other again, and the hints that they begin to date shortly after this day. 

Tobin working at SPRQPoint before any of the others was a nice twist.

The only downside to this was having Zoey ONCE AGAIN start to change her mind about Max. She has bounced from Simon to Max back to Simon and now back to Max. I think she's now on the road to hurting both men where they will both reject her next episode, because Simon already sees the writing on the wall, and Max has already had Zoey break up with him and then go RIGHT to Simon, and now he's in a happy and stable relationship when she'll inevitably ruin that too. I think the show should have really avoided Zoey dating Simon this season, because it really makes her an ass to both men.

[gibasi]

I always thought Max and Zoey were old friends; I never realized they met at SPRQPoint.

 

I did not like the episode as much as everyone else. The family dynamic was off for me. The parents and adult kids were entirely too invested in each other's lives. I would never have called my daughter on her first day to tell her I was going to have a stress test. As far as I am concerned the only time to call was when Maggie was going into surgery. And I thought they made Maggie and Mitch into some fairy tale couple that no other relationship can ever match. That would be cause for some therapy for Zoey! I thought the songs were interesting in showing that music has always played a role in Zoey's life and so therefore it is more natural for her to have her gift.

[KaveDweller]

8 minutes ago, gibasi said:

I did not like the episode as much as everyone else. The family dynamic was off for me. The parents and adult kids were entirely too invested in each other's lives. I would never have called my daughter on her first day to tell her I was going to have a stress test. As far as I am concerned the only time to call was when Maggie was going into surgery. And I thought they made Maggie and Mitch into some fairy tale couple that no other relationship can ever match. That would be cause for some therapy for Zoey! I thought the songs were interesting in showing that music has always played a role in Zoey's life and so therefore it is more natural for her to have her gift.

I agree, it was weird for Mitch and Maggie to keep calling her on her first day when they didn't know anything. Telling her about having surgery makes sense, but to make her worry so early on seemed unnecessary.

I don't know how old Zoey was supposed to be in the flashback, but it was also weird that she brought the lunch Mitch made her. I would not have wanted to advertise my parents making me lunch as an adult.