S04.E14: Changes

[jewel21]

Quote

Spencer continues to try and prove himself during practices, which seems to go unnoticed, but when a fellow GAU athlete offers to help him form a different plan to get back on the field, he considers it. Coop begins a new job at a nursing home and gets some sage advice from an elderly woman. With the encouragement of Asher, JJ gets a tutor which helps him confront a vulnerable time in his past through his term paper. Olivia is frustrated with her living situation, but also finds some inspiration for her next article. Meanwhile, Laura forms a criminal defense law venture in the community but struggles to find her footing. 

Airdate: 04/11/2022

[mojoween]

Begone Davita.  We don’t need another rando!

Also I was distracted by the sheer volume of midriff tops throughout the ep.

[KWalkerInc]

It seems very odd that Davita was suddenly so involved in Spencer's problems the day they met, rather than having them maybe chat in class a few times and eventually reach that point.  It was probably intentional so that Olivia would react strongly (and the fact that they don't have the budget to gradually work someone in), but I can't help thinking that on another show, she'd turn out to be a stalker.  I was probably just in a bad mood, but Olivia was getting on my nerves.  It should be her parents' decision if the ladies pay rent, not hers.  I did like how Coop grabbed the pillow and went back to sleep after one of Olivia's rants, and the way Layla was like, "Okay" or whatever she said skeptically and walked off after Olivia claimed that her sudden interest in NIL was not at all related to Davita.

It's sad that J.J. was once injured, but the whole plot amused me on some strange level because I remember that in that season 1 episode where he wrote the paper about The Rock when that teacher who was never seen or mentioned again got mad at Spencer for writing a Deion Sanders paper, J.J. got a higher grade and I posted some sarcastic comment about how the writers would eventually decide that J.J. was secretly really deep.  (Although I hadn't realized he only got a C.)  And now they used a callback to that episode as they try to give him depth!  It's sad though that his apparent friends didn't know him for anything other than partying after that many years and mocked him for apparently not having problems.  He can't help being a supporting character!

I'm glad that Coop's old lady friend wasn't addicted to Days of Our Lives, because that was my soap in college and sometimes afterwards, but I haven't watched in like 15 years.  It could have been interesting to see how they related Marlena being possessed by the devil multiple times to the characters' storylines though.