S01.E10: The Elevator

[CofCinci]

Did Coyote get Mallory pregnant?

[biakbiak]

It seemed to be implied that he did and she had an abortion.

[Julia]

I wonder if she knew at the time he had a thing for her sister.

[backhometome]

Mallory pulling a baby out of her pants was one of the most bizarre TV births I've ever seen. 

[Maysie]

 

Mallory pulling a baby out of her pants was one of the most bizarre TV births I've ever seen.

 

Yeah, it totally took me out of the episode, and in a way, the series. I understand the plot point of having Mallory give birth at home, but really, a baby magically appears in her pants. I can't wrap my head around this. I'll watch the rest of the series, but from this point, it's going to be "yeah, the show that had a baby born in some chick's sweatpants."

[mbutterfly]

Yeah, it totally took me out of the episode, and in a way, the series. I understand the plot point of having Mallory give birth at home, but really, a baby magically appears in her pants. I can't wrap my head around this. I'll watch the rest of the series, but from this point, it's going to be "yeah, the show that had a baby born in some chick's sweatpants."

Funny, I kind of liked it. I had to drive my sister to the hospital once when her baby # 4 was coming in a hurry and her husband was out of town. He was pretty much born that easily in the elevator (with her still in the wheelchair). 

[Julia]

It wasn't that it magically appeared in her sweatpants so much as that it magically appeared in her sweatpants not covered in birth-related organic substances (I'm trying not to be indelicate here), not connected to an umbilical cord, not followed by even more birth-related organic substances, without visible signs of squishing, and not howling.

[morakot]

I got that Coyote and Mallory had a pregnancy scare 9 years ago -- before she was married -- not necessarily that she terminated the pregnancy. If they had been together, the breakdown where he forgot she was married makes more sense.

[SiobhanJW]

I got that Coyote and Mallory had a pregnancy scare 9 years ago -- before she was married -- not necessarily that she terminated the pregnancy. If they had been together, the breakdown where he forgot she was married makes more sense.

I got the impression that her older child is his. And because of his problems they never talk about it. Or maybe not. Who knows.

[biakbiak]

Coyote stated how weird it would have been in the flashback to have a nine year old.

[amaranta]

Sometimes I forget how good of an actress Lily Tomlin can be. The look in her eyes when Grace said that Frankie didn't know what it was like to be pregnant and therefore couldn't understand, just about took my breath away. 

[Crs97]

Mitch and Coyote looked too chummy for Mitch to be raising Coyote's son and married to his ex-girlfriend IMO.

[bybrandy]

No the Coyote/Mallory spawn is not Mallory's oldest.  In the flashback the kid would have been nine and neither of her kids are 9 now, much less five years ago.   

 

Baby in the pants thing was so dumb... I mean it happens.  It totally happens in those super quick birth stories and I'm sure it was an episode of "I didn't know I was pregnant," or something that made the writers toss this in as a funny... but yeah, it was so easy and clean and not at all real.   

That said I got over it pretty quickly.  I just put it out of my head, but I can fanwank it if you like that it is just how people recall it because you don't remember the messy parts.    

 

What bugged me about this episode is they recall this event because Bud had a freakout on the elevator and it reminded them of one he had at the beach house five years ago... and the show explains the reason for said freakout?   Learning about Sol and Robert.  Okay, I buy all of that.   But the show forgot to show us Bud's freakout so the whole thing was a little off.  

[Guest]

What to me was even more outlandish than "hey, there's a baby in my pants" was that Robert and Sol would be marrying practically concurrently to divorcing.  Or did I miss some time jump?  I didn't really have a problem with the men before this, but asking your wives and kids to (1) accept that you're homosexual, (2) accept that you're in love with your business partner and have been for years and then also (3) that you're going to marry him in an elaborate ceremony practically immediately... that's one thing too many.  

 

I like the show but I'm having trouble buying Sheen as gay, for some reason.  And Fonda could turn down the overacting a notch.  

 

There's some gems mixed in with some clunkers.  I liked "farm to vagina" and a couple others but sometimes the show makes me groan.. like with "pull my finger".  

I wonder if she knew at the time he had a thing for her sister.

I think he had a thing for her, not her sister.  Or was he stalking Brianna, too?  

 

My interpretation is Mallory had an abortion.  I wouldn't refer to past pregnancy scares by their ages.  

[AuntieMame]

I just rewatched this and really liked this episode. For starters, Robert seemed like a human being with relatable emotions and motivations for one of the first and only times in the series and we got a glimpse of some closeness between him and Grace. And a bit of understanding about how Robert and Sol went so many years not saying what they needed to say. 

As for the quick birth it had both believable and unbelievable moments. Women can labor quickly and with bearable pain during first and second stage labor and Mallory spent the day in the pool and relaxed. Subsequent births for multi gravida women can be pretty undramatic. Once, when I was a student, I was working labor and delivery as a nurse's aid and scrub tech for fun, profit and learning. A woman came in, third child and I was dispatched to get her undressed, take vitals and put the baby monitor on her. We never got that far because she turned to me, took her panties off, climbed on the bed, pulled her knees back, grunted the tiniest bit, told me "We don't need that clobber" in reference to the baby monitoring band and in about 90 seconds, I was holding an eight pound baby girl before anyone even heard me call for help. So, it doesn't have to be the panicked scream fest that is so often portrayed. This lady really changed my mind about how we view normal labor.

[Bastet]

The series opens with Coyote freshly out of a three-month stint in rehab, which was precipitated by his going all Stanley Kowalski in Mallory's front yard.  In recounting to him what he has no memory of doing, Mallory tells him he yelled for her not to marry Mitch - which she'd already done seven years ago.

So when, in this one, we flash back five years and Mallory is pregnant, I figure it's with her first kid.  If she got married seven years ago, having a kid two years later is a typical trajectory.  But it's her second kid that's born.  So she and Mitch cranked out kids really quickly.

But I still love the flashback, to how they all were before Robert and Sol made their announcement. 

And I love the contrasting reactions in present day to learning said announcement could have come five years earlier, as they're both perfect to the characters and the marriages -- Grace tells Robert "You could have saved us both five years" and Frankie tells Bud "You gave me five more years with your father".