S02.E04: The Road Trip

[OnceSane]

Frankie tracks down Grace's former love Phil on the internet, and the two set off to find him.  Tensions arise between Sol and Robert.

[OnceSane]

Ouch.  I think Grace let herself get caught up in Frankie's excitement and allowed herself forget exactly how she and Phil ended.  Or at least not acknowledge how this first meeting would go in a realistic manner.

[AuntieMame]

All good points, but I still ached for Grace when Phil was pretty much "What on earth are you doing here? EFF you and the filthy car you rode in on." Not saying it wasn't justified, but still, ouch.

[buckboard]

Funny to see that Sam Elliott playing Grace's ex love interest.  In the movie "Grandma," he played Lily Tomlin's ex and she just showed up at his house, unexpected, after many years of no contact.

[Empress1]

11 hours ago, buckboard said:

Funny to see that Sam Elliott playing Grace's ex love interest.  In the movie "Grandma," he played Lily Tomlin's ex and she just showed up at his house, unexpected, after many years of no contact.

I had the same thought. (Grandma is a great movie, by the way.) To ask him for money, at that. That meeting didn't go well either!

[Julia]

He was Blythe Danner's boo in her latest too. He's apparently the go to guy for ladies of a certain age. But, you know, he's been married to the same woman for 42 years and she has more laugh lines than he does, so I say go him. 

[Aja]

To Katharine Ross no less, who played Elaine in The Graduate. I kind of wondered if the fact that his wife's name is Elaine in Grace & Frankie is a roundabout shout out. 

[JBC344]

Is that a spoiler? 

[Julia]

I don't think so? My impression was that Grace made it clear in this episode that at the time when they developed an attraction for each other one of the things that made up her mind for her was that they were both married. AAR, I think that his wife exists is a no harm/no foul thing.

[JBC344]

I understand that he was married at the time my point was in order for the audience to know that the wife's name is Elaine that there has to be further contact in the future which is a spoiler. 

[lallalla]

I love this show for many reasons and try to be light-hearted with a lot of things presented as I know they are done over-the-top for a certain style the show has. That being said, is Grace's drinking getting worse? Is this something that you think will be addressed in the future?

I was shocked that she took over driving. I got that Frankie couldn't, but it seems something could have given in that scene other than Grace choosing to drive and Frankie being okay with it. That part seemed glossed over.  Grace also seems to be drinking a lot more in other episodes this season.  Are we supposed to just see this as her "thing", part of her  character and something normal or is there more here? I guess I'm conflicted with how casual the ..dare I say overuse.... of alcohol is with her?

Edited May 16, 2016 by lallalla
added elipse

[debraran]

I'm sorry, there is no way Grace isn't an alcoholic. Her kids mentioned her drinking, she drinks all day, early, late. I don't think she could stop if she wanted too. That might be brought up later, but at her age, I doubt it. I find it almost distracting at times and seeing her driving is not a good example either or mixing pills with alcohol. It doesn't matter if people do it, it's not a good thing.
(working in hospital taints your thinking at times)

it was exciting to take the trip but you knew it would end on a low note. I don't know if Frankie knew the whole story but she did feel bad.I was surprised he was on FB and that wasn't the first introduction instead of the pizza. ; )

[Bastet]

The two of them getting pulled over gave me nice flashbacks to 9 to 5 ... all we needed was Dolly pulling out her gun.

I thought Phil was a bit cold for 15 years later.  They were both married, she had kids still in the house, was it really some big mystery what had happened when she didn't show?  I wouldn't expect him to be glad she turned up now or anything, but I would expect an attitude more along the lines of what Grace said in the kitchen -- it just wasn't meant to be, and isn't something to revisit, so take care.

Brianna's medication cracked me up, a very delicate balance of cannabis, 12-year-old Scotch, and Zoloft.

And Robert made me get up and grab a piece of string cheese.  Yum.  ("It's part skim.")

[debraran]

43 minutes ago, Bastet said:

The two of them getting pulled over gave me nice flashbacks to 9 to 5 ... all we needed was Dolly pulling out her gun.

I thought Phil was a bit cold for 15 years later.  They were both married, she had kids still in the house, was it really some big mystery what had happened when she didn't show?  I wouldn't expect him to be glad she turned up now or anything, but I would expect an attitude more along the lines of what Grace said in the kitchen -- it just wasn't meant to be, and isn't something to revisit, so take care.

Brianna's medication cracked me up, a very delicate balance of cannabis, 12-year-old Scotch, and Zoloft.

And Robert made me get up and grab a piece of string cheese.  Yum.  ("It's part skim.")

I thought that too..for Pete's sake, they met and had sex for weeks, months, how long does a skylight take? She mentioned they never went anywhere together for obvious reasons. He doesn't mention children, but did he expect her to leave and just go off somewhere? That said, 15 years ago, at their age, if that was what she said (can't remember) wasn't when kids were young but maybe she still felt it was too much of a move to make in haste. He was awfully sure she would come and didn't seem to reach out.

[Bastet]

Oh yeah, they would have been out of the house, wouldn't they?  I was going 15 years backwards from Brooklyn Decker's age, without thinking about how old the characters are supposed to be.  Although Grace did say something about "I had the girls" when explaining things to Frankie.

But, anyway, yeah - the two marriages are plenty to explain why she didn't show, so his "I had no idea what had happened" attitude is odd to me.

I meant to note earlier, I thought it was cute to see the Lily Tomlin yearbook photo.  And I laughed at the exchange over her maiden name.  Although it was a little strange for Grace to be surprised her first name is Frances. 

And while I'm being nit-picky, they didn't do a good job of matching Jane Fonda's make-up on one day of shooting (to other days of shooting scenes meant to take place at the same time); for some of the car scenes (I think when they pull up to the house), it doesn't match.

Edited May 25, 2016 by Bastet

[debraran]

Yes, some people have a real eye for that, seeing different outfits or scarves in the same scene, but obviously shot at different times. I like to catch them in reruns for fun. Sometimes I think Jane's makeup looks great, sometimes too much I feel and it looks harsh.

I don't know how old the ladies are supposed to be in the show, I know their ages now, but I have a feeling it is lower there. (no one wants to be their real age) If Grace was Jane's age, 78, and her kids seem 20's, early 30's, lets say 30, she had them at 48...don't think so. lol So who knows, maybe in TV time, her kids were teens. Lily is 76, looks great.

Yes, Frankie is a common nickname for Frances, Fran or Franny usually for girls but not that unusual.

I wish they could film so they would have new episodes earlier, maybe after Xmas. They aren't getting younger and people forget what happened after so long since we can watch so many episodes at once.

[hnygrl]

In the show, Grace and Frankie are both 70, turning 71.

Sol I believe is 73 turning 74 and so is Robert.

[Clanstarling]

1 hour ago, debraran said:

Yes, Frankie is a common nickname for Frances, Fran or Franny usually for girls but not that unusual.

It never even occurred to me that it was a nickname until this episode. I thought, oh cool, she has the same name as my grandmother (whose youngest child is now older than Frankie, but not by much). Frankie was my grandmother's given name.

[zxy556575]

12 hours ago, debraran said:

I don't know how old the ladies are supposed to be in the show, I know their ages now, but I have a feeling it is lower there. (no one wants to be their real age) If Grace was Jane's age, 78, and her kids seem 20's, early 30's, lets say 30, she had them at 48...don't think so. lol So who knows, maybe in TV time, her kids were teens

 

12 hours ago, hnygrl said:

In the show, Grace and Frankie are both 70, turning 71.

As usual in my life, I avoided doing the arithmetic but if Mallory and Brianna are supposed to be in their early thirties, Gracie had them around 37-39. Which isn't unusual in general but I think would have been for this particular traditional couple. Grace was married at 25. She could have been devoting herself to starting her business, I suppose.

Frankie and Sol could have adopted at any age but also waited until they were in their late thirties, which could plausibly have been after years of trying. We do know that Bud is 32.

It also means that Sol and Robert started their affair when their kids were in elementary school.

[Clanstarling]

They were married 40 years - so if they're 70 now, they didn't get married until they were 30 (about 1976?) - which is a late start in a first marriage. I imagine Frankie was a flower child and didn't think marriage was particularly desirable, and Grace was probably on the forefront of women's liberation and working to develop her company. Given Robert's understandable disinclination, they probably didn't have sex often, and probably missed the ovulation period most of the time. By the time Grace did get pregnant, they might have actively been actively saving it up for the ovulation cycles.

[JBC344]

Yeah I did the math last season and I just assumed that Robert and Sol were dedicated lawyers who were focused on their careers for most of their 20's which makes sense.  Grace was probably just as invested in her career, and I can see Frankie being the type to want to wait to late twenties or thirty to get married.  Considering their work histories, it makes sense to me.

[paramitch]

I liked this episode, aside from being flabbergasted at how casually it treated the fact that Grace was driving drunk as if it were no big deal.

The thing of it is, she was drunk when they started the trip, she was tippling the whole way, then guzzled a huge mouthful (of vodka, I think), just as the cop was pulling up behind them! Then the very next scene, there she is in the driver's seat, cup of coffee in hand. (Which also irritated me further, as I hate the common and all-too harmful movie/TV trope that coffee is a magical and instant cure for drunkenness. Nope: You end up with a very wide-awake drunk.)

I was just really put off by the fact that Grace was shown to be driving drunk and Frankie not only didn't make much of a fuss about it, she didn't even seem worried about being driven by a person who was intoxicated. It just felt weird to me. And frankly, if I'd been Frankie, I would have insisted upon driving anyway, and would have simply waited for the officer to leave, and then continued on in the driver's seat. Frankie risked a ticket -- Grace risked harming other people (and imprisonment).

I did like the scene between Grace and Phil, and thought it was well-acted and powerful. I also liked Frankie's visible dismay at causing further hurt to her friend when she had really thought she was doing something wonderful.

[Hecate7]

On 5/26/2016 at 6:07 AM, lordonia said:

 

As usual in my life, I avoided doing the arithmetic but if Mallory and Brianna are supposed to be in their early thirties, Gracie had them around 37-39. Which isn't unusual in general but I think would have been for this particular traditional couple. Grace was married at 25. She could have been devoting herself to starting her business, I suppose.

Frankie and Sol could have adopted at any age but also waited until they were in their late thirties, which could plausibly have been after years of trying. We do know that Bud is 32.

It also means that Sol and Robert started their affair when their kids were in elementary school.

The babies in the intro number come before easels or business presentations, so I think Brianna came along when Grace was 26 or 27. That would make Brianna 43, which, given her wealth and access to things like top of the line cosmetics, plastic surgery, and rejuvenating products of all kinds, is not unrealistic at all. Women in their 40s often look 20-ish. Mallory is probably in her mid-thirties, given that her generation waited longer to marry or have children, than previous ones. Frankie and Sol probably spent a decade trying to have kids before they finally looked into adoption, and so for Bud to be about 10 years younger than Robert and Grace's oldest makes sense.