S05.E13: Grand-Mahjong

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

It’s Chinese New Year and the Lees, Elaine, Julius and son, Horace, are back. Elaine tries to give Jessica tips on building a better relationship with Grandma Huang. Meanwhile, inspired by a Lee family tradition, Louis challenges Emery to a wrestling match to start the new year; and Eddie goes all in betting his red envelope money on who will be the winner.

Original air date: 2/1/19

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Ha, I enjoyed Jessica being bad at mahjong, especially after she kicked ass in the mahjong scene in Crazy Rich Asians.

[floridamom]

I actually enjoyed this episode. Glad to see the other Chinese family join them.

[Snow Apple]

I liked this episode too. Jessica wasn't acting so........Jessica. Nice to see her be imperfect with the mah-jong and the dumplings. 

Loved seeing the blonde mom again and how she kicked ass in mah-jong.

Edited February 2, 2019 by Snow Apple

[lynxfx]

A little too much of a "Crazy Rich Asians" retread but still an enjoyable episode. Liked the tussle stuff especially when Marvin showed up and called next. His excitement always comes off as so innocent. 

Damn Eddie is getting tall and now even Emery is starting to shoot up.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 2/2/2019 at 8:50 AM, Snow Apple said:

I liked this episode too. Jessica wasn't acting so........Jessica. Nice to see her be imperfect with the mah-jong and the dumplings. 

I find it hard to believe that Jessica knowingly made lousy dumpling all these years.  She craves perfection. When the show began, they were eating Chinese food for dinner all the time.  Dumplings aren't only for New Year's.  And her mother never taught her the proper method? She grew up in China; was her family so wealthy that servants did everything? 

Even though Jessica isn't crazy about Jenny, I feel that the Chinese culture of respect for elders would have prevented her from snatching the fish eye from Jenny all those years ago.  or Louis would have been so shocked at the disrespect that he would have had to say something to Jessica later.  Jessica certainly isn't perfect, but she is proudly Chinese.

[Snow Apple]

1 hour ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

And her mother never taught her the proper method? She grew up in China; was her family so wealthy that servants did everything?

Maybe her mother was like mine who was, and is, too impatient and controlling to teach the proper method. Seriously, my mother complained she work too hard and us kids never helped, but shoves me out of the way when I try to cook at the stove. Even for simple things like frying an egg.

That's why I enjoyed Jessica in the first few seasons. She was just like my own mother. LOL

Edited February 3, 2019 by Snow Apple

[tennisgurl]

That was a fun episode, I enjoyed it quite a lot. Liked seeing the other Chinese family back again, and they're love of working out family difficulties through tussles! And Jessica wasn't a horrible asshole caricature, she actually felt like a person again. Like the character that I liked so much in the early seasons, and not the pod person she was replaced with more recently. 

Loved Marvin just showing up in the backyard when the tussle started. He was so delighted!

[Mellowyellow]

I LOVE that other Chinese family and LOVE LOVE LOVE Ming Na Wen. So nice to see her dressed up and living a nice suburban life instead of beating people up to save the world. I'm so happy they kept them on as family friends.

Agree with those of you who said this is the early Jessica we saw. They seem to only write her well every second week so I expect her to be terrible next week per the usual pattern.

Favourite quote of the night:

Jenny - Your son beat up my son

Jessica - Damn straight

Lol that was so typical Jessica.

Grandma's tell is a good one and I liked that Jessica figured it out.

Adored Marvin's look of pure joy as he vaguely stumbled in on the tussle. I really like the fact that they were consistent with the last episode that featured this family and had Marvin join in on the fun too as he met Julius and got to know him in the other ep. It was such a nice touch.

[Camera One]

I enjoyed seeing the other family again too.  This episode was better though I didn't laugh too much.  I wish they did more arcs rather than one-off's.  They revisit Jessica vs. Jenny once in a while and it's not as impactful when nothing sticks.