And They Lived Happily Ever After
Joe is in the hospital, and Love is giving birth to a baby boy. Joe is still reeling from this shock, so Love decides to name him Henry Forty Quinn.
Joe and Love move into a white picket fence house in Madre Linda, which happens to be just outside San Francisco.Apparently it’s the safest neighbourhood in the area – go figure! Joe struggles to connect with Henry and between trying to process Forty’s death and Love’s Mum showing up and claiming that the kid is Forty reincarnated, things aren’t rosy in paradise. So naturally Joe clings to his old life through his books.
Joe’s neighbor Natalie is a quiet, standoffish woman who is exactly what Joe wants. For now, he sticks with trying to be a good father, or as good as he can be. Every time he holds Henry, he ends up crying. When Love lashes out at Joe, claiming that his heart isn’t in this, Joe leans harder into thinking of Natalie and claims she’s the greenlight getting him through this. Natalie even buys some diapers for Henry while Joe is out alone in his car. It’s all pretty innocent until Natalie lets slip a “joke” about condoms. ..
Joe begins his online search for a realtor and finds Natalie Engler on the website. He decides to reach out to her, since he knows she’s married to a man who is out of town most of the time. Natalie responds and tells Joe that she is looking for a new home. She says that she has been married to Matthew for six years and they have two children together. Joe asks if she is interested in selling her home, and she says that she would be more than happy to sell it to him.
Love heads to the gym but runs into online blogger and Peach-clone Sherry. Sherry is there with her friends Kiki and Andrew, who both backhandedly call her fat before inviting her out for a latte. ..
Joe, armed with Henry strapped to his chest, starts to follow Natalie and arrives in a library. In fact, she even picks out a book for him in “Tender is the night.” Joe interprets this as flirting and things only escalate that night when she gets his number, courtesy of her tech-savvy husband. So naturally, when Love decides to take Henry away for a few days, Joe joins Natalie for a drink.
Natalie’s “reading room” is a place where she and Joe can read books together. Midway through their kiss, Joe has second thoughts and decides to head home instead. Love comes home early and the pair end up having pretty passionate sex.
That night, Sherry hosts a party. Everyone’s there and while Joe does his usual narration shtick, Natalie ends up growing close to Love. When the latter overhears Sherry calling her family a garbage fire, Natalie encourages Love to be authentic. She urges her to press on with her plans of opening a bakery.
Natalie later on encourages her to sign a 3 year lease on the property. Sheading down to the basement, she shows off the area but Love, having found Natalie’s underwear in Joe’s secret stash, decides to get her revenge and slices wildly at her neighbour, leaving her in a pool of blood on the floor. ..
Joe, frustrated with Henry who just got his son to laugh, decides to call Love. After ruining their breakthrough, Joe and Love need to go to couple’s therapy.
The Episode Review
You are back and the first episode starts with a deliciously twisted surprise. Love is slipping back into old ways while Joe is still clearly fighting his urges. We’ve seen this rodeo before and we know how it turns out so we’ll have to wait and see if this season follows suit. ..
For now, You settles back into a consistent rhythm, with plenty of nods toward the previous seasons and familiar set-ups rehashed into new scenarios. Sherry and her pals, for example, feel like a natural extension of Peach and her cronies. The only difference is Love happens to be an unhinged new mother with a history of killing, whereas Beck was naïve to these manipulative ways.
The reveal that Love killed Natalie in the first episode of the season is a nice twist and definitely something that comes as a surprise. The show starts off well and it’ll be interesting to see where the rest of the season goes from here.
