User blog:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: The Egg

Mmm, nothing like banging together an article at 11:00, clocking out at 2:00, and completing it the next day. It's like a tradition at this point and I have to abide by it. So... welcome back to normalcy! I did that joke six months ago, but nobody's keeping score and, considering this there's not going to be any more "Individual Appeals" articles to drown in, I might as well relish in it's functionality.

I don't know how to properly segue, but I will say this much: I've always held a huge bias towards "The Egg." I don't remember what brought me over to it, but I remember finding crappy 360p bootlegs of the episode scattered across Youtube before they aired, and having been weirdly turned off by early Season 3 (I used to be and still am marginally dumb, don't remind me), seeing all of those last episodes, especially "The Money," reaffirmed my love for the show. I, uh, might've forgotten to tune in for the entirety of Season 4... but all of those Season 3 episodes were on my mind when I decided to see how the show was doing years later, and here I am, talking about it. Full circle. Full oval. Full... egg.

Alright, I'm done with egg jokes since I'm clearly incompetent at their delivery. Let's just take a crack at it. (Nailed it.)

The Actual Start of the Article


The basic premise is as follows: Nicole has to try to get her family in check for a playdate between Anais and Billy for the sake of coming across as a perfect family which, tragically, they just... can't do. They're the Wattersons; that's not their schtick. Comedy ensues as they proceed to horrify Billy's pretentious mother, Felicity, all while Nicole sits back and tries to hide behind the image that's slowly falling apart in front of her very eyes.

While Anais and Billy hit it off, Felicity's not having it, and after spewing what is sure to be one of the most deliciously heinous lines in the whole show - we'll get to that - Nicole gives in to the temptation and proceeds to terrorize her, but all is for naught when both realize that Anais and Billy disappeared mid-combat. The two make their way across town, banging out some cheery Europop, while Felicity is forced to team up with the Wattersons for the greater good of finding their missing children.

Eventually, they find Anais and Billy in the museum sharing a genuine connection, forcing both parents to grin and bear it all, but as per TAWOG fashion, the happy ending is soiled as the pair are unable to look over their entertainment preferences - Anais prefers Daisy the Donkey whereas Billy's more the Fireman Pete type - so Anais splits. Felicity does that thing where she retorts. Nicole does that thing where she punches Felicity. And there's your ending and your catharsis all wrapped up in one nice little package.

Analysis
If there's one glaring issue that people have with "The Egg," it's Felicity freaking Parham. And it's easy to understand why - she was designed to be the most hideous, thoroughly-evil yet painfully grounded character possible.

And yes, I know that me saying that I enjoy Felicity's character while loathing Harold's - despite both serving the same fundamental purpose in their episodes - seems contradictory, but Felicity's character actually feels depressingly close to reality. Harold's nothing more than a narrowly-conceived douche of a character, but Felicity... she's got bite. Harold doesn't get under your skin; he's instantly dispensable by virtue of the pettiness his character embodies. Felicity, though, messes with your head. Let's bring up that quote:


 * Look, Nicole, I get it. You dropped out of college to marry your childhood sweetheart and life was fun until, whoops, your first disappointment. So there you are working all hours to support your family while lover-boy over there is busy growing chins. Then, whoops, another disappointment, followed by a third that you still dream is better than the others, I get it. You know you'll never succeed so you want your kids to succeed for you. You hope that being friends with someone like me will help you climb that ladder, but you're living a lie. You are not good enough, they are not good enough, you've either got it or you haven't, and you haven't. So just be happy with who you really are.

First of all, that has to be one of the most hideous quotes to come out of the whole show. There's not even anything remotely funny about it. What it does is confirm our assumptions about Felicity's character: she's insufferable, and that's the point. Everybody's complaining that she's not frustrating, but that's the entire crux of her existence. She's the condescending foil and an impediment to progress, and that makes the moment where Nicole kills of her facade all the more glorious.



This was a line designed to shut Nicole down as a character, but the amazing thing is that it doesn't - if anything, Nicole comes out on top. The whole episode, up to that point, was structured around her fruitless attempts to make her family seem cultured and like something that they not only weren't, but could never be. Finally, though, she accepts that and realizes the entire thing wasn't worth fighting for, so she lets her true emotions shine and proceeds to beat the crap out of Felicity. There's something satisfying about that. At the end of the day, Nicole is Nicole. Don't mess with her.

Another complaint I could imagine the episode getting is that there's never really that much time allotted for Anais and Billy's storyline, and that doesn't allow the audience to be won over. I do recognize that as an issue, especially considering that the A-plot is so stagnant while their B-plot is insanely dynamic; giving more time to a plot where more change occurs makes more sense than dragging the same punchline down over and over, however enjoyable.



Still, you have to factor in that their mini-adventure exists entirely as a plot device, or put more delicately for anybody whose perceptions were somehow just shattered, a tease. Giving the audience more time to get invested only to rob them of that enjoyment just doesn't bode well. However framed as it may be around Anais, this is a Nicole episode through and through, and there's nothing wrong with that at all. Anais and Billy's fling exists merely as a catalyst, and a cute one at that.

Ultimately, everything about "The Egg" is just tight. It doesn't leave anything else to be desired, which I admire; it very happily closed off everything instead of leaving you wanting more (which, coincidentally, is my main issue with the show reconjuring the Anais-Billy subplot in "The Pest"). There's a certain amount of confidence in being able to tell a story so compactly and to so, in my opinion, satisfyingly. For that reason, I can get behind it.

That's all I've got for today. Next week, we'll be examining "The Roots," and along with that, we'll be looking into Darwin's character pretty closely. See ya then.

(I typed up the whole article without mentioning the show's leading man. Interesting... fun fact.)

For the last few "Individual Appeals," click HERE or HERE or maybe even HERE.

I'm also trying to post reviews everyday for all of the latest episodes, so you can check them out on my personal website over HERE.