Fair warning, I attended a screening of Iron Man 3 tonight in order to write a review for a children’s magazine. I enjoyed it a lot. I am not sure how my enjoyment of that movie will affect my opinions of this episode.
We start things off with a cake literally out of carrots, so colour me interested from the outset. Then Max jokes about how she and Chestnut [their horse] should one day get the same rights as gay couples, and Caroline admits to subway molestation as being an acceptable poor man’s version of an actual massage. Oof. Maybe I should have waited a day before writing this.
Anyway, it turns out working in a diner and owning a horse don’t exactly line up, and ol’ Chestnut has to replace a shoe and has some kinda gross hoof fungus. These two wacky gals tried to ditch the animal way back in Season 1, but then decided to take it back for emotional reasons, which I suppose was not a decisions without its own share of consequences.
It’s cool, though, those extra expenses can be solved by acting as extras in an SVU show that wants to film in the diner, which can happen so long as Han Lee, the boss man, give it the go-ahead.
Man, it was awkward seeing the Asian casting director [who speaks accent-less English] begin a conversation with Han. It became almost unbearably uncomfortable when the diminutive Korean responds to the other man’s question about compensation with:
“Whoa, whoa, my Asian brother. Slow down, let’s enjoy the dance.”
He then proceeds to speak in Korean, which prompts the sort of answer I am seriously beginning to hate: “Dude, I’m from Pasadena.” It’s essentially the same response that Jim Morita gives Dum Dum Dugan in Captain America: The First Avenger, “I’m from Fresno, Ace.” It’s this whole bit where others judge immigrants based on their outer appearances only to be chagrined when they are revealed to be very much, in both cases mentioned, American. There’s something being said here about racial and cultural assimilation that I do not like, but we can follow that up some other time.
The plot really starts rolling when the director, ruggedly handsome as he is, starts macking on Caroline a little harder than he probably has to. What I’m saying is that he’s not a bad-looking guy, and in a position to help them out, which he does, hiring her to be the waitress who gets shot in the scene [it pays $1,000 more!]. Max sees through his thinly-veiled scheme to get into her roommate’s pants, and tags along on his invite up to his hotel room for dinner.
Rest assured, dear viewer, that nothing sketchy will go down in said hotel room, for the girls have a plan; date rape drugs are talked about as a means to put guys out of commission. Caroline’s date rape drug: talking about herself incessantly until guys get bored and pass out. Max’s date rape drug: an actual date rape drug.
The guy is straight-up looking to get into a threesome, and reveals this by kissing Caroline, and then Max. Ms. Channing isn’t exactly down with this, so the next morning Max replaces her as Waitress Getting Shot.
Here’s where the episode becomes a strange call-back to “And the Temporary Distraction.” Knowing that Max is largely getting the gig because she’s willing to put out [not out of character for her, really] Caroline does everything she can to mess up some perfectly good takes. This has never been a big deal to Max [if her extensive sexual history is any indication], but her friend is convinced that this is wrong. Let it be known that I was perfectly okay with Caroline working to botch Max’s change at stardom, since she selfishly ruined Caroline’s dream gig not three episodes ago.
Sophie is ultimately the one to ruin the shoot by trying to barge on set, causing Caroline to stumble and fall on a switch which sets off the gunshot rig Max is wearing. Asian Casting Director very reasonably tells them they won’t get paid for that day, but Han hardballs him because he is a good guy.
The episode ends with their Current Total at $1,205, a whole grand up from last week. This struck me as particularly peculiar since I was under the assumption that any money made playing extras would go directly towards Chestnut’s foot needs, causing them to break even.
After this week we only have two episodes left to go before the season ends, and I’m still wondering where we go from here. The girls have talked about really pursing their dream [ie. running a cupcake business] right this time, and you’d think that we’d be given some real direction so close to the end. I’m going to be going into these last two episodes looking for that pull that’ll actually get me looking forward to Season 3.
Stray Observations:
- Cops by day, prostitutes by night. “Copstitutes.”
- This set director was raised by two white women, and therefore does not know how important family is to Asian culture.
- The fat balding guy who sets up the rig in Caroline’s blouse looked like the member of Tenacious D who is not Jack Black.
- The contents of Sophie’s purse: a Shake Weight and a 2L bottle of Fresca.
- 2 Broke Girls Cheesecake Menu: May-or-may-not-be Kyle Gass really digs around in Max and Caroline’s blouses. That’s really about it this episode.
