Bobby Cobb knows his life isn’t all that great. His wife
divorced him and re-married to one of his best friends. He lives on a crappy
boat with spiders everywhere. So he
decides to give himself a nickname and becomes Ron Mexico: Total Badass. The
name is so cool; it gets him out of tickets with cops and the attention of the
ladies. He even sneaks into an AA meeting for free coffee, toting his life
story which is oddly similar to Forest Gump’s (noting how many of the
characteristics of alcoholics fit the group as well). But it’s all a façade. Bobby
isn’t happy where his life is, but Andy cheers him up by noting how people
change all the time and Bobby is going to do something BIG which will change
how everyone perceives him. Not as a hapless good for nothing, but somebody who
truly matters. Perhaps this is a stretch, but I took this as Andy actually using
his ability to find things; he found the right thing to say (SHUT UP! I’M A SAP
FOR THESE CHEESEY, SENTIMENTAL VIEWS OF THINGS!)
Laurie’s power to read the vibe of people has her very
worried about her marine boyfriend Wade, who is off on a military assignment.
She’s freaking out and worrying. Travis doesn’t seem to believe he has an
ability, but he ends up distracting Laurie from her troubles by having her
commit to figuring out what Trav’s ability is. She discovers that he’s “Selfless
Man”. He’s willing to feel uncomfortable to confide in her mother that she needs to
use her power of fixing things while having sex. He helps Laurie forget her
worries for a little while because that's the kind of nice, selfless guy Travis is.
Ellie puts into motion (as per her power) a fight between Jules
and Grayson. Jules complains that there’s no passion to her relationship with
Grayson (She wants it to be like it is between Ike and Tina for the first 20
minutes of What’s Love Got to Do with It?).
However, she wants an easy fights where it never goes anywhere and she always
gets her way. But needless to say, that’s just not how real fights work. Grayson is upset that Jules won’t take up
Ellis as her last name, but instead is keeping Cobb (her ex’s last name). Jules
doesn’t want to have to go through the trouble of this (“What if someone were
to yell at me that a piano was about to fall on my head?” She asks imagining
she wouldn’t recognize when someone called her by her new name). They
compromise in the end (while having sex, aka Jule’s power); Jules will be Jules
Ellis, but only Grayson can call her that.
It’s all very sweet and funny, and very much in the vein of
typical Cougar Town. And unlike plots
like last week’s moustache gag, almost every joke is followed through on. The
Avengers joke, initially a throwaway joke, nicely ends up being a lynchpin of
the episode both thematically and in terms of jokes (I could definitely see this
becoming a running gag). Bobby’s revelatory speech felt well-earned and
touching, and could have implications for later episodes for this season. While the Travis-Laurie storyline once again
hints at the potential coupling there and Trav’s continued unrequited feelings, something it continues to handle well, leaving it up in the air but never being total dickish teases about it.
Stray Observations:
-“You were conceived when I was trying to fix the VCR remote”
-Title Card of the Week: “I got hired on Cougar Town and
they only let me write these. My name's Donny. Hi, Mom.”
-“Question: where are his balls?” – Ellie eating Grayson’s
imaginary balls was hilarious.
-“Emasculating men really turns me on” – Ellie in a
nutshell.
-“I felt like a kid in a candy store” “So where were you?” “Candy
store. They’re often used as covers for meth labs”
Grade: B+
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