SMILF: Season 1/ Episode 2 “1,800 Filet-O-Fishes & One Small Diet Coke” – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

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Bridgette continues to reveal herself as someone who not only gets underestimated but probably underestimates herself.

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Previous Recap: Episode 1 “A Box of Dunkies and Two Squirts of Maple Syrup”

Network
Showtime
Director(s)	Leslye Headland
Writer(s)	Frankie Shaw & Emily Goldwyn
Characters Introduced
Ryan	Joseph Winford Warren
Eliza	Raven Goodwin
Casey	Austin Abrams

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Larry is Sick!: Rafi, Nelson, Bridgette, Larry

For some odd reason, Larry has a rash along his hairline. With that, Bridgette rushes him to the clinic and with her being paid under the table, and seemingly no ACA insurance, it is a long wait to see anyone. So long she has to call Rafi who bitches and moans about having to wait on line. Especially since he takes making the coffee for his AA meetings seriously. Meanwhile, if Bridgette doesn’t get to work, her and their kid won’t have a place with a roof, food, or a pot to piss in. For living with Tutu is definitely not an option.

Luckily though, while a rather strange woman, Nelson is also very helpful. She waits in line with Rafi, even lets him go so he can attend his AA meeting, and consults Bridgette about a vaccine shot. Something Rafi isn’t for since he is on that “Vaccines are poison.” But, with Nelson’s dad being a pediatrician, she may humor Rafi but she isn’t going to go along with that nonsense. Making it so Bridgette realizes she has a bit of an ally in Nelson. Which may make Rafi a better dad.

Smarter Than You Know: Ally, Bridgette, Casey

You know how Bridgette tutors all of Ally’s kids? Even to the point of helping Casey get into Harvard? Well, guess what? She is literally doing all their work for them. She even went so far as doing Casey’s college essay for Harvard – and he got in! Now, we have to add in, it seems Casey’s dad is an alumnus, so that helps. But considering Ally doesn’t make it seem they are so affluent he could flunk his way in, you have to give Bridgette credit. Something Casey does a bit with his friend downstairs.

Let me try to explain, for it is kind of weird how it all went down. Ally lies about going to yoga and instead heads to McDonald’s and eats in the garage. Meanwhile, Bridgette is taking a bath in Ally’s dirty bath water, decides to use Ally’s apparel and makeup, and then has a conversation with Casey. One in which it starts off fun and silly, then you realize they are getting serious and when Casey makes a move, you expect Bridgette to move away. However, instead, she lets him have sex with her and it is like they’ve been having sex for a while now.

Of which it seems no one knows but them but I guess after her visitor in the first episode, Bridgette is very comfortable with her vagina again so yay for that. Also, yay to her confessing to Ally about not being a good tutor and also not checking up on Ally’s employees like she was asked. Which is fine with Ally since, after leaving her former job as a lawyer, it seems her friendship with Bridgette is all she really has. So, what is a few odd moments and being more of a fun aunt than tutor/caretaker?

What’s Up With Tutu?: Tutu, Bridgette

It seems before Bridgette’s dad, there was this man Edmond. He was someone Tutu was deeply in love with and even got a half heart tattoo on her wrist to symbolize their love. Yet, she left him for Bridgette’s father and here we are. Something which sort of hits Tutu hard this episode. For while she isn’t necessarily miserable, it seems part of her issue with Bridgette is she is a reminder of what could have been. In a way, it is like if she didn’t get pregnant with Bridgette, maybe Edmond could have returned back into her life and that might be the source of her issues with Bridgette.

This idea that she sacrificed one of the few things which made her happy for this kid. Yet, she keeps saying little-triggering things which make her feel her sacrifices were in vain. Thus making their relationship a bit volatile.

Question(s) Left Unanswered

1. Is Ally a lesbian?
2. Did having Larry/ messing around with Rafi set back Bridgette’s life as much as it seems?

Highlights

More To Them Than It Seems

When it comes to Ally, Tutu, and also Bridgette, we discover what we got in the pilot was not at all enough to judge who any of them are. Ally came off as some weird, lonely, likely spoiled housewife who would be like nails on a chalkboard. Yet, with us learning how she sacrificed her career for her family and learned the housewife route is not fulfilling, you got to feel for her a bit. For while she does kind of seem low-key racist, Connie Britton brings something to her, this vulnerability, which really pushes that she is struggling for other’s people’s benefit. To the point that, even with Bridgette’s confessions, there is so much more on her mind she couldn’t care. But also, mentally and emotionally, she couldn’t afford to push Bridgette away.

Switching to Bridgette, while it was very weird her having sex with Casey, at the same time she arguably is stunted in a way. Not mentally perhaps but, in terms of life progress. It sometimes seems like she is still stuck somewhere between the end of high school and finding what she is going to do with her life. Add in she is having issues with still feeling desirable and that is the only way to explain how she let a kid she watch grow up have sex with her.

But, the Casey thing aside, there is also her academic prowess. Clearly, if she helped a kid get into Harvard, much less got them good grades likely in some fancy private school, Bridgette is no fool. If anything, she might be the type who academically is smart but doesn’t necessarily lack common sense. That is the usual combination but I think, if anything, insecurities messed her up. Be it Rafi when he was a drug addict or even Tutu. For this way you sometimes see Frankie Shaw look at people, like how she does Casey, in it you sort of see Bridgette trying to make herself smaller. As if Tutu has her so screwed up that she fears making herself seem too grand. Like, at a moment’s notice, she is ready to cower and flinch to ward off being repeatedly hit.

Which I think is why she confessed to Ally. Not necessarily because she saw Ally was in a vulnerable place but Tutu has her so well trained to live in some kind of fear that like a puppy who wet the carpet, she confessed to just get her punishment over with. So that she can shake off the guilt and could properly function.

Leading us to Tutu. In the pilot, it really seemed Tutu had some sort of mental disorder. The kind where she probably went into fits of rage and was possibly abusive to Bridgette. Yet, I don’t think there is something mentally wrong with her in the sense of her being bipolar or something like that. If anything, it seems like depression.

Perhaps like Bridgette, there is, or was, this untapped potential and with it being clear that the good times are over and she has to settle for being content, it’s miserable. Yet, as shown by her orchestrating a trade between herself and Bridgette to have dinner together, she is trying to will herself into being happy. However, Bridgette saying little things act as kindle to whatever negative thoughts Tutu is fighting off.

Now, as for what Tutu did when Bridgette was a kid? Perhaps similar to Estelle on Good Behavior, Tutu was a terrible mom because that was the example she knew. That and, with the kind of husband she had, she lashed out onto the person who was there and couldn’t fight back. Yet, with that being her daughter, when she returned to her right state of mind, she did her best to make up for what she did. She made her sauces, maybe they had some quality TV time, and Bridgette learned how to navigate her mom’s moods.

Hence why Larry is treated by Tutu as he is. Like with Estelle, her grandkid is her second chance at some semblance at motherhood. Taking what she learned when she was just a novice and showing she did learn something. Maybe even, through showing she recognizes her mistakes by avoiding them with her grandkid, having Bridgette see she knows some of the things she did can’t be excused with “I was doing the best I could.”

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