What I’m Watching: Eastbound and Down (Penultimate Episode)

Eastbound and Down: Season 4, Episode 7 “Chapter 28” (B)

It seems set in stone that, despite all the mistakes Kenny is going to make along the way, of which there are and will continue to be many, he’s going to have a happy ending. Showing up to go join Dustin and Cassie in caroling covered in blood was this episode’s silver lining, a positive act which triggered uncharacteristically kind gestures on his part for his family, Dustin’s, and Stevie’s. Having sex with random women and doing coke while preparing for his own show was a far cry from the Kenny we saw at the beginning of this season, and bringing in a whole parade of lawyers to intimidate April in their divorce proceedings was a cheap but literally expensive stunt. Planning his XXX-mas Sports Sesh show was a doomed plan from the start, and it didn’t take long for the remaining cohosts to quit. It’s surprising just how many people still care enough about Kenny to come try to talk him out of self-destructing his life, and it’s a rarer thing to see them unload on him, like Stevie finally did, calling him the Grinch. Maria showing up at Kenny’s door to ask him for help in locating a devastated Stevie was a good turning point, though I could have done without the very predictable but still difficult to watch shooting-off of Stevie’s chin implant. Let’s hope that Kenny can get his act together in the show’s series finale this weekend, and finally redeem himself after an eventful twenty-eight chapters.