What I’m Watching: Casual

Casual: Season 2, Episode 12 “40” (B+)

Alex has never really had the ability to see what other people would want in a given situation as it doesn’t align with what he wants, and therefore Valerie’s assessment that the party he had thrown was really for him was harsh but fitting. You have to give him credit for being intrepid and dedicated in his last-ditch effort to plan a party, but it wasn’t what Valerie wanted at all. Instead, she was content to spend the day with Drew rehashing the good times and finding a better sense of stability than she had with Jack. That said, the news that his new partner is coming home didn’t elicit the reaction she thought it would, and instead inspired Drew, who rarely smiles, to say that he wants her back, which is hardly the positive direction in which she’s looking to head. Defiantly telling Alex that she was heading to Drew’s where she felt more comfortable was bold, and who knows whether she’ll make it now that she and Alex are once again united by a common dislike of their father crashing into their lives anew. I love that Jack and Alex bonded so well, and it even made Leon a little bit jealous, though maybe he’ll start up a romance with unlikely poet Leia. After their mutually destructive tattooing session, Laura’s reaction to the news that Spencer is likely going to get better was very disappointing and worrisome, since it looked a lot like the expression Alex wore for the entirety of the time that Sara lived with him.