What I’m Watching: The Detour (Season Finale)

The Detour: Season 4, Episode 10 “The Groom” (B)

This was one of the better episodes of a lackluster season, one that managed to end at a potential decent place but also, as usual, introduced something completely new and unexpected after resolving, at least partially, its primary plotlines. Robin’s plan to have Nate marry his overeager bride and just bring her back home was actually how things appear to have ended up, which I suppose could be entertaining for a while. I like that her father was eager to dissuade his daughter from her American obsession by inviting a whole bunch of men from around the Syracuse area so that she would get over it only to have Nate show up. His willingness to let Nate off the hook because he was married didn’t work so well since he and Robin weren’t officially wed, though apparently his son the former elected official has now made it a real thing. JR showing up right before the wedding was set to happen and Nate had ripped his pants getting on the tiny horse did stop the nuptials, but not the way anyone thought. All this talk of “homo milk” isn’t nearly as entertaining as those behind this show seem to think it is, and I think this season might have been stronger if all of the characters had actually been together for more of it. There’s talk of this show continuing on something like HBO Max, and while I think I’d like to be done with it, I’d probably be up for watching the opening hour of a theoretical fifth season just to see if it’s still worth it.

Season grade: B-
Season MVP: Natalie Zea as Robin

What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 4, Episode 9 “The Bride” (B-)

This show’s detour feels like it’s never going to get back on track, and I’m just sticking around until the finale wondering why it was that TBS opted to continue this once-decent show over the far better “People of Earth,” which I still miss following the questionable to un-renew the show months after season three had already been announced. This episode filled in Nate’s story to tell us that he hadn’t in fact been killed and had his organs harvested, but instead that the Russian bride he had met wanted him far more than he realized and was going to great lengths to make sure he didn’t come to harm. I thought Natalia looked familiar, and that’s because I’ve seen actress Olga Fonda before in the pilot of “Agent X.” She, like many other guest stars on this show playing zany characters, did a solid job of portraying the woman who didn’t want his fatty organs but longed to be with the man from Syracuse who just didn’t get that at all. Seeing his family members all dressed in white at the end represented a wondrous reunion for the four of them, but I don’t think Natalia’s mom boss father is going to be all too happy to let them go even if he is humbled by the power of love. The one moment in this episode that truly made me laugh was Nate’s inability to distinguish between a Russian-accented pronunciation of his last name and the term “parkour,” leading him to make an extremely ill-advised attempt to defy gravity through an art he doesn’t realize exists.

What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 4, Episode 7 “The Entertainer” (B-)

This was a definite recovery from the previous episode, though I’m still finding this show to be relatively pointless in its pursuit of not too much. Jareb wasn’t even enthralled by his own idea to stage a funeral for Nate so that Delilah would come, and of course she’d end up being the only one who didn’t show up to the miserable affair. Robin was hardly enthusiastic in her delivery of all the comments about Nate, and there wasn’t anyone there with a positive thing to say. Gene’s return was predictably laced with inappropriate advances towards Robin, and when Nate’s mom isn’t the meanest person in the room, there’s a problem. I do like Jere Burns, who I know from “Justified” and who also stars on “Angie Tribeca,” but I found his character of Blu Brown, who almost certainly is not Nate’s father, to be very irritating and over-the-top. This show presents a lot of ridiculous people and situations, and doesn’t shy away from offensive characters whose behavior is clearly deplorable. It does usually take it a bit too far, and that was clearly the case here. No one in the room was particularly happy to discover that Nate was still alive, aside from the ex-girlfriend beloved by his mother who also pretty much started making out with Nate right in front of Robin. I’d rather focus more on stuff like that since it’s fun to see Robin when she’s actually invested in something and not just letting Nate do all the pratfalling for once.

What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 4, Episode 6 “The Game Show” (C-)

I don’t see why this episode needed to exist. This show is becoming increasingly pointless, and while there’s some humor lying somewhere in this episode, none of it managed to win me over. It’s hard to watch a show that isn’t meant to be taken at all seriously or literally, and I’ll have to seriously consider if I can stand a fifth season should this show be renewed for one. We know that Nate is tormented constantly, and so for him to go on a game show where he’s meant to endure humiliation felt like way too much, which it was. I’m not even sure what this is really meant to parody, since a lot of it focused on the Japanese making fun of Americans while Nate was mercilessly targeted and Robin and Jareb somehow got away with doing far less miserable stunts. Robin picking things she thought she’d get to take home but then needed to drop on her husband’s head instead made some sense as an absurd prank, but Nate’s final challenge of singing while receiving some intense distraction from inside the box from someone who turned out not to be Robin crossed a certain line this show shouldn’t have. The fact that Jareb wasted his advertising time flossing and that Nate couldn’t get a word out after his final effort made it feel even more pointless that it already was since we know they didn’t find Delilah anyway. Even just these twenty minutes felt like far too long a useless summary.

What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 4, Episode 5 “The Year” (B+)

This was a fun episode, one that took a worthwhile break from all the antics of Nate, Robin, and her criminal sister to look back at the year that Delilah’s had while they’ve spend so much time and energy looking for her. While it sometimes seems that Delilah is the brightest member of the family, especially compared to her brother who didn’t know whether the long version or the short version would be faster, it’s also evident that she doesn’t know a lot and is just as ill-equipped for the world as he is. Pretending to be grown up by drinking coffee that she can’t stand was the least severe of her missteps. She reminded me a lot of Nate in this episode as she managed to get hit in the head multiple times by a ball, even when she was inside, and didn’t go over particularly well with any of the social clubs on campus. She came in strong with the acapella puns before demonstrating that she had no ability to match pitch, and her high heels and orthodontic privilege really offended the “oh my science” trio that quickly cast her out too. Spending thousands of dollars on haircuts and nonalcoholic champagne carried by monkeys was a low point, as was peeing herself in front of a huge Christian crowd. Even her grandfather wasn’t impressed with her, and she freaked out a lot when the milk started spilling all over her. This was an odd half-hour, but one that demonstrates that this show still does know how to follow its crazy storylines every once in a while.

What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 4, Episode 4 “The B.J.” (B-)

This episode was a course correction of sorts after last week’s dark and strange installment, but when even Jareb is questioning the absurdity of the plotlines, you know that this show is running out of road. There was definitely some decent, if over-the-top, humor in this episode, namely with no one being able to tell which of these twins was Robin. This was a great opportunity for the extremely underrated Natalie Zea to shine with two performances, utterly irritated at the incompetence of the conspiracy theorists as Robin and going way overboard trying to express herself with Nate as BJ. Not knowing Nate’s phone number, middle name, or birthdate but having his credit card number memorized didn’t exactly demonstrate Robin’s commitment to the man she loves, but he doesn’t deserve much credit either for having no clue that he was with a different woman when she literally couldn’t remember a single thing that had happened to them together. Andrée Vermeulen from “Angie Tribeca” delivered a memorable guest performance as Bernadette, the spa employee who was far too into the vibe BJ was putting out, and it seems like everyone got pretty injured in the pursuit of BJ’s wild dreams. Nate stretching himself too thin and Claude having his brain stick out were particularly unpleasant moments along the way. Jareb walking in on Delilah in the shower was scored with horror music but hardly worthy of that, and it’s good to know that he’s been pretty much sleeping on the job while his parents have been dealing with these antics.

What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 4, Episode 3 “The Sister” (C+)

I’m not sure what to make of this show right now. The lack of any sort of narrative continuity has always been something I’ve forgiven, but I just don’t understand where all these ideas come from and if there’s even any destination in mind. If I remember correctly, last season was all about how Robin had a sister she didn’t know about, and Vanessa has also been a semi-regular presence that represents Robin’s twisted upbringing. That Robin would have an identical twin sister who for some reason was identified by conspiracy theorist private detectives as Delilah seems so far beyond belief, even for this show. I suppose it did give Natalie Zea an excellent opportunity to play a completely different part, indulging in flirtation and general craziness as the suddenly-existent sibling. The introduction of Claude, who I thought I recognized as Greg Pitts from “Sons and Daughters,” just made things weird, and things took a very, very dark turn when the conspiracy theorists suggested that BJ held men in her basement and transformed them into mindless shells of themselves. As soon as Nate realized it was just like “Misery,” the ending twist became clear, with an extremely disturbing shot of Robin chained up at the end of the episode. I don’t know what to expect next episode, but it’s very possible that this will all end up being forgotten within a short period of time. Watching this show is still moderately entertaining, but at a certain point, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to stick with it anymore.

What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 4, Episode 2 “The Return” (C+)

Sometimes, this show goes big, like sending Nate on an international hunt for the daughter who never left the state of New York, and other times, it attempts blunter and less creative comedy that doesn’t exactly land. Introducing the Jewish grandfather of Delilah’s new boyfriend paved the way for an obvious trajectory towards jokes about Nazis, with repeated denials from both Nate and Robin as they began to understand what was happening as a result of their actions. Delilah’s boyfriend screaming about how he loves aids was most evidently not referencing the deadly virus, but it’s helpful once in a while for Robin to be the dafter one who in this case was almost charged with a hate crime even though Nate was the one beating up a group of deaf kids. Delilah’s not all that different from her mother, set off by being told to relax by a man, and she managed to save her irritating parents from likely jail time in Syracuse. There was nothing more horrific than the video made by the eager police officer who did little to console Nate and Robin about their missing daughter, and it got hard to take any of this hour seriously when the severed head of a child started talking and warning about how this was pretty much the only outcome that was possible after going missing for seventy-two hours. They know where Delilah is even if they haven’t actually laid eyes on her just yet, and I hope that things will cool off and become a bit more bearable going forward.

What I’m Watching: The Detour (Season Premiere)

The Detour: Season 4, Episode 1 “The Search” (B-)

I had completely forgotten about this show’s existence, though it’s always nice to have a lighthearted diversion like this one, even though I’d much prefer a third season of “People of Earth,” which TBS decided to unceremoniously cancel after it had already been renewed. In any case, we’re left with this show, which is almost purposeful in its aimlessness. I was a huge fan of Laura Benanti’s character, who turned out to be something completely different from what it seemed all along, and now it’s all about the search for Delilah, who was the only member of the family who realized that she just had to get away from all this absurdity. It seemed extremely obvious to me from the start that Delilah wasn’t actually traveling to destinations all over the world but instead just posing in front of backdrops that made it look like that, and Nate’s sudden realization in the middle of New Zealand that she was in Syracuse at a mini golf place felt like one of his less clever moments. As usual, his antics were absurd, with a whole rollercoaster of tonal shifts throughout the episode, including Nate trying to resuscitate a dead man and then arguing with Robin about what to do with Jared’s sleepy excitement. It didn’t take Jared nearly as ong as I might have expected to deduce that his new girlfriend putting up ten fingers was indeed indicating that she was just ten years old, which means the same thing no matter what her place of origin. His dimwitted nature continues to be entertaining, but I’m not sure how much more road this show has to travel.

What I’m Watching: The Detour (Season Finale)

The Detour: Season 3, Episode 10 “The Escape” (B+)

For a show that has felt relatively directionless in a very purposeful way, it was great to see a finale that provided a surprising degree of closure and then turned the plot in a whole new direction that I don’t think anyone saw coming. Knowing that there was a plan in place the entire time is reassuring, and adds layers to this comedy series that often felt like it was including events for no reason at all. The Japanese cowboys were pretty entertaining, and I immediately recognized the first one to appear’s quotes from “Toy Story.” It was amusing to see Nate get so into it before Robin realized that it was all fake, and they sure enjoyed themselves for a bit, drinking the butter-like alcohol naked in the hot tub and continuing to have sex when their kids came to talk to them. Opting to turn themselves in would have gone well if the three militia generals weren’t so trigger-happy, and a whole lot of people got arrested as a result. The montage of all the interviews they’ve been through over the past two years was cool to watch since it’s felt so endless, and we got a pretty cool reveal out of all of it: that Edie was actually Robin’s sister and just wanted to feel connected to her family after chasing her criminal father for so many years. And it was a nice way for Robin to get revenge on the sister she knew about for turning her into the authorities. To cap it all off, we learned why Delilah was always acting so strange thanks to clips of all the steps she was taking to create a new life and run away, determined not to be found. That caught me by surprise, and I’d love to see a season four where the Parkers and their newfound family member try to track down the daughter who might be even more cunning than her mother and grandfather.

Season grade: B+
Season MVP: Laura Benanti as Edie

What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 3, Episode 9 “The Funeral” (B+)

I watched this episode a few days ago, but I know that the season finale is airing less than two hours after this review posts. This season has felt like a rollercoaster, mainly because of its irreverence and uncertain plot direction, and I have no idea whether a fourth season is in the cards. On a show like this, it’s not as if it would offer any real resolution or anything close to that, but half-hours like this one demonstrate its capability for entertainment. Robin continued to be completely unsupportive of Nate’s heroic attitude when he crash-landed the plane in the woods, rolling her eyes repeatedly and refusing to endorse any of his notions. I liked that Nate made a list of things that could kill them which Jareb constantly wanted to add snakes to, and then couldn’t understand why quicksand was presented as a danger by Nate since it wasn’t on the list. The family debating identity politics while Nate was sinking was pretty hilarious, and naturally they all got stuck when they tried to help him. This was a wonderful example of drugs being taken as a vehicle for comedy, with Jareb purporting to be a time traveler because Nate was repeating himself and asking Nate to dare him to throw his leg off the mountain. Nate was smart to test Robin’s faculties by suggesting that she relax, and she took it much further by telling the kids that drugs were fine and then trying to have sex with Nate in front of them. Edie’s team is hot on the trail, and the fact that they think that the Parkers murdered Sleepy suggests what counts as an intense confrontation on this show in the finale.

What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 3, Episode 8 “The Plane” (B+)

We got a pretty quick answer to the question of what happened when Nate thought about going into Edie’s motel room to talk to her, as he saw that she was working with a federal agency to bring him and his family down and then promptly fell down the stairs trying to run away. There’s no denying the brilliance of Laura Benanti on this show, always committed so much to the idea of this dogged postal police officer determined to catch the perpetrators of mail crimes. The fervor with which she was eating during their conversation was incredible, and the few passionate kisses she planted on him and then blamed him for took him by surprise, but she wasn’t even fazed by them, just continuing on with her ravings. Once he got away from her, things didn’t improve all that much, since his hiring of a pilot named Sleepy produced predictable results. The Parker family is always on the brink of some major crisis, and potentially dying in a plane crash was just the latest of their antics. Nate, to his credit, did his best to paint a picture of what heaven could be, while the other three in the back were far less optimistic about their chances in the afterlife. I love that Robin chastised Nate for giving a speech while he was pretending to be a pilot, prompting a hilarious response from him that he was literally flying the plane. We’re getting closer to the end of the season and to seeing how this case pans out, which I imagine will be in favor of the Parkers given Edie’s rogue status and her use of an Alaskan militia to help with her off-the-books investigation.

What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 3, Episode 7 “The Water” (B)

Sometimes, not as much happens on this show as I’d like, but that doesn’t make the episodes any less entertaining. Flashing back to 2007 when Nate and Robin were vacationing in the Dominican Republic was helpful in providing context for why Robin would have thought that Nate stood her up on their wedding day, with a quick phone call from the non-husband at the end of the episode clarifying that this was in fact just a bit more background that didn’t turn out to be relevant at all. Robin sure was angry the whole time they were on the boat, and when she jumped into the water to save Nate, her attitude didn’t improve at all. It’s true that Nate is, or at least was, a relentless optimist, one who doesn’t really see how things are around him and instead just charges ahead. What we’ve seen of him has involved some true setbacks and absurd obstacles that don’t seem like they would befall anyone else, and at this point in his life he was just going to work all day, drinking at night, and occasionally spending time with his wife and two-year-old kids. I enjoyed Robin making his pro-con list for him, and then things took an unexpectedly sweet turn when she made her own pro-con list for herself and then ended up making up with Nate just before the boat miraculously returned. Nate’s call to Robin on their wedding day indicates that Nate likely went to talk to Edie about his love for Robin, prompting her to get jealous and put the arrest operation in motion. We’ll just have to wait until next week, though there’s no guarantee that will happen right away if further distractions are in the cards.

What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 3, Episode 6 “The Vows” (B-)

Is it fair to say that this show is going off the rails? Maybe. Things have gotten more than a bit crazy, and Nate is now just the stand-in for the audience, watching everything that goes on around him with shock and confusion. Gene showing up to pick him up was a surprise, and dousing him with gasoline as a cover-all to his alleged singles’ cruise activities was a pretty poor welcome-home gift. The video messages from Robin complaining about the negative temperatures and Delilah turning into a nightmare of a teenager were funny but also more than a bit exaggerated, as we’ve come to expect on this show. Why Robin would plan a wedding for literally the moment he got back was explained by her complete boredom and misery, and seeing how Delilah spoke to both her and Nate was reason enough for her going stir-crazy, though apparently they now have a huge house given to them by Robin’s father, who was absent from the wedding that Nate’s horrible mom decided to come to even tough a certain someone didn’t show up. After his ill-advised visit to the foxy hockey and equally stupid decision to get on the ice, Nate flashed back to negative memories of Robin and positive ones of Edie, leading to what surely wasn’t him knocking on Edie’s door to decide to abandon his wife-to-be. We’ll find out more about that next week, and for now we’ll just have to lament missing Jareb’s apparently hilarious joke that required such an extended pause for laughter in exchange for a peculiar and relatively inappropriate flash mob.

What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 3, Episode 5 “The Boat” (B-)

More than anything this season, we’re seeing our characters experience delusion and see other people’s faces when they’re talking to them. So much for Edie’s investigation and getting close to Nate, who was so excited to see Robin at the end of the last episode but now just left her for nearly a year to go work on a fishing boat. Leave it to him to not ask any questions about the salary of “up to” $150,000, resulting in him nearly throwing up every day and experiencing a whole lot of cabin fever for a pretty low salary that definitely wasn’t worth that much. The crystal meth also contributed considerably to the whole thing, helping him to hallucinate his children when he was trying to cheer himself up with some high quality visioning. This show must be a lot of fun to film, particularly in this episode when Robin stood in for his opponent and then got replaced by Vanessa when Nate heard him challenge his dedication to his family. I’m not sure what episodes like this really accomplishes, though I suppose the idea is that there are infinite detours on their path towards prosperity and happiness and, eventually, their latest arrest and court case. I prefer the antics back on land, if not the mainland, with the whole family together and Edie getting closer and closer to taking down the Parker family once and probably not for all. We still have the season left, so let’s get things as focused as they can be on this singularly derailed show.

What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 3, Episode 4 “The Goal” (B+)

It’s hard sometimes to understand how this show is narratively constructed, but that doesn’t stop it from being very entertaining on a regular basis. I loved that this episode was told from the perspective once again of Edie, who of course would be wearing a shirt that said “Ass Coach” since that was the appropriate abbreviation for her assistant position. She’s definitely gone way over the line in her relationship with Nate, falling for him to the point that she was singing a love song straight to him, something that both of his kids caught onto, and she was having a very vivid sex dream about Nate that had her making quite a bit of noise in the same room as all the kids. Setting this in Alaska with Nate and Edie drinking outside while it was very bright in the middle of the night helped to make it all seem even more ridiculous than usual. Edie’s dream was great, painting Robin as a needy wife who couldn’t compare in any way to Edie. Robin showing up at the end for Nate to run into her arms while she was trying to serenade him seemed to sting a lot, and I think that’s going to be the turning point in this investigation, prompting Edie to be less favorable in her treatment of the Parker family. For physical comedy, nothing beats Jareb falling repeatedly on the ice because he couldn’t remember to take off his skate guards and then still wasn’t able to stand up and move properly on the ice.

What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 3, Episode 3 “The Mark” (B)

Only on this show could a kid be elected mayor of a town – succeeding an alpaca – and still have to be told by his father that they can’t afford to buy milk unless he does something to change the financial budget to help the cost go down. Edie was right that targeting the stupidest member of this family is a tough choice since they’re all pretty unintelligent. Robin wanting to get her tongue pierced and then pulling away so that she could spit a whole lot of blood into Nate’s mouth was probably the grossest moment of the episode, though watching him take a bite of the giant ant-infested tomato that would later kill the alpaca mayor was a close second. Somehow he always manages to be the brunt of the worst physical things, though he took a pretty harsh verbal beating from Mason after he did nothing but managed to be relatively polite to his daughter’s new boyfriend, and he even apologized anyway after doing nothing wrong. Naturally, professional backflipper Jareb would realize that alpacas weren’t adept at that particular sport and would suggest having an oat-eating competition instead, something that put him at a considerable disadvantage. I’m thrilled that Laura Benanti has officially been promoted to series regular, and now she’s going to have to pretend to be able to skate after volunteering to be his assistant coach so that she can get close to the man who may not be the stupidest member of the family but is definitely the unluckiest.

What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 3, Episode 2 “The Stop” (B)

It’s hard to judge this show like any of the others that I watch since it’s so completely ungrounded in anything coherent, but that doesn’t mean it’s not entertaining. While I am a big fan of both kids, I still contend that this is an incredible showcase for the incomparable Natalie Zea, who had a lot of fun in this episode coming home very drunk from her job and trying to have a good time with Nate without correctly comprehending how all that works. His jealousy over Big Papa having a personalized ringtone while he just had the panic alarm wasn’t terribly justified thanks to the revelation that he didn’t understand the situation at all, something that had been hinted when the usually dumb Jareb was trying to describe a gender-identity situation that Nate wasn’t even fathoming at all. Jareb was strangely smart in this episode, realizing that the pancakes weren’t rocket-shaped as his father claimed and embarking on a new relationship with his pronoun-specific girlfriend. As is typically the case, Delilah was on her own planet, coming to terms with her body and picking exactly the wrong moment to go try to bond with her dad as the proper parent to guide her through all of the changes that were happening to her. Nate didn’t recognize the Edie who had been asking a lot of questions about him at the bar at the end of the episode, but I for one am thrilled that the enterprising mail police agent, who is theoretically acting on her own, has already arrived to track down the banes of her existence.

What I’m Watching: The Detour (Season Premiere)

The Detour: Season 3, Episode 1 “The Run” (B)

I was very happy to learn that this show was coming back so early in the year since it’s a series that I completely forget about when it’s not on. I will admit that it’s lost some sense of its direction if it ever had one, with Nate, Robin, and family on the run for truly unknown reasons and with no endgame in sight other than to lie their way through absurd shenanigans at every turn. Collecting license plates from strip club parking lots has taken them to crazy places, and now they’ve arrived in Alaska to pretend to be Irish Jews. Nate posing as a fancy pants rollercoaster designer threatened to blow his cover when he had to save a bunch of kids (and adults) trapped on a rollercoaster and the people who said they all lied about things didn’t comprehend that he had in fact lied about his occupation (and Robin’s since she is most definitely not a medium who could communicate with the very dead Gus). Jareb giving himself away by celebrating with his real name was funny, and he continues to be one of the best parts of the show. The cop realizing that it’s not an either or on whether to save the kids or the one person was entertaining, but my favorite part had little to do with any of the goings-on in Alaska since Laura Benanti’s obsessed and apparently fired Agent Edie happened to see the news footage of Nate’s lucky miracle and is now on to them, possibly pregnant and definitely determined.

What I’m Watching: The Detour (Season Finale)

The Detour: Season 2, Episode 12 and 13 “The Mule” and “The Ass” (B+)

Midway through the second of these two episodes, when all of this Cuba absurdity was at its height, I was thinking that we hadn’t seen the mail police for a while, which was a shame. And not a minute later, we saw Laura Benanti’s Edie and Mamoudou Athie’s Carl again, chanting “Mail! Mail! We will not fail!” I think the mail police has been my favorite part of this season, though I think that the show also evolved well and continued its exploration of its two central characters and their relationship. Nate putting on an Australian accent and claiming that he couldn’t be racist was a funny start to their adventures in Cuba, and his complete inability to understand Spanish and social cues, like thinking that people holding up their hands to stop him meant that they wanted him to pay five dollars for whatever they weren’t selling was great, as was his completely misunderstanding of the bull explosion that nearly claimed his life. There were some superb comic moments throughout it all, like Nate crashing the boat into the dock, saying “I don’t do yoga, I work,” and getting electrocuted a whole lot after making it over the fence. Nate washing himself with the soup was also pretty memorable. After everything, Robin still had to contend with the disappointment of her children and husband after she blew up Saddam’s ass and ruined the possibility of them living in Cuba, something that they tried to do but failed miserably at. JR setting up his other daughter to take the fall was an interesting twist, and as the end of the episode indicated, we’re not close to done with all this interviewing. I eagerly look forward to season three, which was announced well in advance of these season-ending episodes.

Season grade: B+
Season MVP: Natalie Zea as Robin/Laura Benanti as Edie