The Big Door Prize S2E5: Night Under the Stars

Dusty mentioned in passing in a past episode that he had a childhood interest in astronomy, so now he’s taking his class to look at the stars. Not in the actual sky, where they live, but projected onto the roof of Giorgio’s. It’s an excuse for Giorgio to annoy Dusty a bit, and to sow a little tension between he and Nat, as she’s not quite sure she’s ready to bring her daughter Savannah (who we haven’t yet seen this season) on an indoor family camping trip with her overeager fiancé.

Nat instead takes Cass and a reluctant and underdressed Hana to Oasis Funtime Parlor, a once-glamorous casino that they quickly realize has seen better days. Nat and Cass come up with silly fake personas for the evening complete with silly accents, and frankly, it’s good they brought Hana along to bring the silliness down to earth with the occasional wry aside.

Things don’t go well. Dusty’s star projector breaks down almost immediately, he lets it slip to Trina that he’s interested in Alice, and Trina is annoyed that Jacob’s now more interested in spending time with his pretentious new friend Trevor than with her. And Giorgio talks to Savannah and realizes that she’s fine with him dating her mom, and it’s Nat that wants to slow things down.

It turns out, Nat is worried Giorgio’s going to find out she’s deeply in debt after getting hooked on “online shopping,” which those of us who live in 2024 just call “shopping.” This leads to Nat revealing her Morpho animation, and while Door Prize’s formula of some silly shenanigans giving way to a big emotional revelation usually works quite well, Nat’s just such a thinly-drawn character that it doesn’t really work here. 

Thankfully, the show has a backup formula, which is to run through some satisfying emotional moments from the stronger members of the cast. Dusty, Trina and Jacob, Hana, and yes, Giorgio, who is cartoonish as ever and yet manages to have surprising depth every week this season. Which means there’s still hope for Nat.

Stray potential:
• Giorgio makes a self-promoting  poster for Night Under the Stars that inadvertently reads Giorgio’s N.U.T.S. We’re not above enjoying a little sophomoric humor.

• Giorgio’s Morpho animation was the classic arcade game Tapper, except with him serving spaghetti onto gondolas instead of pouring beer. “It definitely scraps my plans to have a gondola pasta delivery system.”