The Big Door Prize S2E6: Back in the Saddle
Beau’s friendship with Mr. Johnson (Walt) wasn’t just a one-episode deal, as we open with a buoyant montage of them have wholesome, mostly-cowboy-themed fun together. It’s a nice setup that Door Prize immediately breaks down by smash-cutting to a crisis of confidence on Beau’s part. He knows Izzy’s offhand promotion to sheriff wasn’t real, but he admits to Walt he just needed something to keep him going after losing his job (not to mention his wife and then one of his sons), and doesn’t want people to see him as a joke.
And that seems to be the theme of season two, taking the more cartoonish of season one’s characters, and finding the pathos within. Beau seems to know he’s a one-dimensional character — loudmouthed, not terribly bright, and not equipped to deal with the losses he’s suffered. Even Walt originally recognizes his as “that kid who threw up at the botanical gardens.” That seems to be what Morpho knows him for as well, as his animation is just him throwing up over and over, taking out plants, arcade-game-style, with volleys of barf.
But Walt tells him to look on the bright side. The most embarrassing day of his life was decades in the past. Time to leave it in the past. With some encouragement from Trina (and open disgust from Jacob), he gets dressed up and decides to ask out the doctor he had flirted with when Walt was in the hospital.
Izzy, the narcissistic mayor, has also been fairly one-note, but since that note is her being passive-aggressive towards her daughter Cass, it always works. Being around someone who can’t resist tearing you down is, sadly, relatable to a lot of people. But the show needs Izzy to occasionally be around people other than Cass, so Walt ropes her into doing a “swim fit” class that his new physical therapist, Freya, runs. She acts like she’s too good to be in a public pool “with a bunch of geriatrics,” and Giorgio’s decidedly non-geriatric enthusiasm is less than convincing.
But Giorgio also mentions how much everyone loves Freya, and if there’s one thing Izzy can’t abide, it’s someone other than her getting attention or approval. So she tries showing off in the class, (she was a dancer, as she’s quick to remind everyone), but Freya’s having none of it, and quickly turns the tables on Izzy, criticizing her every move. Giorgio insists Freya’s flirting with her, and to our astonishment, Giorgio’s right. Maybe all Izzy needs is someone as strong-willed and hypercritical as she is.
And maybe we should start giving The Big Door Prize more credit for its characters. Beau’s date stands him up, which leads to a heart-to-heart with his son, with Jacob unsurprisingly being the more mature, reassuring one. But it leads Beau to opening up about his wife’s death, and Kolton’s, and it’s the biggest moment of understanding we’ve seen between the two.
That’s the not Door Prize plays over and over again that it always plays well — taking a sitcom-level comedic setup, or a broadly-drawn character, and then transitioning to a devastating emotional moment so effortlessly you hardly register the shift in tone. Until next week, when Cass is obsessing over 90s boy bands and Dusty can’t keep putting his foot in his mouth and the viewer’s convinced this is just a silly, lightweight show, so it can pull the trick all over again.
Stray potential:
• We also get a little of Dusty and Cass this episode. Alice asks Dusty to watch her dog, and Cass is naturally jealous, but has to put that aside when the dog goes into labor. It’s mostly an excuse for Dusty to be awkward and Cass to be jealous, but seriously, who leaves their about-to-give-birth pregnant dog with someone without giving them a heads up? Like the Beau storyline, it starts out silly and turns serious, as once again, the child has to be the adult in the room, as Trina confronts her parents about what exactly they’re doing with this separation. They don’t have any clear answers, at least not this week.
• Jacob also learns that Kolton got a Morpho card, which is still in the wallet Beau saved after he died. But we don’t yet know what it says.
