The first season of You’re The Worst ended on a hopeful but uncertain note: Jimmy and Gretchen were committed and embarking on a cohabitation experiment; Jimmy and Gretchen were also both visibly wary of their decision, perhaps signifying a storm on the horizon.
Yet, things are going surprisingly well for the perfectly imperfect couple. Jimmy and Gretchen have naturally eased into living together — likely because they are spending their time staying awake all night, doing coke (and each other), and going on massive benders. They are in the honeymoon period of moving in together, when everything is fun and like one giant booze-soaked sleepover with your equally fucked-up best friend. Edgar is the only one disappointed in this arrangement; Jimmy and Gretchen keep him up all night even though he has a job to go to in the morning (“You have a job?!”). Edgar has some other problems though: He has feelings for Gretchen’s best friend Lindsay, who has recently broken up with her nerdy husband Paul, but doesn’t know what to do about it.
The biggest problem for Jimmy and Gretchen, however, is that they soon start to individually believe that they are partying a little too hard and that it’s trickling into their lives outside the apartment (such as Gretchen sleeping through a lunch and being woken up in her office). Neither of them wants to admit it, of course, because they’re both still scared of falling into a mundane couple routine, and of becoming boring “sweater people” who sleep early and have their cell phones on the same family plan.
It doesn’t help that Lindsay pushes Gretchen in the hard-partying direction because of her own insecurities about her failed marriage and the boredom that pushed them through the final moments. She doesn’t want Gretchen to have the same fate but she also, secretly, wants to live a little vicariously through Gretchen’s weird, druggy, fun-loving, lightly destructive relationship with Jimmy. Both girls are scared of becoming “old, gross, and boring.” But Lindsay offers Gretchen a solution: just do some “butt stuff” with Jimmy tonight.
“The Sweater People” Pictured: (l-r) Desmin Borges as Edgar Quintero, Kether Donohue as Lindsay Jillian. CR: FX
Over in Lindsay’s life — I love how seamlessly You’re The Worst transitioned from a romantic-comedy to an ensemble comedy — Paul is coming over to pick up some stuff and reveals that he’s about to meet his chatroom girl IRL for the first time. Lindsay cons him into believing he needs a makeover (he looks like a “young Roger Ebert”) but then ends up sleeping with him, mistakenly believing that they’re going to rekindle their relationship. Instead, Paul freaks out about cheating on the other woman with Lindsay, leaving Lindsay devastated and, later, drinking and wailing on the garage floor while wearing her wedding dress. Edgar shows up to comfort her — awww — and the two get rid of Paul’s stuff … except Paul’s sperm, which Lindsay creepily saves in the freezer. Can’t wait for that to pop up later in the season!
Back to Jimmy and Gretchen: Unable to convey to each other that they want to take the time to chill out, the two settle on “drugs and potentially dangerous sex,” snort lines of coke, and wake up after stealing a DVD rental kiosk. The next night, at a bar, they end up competing with some younger patrons who scoff at Gretchen and Jimmy’s “wild” night out with alcohol. Not to have these young’ns out-cool her (“I’ve been doing drugs since I was nine,” Gretchen says), Gretchen convinces Jimmy to pay for two pills: a new Belgian synthetic drug used to chemically sterilize horses. One thing leads to another, and the couple wakes up after stealing and crashing a Zoiddle (see: Google) car.
They finally realize that they need to be honest with each other about what they want, even if means sounding like an old and/or boring couple. Jimmy agrees to read a book in bed while Gretchen goes to sleep early. But after a sitcom-y good night smooch that stops them dead in their insecure hearts, they head back out to the bar — but clear liquids only.
You’re The Worst Season 2 has a lot to live up to after its nearly flawless first season but it’s already started off strong with showing Gretchen and Jimmy’s reluctant introduction to honesty and domesticity while also playing up their hedonism that drives so much of the series.