YOU'RE THE WORST Is About "Fists and Feet and Stuff"

Article first published as 'You're the Worst' Season Finale Review on Blogcritics.


FX’s You’re the Worst stars the best four-man comedy team since Seinfeld went off the air. This week’s first season finale, “Fists and Feet and Stuff,” picks up not long after the group had imploded two weeks earlier (last week was mostly flashback), all four of them separate and alone and miserable. It is inevitable that they must come back together, as they all belong together, but the question is how it will happen and what their quartet will ultimately look like.

Becca (Janet Varney) and Vernon (Todd Robert Anderson) throw a party, the vehicle for the reunion. It’s funny that they are the two doing so because they sure want to be included in something, but aren’t a part of the main ensemble in You’re the Worst, nor does it look like they have a core gang of pals. Their wedding is also the setting of the pilot, the place our romantic leads, Jimmy (Chris Geere) and Gretchen (Aya Cash), first meet, so there’s a beautiful symmetry in bringing us back to the kooky, recurring players now.

As viewers may remember, Gretchen breaks up with Jimmy because she finds an engagement ring in his drawer. She is terrified of commitment, and they haven’t been dating that long. She doesn’t feel like she knows Jimmy very well, and she probably doesn’t, though the audience won’t expect Jimmy to make such a gesture, and as one might surmise, it’s actually left over from when Jimmy dated Becca. But while the catalyst for the split may not be anything new, their relationship is a fresh take on the romantic comedy, so they must reunite.

The other two leads, Edgar (Desmin Borges) and Lindsay (Kether Donohue), are also in a bad place. Lindsay has found her sex addiction again, causing her to cheat on her boring husband, Paul (Allan McLeod), and Edgar, despite getting a job, is living in his car. Neither Edgar nor Lindsay are happy with Jimmy and Gretchen, respectively, so it’s all quite a big mess, that of course comes to a head with fisticuffs and secrets coming out and chaos.

At the end of the climax, most of the party-goers leave disgusted not only with the hosts, but also with our central foursome. That’s OK. At least three of them are the worst, as the title indicates, Edgar excepted. But while they may not be right for society at large, they are right for each other. That’s not say they treat one another the way they deserve be treated, but there is love there, and at the end of the day, they will each overcome their failings in order to make things right with their friends. This group can never be apart for long.

One wonders if Lindsay and Paul might reunite. She dumps on him for so long that he’s fully justified in calling things off. But Lindsay has never been good at letting go of things, even those she doesn’t really want in the first place. I could see You’re the Worst trying to get them back together, and I sort of hope this happens. “Fists and Feet and Stuff” dangles the possibility of a Lindsay / Edgar hook up instead, but I don’t think either character is anywhere near ready for that, a possibility best preserved until Jimmy and Gretchen work their stuff out first.

As the episode winds down, Gretchen turns down Jimmy’s offer to live together, only to be forced to take him up on it after burning her apartment down. This isn’t exactly the way things are supposed to happen, but it seems right for the two, an unconventional pair if ever there was one. Would it have taken something on the level of a fire to get them to ever move forward? Might one argue that Gretchen subconsciously started the flame in order to push herself along? One may never know, but it doesn’t matter. The last shot, their faces full of dread as the fantastic theme song starts up again, is ripe with promise. What matters is we get to see them take this messed up relationship to a whole new level, assuming the series is renewed, which I sure hope happens.

You’re the Worst is excellent from start to finish, without a single bad episode in the ten-week run. It is funny and smart and fresh, each half hour providing rich characters and new twists on classic situations. It’s hard to do the rom-com in any way that doesn’t seem tired these days, unless it just oozes charm and cheese, but You’re the Worst manages it. It may be called You’re the Worst, but it’s kind of the best.