3x11 Stop Saying Lice!

[8.0/10] The cold opens and end tags are often where I get the biggest laughs from Schitt’s Creek, and this was no exception. The increasing, reciprocal freak outs between Johnny, David, Alexis over the discovery that Alexis has lice made for a hilariously constructed scene. Likewise, the gags stacked on gags of Johnny’s failed plaque for Moira’s garden were just uproariously funny, culminating in the reveal that the numbers on the engraving are Johnny's credit card number. It’s the kind of densely-layered humorous scene that I love.

But this episode works beyond its opening and closing status as a laugh factory. Again, I liked every story in here, and this had something unique or fun for each member of the Rose clan to do.

Let’s go from gentlest to the most deep. It’s pure comedy, but I got a big kick out of Johnny’s awkward interactions with the young couple whose sheets he was trying to change. The comedy of manners, where he doesn’t want to admit that he’s there because of a lice risk, but also isn’t good at coming up with other excuses and so just weirds out the couple, is superb. The final punchline, where the couple sympathizes with having a daughter with head lice only to react in shock when Johnny admits that his daughter is 28, is fantastic.

Alexis has a good outing here too! I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, that I don’t want this show to devolve into more romantic shtick with her, but this is the most I’ve liked her and Ted together. There’s an insecurity and vulnerability when she not so subtly intimates that she has a lice and is rummaging around the vet’s office for shampoo. But there’s also a more playful back and forth between them when Ted is combing the lice out of her hair. She’s genuinely complimentary of him, seeming to truly appreciate his kindness and not taking it for granted, while he’s a little more playful and apt to tweak her back a little. It’s an improvement in their dynamic, and I like it. Hell, it may even be enough to make me root for the two of them.

I also really enjoyed the David/Stevie storyline, as I am wont to do. As much as I once rooted for them to be a couple after their chemistry in the first season, I actually like them as snarky best friends even better. There’s something really amusing about David passive-aggressively critiquing Stevie’s apartment and about Stevie needling David over his obviously flustered and conflicted feelings about Patrick that comes from the pair’s great dynamic. Nobody takes the stuffing out of David like Stevie, and her and Patrick teaming up to do it over “body milk” and the like is even better.

But my favorite story in the whole thing is Moira’s, which centers on a garden being named after her. What i like about it is that there’s a great psychological progression to the whole thing. Initially, Moira is miffed and even vaguely insulted at the prospect that her “legacy” would be a piddling garden in a tiny town, politely declining the honor because she doesn’t consider it much of one. I really enjoy how that escalates when Johnny reveals that not only have other things named after Moira have been renamed since their fall from grace, but that he orchestrated this whole thing and even paid for it with the idea that it would soften the blow. Moira’s overreaction is a laugh riot, and Johnny tossing in the fact that Alexis has lice on top of it does it one better.
I really appreciate where this one ends up though. Jocelyn has stealthily become one of my favorite characters on the show, and I like what she does here. She not only gently helps Moira face the fact that this honor is not beneath her, that Johnny paying to have the garden named after her is not meaningfully different than trading philanthropy for naming rights, and most of all, that Johnny’s coming from a good place. The coconut macaroon example is characteristically ridiculous, but Jocelyn’s wisdom that it makes Johnny happy to do something that would make her happy is a really sweet nudge in the right direction from a friend. The story could use another beat, but it’s still a nice epiphany for Moira.

Overall, this one gets big laughs at the beginning and the end, has good stories for each member of the Rose family, and even works in some character development. Good stuff.