3x09 The Affair

[6.3/10] This was a rougher outing for Schitt’s Creek. Really, any Roland-heavy episode is a bad idea, and this one, with a half-baked quasi-affair storyline was a worse one.

The thing is that the audience knows Moira would never sleep with Roland, no matter how drunk she became, so the whole conflict rings false from the beginning. Sure, it’s fun to see Moira excited about her victory at the Municipal Conference and being good at her job, and there’s something interesting about Roland clearly being jealous of it. But the idea that this would culminate in some sort of almost affair not only seems absurd but seems disconnected from the setup.

The conversations back in Schitt’s Creek between Johnny and Jocelyn and Moira and Roland are no better. It’s the sort of broad, sitcom-y trope that the show devolves into sometime, and it can’t wring anything good from it.

The catch is that the other half of the episode is perfectly good. While Alexis is a little annoying here, I like her having learned all these economic terms and trying to apply them in regards to David’s business. It’s a fun bit. I also like things advancing with David and Patrick. Patrick clearly flirting with David and David not quite knowing what to do with it except roll with it is unassumingly cute. There’s some good potential conflict with the two of them as both romantic interests and business partners, and I like the idea that David knows taste-making with his local product consignment shop and that Patrick knows business with his license forms and grant application.

Overall, this is the weakest episode of the season, sunk mostly thanks to a poor attempt to generate anything out of the Moira/Roland situation beyond a passing gag.