4x10 Baby Sprinkle

[7.4/10] There’s one triumphant dramatic storyline here, one very funny comedic storyline, and one downright baffling comedic storyline here. The result is a strange neapolitan ice cream of an episode, but one that largely works.

The baffling storyline is Moira and Johnny attending some kind of older person dating night for research purposes. I’m not sure what the point of it is or what the joke is supposed to be. Is it to show reciprocal jealousy in Johnny and Moira after claiming they’re so secure? Is it the wacko daters? It feels like a random, aimless dose of nothing, and I’m not sure I even chuckled at it.

The comedic storyline that soared was David throwing a baby shower for Jocelyn. It’s not clear to me why Jocelyn would ask David to do that (Why not Moira? Or Ronnie? Or Twyla? Or someone else she actually interacts with?), but “because it’d be funny to have David having to throw a baby shower” is a good enough answer I suppose. His complete lack of understanding of how a shower differs from the demands of a regular party, and his being aghast at what the Schitts have done with their home thus far is a regular set of laughs. David’s reactions in general, especially when Patrick points out the flaws in his plan, are especially funny here. And I love love love that the baby game they play is “toss the pill in Mommy’s mouth,” a darkly funny play on a game David and Alexis apparently actually used to play.

The quality dramatic storyline comes when Alexis chooses her self-actualized life in Schitt’s Creek over the prospect of rejoining her former life via an old friend who comes storming into town. What I like about this storyline is that its mostly understated. It’s a version of the story in the season 2 finale, where Johnny and Moira run into their old friends and decide their new life is better. But while I loved Johnny’s speech there, I really like that Alexis doesn’t have a speech here.

We get her internal state from the restrained, hauntingly-lit walk she takes through the hotel. We see it in her glance down at the business cards which signify what she’s made of herself in the absence from that life. And we see the way her supposed friend is ready to throw another A-named buddy under the bus at every opportunity, the sort of loyalty that “Lex” knows to expect from that set. What Alexis is choosing and not choosing is still very clear, and even heavy-handed in what the alternative looks like, but this subplot is still a nice way to dramatize her growth since the series began.

Overall, there’s some hits and misses here, but the hits prevail.