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Rooster<\/a><\/p>\n Nobody Spook It<\/p>\n \n Season 1<\/p>\n Episode 8\n <\/p>\n \n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n 3 stars<\/p>\n ***\n <\/p>\n \n As the fall semester begins to wrap up at Ludlow, mentorship is in the air. As the fall semester begins to wrap up at Ludlow, mentorship is in the air. Sunny and Walt chat about her job offer in New York, Dylan tries to convince Eva that she should stick with poetry, and Greg attempts to keep Tommy on an academic path. Colleges are great for these types of relationships, with older (and presumably) more knowledgeable adults using their insight, experience, and connections to mold and shape young minds. In this episode, Greg and Dylan get it right, but Walt fails to convince Sunny to do the smart thing. Okay, it\u2019s not entirely Walt\u2019s fault \u2014 he knows he can\u2019t make this decision for Sunny, so he gives her some mumbo-jumbo wisdom about how her life will be a series of tests \u2014 but IMHO, she fails this particular life test when she chooses Archie over her future. Also, I really wanted to see who the show might cast as Walt\u2019s old flame at Biotecha. Was it too much to ask that McGinley\u2019s TV wife, Christa Miller, step in for an episode or two? (Yes, probably. The woman is<\/a> very<\/a> busy<\/a>.)<\/p>\n I hate to say it, but the only thing currently working for me in the Sunny-Archie storyline is Sunny\u2019s bestie, Mo. Robby Hoffman has perfect comedic timing and is just overall excellent on this show, but her character\u2019s affinity for Sunny can\u2019t even make me care about what\u2019s going on here. This is all to say that I\u2019m upset with Sunny for choosing Archie over the possibility of starting an exciting career in the field she\u2019s passionate about. Sure, he leafed through a baby book and attended a single OB\/GYN appointment, but does he really care about Sunny, or does he care about the sex and attention? (It\u2019s definitely the latter.) When Sunny tells him about her job offer, he immediately thinks of himself, saying, \u201cBut that\u2019s not where I am.\u201d Not for one second does it cross his mind to relocate to allow Sunny to follow her dreams, and, in an even more depressing twist, Sunny knows that he\u2019d never consider it. Mo knows too, and that\u2019s why this gem of a friend shouts, \u201cHuge mistake! Take the job!\u201d I guess it\u2019s good that Sunny is staying because now we get more Robby Hoffman, and that\u2019s always a wonderful thing.<\/p>\n Elsewhere on campus, Dylan has identified Eva as a standout poet in her class. Her poem \u201cCherry Pop,\u201d written about taking Eli\u2019s virginity, is good enough to be published in the Ludlow Review, but Dylan wants Eva to explore a little more by getting more vulnerable. Eva eventually tells her that she doesn\u2019t want to spend any more time and energy on her poem because she can\u2019t be an artist; her dad expects her to go into a field with high-earning potential, so she needs to focus on that. Dylan is shook. I don\u2019t really know of any professors that would track down a student in their dorm room (is that even legal?), but, as we\u2019ve previously established<\/a>, the Bill Lawrence Cinematic Universe has its own kooky set of interpersonal rules.<\/p>\n When Dylan arrives at Eva\u2019s door, she\u2019s hotboxing her room in nothing but an oversize T-shirt. I love this girl, and I fully get why Dylan wants to mentor her. The two have a heart-to-heart at the diner, and Dylan tells Eva she\u2019s already an artist. Art can be something you do at any time! (Fun fact: Did you know that engaging with or creating art, even for just a few minutes a day, can exponentially increase your well-being<\/a>?) So even if Eva decides to become a \u201ccrypto bro\u201d (ew), she can still pursue something that she has a natural talent for. Dylan hands Eva a mock-up of the Ludlow Review and opens it to her poem. Once Eva sees her poem in print, her eyes light up like she\u2019s seen something truly magical. Long live physical media!<\/p>\n Greg has a bit more trouble with his mentee, especially thanks to interference from the bumbling Officer Rory. After Cristle returns from break, she enlists Greg to help with getting Tommy back on track. Tommy is thinking about quitting school, and this decision is expedited when Greg hands him back his most recent story, the paper scrawled with dreaded red ink. With only eight more days left in the semester, you\u2019d think that Tommy would decide to just stick it out, but he did just see his mentor\u2019s penis, so I\u2019m gonna cut him some slack. Speaking of, one of my favorite lines in the episode was when Tommy told Greg that he had enlisted a psych major to help him visualize Greg with no genitals. In Tommy\u2019s mind, Greg is just Ken<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once Tommy makes the decision to quit, it proves difficult for Greg to get him to reconsider. In an impressive twist, Tommy actually has a plan. Instead of finishing college, he\u2019s going to hang in town and become a cop. Honestly, college isn\u2019t for everyone \u2014 for example, people really sleep on trade schools \u2014 but Greg knows that Tommy has a spark of talent, and he wants him to keep at it. He also probably wants him to stick around for selfish reasons. At one point, Katie tells him that she knows Greg secretly wishes Tommy could be his son, to which Greg promptly replies, \u201cIt\u2019s not a secret.\u201d This made me simultaneously laugh and aww at the same time. He loves this kid, and he\u2019ll do anything to help him succeed.<\/p>\n Of course, before he can convince Tommy to stay, high jinks ensue. Tommy and Greg go on a ride with Officer Rory, but, other than the missing mascot costume, nothing particularly exciting is happening in town. Officer Rory has lost his gun, because of course he has, and he\u2019s looking all over town for it. Eventually, Tommy finds the gun \u2014 along with a dozen free glazed doughnuts \u2014 and delivers it to Officer Rory, who immediately fumbles it. The recurring gun gag is funny, but I am glad that they put it in a paper bag this time so we didn\u2019t actually have to see it being casually waved around.<\/p>\n Steve Carell has great chemistry with everyone on this show, but it\u2019s particularly excellent with Rory Scovel and Maximo Salas, so these scenes were a true delight. The wordless shot of the three guys enjoying doughnuts on their stakeout is worth a thousand hilarious words, and the back-and-forth where Greg attempts to get Officer Rory to convince Tommy to stay in college is very funny. Scovel and Carell always up the ante in their interactions; it\u2019s clear that they\u2019re having a great time playing off of one another. (I still laugh about their \u201ccop hawk\u201d exchange<\/a> sometimes.) I especially love how Greg presents him with the \u201cGet Out of Jail Free\u201d card from earlier in the season, saying, \u201cI am giving you that meaningless thing,\u201d while asking him to do him a solid. Eventually, Officer Rory does give in and tells Tommy about some of the \u201cbad\u201d aspects of his job, like his penchant for repeatedly pulling over a guy who bullied him in high school just so he can feel alive. As he\u2019s getting into the darker stuff, the stolen Ludlow mascot appears in front of them, and Tommy and Greg chase it. Officer Rory can\u2019t figure out how to get the car going, which is amusing because it turns out that the keys were in the ignition and it was on the whole time. I usually get annoyed by people who are bad at their jobs on TV shows, but Scovel\u2019s performance is so winning that I can\u2019t help but chuckle every time his character does something dumb.<\/p>\n The guys reveal that the mascot has been stolen by none other than Pig Tits, er, J.D. Tommy lets his friend off the hook, telling him to run, and recovers the mascot head. After Greg catches his breath, he and Tommy have a heart-to-heart. Tommy finally reveals to Greg that he was most discouraged by all the red comments Greg wrote on his story. Then, Greg quotes some of Tommy\u2019s writing back to him, which, for a writer, is right up there with seeing your work in print. Tommy beams, and when Greg tells him that he thinks he could really be a good writer with some work, the kid shines like the sun. Crisis averted, Tommy agrees to stay at Ludlow.<\/p>\n The next day, Greg\u2019s fake son runs into his real daughter and they chat. I love that Tommy and Katie have a sibling rapport even though they\u2019re totally not siblings at all. Tommy tells Katie that Greg is the best, and Katie considers this information. Throughout this episode, Greg has noticed that Katie is in a funk, but she won\u2019t tell him why. She even goes so far as to pretend that she\u2019s on a date at a hockey game. (Poor Hunter takes Katie\u2019s nonconsensual head-on-shoulder move very well.) But Tommy\u2019s praise of her dad has her seeing things in a different light. At the end of the episode, she knocks on her dad\u2019s door and she starts to tell him what\u2019s been going on with her. As the credits roll, we don\u2019t hear what they\u2019re saying, we just see Greg listening, lovingly and attentively, as his daughter lets it all out. It\u2019s a sweet moment, made even more poignant by the fact that the audio cuts out. There is truly nothing that Katie could tell Greg that would make him love her any less. He\u2019ll be there for her, listening and loving, always.<\/p>\n \u2022 Tommy mentions to Katie that his dad doesn\u2019t give a shit, and this seems to be the catalyst that makes her decide to go see her dad. But honestly, it feels like Katie\u2019s mom doesn\u2019t give a shit. Where was Elizabeth on Thanksgiving? Did she even call her daughter? I\u2019m liking Elizabeth less and less, and she hasn\u2019t even been onscreen in three episodes.<\/p>\n \u2022 Katie, spilling truths about Rudolph and Santa: \u201cLike, so what if he\u2019s different? Is Santa saying he can\u2019t be a part of the team, like Santa is so perfect? Santa is a fat fuck.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 I adore that Spooner is still calling Greg \u201cGrg.\u201d It makes me laugh every single time.<\/p>\n \u2022 Oh, Greg and his hot chocolates. At least they\u2019re in-season now!<\/p>\n Sign Up for the Vulture Newsletter<\/p>\n Entertainment news, for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n
\n Photo: HBO\n <\/p>\n