2 Broke Girls, S5E18 “And the Loophole”: A TV Review

So apart from Max heckling customers, which the show hasn’t used to grace a cold open in quite some time, and every character besides Han poking fun at the diner’s general hygiene, the typical setting of 2 Broke Girls has rarely been a source of specific humour in the way, say, Sacred Heart hospital was on Scrubs, et cetera. We generally know it’s a dump, but the joke doesn’t extend far beyond that.

Honestly, I didn’t even know what I was missing until I got a taste of it [pun only somewhat intended].

It all begins with Oleg calling out that a “tuna malt” is ready to be served, which is honestly such a ludicrous miscommunication that I couldn’t help but smile.

In addition to that there’s the blackboard of specials, which Max’s atrocious handwriting has turned into a list of food that is . . . well, not as special as Han would probably like. They feature such dishes as “Sloppy Jobs”-

-and “Pork Chips”-

-and while the characters kind of run them into the ground a little, they’re all pretty entertaining. Just having it say “desert” instead of “dessert” is funny, especially given that no one makes note of it. The Williamsburg Diner may be a disgusting establishment, but it’s nice to see that it can also be a place where incompetence is present in the food preparation and signage as well.

As for the actual episode itself, Ed Quinn’s Randy is back! I don’t mean to keep harping on how Max’s relationship with him had its parallels with her dating Deke, but this just proves how much the show is shying away from that approach. Not only did their breakup have a resolution, it turns out it wasn’t really the end! He’s back in New York and looking to start a little something. To skip to the end with this particular arc, after Caroline expresses enough concern to actually grill him in a mock trial he admits that he’s committing to staying in the city for one month to try to make things work. A surprising turn of events to be sure.

As for the rest of the episode, Caroline’s movie money finally comes in and the two girls decide to make their Dessert Bar a reality. This means finding some real estate as Han won’t let them expand their cupcake shop into the dish room. Not willing to leave them in the lurch, their boss decides to connect them with Evie [Camille Chen], a realtor who apparently digs him.

Now, this is something I could cover in-depth down below under the “The Title Refers To” feature, but I’ll do it now. Essentially Evie wants to remain a virgin until marriage, but wants to have sex anyway. Now I hate to say it [and to use a slightly NSFW gif after the jump you’ve been warned], but this is actually something that generally terrible show House of Lies did in its episode “Bareback Town”, and that it did pretty well-

They were in Utah. She’s a Mormon. It’s really not a great show.

-by which I mean to say that House of Lies was pretty crass about it, which it may actually need in this case. 2 Broke Girls makes a bit of a running joke about “loophole” rhyming with another word, you know the one, but generally is kind of tame about it. There’s no real reason for Han to be so reticent about it besides the fact that he’s a pretty emasculated dude. Either way the audience absolutely loved it.

In the end Han decides to let them expand into the diner, and even try a few new things with Evie [just hot yoga, guys]. It’s an episode with some pretty decent highs in the diner-specific-humour and Randy’s return more or less blindsiding me, contrasted with the lows of a lacklustre aaaah-anal-is-scary-and-gross subplot and some iffy race stuff I’ll mention below. In other words it’s standard fare for 2 Broke Girls, but ultimately better than most.

Also Sophie is more pregnant now I guess.

Current Total: $72.

New Total: $250,072. So yeah, that movie money 100% came in. I’m not sure they need all $250K as startup, but NYC’s an expensive place.

The Title Refers To: Anal. See above.

Stray Observations:

• “Aw Sophie, you’re showing! And this time it’s neither of your nipples.”
• The following line joins their crack about White Academy Award winners last week, which doesn’t seem like the sort of lowbrow humour they usually use and which gives me some hope for the show moving forard: “The baby kicks, so it’s either going to be a soccer player or a Los Angeles policeman.”

A Brief Break for Stray Asian Observations:

• “In my country we never comment on two things: women’s pregnancies or Kim Jong-un’s haircut.” Okay, so Han’s North Korean?
• Max quips “Did you say real estate Asian?” and I’ve literally never hated her so much.
• [As far as I can tell] Evie lustfully tells Han “nalang haja” [“나랑 하자”], which translates to “let me”. Han tells Caroline that it means “she wants [him] to come at her hard!”
• At Han and Evie’s exit Max asks “Where were Mickey and Minnie Mouse going?” and honestly what is that even supposed to mean? What the **** is that all about?

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Stray Observations:

• “She likes me, you shrews!” Han’s outburst made me chuckle.
• Randy utilizes “the ol’ Scooby-Doo-fake-footsteps” to trick Max into turning around.
• Apparently Max was once pregnant and actually delivered a baby. Either that or she’d eaten Chipotle. It’s your choice, “whatever makes ya sleep sounder, sweetheart.”
• Randy’s neck is muscular, but not too thick.
• I did kind of like Han’s explanation about Evie wanting to just have anal sex as: “Below the waist she’s like a mullet. Business in the front, party in the back!”
• On a somewhat similar note, on Max’s pros list Randy looks like a man from the front and the back.