The Holiday Party
Season 2
Episode 7
Editor’s Rating
4 stars
****
Photo: Apple TV+
Last week, I suggested that the season was at a pivotal point, transitioning away from Will as the primary narrative driver and centering Sylvia and Charlie’s storyline for the second half of the season. “The Holiday Party” seems to support that idea, ending on another Charlie-centric cliffhanger that leaves the road ahead unclear. Just two episodes ago, Will comforted Charlie during his midlife crisis, telling him he could drop lawyering and do anything he wanted. Now, Charlie seems to have taken that advice … a little too literally.
Let’s back up. Early on, the biggest issue of the episode is a classic sitcommy one: Sylvia and Charlie both desperately want Will to move out of their guesthouse, especially because their kids keep witnessing his hook-ups leaving in the mornings. (This guy fucks.) That includes Diane, the realtor who appeared on Katie’s podcast last week and is helping Will find a new place now.
In fact, Diane is kind of the MVP of this episode, beginning with her tour of the commercial space that could one day be Will’s Shitty Little Bar. (Credit co-creator Francesca Delbanco herself with the cheeriest delivery of the phrase “internment camp” I’ve ever heard.) The rent is cheap because it used to be Russell Brand’s vegan lounge, but it’s still not feasible for Will to spend money on this when he needs somewhere to live. By the end of the episode, though, he’s already asking Sylvia if he can stay in the ADU longer while helping her with work. The Shitty Little Bar could be coming together sooner rather than later.
Since basically leaving Jenna at the altar, we’ve seen Will in a more contemplative mode, evaluating what exactly he wants out of life. An amicable run-in with his ex-wife in this episode has the same thoughtful feeling. Will can’t help comparing himself to Audrey, whose career is flourishing. He wants to share his successes, but the bar is still “early in the process.” It’s not going to happen unless he makes it happen, and that means asking for help. As Katie says, “Don’t ask, don’t get.”
Case in point: Diane coming in clutch for Sylvia by securing La Cienega Haciendas for the titular holiday party. That event is the second biggest source of stress for her this week, following a therapy session with Charlie. She knows that there’s something he wants to discuss with her, and she knows that he wants his therapist there with him for it, but he won’t tell her what it’s actually about. It’s great that therapy has already helped him get back on track at work, but he’s on the verge of overdosing on therapy-speak (“foregrounded my perspective,” “possible negative feedback loops”).
Sylvia expects the worst, especially after hearing about Will’s bad experience with couples therapy. Katie’s predictions are even less reassuring. And the timing of the session, while excellent for TV-making chaos, really isn’t ideal for Sylvia. It’s the same day as the holiday party, right when she’s in the middle of transporting chairs that were sent to the wrong address. Then again, maybe those obligations give her the excuse she secretly wants to miss therapy.
Will does Sylvia a solid by delivering the chairs himself so that she can get to the session she’s been dreading, scraping up the Lucky Penny truck pretty bad in the process (and failing to crush a photo-snapping delivery robot, heating up their season-long war). But she only arrives in the last few minutes following an embarrassing FaceTime attempt, leading to a testy few interactions with Dr. Melfi (Paul Lieberstein, far more aggressive here than as Toby Flenderson) and with Charlie himself.
Season two has done a good job building to this point. We’ve seen multiple instances of Sylvia unintentionally trivializing her husband’s experiences, and her consistent lateness is annoying, especially when it’s a result of anxious-avoidant tendencies. That said, I find it hard not to empathize with her in this episode with how much she has going on. You can see how much she loves her life with Charlie despite the temptation to self-sabotage. He even acknowledges that he probably shouldn’t have scheduled this on the same day as the holiday party.
The party itself goes well, and Sylvia even lands her next client through Stewart’s friend Carrie (Aidy Bryant, the latest SNL alum to appear this season). There’s a corny video made by Charlie and his coworkers to send off Frank (Michael Kostroff, still playing lawyers 20 years after his first appearance on The Wire) playing on Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” But then Charlie makes an announcement after Frank’s speech: He’s also retiring.
Everybody seems bewildered by this news, his own wife most of all. It’s clearly not something he discussed with anyone, even Dr. Melfi — he just decided this today. And the episode doesn’t just leave us there with that bombshell as the cliffhanger. We see Sylvia and Charlie’s conversation at home afterward, with her explicitly calling it “reckless and half-baked” and reminding him of their upcoming expenses. But Charlie dismisses her concerns, insisting that he needs this after realizing how unhappy he has been in this static life. He feels free now, and how can she deny him that?
I understand where Charlie is coming from mentally here, but it’s still hard to view this choice as anything other than rash and even selfish, especially when he didn’t consult Sylvia before publicly announcing the news. Maybe therapy has taught Charlie to prioritize self-care and think more deeply about what he really wants in life, but Sylvia isn’t a villain, no matter what Dr. Melfi might say. Like Will and like Charlie himself, she’s just trying to figure out what she wants her life to look like. That’s what Platonic is all about.
• Didn’t touch much on the actual comedy this time, but for some reason, it’s hilarious to me how dedicated Will is to moving his mugs off Sylvia’s coasters. That’s a level of pettiness I can respect.
• Will-and-Katie Watch: Katie is helping Will set up a dating profile, so apparently they’re just bonding as pals for now. But it’s notable that he compliments her inane motto and calls her “wise.”
• “I’m showing a Venice Beach duplex to a celebrity who I can’t name, but it rhymes with ‘Schmarlize Theron.’” This type of joke always reminds me of Fred Melamed’s appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
• “People kept saying Harry Styles was there, but I think it was just, like, another balding guy in a dress.”
• Loved seeing Rose Byrne turn on the lilting American accent for her impression of the hostesses at La Cienega Haciendas.
• Will has five slaps on Snurf, a dating app where “if you match with someone, you send each other postcards for two weeks, and then if you agree to meet IRL, you are guaranteed to fuck.”
• Nice bit of continuity with Will explaining why Sylvia probably has nothing to worry about: “You guys fuck a lot.”
• Only Sylvia understands how miraculous it is that Charlie’s therapist is named Dr. Melfi. Not sure it would take her this long to realize that, though, even if Charlie is pretty new to therapy.
• This is a very 2010s episode between the needle drops (Passion Pit’s “Carried Away” and Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!”) and Sylvia’s struggle to turn off the animal face filters.
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