When cold-as-freezer-burn Justin becomes the supporter and Lee, the suave, endearing boyfriend, becomes the overly aloof one in one breath while we are being set up for a very obvious and cliché storyline in another, this was one of the more entertaining episodes of this season. I’ll put my dismay at the prospect of Justin and Mary Jane hooking up aside, for now. But for Lee, I don’t believe there is enough air for me to suck between my teeth to express the exasperation with his actions or lack thereof.
Last week, M.J. cleared it through meeting Lee’s children, and this week, she’s now meeting the “baby mama” and ex-wife, Zoe. An already awkward situation is knocked up a few levels because not only is Zoe the gorgeous and successful mother of Lee’s children, but she’s also uncomfortably comfortable with a man who’s her ex. Zoe and Lee are so close, he tells her about his first-night encounter with Mary Jane, but he fails to advise Zoe that bringing it up when being introduced to Mary Jane is a bad idea.
“We tell each other most everything” is Lee’s response, as if that makes it OK for him to share intimate details about his girlfriend with his ex-wife. Mary Jane is feeling insecure and wondering why Zoe and Lee aren’t still together. But things get cleared up real quick when Zoe reveals that she left Lee for a woman, and she does this by kissing Mary Jane on the lips.
Later, Lee goes for a full, out-of-bound violation with a comedy set based on his interaction with Mary Jane’s family; even the British accent can’t make that sound sweet. Lee is giving me all of the Pisces vibes as he whispers hot air of nothingness, waxing poetic with words that don’t actually make sense. But he makes them sound good enough for you to accept in the moment that when it comes to the two things M.J. cares about, marriage and children, he admits that at least one of those he does not see as necessary.
At least one person finds the sense he allowed to, briefly, slip out of his hands. P.J. gets conned by his boss’s daughter, Ava, in crossing lines he definitely knew better than to cross. How did Ava take pictures of him and his lady friend in bed without either of them hearing anything? The stealth of that child is creepy, but so is her mother’s attraction to P.J., which is ultimately what Ava uses to con P.J. into allowing her to have a party at her mother’s luxury apartment.
In a city where “designer drugs” are a socially acceptable and super-accessible thing, an apartment full of unsupervised, partying, wealthy teenagers is the most obvious recipe for disaster, ever. However, P.J. recovers nobly from the fallout from a 16-year-old girl overdosing at the party and Ava’s mother attempting to play the sympathy card to come on to him. He severs his ties with her and returns the Rolex.
Is Kara freaking out with Orlando because she’s a commitment-phobe, or does she still have that hang-up about being with a Latino man? Whatever it is, Kara is using the fact that Orlando is getting close to her son over Snapchat as the cover for her prickliness with Orlando, when really it’s her grappling with falling for a guy she never intended to fall for. But Kara just might have bagged a famous baseball player who’s stepped up to the plate and suggested they try monogamy. Is monogamy a relationship, though? Be adults, Kara and Orlando, put a title on it and flourish.
Justin’s source leads him to the man who alleges that Supreme Court nominee McAllister knowingly wrongfully convicted him. In secret, Justin works with M.J. to produce an interview segment that is fraught with high emotion, sure to garner high ratings and become a major story when a response that impacts the Supreme Court is yielded. Garrett knows this when he sees the clip and, as expected, immediately rolls it over to Ronda, except this time M.J. threatens to walk from the show if she, again, loses a story she worked on to Ronda. With Justin backing up M.J. with the threat that he’ll walk, too, if they lose the story, Garrett acquiesces.
The Wiz must really be real, since he apparently granted Justin a heart and a strong serving of integrity. That is the only thing that can explain Justin now really taking a stand for Mary Jane and asserting that she can make it to the top. We have the first big win over Ronda, who is pushing toward outlandish levels of petty in her quest to undermine M.J. Ronda really needs to get a new hobby. Is Good Day USA the only top-rated news show on all the channels?
Of course, Mary Jane cannot have it all or even have some semblance of peace in all aspects of her life. So here comes Zoe, at their final dinner before she returns to London, requesting that her ex-husband, Mary Jane’s boyfriend, be a sperm donor for her and her girlfriend because Lee is already the father of her two children and Zoe wants her child to be connected to his or her siblings in some way. Because Lee still sees Zoe as his best friend, someone he clearly is still in love with, M.J. is now going to have to sit through Lee considering Zoe’s request. Who we thought was a dazzling knight in shining armor, bringing an armistice to M.J.’s love life, might be an emotionally stunted man she might need to leave at the door. Poor Mary Jane.