On reflection, the fact that this is so clearly a bridge, part of an ongoing story without much resolution, is itself a good thing, I think. I firmly believe (as I’ve said before) that the reason the run of episodes from “Epiphanies” to “Captain’s Hand” is generally inconsistent and somewhat unsatisfying is that they were trying to make them largely standalone, to keep the show accessible to new viewers who might be checking it out because of the buzz and trying to keep the difficult-to-explain ongoing material to a minimum. (“Black Market” is obviously the worst of the bunch, cramming the plot and the entire emotional backstory into one frustrating hour.) After all of season one and the first half of season two, it’s clear the show doesn’t work very well in that mode. So seeing that this episode simply juggles a number of balls for its duration suggests they learned from that experience and that they’re back to stretching the story, letting the characters breathe while the plot unfolds more deliberately, which is how this show works best.
Of course, like I said before, the juggling does have to pay off eventually. If we see the threads being woven here turn into good stuff later, then this episode will improve in that context. If those threads get lost, then this was a waste of an hour. The point is, the fact that we’re anticipating payoff later, and that the show appears to be aggressively returning to its longform storytelling style, should be at least tentatively viewed as a positive development.
P.S. I’ll agree that the payoff of the Mommybuck thread needs to involve, in some fashion, the child not being around any more. However it happens, rugrat needs to evaporate.
