Season 1 Rewatch: 1x04 "Jason Mendoza"

[sorchasilver]

I'm so behind on rewatching already (it's deadline season at school, I've been dividing all my non-teaching time between the endless piles of paperwork and trying to get teenagers to hand in assignments), but I'm now off work for the next two weeks so I should be able to get caught up. I've been reading the discussion in the comments as the inbox notifications arrive, and enjoy seeing everyone's theories and ideas. I promise I'll break my vow of silence though! :D

Anyway, you know how it goes: watch the ep when you can, then come and share your thoughts in the comments.

Writer(s): Michael Schur (creator), Joe Mande
Director: Payman Benz
Originally aired: 29 September 2016

Synopsis:
Eleanor has a hard time remaining hidden; Michael asks Tahani to assist a neighbor in finding her true purpose.

Memorable Quote:
Jianyu Li: Everyone thinks I'm Taiwanese. I'm Filipino. That's racist. Heaven is so racist.

Useful Links:
Episode Transcript
IMdB entry

Comments

[enemyofperfect]

I love how Chidi writes his name on the blackboard for a class of one person who already knows him. It could just be habit, but given Eleanor, it might also... not?

It was especially fun to rewatch this Jason-centric episode after the discussion about him in the comments a couple of weeks ago. And Michael is clearly continuing to do an excellent job of torturing Tahani by setting her up to fail!

It was also interesting to see Jason's commitment to being his true self. When I'm playing with contrasts between characters, I tend to set his impulsive nature against Chidi's anxious inhibition, but for the first time, I can see how casting Jason and Tahani as opposites makes sense on a more than surface level.

Because it isn't just that she's rich and glamorous and he's neither of those things -- she's also willing to do almost anything to endear herself to others, while Jason explicitly rejects any praise that isn't for who he really is. ("These cheers are fake. They hit my ears like boxing gloves of sadness.") I can't help but feel like their dalliance in S2 helped her to decide that maybe she didn't need her parent's approval. Maybe in a later season she'll end up teaching him something Chidi can't?

And then going back to this episode -- I continue to love Michael's little alien quirks, and also how well Tahani rolls with them. And I love Patricia the chef! Fun side characters like this still make me sad that most of the neighborhood turned out to be demons.

[erinptah]

I like that point about Jason! And we get to see how that impulse goes bad when it disrupts his ability to protect his friends, both in the afterlife and in Earthside flashbacks.

Not a fan of the Jason/Tahani interlude, though. Especially since the show is so explicit about Tahani learning from Eleanor based on their platonic friendship. It just felt like the show was trying too hard to check off every possible m/f couple among the main group.

Agree that Patricia was great. I wonder if the restaurant scene was Michael's idea, or Patricia picked it herself? Even if the higher-ups thought this plan involved too much work for the sake of four humans, I feel like most of the demons had fun getting to take a break from standard torture and try new things.

And the "here's the custom-tailored favorite food of the person you definitely are!" gag never gets old.

[enemyofperfect]

In fairness to Jason, it seems like the person whose boat he blew up was less a friend and more an insulting employer who was also kind of scamming his own fans. Which doesn't make the speedboat demolition okay! But it leaves room for the possibility that Jason would at least have the kindness not to intentionally do that to someone he considered a friend.

I can't disagree about the show giving m/f romance more time than it really needs. I actually feel like season two even shorted the friendship between Eleanor and Tahani, let alone the attraction between them, and looking at it at that way, I could resent the Tahani/Jason scenes for getting in the way of that. But I have to confess, I did find that arc really charming for how warm and fun, yet not ultimately life-defining, it turned out to be.

I love the idea that Patricia was actively involved in planning her role! Vicky can't have been the only one who got invested in her character. I hope Patricia had fun with her part!

[erinptah]

What I got from it was that AcidCat (did we ever learn his wallet name?) was a fellow freelance DJ, just a more successful one. And bringing Jason in on a gig put Jason in a position to get money and experience that wouldn't have happened otherwise. The fans would've gotten the exact same experience regardless of who was under the cat mask, so it's hard to work up any anger on that count. It was all Jason who derailed the plan. (There's no follow-up on whether AcidCat got out of it unscathed, so his career might've taken a hit too.)

The whole restaurant/sinkhole incident is precipitated by Jason trying to do something similar -- reveal his true identity regardless of how it might screw things up for Eleanor. I don't know that he considers her "a friend" at this point...and to be fair, even by the end of s2, I'm not sure he actually understands that "horrible painful torture for the rest of eternity" is a real possibility here...buuuuuuuuut it's not a good look no matter how you slice it.

I feel you on the decline of Tahani-and-Eleanor =(

Given Chef Patricia's constant intense yelling about HOW GREAT THINGS ARE and HOW RELAXED SHE IS (and how poor Tahani finds it so unnerving, but it would be ungracious to complain!), I'm sure she had a blast.