Just
like that, we're more than halfway through the first season of "Recapping One Day at a Time".
We'll be through this series in no time at all. And because it's been renewed by Netflix for
a third season, we'll be revisiting this series sometime next year! How cool is that?
I
hope you've been enjoying this series as much as I have. We're on Episode 7 -
Hold, Please. And while the plot might seem like a dull
one, there are a LOT of secrets revealed within the Alvarez family. Consider this to be an episode of truths, so
to speak.
And we begin with one harsh truth for a lot of veterans who have come home from
combat. Penelope is on hold with
Veterans Affairs - an organization designed to help veterans book medical
appointments and counseling services - and based on the fact that she has
snacks around her and an entire load of laundry to fold, I take it that long
waits on the phone are common.
Penelope's shoulder is acting up and she needs to book an appointment to
get it looked at because if she doesn't, she will be in tremendous pain.
Now
granted, if we were to sit and watch Penelope scarf down Cheetos and gummi
bears while waiting for someone to pick up the phone, it would be a boring
episode, so we have to have some B-plots to keep the episode going. For instance, Lydia is annoying Elena with
the insistence that she choose an escort to take with her to her quinces. Elena wants to make the decision herself
without any pressure, but Lydia keeps shoving her yearbook in her face
pressuring her to pick someone. Lydia
even threatens to set Elena up with her cousin, who in Elena's words
"smells like a Dorito that died in a pool of Axe body spray". Yeah, I can see why he's such a catch.
There's
also a street fair going on in the neighbourhood and Penelope's new friend,
Jill, has already been down there - apparently spending forty bucks trying to
win that cheap plastic lightsaber toy that she's playing with. While she hides it in Penelope's apartment
so that Schneider doesn't steal it, Jill and Penelope talk about how
frustrating it is to be put on hold with the VA, and how Penelope has been
waiting to get in touch with Jolene to have her book the
doctor's appointment. I can sense the
frustration in Penelope's voice too.
And
after Jill leaves, someone comes on the telephone line and Penelope, having the
phone on speaker mode, rushes towards it to give the woman her account
number...but she slips and falls, and the commotion causes the woman on the
other end of the phone to put her back on hold. How frustrating.
We
also get to meet Alex's friend, Finn, when Schneider drops both
of them off at home after their baseball game.
It's been said that Finn is a bit of a smart ass and that Penelope
doesn't quite understand why Alex would hang around him so much. It's a bit clear as to why that is when Finn
seems to act with a little bit of sarcasm towards Penelope, but later on in the
episode, you'll see exactly why Penelope has a right to be concerned. But, I don't want to give away too much.
Lydia is concerned to see Penelope in so much pain, so she grabs the bottle of
painkillers that Penelope has been prescribed (notice how Finn and Alex are
present when this takes place), and insists she takes them. Isn't this the same woman who nearly had a
coronary when she found out that Penelope was taking anti-depressants? Maybe Lydia is coming around and becoming
more aware that the world has evolved since she fled Cuba all those years
ago? But then I think about how she's
pressuring Elena to choose someone to take to her quinces, and I think that
maybe she has a way to go yet. But good
for her for at least trying to understand Penelope better.
Alex
and Finn are on their way to the street fair, and Schneider announces that he
too is going to be making an appearance...
...as
one of the members singing and performing at his yacht rock band. Unless they plan on singing old Captain and
Tennille songs, Schneider just looks totally out of place with that hat!
With
everyone's plans in motion, they all leave the apartment as the speaker phone
comes on and Penelope is happy that she can finally get the appointment
made. Unfortunately that excitement
turns into frustration when the person on the other end of the phone thinks her
last name is Phillips instead of Alvarez.
And when the person on the other end of the phone accidentally hangs up
on her, it's enough to make Penelope take a bit of a fit on the couch. Yeah, great customer service there, VA.
So
after a while, Penelope gets back on the phone with the VA, she is put on hold
one more time listening to the "please, hold music" on the
speakerphone, and she is resorting to licking the cheese dust off of the empty
bag of Cheetos because she doesn't want a single crumb to go to waste. I guess this is a good time to reveal a
secret of mine - I do the exact same thing!
A
pre-recorded message about preventable accidents plays while Penelope waits
which cues in rather nicely with an injured Schneider being dragged into the
apartment by Lydia and Dr. Berkowitz!
Seems that Schneider's college friends don't exactly get along as well
as they used to, and Schneider got whacked in the eye by a decorative
anchor! See, a more believable story
would have been a person in the crowd attacking him because yacht rock sucked,
but hey, not everything in sitcoms can be believable, right? I mean, just watch any episode of
"Family Matters" after Steve Urkel changes into Stefan Urquelle to
see what I mean.
Penelope
wonders why Dr. B. is there, and Dr. B. explains that when he gave Penelope
permission to take half a day off work to make the appointment, he thought he
would do the same. He explains it with
a YOLO, and it makes me realize why I find the expression YOLO so incredibly
annoying! Dr. B. later explains that he
wanted to go to the street fair. Fair
enough. But why is Lydia with him?
Well,
it's not until Penelope takes Schneider to his own apartment to fix his eye
(after she tells Lydia to listen for the phone in case the VA picks up) that we
get our first secret reveal. It seems
as though Dr. B. has developed a little bit of a crush on Lydia, and how he was
so touched that she was so nice to him at his birthday party a couple of
episodes ago. It doesn't seem that
Lydia feels quite the same way as Dr. B. does, but Lydia does acknowledge that
he is a good friend at least. Aw. It's an almost love connection! It's actually really funny that the music in
the background changes from standard music to a love song while all this is
happening! Could this be
foreshadowing? Hmmm...
The
two even bond over their shared and separate medical issues as they toast with
glasses of water and pills. My gosh, I
hope when I turn 70, I don't have to take that many pills to stay alive - but I
suppose it's an inevitability. Though a
funny moment does arise when Penelope comes back home, sees the scene, and
Lydia explains that she and Dr. B. were only taking drugs together! Ha!
It
seems as though Penelope has done what she can do for Schneider as he appears
at Penelope's door wearing an eyepatch.
Schneider is also determined to restart his yacht rock band by turning
it into a pirate rock band. Oh, sweet
Jesus, Schneider, just let it go already!
Everybody
leaves the apartment to go to the street fair and Penelope finally gets through
to the VA which transfers her call to Jolene.
She is initially excited and she does a dance in celebration...
...until
she gets transferred to a guy named Tad who has absolutely no clue
what Penelope is talking about. See,
this is where the frustration lies for Penelope. This is an organization set up to help veterans lives get better
and yet it's filled with poor communication, staff members with little to no
training, and lots of red tape to slice through. Because before Tad will even help her, he tells Penelope that she
has to fax the referral given to her by her primary physician - despite the
fact that Penelope e-mailed it to them two months ago. This is the same kind of crap that people
dealing with medicare companies have to go through every day due to lack of
funding, and it makes me angry that people have to go through so many hoops
just to get treatment.
At
least there's a fax machine just five minutes away at a nearby convenience
store, and Penelope uses the opportunity to buy a ton of candy bars to get her
through the day without killing someone.
After passing over the phone call duties to Elena, she runs off. And Elena manages to grab the half a bag of
Cheetos that her mother did NOT eat and takes her snack to her room waiting for
someone to pick up the phone.
When
Elena retreats to her room, Finn and Alex return and they see that Penelope has
left her pill bottle out on the table.
And this is where we learn that Finn is a bit of a moron. He plans to have Alex steal some of
Penelope's painkillers so that they can sell them to their classmates for more
money to spend at the street fair.
Whoa. Bad idea. Very, very bad idea.
But
unfortunately Alex is at the age where peer pressure can be most tempting, and
after Finn leaves, Alex grabs the bottle and seriously considers listening to
Finn. But then he hears Elena coming
out of her room and he quickly disappears, bottle in hand, and hides out in
Lydia's quarters, pulling the curtain shut behind him.
It
is this moment that we learn the MAJOR secret of the episode. And, no...it's not that she eats Cheetos just like her mom. While Elena is waiting for Tad or Jolene or
anyone to pick up the phone, pre-recorded messages urge the person on hold to
talk about their problems, and Elena drops a bombshell. She is under pressure by everyone to pick a
boy to take her to her quinces...but Elena is questioning whether she even
likes boys. She even makes the claim
that maybe she might like girls better.
Whoa...so Elena's questioning her own sexuality and she's afraid that
her Cuban-American family headed by her God-loving Abuelita might not
understand. This has the makings to be
a great story to tell.
Unfortunately,
Elena might have to explain herself before she's ready when she hears a strange
sound coming from behind the curtain.
And when she opens it up, she finds Alex with Jill's lightsaber in one
hand, and Penelope's pills in the other.
Hoo boy. Looks like BOTH Alvarez
kids have something to explain to each other.
Of
course, both are upset. Alex is upset
that Elena thinks that he is getting into trouble by stealing their mom's
pills, and Elena is mortified that Alex heard her potentially coming out of the
closet. But it seems as though Alex has
had a change of heart regarding Finn's plan, and puts the pills back. And when Alex throws his full support to
Elena and tells her that he will be there for her no matter what, it leads to a
nice bonding moment between them.
And
that moment ends when Jolene finally comes on the speaker phone and both Alex
and Elena struggle to keep her on the line until Penelope gets back, which
causes Elena to hilariously pretend that she is Penelope. It's cringeworthy to see Elena try to act
like her mother, but somehow it does the trick as Penelope returns just in time
to intercept the call.
Unfortunately, Jolene seems to be in no mood to help Penelope. In fact, Jolene actually tells Penelope to call back on Monday because she is late catching her bus and she has to go. Oh, boy...I can see this not ending well. For Jolene. In fact, this leads to an epic rant by Penelope against Jolene and against the VA. And I think this deserves to be written in Penelope's own words.
Unfortunately, Jolene seems to be in no mood to help Penelope. In fact, Jolene actually tells Penelope to call back on Monday because she is late catching her bus and she has to go. Oh, boy...I can see this not ending well. For Jolene. In fact, this leads to an epic rant by Penelope against Jolene and against the VA. And I think this deserves to be written in Penelope's own words.
PENELOPE: Well, then, walk me through it, Jolene. Because I don't understand. What I do understand is I went to war, I got hurt. And when I came back, there was supposed to be an organization set up to help me and the other veterans get the help we need. So I don't get why it's so hard to make a simple appointment. And I'm one of the lucky ones. My husband has bad knees, a bad back, and traumatic brain injury. He's not getting help. Partly because he's a stubborn ass, but mostly because of this insane process. And because he's not getting help, he almost did something stupid. I lost someone in my unit because she did do something stupid. So, please, enlighten me, Jolene, as to why helping soldiers is less important than catching your goddamn bus.
Whoa. That was definitely what TVTropes calls
"The Reason You Suck Speech".
And Justina Machado delivered that soliloquy brilliantly.
Too
bad Penelope is put on hold by Jolene again which causes Penelope to throw her
phone on the floor in anger. Damn, I'd
be angry too, but smashing your phone on the floor won't get you put through
any quicker.
But
as a dejected Penelope begins to clean up the mess, Jolene comes back on and
announces that Penelope's appointment has been booked for next Monday. And with that, I think everyone is
thrilled...especially Penelope. Now,
I'm not saying that screaming at your customer service representative will get
them to do something for you, but the way that Penelope passionately argued her
case - hell, if I was Jolene, I'd definitely make sure Penelope got what she
wanted! It's also a great way for the
show to demonstrate just how hard veterans struggle to reintegrate themselves
back into society, and how the system definitely needs to be overhauled to make
it better for them.
I
just wish it didn't end with Schneider singing off key to Toto's "Hold the
Line". I mean, I can see why yacht
rock and pirate rock didn't last.
That's
it for Episode 7. As always, we'll end
with some of the funniest lines from the episode. Have a look!
LYDIA: Then
use your phone and Chapsmat somebody.
ELENA: You don't understand social media. Abuelita...
LYDIA: No, no, no. Of course I do. All you have to do is find a boy and twat at him.
LYDIA: No, no, no. Of course I do. All you have to do is find a boy and twat at him.
ELENA: I
hope you mean "tweet"?
LYDIA: "Twat", "Tweet". Same thing.
LYDIA: "Twat", "Tweet". Same thing.
PENELOPE: Not
the same thing, Mami.
JILL: I
try to never deal with the VA. I
stopped calling them about my punctured eardrum.
PENELOPE: That
seems like a bad plan.
JILL: Oh,
thanks. I got it on sale.
WOMAN ON PHONE: Did you know that over 40% of trips to the emergency room are
caused by preventable accidents?
PENELOPE: That seems high.
(Schneider enters holding his eye.)
PENELOPE: What happened?
SCHNEIDER: It was a totally preventable accident! We were setting up for the show and our keytarist threw a decorative anchor at me.
PENELOPE: That seems high.
(Schneider enters holding his eye.)
PENELOPE: What happened?
SCHNEIDER: It was a totally preventable accident! We were setting up for the show and our keytarist threw a decorative anchor at me.
PENELOPE:
Okay, I'm sorry you're hurt but it sounds like I just missed the best
part of your show.
LYDIA:
Estrogen replacement to keep me young!
DR. B: For my cholesterol so I don't die!
DR. B: For my cholesterol so I don't die!
PENELOPE:
What's going on here?
LYDIA: Nothing! We're just taking drugs!
LYDIA: Nothing! We're just taking drugs!
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