Quick Take: Cougar Town, “Lover’s Touch”
“What? When I need to think, sometimes I go to the beach with my blades and my boom-box.” – Grayson
Review: Cougar Town, “Lover’s Touch”
(S0303) The return of Cougar Town has emphasized its emotional touches while still embellishing its legacy of lunacy. Grayson’s proposal to Jules brought him to her father’s farm, where he jumps hurdles on horseback to gain Chick’s approval. Likewise, Bobby’s attempt to symbolically and literally connect Jules and Grayson results in spiritual healing but physical injury. “Lover’s Touch” holds that emotional charge, while being fondly reminiscent of those raw, heartfelt episodes of Scrubs.
Jules is momentarily in “AWATT” mode – all wedding, all the time. Andy recognizes Grayson’s increasing need for affection from his own experiences with Ellie – probably due to the extensive spying he does when he’s bored – and tries to coach him in getting Jules to come to him like the dogs come to Andy at the park. Grayson’s feeling underappreciated quickly gets overshadowed, however, by Jules’ shifting from AWATT mode to crisis mode.
An enormous bear-dog isn’t the only thing Travis has adopted from his dad lately; he’s also taken up Bobby’s patent-pending dog-boarding, also known as dog on a rope. After they hear the news that Travis has fractured his skull from a fall, Jules and company amass at the hospital. There, they learn that Travis will be stuck in a helmet to protect exacerbating his injury, but miss their chance to learn that their creepy-neighbour Tom is a neurosurgeon and that his last name is Gazelian (like the pretend-number).
The real heart of the episode comes from Jules’ anticipated meltdown over her son’s injury. Ellie waits anxiously for Jules to lose it, but she seems to be okay when Travis says that he’s ready to go back to college. It turns out to be only a delayed reaction, however, when Jules sees Grayson leave the house without wearing his helmet. She confronts him in the driveway and tears, revealing her worries that keep mothers everywhere from sleeping.
Of course, behind Jules’ loving plea for Travis to wear his helmet is another one of Bobby’s schemes – domination ball. Simply, a game of throwing foam soccer balls at each other turns truly competitive when the girls get involved, and they try to take revenge on the men by first freezing the foam. Luckily Jules saves Travis from an ambush on Laurie, but he leaves everyone dwelling on the realization of their inability to control what he does once he leaves their sight.
This was Cougar Town at its wacky/authentically cheerful/touching best, really dug it.
Particularly because the jokes were on point this week -- the stuff with Andy's toes was hilarious, for example.