Blunt Talk’s penultimate episode brings back guest-stars and dives into its characters.
Spoilers for “I Brought a Petting Goat!” within.
Blunt Talk’s penultimate “I Brought a Petting Goat!” once again put the supporting cast in the spotlight to dig deeper into their relationships and histories via one giant party at Walter’s home.
Especially of note is a much-needed focus on Shelly. While we don’t learn all that much about her, this episode does finally provide her with some of the funniest scenes in the episode. Thanks to some offhand encouragement by Harry, Shelly has a fun little arc in which she winds up being a pretty impressive arm wrestler, beginning with a hilarious scene pumping various office objects in lieu of iron and culminating with a victorious match at Walter’s party. Shelly’s implied romance with Walter’s sex addict sponsee isn’t as successful a story, but at least it only eats up a minute amount of screen time.
Martin’s creepy Facebook stalking dating habits weren’t unexpected but funny nonetheless. More importantly, Martin’s story – dating another (younger) girl named Rosalie – led to a deeper exploration of our Rosalie, not to mention an explanation for why she finds Martin attractive. In addition to everything happening with Teddy, learning about her first husband Joey’s tragic death at a young age does a great deal for explaining Rosalie’s current relationships.
It’s interesting to see Rosalie’s journey through life as a mirror to Walter’s; they both feel increasingly isolated and lonely yet they took two entirely different paths to get there. Rosalie was in loving, genuine relationships with men she cared deeply about, while Walter has been perpetually divorced and in a state of romantic distress. Their parallel paths indicate that maybe they’re each the best potential partner for the other, so I’ll be interested in seeing if the show agrees.
As far as Walter goes, this episode once again managed to surround him with his friends – all seemingly happier and better off than he – but leaves him alone to his own thoughts. With the episode centered around the anniversary of the end of the Falklands War, it adds details to Walter and Harry’s history and strengthens our investment to their relationship because of it. To some degree, I almost expected Harry’s explanation of Walter’s heroic actions revealed to have been embellished, but I was happy to find that was not the case.
Indeed, Walter saving Harry’s life explains a great deal about Harry’s affection for him while also working to underline our increasing respect for Walter. With the episode featuring a brief, heartbreaking monologue from Walter about the war and ending on Walter’s bittersweet moment falling asleep in a lounge chair surrounded by his friends, “I Brought a Petting Goat!” is one of the show’s best efforts to explore the complicated depths of Walter Blunt.
Jim and Celia’s blossoming romance got a hefty amount of attention here, not to mention giving Jim a bulk of the best one-liners. Starting with “I’d say ‘thank God it’s Friday,’ but I’m an atheist” all the way up to his “hot dog in, hot dog out” realization, Jim was on fire. The Jim/Celia relationship has been a fun romance to watch, given how quickly its blossomed – really only starting in the last episode or two.
While some of the subplots here were unresolved (Dr. Weiss’ heart attack, Harry’s potential sexual encounter), I was happy to see so many characters given increased time. Richard Lewis’ Dr. Weiss had more screen time than ever, and even Romany Malco was back at it with more screen time than he’s had in the entire show combined. Even guest-stars John Hodgman (in another wonderful, if brief, appearance), Brent Spiner, and Moby got to make a return, leaving the penultimate episode as a reminder of the rich tapestry of characters that Blunt Talk has been able to build in its debut season.
“I Brought a Petting Goat!” was another fantastic addition to an outstanding debut season, putting all of the characters in one place to interact and deepen their relationships and backstories. Though there are some threads left up in the air, this is another hilarious, bittersweet episode in an impressive string of great episodes.
