As Man Seeking Woman enters into its seventh week, the show delivers a rather tame episode with “Stain” that still offers a ton of laughs and just as much weirdness. So far, the show has had Josh dealing with lots of uncomfortable post-breakup situations, and “Stain” is no different; yet, this week Josh showed some hope, like he might actually be making some mental progress. Josh is a nice guy who’s worried about his future and feels owed because he never did anything wrong, but there is a line between knowing your time will come and getting greedy and selfish. Last night’s episode highlighted this and also seemed like it helped Josh to make a breakthrough and not worry about a relationship as much.
The episode opens with a quick clip of Liz and Leo showing up at Josh’s apartment to take him out dancing because they want to make him feel included and not see him sit at home alone playing video games for another Saturday night. This is the classic display of family pity in the situation. The couple invites him with good intentions, but in the end nothing can stop him, or any person, from feeling like a third wheel despite how hard Liz and Leo try. Josh even pulls the classic waving to friends in the crowd and pretending to text someone back moves, but both are just poor excuses to give Josh the feeling that he is occupied.
The main plot of the night revolves around Josh and Mike being invited to their friends Ben and Becky’s wedding. Josh pulls out a bunch of excuses, mainly that he doesn’t want to run into Maggie, but knowing Mike, he’s not letting Josh squirm out of this opportunity for a good time. The wedding happens to be a destination wedding in “Hell,” and the guests are even advised to bring a sword with them.
Josh is cranky for their entire journey; he finds something to complain about at every turn and is that typical personality that is negative to feel less insecure. As anticipated, Maggie does turn out to be there and has brought along her new boyfriend, Graham. Graham is a clear upgrade from Josh; he’s handsome, confident, has a stable well-paying job, and is easygoing and conversational. To make things worse, Mike and Josh end up getting seated at the same table as Maggie and Graham, and he even heroically saves Josh when a Hell demon comes raging through the wedding. The episode really does take Josh to his ultimate version of Hell, watching a happy couple get married in a foreign location while also having to deal with his ex and her better boyfriend all night.
Mike is an easygoing guy who can get along with anyone, so, naturally, he gets along great with Graham, which feels like a betrayal to Josh. Throughout the night, Josh is obviously displaying physical discomfort despite everyone’s attempts to include him. He really breaks when he sees Maggie and Graham dancing together as he tries to mingle with a single girl who quickly rejects him. Josh starts hitting the bottle hard, and when everyone gets back to the table, he’s completely wasted and being a mean drunk. He once again tries to make himself feel better by directing negativity onto everyone else when he claims Maggie cheated on Graham when they first started dating, despite Mike telling him not to bring it up. Josh ends up being wrong, his plan fails, and when Mike tries to stop him from drinking more, Josh ends up spilling wine onto the bride’s dress. Everyone just shakes their heads at Josh; they don’t know what to tell him at this point because he’s just embarrassing himself, so he goes for a walk.
Josh can’t be blamed for feeling the way he does, but he also can’t expect to receive all of the attention for being mopey. After some one sided conversation with a woman being tortured (through method of having fire ants shoved into her butt), Josh seems to realize that he needs to move on and not be bitter. He decides to head back to the party and apologize for the way he’s acted. It seems like he’s finally had a mental breakthrough and realized that he and Maggie are over. Josh walks back in to apologize, but realizes nobody cares anymore because the moment is over and they’ve moved on, which is what he has to do as well.
Josh’s biggest problem is that he dwells on things too much. Maggie has clearly gotten over him but has no problem keeping up a casual friendship if their paths happen to cross. Josh started the episode being extremely bitter and negative but seems to have finally realized he can only control himself and his life. “Stain” shows that we all create our own Hell and decide how to handle it; some situations won’t be fun, but we all have to make the best of them. Once Josh finally understands that, he’s able to go in and have a good time, which was awesome to see, and hopefully, his character can continue with this development.
Two highlights from “Stain”:
– “Pewter, the man’s metal.”
– So Mike works for a company that just received $2 million in seed funding?! HA!
[Photo via FXX]
