We’re one episode away from finding out why Andrew and Zelda only make it so far. Or not. Except for an unusually intrusive narrator, “L Is For Likability” gives no indication that A To Z is heading for an ending. Given the relationship deadline, I expected something more like the final couple episodes of You’re The Worst, one of the best rom-coms of the season, in which the central relationship slams into its second-act low. Or at least, given A To Z’s own history, a final-scene cliffhanger, like Zelda realizing she’s too good for Andrew or something. As it is, I have no idea if these late episodes were produced before cancellation, and the show itself isn’t giving me a lot of hope for resolution. Which is beside the point of how likable “L Is For Likability” is, but it’s silly to pretend like we don’t know the end is coming just because on the show, it isn’t.
Anyway, “L Is For Likability” does remind me of one late-season episode: The O.C.’s “The Nana.” Instead of a prickly grandma coming to town it’s Andrew’s father, Pete (Dan Lauria of The Wonder Years). But the premise of a usually off-putting relative suddenly playing nice on this visit because of her own problems rings true. Pete’s routine with Andrew’s girlfriends is to say something so off-color that they break up with him, like “I can’t wait to see my first grandchild crown between her legs.” I don’t really buy it—for instance, why would you break up with someone just because his dad told you he was circumcised?—but it sets up the drama here, which is that Zelda and Pete are getting along swimmingly and all Andrew’s worry was for nothing.
One fringe off of that subplot has to do with Stu’s attachment to Andrew’s father. It doesn’t have much to do with anything, but it does give us some good jokes. The final slide in the montage of Pete ruining Andrew’s relationships has him telling a woman, without judgment, just definitionally, mind you, that she’s a bastard because her parents had her out of wedlock. Stu naturally takes his side against Andrew. “Well, that’s kind of on you for dating girls who were born out of wedlock. Right?” He says the last word like he’s appealing to some inner part of Andrew that secretly agrees but just doesn’t want to admit it, so it’s a funny delivery on its own, and it’s funny that Stu thinks that deep down Andrew might see it their way.
It turns out Pete was just playing nice, and that he doesn’t really like Zelda. So that’s two problems, the first being that he doesn’t usually bite his tongue. Why the change? Andrew lets that news spill to Zelda for some reason, and then he implores her to leave it alone, which by the law of sitcoms she can’t do. Lucky for us, Zelda Type-A-ing meeting the parent is pretty funny. Mostly she bakes him a humongous cake with an edible icing drone on top (a reference to his new spy toy), but it’s in her whole attitude. Once it comes out that he does actually like her, she keeps bragging about how awesome she is, body and mind. Because of that fake-out, she’s still desperate for reassurance. At her funniest, Zelda is performing—it’s what gave the pilot those sparks—and here she is all performance.