Something about the final scene of Tara tonight reminded me of the Thanksgiving scene in the most recent season of Dexter. What should ideally be a perfectly staid, blandly pleasant situation (Thanksgiving dinner, a visit from Family Services) proceeds to take a turn so completely apeshit that it's more funny than freaky—and I mean that as a compliment.
Picking up from from the previous episode (the season has been very tight, timeline-wise), Tara wakes up in the cemetery, finding herself sleeping on the burial plot of Hubbard, the neighbor who killed himself. Over the phone, Max informs her that she needs to get home pronto because Family Services is going to come and investigate after the Sully beatdown incident, but of course the house is a mess, post-tornado. Cue broken family photo. Tara reassures Max that, together, they'll get the house together before Family Services comes.
Trying to get his own life in order Marshall heads out with Lionel and Hany to talk over the Courtney situation. I loved how Hany gently schooled Lionel that "you don't have to hate women to love men." I didn't expect Marshall to be the kind of wuss who has his friends around when he breaks up with his girlfriend but when Courtney shows up, Hany does the talking, telling her it's over, and like a dickhead, Lionel smirks at the news being delivered. I sort of loved that Courtney decided to stay seated in the booth and order pie and make the situation even more uncomfortable.
Kate is finally reunited with her new friend/girlcrush Lynda, as they try to sell autographs and photos from Princess Valhalla Hawkwind at the comic book shop but nobody's buying, especially with Knatasha Knightblade stealing all the attention. I loved the look on the other kid's face when his friend said "Let's go to Popeye's and get some chicken," after Kate informed him her superpower was a lack of vagina. Tara is sent to get Kate from the comic book shop in order to recruit her into housecleaning. Tara, like her daughter, seems to have taken a shine to Lynda, which causes Kate consternation. She tries to learn more about how to raise interest in Princess VH and Knightblade gives her her main advice: get an email list and start getting guys off electronically in order to get them to buy you things.
Courtney, meanwhile, is not done yet with Marshall. Almost as if on purpose she shows up at the Gregsons' right when Marshall's rubbing one out to a picture of a stud on his camera phone, in order to tell him that he doesn't really want to break up with her; that Hany has brainwashed him. I like Ms. Mamet in this role—she's good at pulling off wide-eyed/batshit crazy.
Max walks in on Charmaine flirting with Neil in the kitchen, but they're talking baseball. Max tries to force her into telling Neil about the baby, but instead she makes up a stupid b.s. lie, that she's throwing a party for Nick and would Neil mind bringing his homemade beer? So Max takes matters into his own hands and just tells Neil, "Here's a baseball fun fact: Charmaine's pregnant with your baby." Neil takes off and then Charmaine has the gall to tell him he can't run away from his problems, and that maybe he can't understand her because he doesn't know how hard it is to plan a wedding. Patton Oswalt gets to do some great reacting in this season, as he did when he took in that line. He advises Charmaine the best thing for her would be to get an abortion.