Trophy Wife 1.03: "The Social Network"

“Call me Doctor Dre, ‘cause I’m about to Snoop Dogg.”
-Pete

Holy crap was this episode embarrassment squick-inducing. But it did make me laugh, which is more than I can say for last week’s episode. The adults can’t use technology thing is kind of played out and clichéd, but laughs are definitely good. It seemed like the adults in the family were definitely working more as a team in this one, although, like the previous episode, this episode gave one of the exes and her child(ren) the b-plot on their own. This week, the b-story honors went to Jackie and Bert, as the rest of the family dealt with Hillary potentially continuing her rebellious phase. Although the rebellion turned out not to be quite as bad as everybody thought, which I found kind of disappointing. I thought the dichotomy between Hillary and Warren was more interesting in the pilot. Now they’re both kind of nerdy and lame. So am I, so I’m not judging them. I just found it more interesting when they were more different.

This episode is really all about Hillary, although it’s more about the rest of the family reacting to something Hillary allegedly did than Hillary herself. Diane calls Pete with the news that she heard Hillary “hooked up” with a boy named Ace at a party the previous weekend. Poor Pete doesn’t know what hooking up means, and when Kate explains the spectrum of possibility for what it means, Pete’s not at all happy. Diane wants Pete to snoop around Hillary’s room to find out more about what she might have done when she was supposed to be at a girly sleepover. Pete, now that he knows what Hillary might have done, is all for this plan. Kate is dubious, though. She remembers how she would have felt violated if her parents snooped when she was a teenager. She’s concerned about Hillary, but she doesn’t think breaking Hillary’s trust is the right way to go about the situation. While Kate’s ideology kind of falls apart by the end of the episode, I think she has a point. Maybe I’m just idealistic?

Anyway, Pete is determined to snoop, and Kate goes along with it to kind of contain the damage once Hillary is caught in more blatant lies. Kate just wants to do a cursory lookaround, but Pete goes right for Hillary’s laptop. He gets on Hillary’s Facebook account and starts trying to look up Ace. Unfortunately for Hillary, Pete keeps typing in the status box when he means to type in the search box. So he just keeps posting Ace’s name as Hillary’s status over and over, sometimes with even more embarrassing additional search terms like “cute boy.” This was when the embarrassment squick started to kick in. I would have been mortified if I was Hillary in that situation. Also, it was kind of embarrassing that Pete didn’t understand the basics of Facebook. My 70-year-old father can navigate Facebook just fine as far as I am aware. Granted, he has spent a career in IT, so he’s not afraid of new technologies (unless he’s asking me how to use the DVD player), but still. I can’t believe that a smart guy like Pete wouldn’t be reasonably Facebook literate.

Anyway, Hillary is understandably mortified the next time she checks her Facebook newsfeed. The situation blows up, and Hillary finds herself grounded. The big problem for Hillary is that there was a party she really wanted to go to that weekend because Ace was going to be there. Kate’s still determined to try and be Hillary’s “friend,” because she thinks Hillary will open up to her more if that’s the case, so she tries to smooth things over. Hillary immediately wants to take advantage of the situation and tries to guilt Kate into letting her go to the party. Kate sees through this much, at least. Hillary does, however, manage to negotiate herself into being taken to the movies by Kate. Kate stands up to Pete and Diane to get them to allow Hillary to go to the movies, and both she and Meg drive Kate there. It was nice to see Meg again, although she didn’t really have much to do in this episode. Anyway, they drop Hillary off at the theater, and Meg suggests they go for frozen yogurt. Meg and Kate are just about to get their delicious frozen treat on when Meg spots Hillary getting into a friend’s car instead of going into the theater.

Meanwhile, like I said, the b-story involves Jackie and Bert. Bert has a play date with a kid he really can’t stand. It turns out that Jackie set up the play date because she wants a chance to talk to the kid’s mother, who sells jewelry in her shop. Jackie, you see, has new career aspirations. She wants to give up her moderately successful real estate business to become a jewelry designer. Between the crunchy granola-ness and the jewelry designing, Jackie is starting to remind me of my own mother, although my mother has a work ethic like nobody else I know and actually has a good career. Unlike Jackie, who floats from career idea to career idea. Anyway, Jackie talks to the kid’s mom about selling jewelry, and the mom says that she’s willing to consider it, but she needs 500 pieces in the shop the next day. Bert hears this, and he gets worried about his mom. He asks if Warren can come over, and the two of them start making jewelry like there’s no tomorrow. Jackie sees this, and she actually has some shame when she realizes how she made Bert worry about her.

Anyway, realizing that there’s been another lie, Kate and Meg tail the car Hillary is in all the way to the party she had wanted to go to. At the same time, Diane is getting intel from her own sources that Hillary is going to the party. Dianes sources are pretty underhanded, really. She made a fake Facebook account and created a popular high school girl persona named Courtney. Somehow, even though she doesn’t really exist, Courtney is in on all the gossip at Hillary and Warren’s school. It’s friend catfishing, which is just strange. Regular catfishing is strange too, but this is even stranger! I worry that the creative team might take Diane just a tad too far to be a character I want to watch. We’ll see. Anyway, poor Hillary is embarrassed by the whole entourage that shows up to take her away from the party. First Kate and Meg bust in (Meg desperately asking for alcohol), then Pete, Diane, and Warren follow. When Meg realizes there’s no alcohol, everyone realizes that Hillary isn’t really doing anything bad other than lying about her whereabouts. This is a pizza and bridge party, and it’s kind of lame. Hillary is taken home because she’s still grounded, but Warren is allowed to stay at the party. And thus concludes Kate’s first parenting not-fail.