No Tomorrow 1.11: "No Woman No Cry"

“But for now, if you’ll excuse me, Jesse’s a free man again. So, we’re gonna go to the bottom of Lake Washington and fish for golf balls.”
-Xavier

I’m going to call this episode “Chekhov’s Love Triangle.” The creative team set us up with a Timothy/Evie/Xavier love triangle right from the beginning of the series, so I suppose they felt they had to pay it off, even if it doesn’t make a ton of sense given how the story has moved. It’s pretty clear that Timothy is Evie’s past and Xavier is her future (for however long the future lasts, since, asteroid and all). In fact, the idea of a future was a big theme in this episode. The shine has begun to wear off of Xavier’s “seize the day” personality for Evie. She wants to know, if the asteroid didn’t hit, what would Xavier want to do with his future. Unsurprisingly, he has a lot of trouble answering that question, since his believe that the end of neigh is so central to his ethos. The major relationship drama for all our main characters seems to be on its way to resolution with this episode, which was nice. Since there are only two episodes left after this one (the show hasn’t been renewed yet, which, given the CW has already renewed many of its other shows, makes renewal unlikely), it’s nice that (I hope) we’ll be able to focus more on the threat of the asteroid and Evie and Xavier’s love story from here on out.

The episode begins with a contrast of two morning’s in Evie’s life. The first is waking up with Timothy during her senior year in college. It appears to have been the first night they spent together, and they decide to make it “Facepage Official” when Timothy says he dreamed about the future and their kids. In the present day, Evie wakes up alone after having made out with Timothy the night before. Xavier is at her door, and when she invites him in, he tells her all about his adventures with his family. Evie says that she’s proud of him, but she also confesses to having made out with Timothy. Xavier doesn’t take this well, and he leaves right away. When he gets home, he finds a pot boiling on the stove and feet sticking out from under the covers. It’s his cousin Jesse, who has been released from prison. They talk about the Evie situation, and Xavier ends up telling Evie that he’s bowing out because he doesn’t want to be in love triangle. Instead, he and Jesse are going to continue to have Apocalist adventures like fishing for golf balls at the bottom of Lake Washington.

Meanwhile, Evie has to make brunch for her grandparents, who have come over to visit. Evie’s grandfather isn’t in a great mood, and her grandmother reveals that he failed a driving test recently. He used to work on Indy Car engines, so not being able to drive is a real loss of identity. Evie promises to harass the DMV until they let him redo his test. Repeated phone calls and sending chocolates doesn’t work, but baking a bunch of cupcakes with the word “please” written in icing on the top does. Unfortunately for Evie’s grandfather, he fails his redo with flying colors. He can’t even get out of the parking spot without hitting all four poles. The whole family is devastated, although if he’s that bad of a driver, it’s a good thing he’s off the road.

In B-team relationship news, Hank is still moping about the Deirdre situation. He went bunker shopping, and the place he’s looking at only has room for one other person. He wanted that person to be Deirdre, but obviously that’s not going to happen now. He’s stuck trying to choose between Timothy and Evie. He probably rightfully guesses that Evie would be way too peppy and Timothy would spend the whole time wondering about Evie. Kareema’s not much help, because she’s nervous about getting married. Evie’s super psyched (as you’d expect) to hear the news, though. Kareema and Sofia go to the Justice of the Peace, but Kareema backs out at the last minute. She still wants to marry Sofia, but she can’t imagine getting married without her brother there. She really wants to make things right with Rohan, but she only has a limited amount of time to do so before Sofia needs to leave the country. Meanwhile, Deirdre is still wedding planning in earnest. Pete offers to plan the whole thing for her, but then he actually pawns the job off on her assistant. Hank can’t help eavesdropping Pete telling the assistant to make arrangements Deirdre will hate, so he intervenes and starts giving the assistant advice on things Deirdre will like, even though it’s painful.

Timothy makes Evie a lovely octopus dinner (kind of weird, but it actually looked good), and they have a great time until Timothy gets called away to work. This is clearly meant as a red flag for their relationship. Meanwhile, the bro-ing out with Jesse isn’t going how Xavier planned it. Jesse gets back together with his pre-prison girlfriend, Amber, and that’s taking up most of his time. He does manage to convince Xavier that he’s being stupid for bowing out of the love triangle. He makes the point that Xavier had all those awesome globetrotting adventures, but he came home because something was still missing. That something was Evie. Timothy and Evie go to the piano bar where they had their first date, but the date is interrupted by Xavier playing on the piano. Xavier and Timothy get into a rather hilarious piano duel that results in all three of them being thrown out of the bar. Evie admonishes the boys to act like adults. She says that she and Xavier can go on a date tomorrow, and then Timothy will go with her to Deirdre’s wedding the next day. The boys agree.

While at a store helping Jesse find a suit for a job interview, Xavier runs into Pete, who confesses his life-long dream of going to Ireland to study step dancing with Michael Flatley, being his usual self, Xavier tells Pete to go for it, since life is short. When it comes to his date with Evie, Xavier has quite the day planned. They go flying in a sea plane since Xavier just got his license, and Evie even gets to take the controls for a little bit. At a bar afterwards, though, things go south. Evie asks Xavier to think hypothetically about the future, and he just can’t do it. He says it’s “too painful.” Evie says that while she’s not sure she has a future with Timothy, Xavier being unable to conceive of a future for himself is just as bad or worse.

Kareema decides to go old-school to solve her problem with Rohan. When they were kids, they would work out their disagreements via pillow fight, so why can’t that still work when they’re adults. She gets Rohan to come to the warehouse, and they have an epic pillow fight. Afterwards, Rohan will finally talk to Kareema. She explains that being in love scares her, but she’s never felt this way about someone before. Rohan says then she should go for it, and she and Sofia have his blessing. He can’t bring himself to attend the wedding, and he wants some space for a little while, but that’s enough for Kareema. In other news, Hank finally makes his bunker decision – it’s going to be Evie. Timothy’s not too upset about losing that honor. He’s too busy trying to make a deadline typing with just one good hand, since he injured the other hand in his fight with Xavier.

Timothy shows up at Evie’s place and basically says he’s bowing out now too, for now at least. He thinks their lives are out of synch right now, but he still believes in their future, and if the asteroid actually doesn’t come in the next six months, they should talk, because maybe then Evie will have some clarity. Evie ends up going to Deirdre’s wedding alone. The wedding doesn’t go off as planned, though. Right before the ceremony, Pete asks Deirdre if her heart is really in it. Because if it’s not, he’d rather spend the money he would have spent on a third divorce traveling to Ireland to study with the Lord of the Dance. A relieved Deirdre gives Pete his ring back, and Hank is a little too celebratory when he hears the wedding is off. Instead, Kareema and Sofia use all the trappings to get married. Mikhail is the officiant, which is quite possibly the best thing ever. Certainly the best thing this show has ever done. When Evie gets home, Xavier is waiting on her stoop. Thanks to Jesse calling him a coward, he’s finally ready to tell Evie what he wants from the future. He always saw himself with five kids living on a farm and making goat cheese. When he asks Evie what she wants, she takes him go-cart racing with her grandparents. The racing really cheers up her grandfather, and she gets to show Xavier the kind of relationship she wants. By the end of the episode, Xavier is looking for another astrophysicist to check his work again. This time, though, it’s not to prove it. It’s to disprove it. He actually wants a future now. Oh and Hank gives Deirdre his bunker key after all.