It’s the penultimate episode of Kevin Can F**k Himself, yet the show feels somewhat aimless tonight, paying service to the gods of plot above its intriguing concept. Last week’s episode, “The Machine,†ended on something of a cliff-hanger — Allison had come to a grand, somewhat demonic resolution that rested on this one idea: All of a sudden, she didn’t want to fake her death and escape her life in Worcester. This was a decision motivated by what exactly? Her great friendship with Patty? Her nice Aunt Diane? Her affair with Sam? Because when it comes to her marriage with Kevin, she’s essentially abused and stuck: If she tries to leave through classic means, like divorce, he will trail and find her.
So instead of going through the plan she has half-heartedly pursued all season, she has a new angle on how to live a better life. She will simply point Kevin at her problems. And her current problem, as she sees it, is Tammy the detective, who has camera footage that links Patty to a drug deal in Vermont and the botched hit job at Allison’s house.
In Sitcom World, Allison sets Kevin on Tammy with ease. She tells him Tammy is busy looking for the local arsonist and won’t rest until he’s behind bars. Kevin, of course, is the dummy local arsonist, considering he was behind last week’s town blackout. Hearing that he might be in trouble, Kevin gets to work. What kind of work? Well, he goes to the bar.
With Kevin on the case, her Tammy woes seem settled, but Allison still can’t sleep. She’s moody in Bleak World, and she makes herself some tea and sits on her porch. It’s the middle of the night, but of course Patty walks by because these two have some kind of soul-mate connection. So why can’t Allison sleep? She feels as though she forgot something. As if there’s a loose thread out there that’s stopping her great plan for freedom from Kevin. Patty, on the other hand, says, “I haven’t slept since I watched The NeverEnding Story.â€
Next, Allison goes to Sam’s and establishes that going after Tammy is “how I stay,†which is what Allison wants now. She’s over faking her death and wants to stay in Worcester, a decision that lets the plots go in motion. But it doesn’t really make sense when her goal has been freedom, and freedom comes with getting out of her relationship with Kevin. Clearly, Allison and Patty’s friendship means something to her, but they’re remaining vague about why it matters so much.
At Diane’s, Allison gets an answer to her late-night worries. Her aunt hooks her up with a Valu-Pak of pills for her insomnia, and she lets her know what the dangling thread is that’s keeping her up at night. It’s Neil, out on bail, drinking heavily and telling anybody who’ll listen that Patty and Allison were trying to murder Kevin.
Allison runs straight to Patty’s to tell her Neil’s running around letting of Worcester know they’re probably murderers. But, ever the proverbial buzzkill, Tammy interrupts.
Tammy stops over at Kevin’s for a meeting. It’s the bright light of Sitcom World, but it’s an ugly scene. Kevin waves his folder of “evidence†at Tammy and tells her his “foreigner neighbor who loves soccer†is clearly the arsonist. She fires back that an arsonist is “low intelligence, completely socially inadequate, a real loser,†promising to find the guy.
Allison heads over to the green lights of the Worcester View Suites, looking for Neil. The motel keeper is a weirdo, citing the “motel code†as a reason to “not rat on anyone’s husbands … or wives.â€
Outside the suites, Allison runs into Tammy, of course. The two women who care about Patty the most in the world definitely didn’t listen to her and are running around town looking for her brother. Tammy is condescending about it and notes that Allison may not “be on that video, but I know you’re right next to her.†Allison knows she can’t say anything to fix Tammy’s distrust, so she doesn’t.
And after this confrontation, it’s Allison who finds Patty at Neil’s. She’s worried he may blow everything up. She reminds Patty that “we’re criminals,†but what does it matter if Allison is about to leave? The truth comes out to her best friend: Allison doesn’t want to leave. But she offers to go if Patty wants her to. She’s stumbling drunk-tired. Patty tells her to go home, sleep it off, and they’ll figure it out.
The next morning, Kevin is trying on a variety of silly sunglasses in the kitchen because he’s heading over to the police department. Allison compliments Kevin on his smarts, and he says, “Remind me to tell Neil to do something nice for you from me.†(Note that Kevin needs his minion to do his work when it involves helping someone besides Kevin.) Kevin is blissfully unaware Neil has been missing, but he tells Allison to check the bar with keno because Neil likes that game when he’s drunk.
Allison finds Neil at the bar with keno, drunk as a skunk. He ropes her into driving him somewhere on a mission. The tension is thick in Allison’s car. She tries to apologize to him, but should she? He tried to kill her. They end up at the ice rink, where Neil is attempting to have his lifetime ban revoked. But it’s not as if drunk Neil is a charmer, so he comes back, a failure, to Allison’s car, all coiled in big-guy violence. He hits her dashboard hard. He’s scary.
But “being Mrs. McRoberts pulls some weight,†and Allison solves the problem. She just drops Kevin’s name at the rink because he knows the guy who drives the Zamboni. Allison tells Neil he can go ice skate, but he stalks out of the place. He actually was trying to get the ban reversed for Patty’s sake because she likes to go there for her birthday. He thinks someone
should do something nice for her. “Since you started coming around, it’s been different,†Neil says.
Before Allison, his sister never physically hurt him or tried to murder someone. But before Allison, Patty was miserable, dealing drugs, and verbally abused every day. Neil’s a sad-sack pitbull. He tells Allison he’s been telling everybody they tried to kill Kevin. He even told Kevin, and Kevin just laughed. Neil’s been blabbing because nobody actually takes him seriously. So nothing matters, and he drinks.
Patty goes to the packy to tell Diane Neil’s back. She warns Diane, kind of, that Neil will do these kinds of things. He goes on benders. Patty asks her if she loves him, and Diane responds, “Maybe I just don’t want to be alone. And there’s not always a difference.†So is Diane a version of Allison that’s not going to pursue freedom and change? Is she someone who will be consistently beaten down by whatever Worcester has to offer? It feels like that. She’s a parallel to Allison’s journey but also a warning of sorts.
At Patty’s, Tammy is waiting for her, ready to drop a bomb (I guess). Tammy can’t have Patty move in with her, and she gives her the Vermont cam video. The video’s dividing them in two. The detective knows Patty’s on the video, but she can’t prove it, but the questions remain, and you can’t be in a relationship with questions. Patty — like Allison earlier — can’t respond. Tammy leaves and says, “Good luck, Patty.â€
Allison is trying to sleep on her couch, ruminating on what’s next. But once again, she can’t sleep, but this time it’s because Kevin barges in with the glaring lights of Sitcom World. He’s solved the Tammy problem. He’s got an affidavit for Allison to sign that says she saw Tammy plant evidence. “You’re not telling a lie; you’re just writing your name near one,†he says. The sitcom lighting stays on Allison as she decides what to do next. When she throws the affidavit on the ground, unsigned, it switches over to Bleak World.
Allison runs to Patty.
Allison and Patty have a long hug full of emotion as Patty tells her Tammy knows everything. Tammy remains a problem, and Allison promises Patty she’ll fix it.
Then we’re in Sitcom World, Kevin complains while Neil looks despondent, Lorraine is confused, and Pete tries, and fails, to say he’s moving out. Patty comes in, asking for Allison, and Kevin responds fondly that Allison always laughs at his jokes. Pete thought Allison was on a “fancy walk,†or a hike. But that was yesterday. Police officers knock at the door, holding Allison’s backpack. They ask Kevin if he’s seen her in the past 24 hours (of course he hasn’t). They think there’s been an accident.
Patty goes to Sam’s diner and asks him if he knows where Allison is. He says he doesn’t know, but he gives her an envelope. Allison left Patty a note: “I’m sorry. But you’re better off.†The screen cuts to white — something like death or rebirth.
Here’s Allison, following around a Realtor showing her an apartment, asking what she’s going to do in Danforth, Maine — a place that is extremely close to the border with Canada and mostly known for having the best ice fishing. Allison has a one-word reply. She’s going to “sleep.â€
Starbucks?? Over Dunkies?!
• There’s a shot of Patty reading The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, a novella about a poor fisherman who finds “the pearl of the world†and tries to sell it to bring money and luck to his family. It does not go as planned.
• This was interesting to find out: Mary Hollis Inboden, who plays Patty, is a school-shooting survivor. She wrote a moving op-ed about her experience in 2018.
• Kevin’s smell is described as “pungent†with “strange notes of vanilla.â€
• The lighting on the show is fascinating. Throughout this season, Bleak World is less aggressively dark, and in some scenes, Sitcom World is becoming darker, with less glaring lighting, all echoing the themes of the show and what’s going on. It’s very clever.
• The details at Aunt Diane’s house show how stuck she feels. Even the coffee cup has her husband’s name all over it, “chuck chuck chuck†everywhere.
• I think the show makes a lot more sense if Allison is kind of into Patty as a girlfriend, but the coming-out aspects of the show generally remain very subtextual, which is fine, but sometimes Allison seems so very, very straight.