- Title: Clipped – Mo’s Ma
- IMDb: link
In an episode that introduces Dot-Marie Jones as Mo’s (Matt Cook) mother the barber struggles with the news that his parents are getting a divorce after 30 years of marriage. Although Mo can’t see a reason why the marriage is ending ,his co-workers strongly suspect it may having something to do with Mo’s mother being more attracted to the fairer sex. This, of course, leads to plenty of cheap lesbian jokes as the characters dance around the issue without sharing their suspicions with Mo for most of the episode.
The main storyline allows the show to continuing filling out he lives and backstory of more of the characters and provides plenty of opportunities for Cook to work on his physical humor. However, the glee with which his co-workers (other than Ben) took in Mo’s confusion and obvious pain was a little unsettling. And although the ending adds an unexpected twist to the story (including an unbelievable pair of celebrity name drops) it makes Mo’s life even more comical and less realistic which is a shame for an episode that, at times, teased us with with the possibility of dealing with a complex issue of later-life sexual identity.
The episode’s B-story continues to rewrite the past relationship of Danni (Ashley Tisdale) and A.J. (Mike Castle) as her obvious jealousy over his new lady friend leads them to eventually agree on a date (after she gives the woman a cute hairstyle she knows A.J. will hate). Previous episodes suggested the longtime friends only hooked-up twice: once on prom night and once years later during the series. Flashbacks seem to suggest the pair were far more romantic in their youth than the earlier episodes suggested as the show seems to have settled on getting these two together as soon as possible rather than draw-out a friendship turned romance angle.