In “We Were Just Babies” the truth about Sam’s (Crew Kingston Miskel) father is revealed when the show returns to Gabby (Simone Recasner) and Justin’s (Raymond Cham Jr.) high school bringing Gabby’s oldest secret to light by revealing her favorite teacher took advantage of her and then promptly dumped Gabby when she became pregnant with his child. The long-running thread has a far better payoff than I expected, and also gives us a look at the crew discussing what’s best to do with this information, both for Gabby and for the show, ultimately giving Gabby a strong moment to stand-up for herself.
In what becomes a bit of a running gag, the show’s crew attempts to keep Mike (Jon Rudnitsky) and Paula (Piper Perabo) apart to avoid her revealing the truth to Mike about their past off-camera before Nick (Scott Foley) can catch it on film. Despite the various meet-cute aspects of their relationship, when are on display here for much of the episode, Mike doesn’t take the news well (on-camera or off), ending their relationship. Speaking of ending relationships, Reggie (Ser’Darius Blain) ends his with Brittney (Anna Grace Barlow) which dovetails into the arrival of Missi Pyle as the twins’ mother in “I Should Have Gone to Motown” whose influence has immediate impact on her children and their burgeoning friendships with the rest of the cast (and on a live performance that goes far, far off-script).
“I Should Have Gone to Motown” pairs up various cast members for Motown-inspired musical numbers for an after show for the premiere the network decides at the last minute would be great if it was live. The pairing of Paula and Julia (Teri Polo) give the two their first real interaction of the series together, and allows Paula to help Julia with her daughters. I’d love to see more of these to together, and wonder if Julia’s intuition might push another secret out into the open. As for the after show, Brittney’s choice, hurting after discovering Reggie’s feelings for Gabby, reveal of Gabby’s secret explodes the show making the network happy with the instant publicity but leaving the show with issue to overcome leading into their looming performance of Swan Lake.
