Oh, Zoey, you have never been worthy of Max. He is too good for you.
Zoey's trip down memory lane on Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist Season 2 Episode 12 was supposed to give us some insight into the first time she came close to loss, but all it did was amplify just how much of a good person Max is.
He passed on a job he desperately wanted, something that would have proven to his father he wasn't a failure after all, and let a veritable stranger have it because she was the better candidate. Like, who does that? Max Richman, apparently.
Max truly is one in a million, and if Zoey can't see that by now, then I'm not sure she ever will.
Yes, she doesn't know the whole story, but a guy she just met is checking on her at the hospital, and her mother is still someone pretty special.
Max: If you’re only taking one person from my team, it should be Zoey.
Danny Michael Davis: Why? She didn’t even bother showing up for the last round.
Max: Well, that’s only because she’s at the hospital with her mom, but she’s a better coder than me, she wants it more than me, and I think she’ll do great things here.
Danny Michael Davis: You’re willing to give up your spot for this person that you just met?
Max: Yeah, I am.
Danny Michael Davis: You’re a very strange man, but I guess this floor could stand to have one female coder.
Guys like Max don't come around every day, and Zoey would be a fool to let him go to New York without telling him how she feels.
As Dr. Tesoro laid it out for Zoey because her near-loss story is also a love story, and whether she wants to admit it or not -- probably not because she's intent on making things work with Simon -- she's in love with Max.
If we learned anything from this deep dive into Zoey's memory, it's that after she almost lost her mother, she kept those closest to her at arm's length, afraid to let anyone in because she couldn't go through the heartbreak and worry of losing someone else.
And after Mitch died, Zoey slammed the door on a relationship with Max, not just because it was too soon, but because she couldn't handle losing him if they, as a couple, didn't work out.
It was safer for Zoey to keep Max in her life as a friend, knowing that he would always be there, than to risk it all on the slim chance it would implode what they already had.
Now, though, it's getting to the point of no return, as Max leaves for New York in a week.
He could come back to San Francisco at some point, but Zoey and Max's chance at being together could have passed by then.
They could have missed their window, and that would be a tragedy.
Zoey: When I heard my parents sing the song that I’d heard them sing to each other a thousand times before that’s the moment I realized how fragile it all is. Like all that love could be taken away in the blink of an eye.
Dr. Tesoro: Do you think that experience may have caused you to become more emotionally guarded with the people that you care about?
Zoey: Yeah, maybe it is why I put Max in the friendzone so quickly after we met, or maybe I just couldn’t get over him making fun of my wardrobe that first day.
Dr. Tesoro: How did you two end up staying connected if he didn’t end up getting the job?
Zoey: Oh, um, Danny hired him a month later after he fired his own cousin for telling people he was his cousin.
Dr. Tesoro: You know what’s interesting Zoey is that the memory of your health scare also turns out to be a story about your deep connection with Max. You might not want to hear this, but to me, it’s as much a love story as it is a loss story.
However, as selfish as Zoey can be, she may fight against confessing her feelings toward Max as there are other people involved to consider.
She's with Simon, and Max's with Rose, and from Zoey's point of view, Max is happy.
So, she may not be willing to rush to judgment if she's not 100% sure of her feelings, which it seems like she's not.
It's somewhat ironic. Zoey's powers give her the ability to hear the heart songs of everyone around her, allowing her insight into their innermost thoughts and feelings, but Zoey can't do that for herself.
She can't figure out her own feelings, and it would be easier if she could hear her own heart songs.
There's no easy answer on what Zoey will do, and whatever decision she makes, someone will get hurt.
And with Zoey being the empathetic person that she is, that's the last thing she would want.
However, the revelation of Max's trip to New York has put a clock on Zoey's decision-making, so she'll have to make up her mind fast.
What makes this more stressful -- at least for us -- is that this show has yet to be renewed for a third season, meaning the big cliffhanger we know is coming could go unresolved, and we would have no closure.
Max: What’s happening?
Zoey: It’s my mom. She’s at the hospital. They think she might have had a heart attack.
Max: Oh my god, I'm so sorry.
Zoey: But my dad says he has it under control, which he usually does, so…
Max: Go, go be with your mom?
Zoey: Really? Should I?
Max: Yes.
Zoey: OK, ugh, yeah, OK, um, you’re right. I’m gonna go tell Danny I’m dropping out of the competition, but don’t worry ‘cause you got this. You deserve to be here.
Max: Hold on, Danny never said pre-hires couldn’t work remotely. I could do all the boots on the ground stuff here while you crunch code on your way to the hospital.
Zoey: You don’t have to figure out a way to keep me in the competition.
Max: This isn't charity, Zoey. I need you. We work better together as a team, OK. We could do this, and if we can’t, it confirms all my father’s fears about me, and you never get to live out your lifelong dream.
Zoey: So, you’re saying it’s no pressure.
Max: No pressure.
- Permalink: It’s my mom. She’s at the hospital.
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Ratings for the second season haven't been stellar, though audience viewership isn't the sole factor anymore.
COVID-19 also makes it harder to guess if this series will be renewed as the usual renewal and cancelation patterns could go out the window.
So it could be anyone's guess on what does or doesn't make the cut. But hopefully, it'll be this gem of a show.
Moving on from the love quadrangle drama, the flashback episode was pretty great overall.
It was a compelling origin story, and it was such a treat to have Peter Gallagher back as Mitch.
In a way, this was our first time meeting Mitch, as we've only ever seen Mitch after being diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy and the toll the disease took on his health.
Peter Gallagher played an ailing Mitch brilliantly on Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist Season 1, but we never got to see the full range of the character.
Gallagher's Sandy Cooper from The O.C. is the epitome of a loving father on television, and he got to channel that character in all of its glory as he played a pre-diagnosed Mitch.
From jocular father to nearly bereaved husband, Gallagher was phenomenal, not that we expected anything less.
As for the rest of the ensemble cast, only Simon was MIA, as the show found a way to weave the non-SPRQPoint and non-Clarke characters into the narrative pretty flawlessly.
Maggie: Honey, what are we doing here? Weren’t we just installing a garden this morning.
Mitch: We were, and we’ll be installing many more very soon.
Maggie: But not for Mrs. Edelstein.
Mitch: Definitely not.
Maggie: Mitchell, listen, if anything should happen to me in there, it’s OK because if one of us had to go it alone from here, you are the one that’s strong enough to pull that off.
Mitch: Let’s not even talk that way, OK.
Maggie: I know, but I mean it. You know I’ll always be your girl. I would want you to go on living life, and I would want you to find love. I know you would look after Zoey and David, but I would want you to look after you too.
Mitch: Well, I just can’t lose you. I can’t, OK.
- Permalink: Well, I just can’t lose you. I can’t, OK.
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Having Mo be Zoey's Uber driver was pretty spectacular, and I wonder if Zoey has ever put two and two together that her Uber driver from that fateful day is now her next-door neighbor.
And David and Emily randomly bumping into each other at the hospital also made some sense, especially since we learned they had dated before.
It was one of those random moments where you run into someone you used to know and then reconnected with, and it worked.
The only character I expected to see but didn't was Joan, though that probably has more to do with Lauren Graham's availability than anything else.
Overall, it was very well done and worked with the confines of the show.
The writers even found creative ways to include singing in a way that didn't feel overly forced.
People bursting into songs so many times in one day is pretty odd, but it worked somehow.
Danny Michael Davis's over-the-top entrance and Mo's Exquisite Playlist made sense based on what we know about the characters.
Max and Leif getting into a duet battle were a little out there, but since Danny Michael Davis came up with these crazy competitions, it was understandable.
Up until this point in my life, the idea of loss – real life-changing loss – always seemed so removed from me. Like it was something that happened to other people, not us.
Zoey
And Mitch and Maggie singing together after Maggie come out of surgery were beyond sweet.
Even the eliminated competitor, not realizing he was singing aloud, was within the realm of possibility, so kudos to the show for figuring out how to incorporate music without Zoey's powers.
Some stray thoughts:
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What was the purpose of Leif's haircut and Tobin's glasses? Did the writers think we needed a constant reminder that this was a flashback, that we would somehow forget this wasn't the present?
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Max kept the coffee robot prototype. He can claim he wants space from Zoey, but him holding onto that proves that he's not over her and maybe never will be.
So what did you think, TV Fanatics?
Does Zoey deserve Max?
What was your favorite part of the flashback episode?
Was music incorporated believably?
Don't forget to hit the comments below to let me know your thoughts. If you missed the latest episode, remember you can watch Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist online at TV Fanatic.
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