“Nobody Wants That” Season 1 Episode 5 recap

Listen, I’m all for Joanne and Noah having to deal with teen scorn at camp – a real test of any budding relationship – but the tricks that were done to get the two of them into this situation , are ridiculous. In what world would the woman who consistently made it clear to people that her podcast was important, deep, and empowering, the woman who vehemently disagreed with her sister’s interpretation of what they were doing, the woman, who has put all her career’s eggs in one basket and maybe finally sees that it’s worth canceling what could be the biggest meeting of her life to travel with her new boyfriend? And not even good away from home! To a Jewish camp in Ojai full of teenagers where her boyfriend has to work and there aren’t even fluffy bathrobes? It’s not like they booked a lavish vacation that they couldn’t reschedule. You can postpone this! Sure, Joanne eventually comes to the conclusion that she’s ultimately rooting for coconuts here, but it takes far too long to be believable. And it’s not just Joanne. Both she and Noah make some decisions in “My Friend Joanne” that so far don’t fit their characters.

What Nobody wants that What we’re led to believe is that Joanne is so engrossed in the honeymoon phase of her relationship that she doesn’t mind missing out on work. Sure, she and Noah are very cute in the little montage we see at the beginning of the episode where they can’t seem to get out of bed or move their lips away from each other. Admittedly, I would watch a full 30 minutes of it. And yes, we’ve established that Joanne can become obsessive, but wouldn’t she also be obsessed with her work? They still haven’t closed the deal with Spotify. So with Ashley reiterating how important this meeting is, you’d think Joanne would focus on it even if the two are lower-level executives, someone Morgan says never lets herself be signed off from work the big picture. At the very least, Morgan’s insistence that she wants to do this alone might give Joanne something to think about; She showed us that she has very little trust in her sister, especially when it comes to work.

There are so many questions that boggle your mind: Why doesn’t Ashley fight harder for Joanne to make this a priority? Can’t they both go to camp and come back for dinner? Drive two cars! And why doesn’t someone mention that their romantic weekend getaway turned into a youth camp because it was important? Noah’s job? Where is your female empowerment now, Joanne?! Characters are allowed to make bad decisions, but they should at least give those bad decisions some internal logic. Still, there are some great moments at Camp Haverim. The whole reason Noah had no problem taking Joanne with him while filling in for his boss, Rabbi Cohen, was because no one even remotely connected to his temple would be there, leaving him and Joanne free could walk around without having to worry about whether the news of who he was with would spread. That doesn’t stop him from introducing Joanne as his “girlfriend” when his old camp counselor, Rabbi Shira (a great Leslie Grossman – seriously, the cast of this show is so good) shows up. Shira doesn’t care at all and she and Joanne actually seem to get along. While the “girlfriend” nickname doesn’t seem to bother Joanne much at first, a whole gaggle of teenage girls – teenage girls who call Noah “Hot Rabbi” because they know what’s going on – make it crystal clear that even she Noah trying to hide them plants a seed.

Noah spends a lot of time talking about his glory days as a stock stallion here. Sure, he was really into Beanie Babies, but at the end of each summer he also got a girlfriend, which was of utmost importance. Joanne licks it. When Morgan calls to tell her that the head of the podcast department – the top guy – will now be at this meeting but that it will be completely cool and fine, Joanne is so panicked that she writes a few extra notes writes for her sister, but she doesn’t panic enough to go home to make sure the future of her career is secure. Again, they could literally have a much nicer weekend getaway next weekend. Why are you torturing yourself?!

Things go downhill from there: Just as Noah is putting together food for a romantic picnic, Rabbi Cohen appears; His schedule changed and he thought he would come to see Noah’s Torah study. Noah gets really weird real quick, and when he closes the curtains, tries to sell the idea of ​​an indoor picnic, and explains that Rabbi Cohen holds the future of Noah’s career in his hands, it doesn’t take long for Joanne to realize that it would be a problem for Rabbi Cohen to see her and Noah together because she is not Jewish.

With a bagel in each hand, Joanne returns to her favorite pastime: emotional spirals. She meets Rabbi Shira, who is making Shabbat candles for that evening, and can see that this woman is there. Shira is so calming and very cool. More of her, please. And yet it’s actually the mean crowd of teenage girls who put a few things into perspective for her as she makes her own candles. “Joanne is about 50 and she’s a pick-me-up,” says one, noting that she wants to be “strong and confident” in middle age, not sad and pathetic like Joanne. And then Joanne finally remembers that “strong and confident” should be her “whole trademark.” “Wow, it really helped that you girls judge me harshly,” she tells them before heading home to take care of business.

The first thing Joanne notices when she arrives at the big Spotify meeting is that it’s going very well. Morgan smashes it. And of course she is – she got valuable advice from none other than Sasha (he had to let her into Noah’s apartment to grab Joanne’s computer). Sasha informed Morgan, who talked a lot with her sister but is surprisingly open with Sasha about being nervous, that a hostage negotiator – not a typo – once taught him the “mirror technique,” which involves repeating the last few words of something Person you are talking to said to you as if they were really smart or interesting, and that keeps that person talking. It works! It works for Sasha, who doesn’t even notice Morgan using it on him for a while, and it works for the Spotify execs. Sasha mentions another pretty astute thing to Morgan: he refers to them as “the loser siblings.” Morgan denies it, but something tells me it actually hits her to the core. Sasha is as confused as she is about how this happened to her, since Morgan is “a smoke show” with a “hot Mother Earth vibe” and Joanne is way too small, but he can tell it’s the truth , and he understands it. I love this budding strange friendship.

Back at the meeting, Joanne realizes she has nothing to worry about with Morgan, and she tries (poorly) to subtly apologize. It leads to the two arguing, but it’s Morgan who takes the argument back and uses it as further proof of why her podcast is doing so well. Then there’s another distraction: Noah shows up.

Can you believe this man? Okay, this is supposed to be very swoony and romantic, but I’m sorry, that’s it outrageous. The mean teenagers at the camp are the ones who inform Noah that Joanne left because he’s suspicious and “treats her like a bullshit,” and she obviously doesn’t want to be friends with him; She wants to be his girlfriend. “Are all men medically stupid?” asks one of them. I adore her now. This outline is paired with a very nice conversation with Shira. Noah explains the whole situation to her and wonders if he could ever be promoted to chief rabbi if he was with a non-Jew. She thinks he’s asking the wrong question; Instead, he should ask how Joanne makes him feel. “Honestly, I’ve never felt like this in my entire life,” he says, and admittedly, I put my hand on my heart. Well, there is his answer. “You don’t give up on something great just because it’s difficult,” she tells him, reminding him that nothing is set in stone, and clearly: “Change is a process” – and maybe one of them will change, or maybe In the end you both change to make it work, but you don’t give up. It’s a great speech, and I understand Noah’s desire to find Joanne as quickly as possible and apologize for treating her the way he did, but… he shouldn’t have waited until after their all-important meeting can?

Your love is real, I’m 100 percent into it, I appreciate it and even I thought: Oh no, sir, please don’t as he interrupts this big dinner. He’s the one who keeps telling her that this job is important! He saw how stressed she was about it! Ahhhh! These people are outside their minds in this episode. It feels a lot like something Noah wouldn’t do. He is a friendly, considerate person.

Whatever, he does it. And yeah, sure, he’s romantic as hell here. He doesn’t want to lose her. When she tells him how hurt she was when he called her a friend in front of the teenagers whose opinions matter most to her, as she puts it, he agrees: “That was sus.” And as her Telling him that her main disappointment is that this all means she missed her first Shabbat, he sets up a small makeshift version of the ceremony, a pop-up Shabbat, so to speak. And then, like any good camper, he asks Joanne if she would like to be his girlfriend. Yeah, okay, he’s very cute when he yells, “She said yes!” I want to be mad at him, but I just can’t do it for long. Is this how Joanne feels? It’s exhausting!