Recap / Central Park S1E8 "Hot Oven"

RECAP:
Index
Season One: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Season Two: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16
Season Three: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13

Original release date: July 10, 2020

Written by: Rachel Hastings
Directed by: Corey Barnes

♫ Pizza, pizza
Yeah, we all relate to pizza
We know love can be imperfectly perfect
Woah-oh-oh-oh-oh!
Who cares what it looks like, baby?
It's more important that it cooks right, baby
So like this piece of pizza
Love can be imperfectly perfect ♫

—The Tillermans, "Imperfectly Perfect"

Molly reluctantly invites Brendan over to her home for dinner and the Tillermans learns something important about him. Meanwhile, Owen is trying to make a perfect pizza for the dinner. Bitsy calls her dog therapist over when Shampagne starts peeing on her bed, and Helen tries to sabotage the session in order to convince Bitsy to get rid of Shampagne.

Songs

• I'm In A Perfect Relationship - Molly and Brendan
  Written by: Meghan Trainor
  Performed by: Kristen Bell & Eugene Cordero
  Additional Vocals: Angelica Cox
• TOSGANO - Augustus, Helen, and Bitsy
  Written by: Brent Knopf
  Performed by: John Early, Daveed Diggs, & Stanley Tucci
• Imperfectly Perfect - Owen, Paige, Molly, Brendan and Cole
  Written by: Kate Anderson & Elyssa Samsel
  Performed by: Leslie Odom Jr., Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, & Tituss Burgess

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Tropes:

• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Owen and Paige tease Molly about having Brendan over for dinner and embarrass her further by thinking about showing off their dance to welcome Brendan.
• Awkward Kiss: When Brendan goes to kiss Molly, he misses her lips and accidentally kisses her eye because he got distracted when he saw Owen and Paige peeking out the window. When Molly tries to kiss Brendan, she misses his lips and kisses his eye. They try kissing one last time but they hit each other's teeth.
• Blatant Lies: Helen tries to get Shampagne to bite Bitsy by trying to upset him. When Bitsy ask Helen what she's doing, she tell her Augustus is causing the disruption despite doing nothing and Helen is seen doing it.
• Brick Joke: Owen and Paige decide to tease Molly about inviting Brendan by wanting to welcome him with a dance. Near the end of the episode, when Molly wants to Cole to change the subject when Paige asks Brendan if he's willing to wear a wire when talking to Bitsy, Cole tells his parents to show Brendan their dance.
• Callback:
  • In her smear ad about Central Park, Bitsy brings up the time the park was overrun with trash and the park being tagged.
  • Brendan mentions that all their botched kissing attempts can't be worse than their first attempt at a kiss, which almost killed him.
• Distant Duet: Molly and Brendan sings "I'm in a Perfect Relationship" in their respective rooms while they text each other.
• Embarrassing Damp Sheets: Shampagne starts peeing in Bitsy's bed, indicating that he's still unhappy living his current lifestyle.
• Epic Fail: Owen has trouble cooking his pizza right because his oven can't get hot enough. After using the forge to cook his pizza, he presents his perfect pizza to his family only for the pizza to slide off the pizza pan and land on the floor. He quickly puts the pizza back on the pan and presents it again to his family. It isn't a complete fail because despite it falling on the floor and looking awful, everyone loves the pizza.
• Exposition Already Covered: After Brendan reveals Bitsy is his great aunt to the Tillermans, Birdie tells the audience that this is the part where Brendan is going to reveal he's related to Bitsy, until he sees that Brendan already told them and Birdie explains it's hard for him to hear them in the dining room.
• Flashback Cut: When Owen tells Molly she should invite Brendan over for pizza night, Molly brings up that Owen's pizza can be challenging, then we flashback to Owen holding a slice of his pizza that falls apart.
• Foreshadowing: Lampshaded by Birdie when he tells the audience that while Molly and Brendan sings about having a perfect relationship despite not knowing much about each other, they will be surprised when they actually do learn something about each other.
• Freak Out: Downplayed. Each member of the Tillerman family is very surprised when they learn that Brendan is a Brandenham.
• Fun with Acronyms: The Dog therapist explains to Helen that his Godzilla Threshold, when it comes to cases he is unable to figure out, is "TOSGANO", which stands for "This One Sucks, Get A New One". One example that he states will result in a TOSGANO is if the dog has H.A.B., which means Hazardous Antisocial Behavior, a.k.a. if the dog bites someone.
• Funny Background Event: While Owen has his pizza heated on the forge, Birdie is seen playing with Jimmy's sword in the background. After Owen finish heating his pizza, Birdie returns the sword broken to Jimmy and claims it was like that before and then quickly leaves.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Right after Owen and Paige tell Molly that they won't embarrass her in front of Brendan, they practice a dance they can do to welcome him into their home.
• Innocently Insensitive: When Molly tells Brendan she lives in Edendale Castle and she assures him she's not like those rich jerks, Brendan reveals he's actually rich, which makes Molly feel awkward for unintentionally calling him a rich jerk. Brendan said it's fine because he doesn't like to reveal he's rich because people Freak Out that he's a Brandenham, then Molly immediately freaks out, proving Brendan's point.
• Internal Reveal: The Tillermans finally learns the truth about Bitsy thanks to Brendan, who reveals that she's his great aunt, and that she's plotting to buy Central Park.
• Literal Metaphor: After reading Bitsy's letter that said Central Park has a failing management, Owen points out he worked his shorts off for the park, "Literally! I've gone through three pairs in the last six months."
• Malicious Slander: Bitsy releases a smear ad in the newspaper about Central Park falling apart and they need new management for the park to improve. Owen does not take this well.
• Man Bites Man: After attempts to get Shampagne to bite Bitsy, Helen turns out the light and bites her on the hand. The dog psychologist, however, quickly points out that it looked like a human bite on her hand.
• Mustache Vandalism: After reading Bitsy's article, Paige draws one on the small, cartoon Bitsy. She and Owen then proceed to further vandalise the small figure.
• No, You: When Owen asks Molly if he really likes Brendan, Molly snaps back and tells him he really likes Brendan and then apologizes because she doesn't know why she said that.
• Perfection Is Impossible: "Imperfectly Perfect". Owen and Paige sings that Molly and Brendan's love doesn't have to be perfect by using Owen's messy pizza as a metaphor, and then the whole Tillerman family sings how it's better to prefer the imperfection.
• Secretly Wealthy: While we knew that Brendan is related to Bitsy and he comes from a rich family, we didn't know that he's so rich that his family has their own private island.
• Special Guest: Meghan Trainor wrote the song, "I'm in a Perfect Relationship", for the episode.
• Stating the Simple Solution: When Owen's oven catches on fire and he wonders how he's going to heat his pizza, Birdie points out he could just buy a pizza but Owen refuses. When Owen and Birdie take the pizza to the forge so Jimmy can heat it, Jimmy also points out the same solution to Owen, but Owen counters he could buy a sword instead of forging one and Jimmy responds with Touché.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: After Helen realizes she can get rid of Shampagne by getting him to bite Bitsy, she laughs evilly causing Augustus to ask her if she's laughing at him because he's a dog therapist and Helen went along with it.
• Time Lapse: After Bitsy tells Helen to call her dog therapist to come later in the afternoon, we cut to Birdie who's playing his violin at night and it suddenly transitions into morning.
• TV Never Lies: Owen read online that he can get his oven hot enough to cook his pizza by leaving it on broil the entire time. Molly points out that's dangerous but Owen said they wouldn't put that information online if it wasn't dangerous. Later on, Owen's oven catches on fire and the oven knobs are on fire.
• Villain Ball: In the previous episode, Bitsy revealed her secret plan to buy Central Park in an attempt to be taken seriously by her brother's family. All of them blew her off- except for Brendan, who voiced his misgivings. And thanks to him, Owen and Paige now know about her scheme.

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♫ Even though we don't, we don't talk in person
He is my everything (she's my everything)
I want the world to know
I'm in a perfect relationship
Yeah, I'm in a perfect relationship
Yeah, I'm in a perfect relationship
I want the world to know
I'm in a perfect relationship ♫

—Molly & Brendan, I'm in a Perfect Relationship (End Credits)"

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