Recap / Central Park S2E07 "A Decent Proposal"

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 23, 2021

Written by: Ava Tramer
Directed by: Tom King

Owen: ♫ You're my dream, I am so lucky ♫
Paige: ♫ No, I'm lucky ♫
Owen & Paige: ♫ Cause it happened ♫
The Tillermans: ♫ And it's history we got to rewrite / La-da-da-da / Oh, that's how it happened ♫
Owen & Paige: ♫ To happen tonight ♫

—"How It Happened (Reprise)"

After Owen accidentally ruins someone's marriage proposal, he does damage control with Paige and try to give him the best proposal ever. Molly is nervous to attends Bitsy's birthday party with Brendan due to her worries about fitting in with the rich and meeting Bitsy in person. While Cole is playing with Shampagne, he discovers that Shapagne has a crush on another dog but his owner won't allow them to spend time together.

Songs

• "Will I Fit" - Molly
  Written by: Regina Spektor
  Performed by: Emmy Raver-Lampman
• "My Worst Day" - Bitsy, Helen, & Bitsy's relatives
  Written by: Rafael Casal
  Performed by: Stanley Tucci & Daveed Diggs
  Additional Vocals: Phil LaMarr, Naomi Ekperegin, Rema Webb, Yvette Nicole Brown, Larry Murphy, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Marc Evan Jackson, Eugene Cordero, David Herman, Lindsey Stoddart, Paul Rust, & Brooke Dillman
• "Will I Fit (Reprise)" - Molly
  Written by: Ava Tramer & Nora Smith
  Performed by: Emmy Raver-Lampman
• "Puppy Love"
  Written & Performed by: Paul Rust & Michael Cassady
• "How It Happened" - Owen & Paige
  Written by: Kate Anderson & Elyssa Samsel
  Performed by: Leslie Odom Jr. & Kathryn Hahn
  Additional Vocals: Dave Herman, Yvette Nicole Brown, Rema Webb, Angelica Cox, Emily Goldstein, Rory O'Malley, Janelle James
• "How It Happened (Reprise)" - Owen, Paige, Molly, & Cole
  Written by: Kate Anderson, Elyssa Samsel, & Ava Tramer
  Performed by: Leslie Odom Jr., Kathryn Hahn, Emmy Raver-Lampman, & Tituss Burgess

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Tropes:

• Accidental Truth: Before going to Bitsy's birthday party, Owen tells Molly to be careful around Bitsy because she probably has a secret rich person dungeon for the children of Central Park managers, but admits he doesn't know. When Molly does meet Bitsy and she begs Bitsy not to put her in her dungeon, Bitsy tells her that's ridiculous... because her dungeon is full of shoes she doesn't wear anymore and her old LaserDiscs.
• Ageless Birthday Episode: Molly is invited by Brendan to attend Bitsy's birthday party, but we never get to learn her new age.
• Brick Joke: Owen tells Molly to careful around Bitsy who might put her in a secret rich person dungeon for the children of Central Park managers. When Molly does meet Bitsy and begs her not to put her in her dungeon, Bitsy admits that while she does have dungeon, she uses it for storage now.
• The Bus Came Back: Bitsy's relatives who appeared back in "Squirrel, Interrupted" return to attend her birthday party.
• The Cameo: Lionel, the bartender of the Brandenham Hotel, is seen serving drinks at Bitsy's birthday party.
• Chekhov's Gun: When Molly and Bitsy start hanging out, Molly quickly rips out a piece paper from her notebook, crumples it, and shoves it into her purse. When Bitsy later notice the crumpled note, she sees it's a caricature of her and she realizes who Molly is.
• Costume-Test Montage: Molly does this during "Will I Fit" when deciding what outfit to wear at Bitsy's birthday party.
• Cultural Translation: The European French dub uses the French title of Cast Away, Seul au monde, while the Spanish (Latin America and European) and Brazilian dub uses Náufrago.
• Didn't Think This Through: Paige questions Taylor on why he would leave an expensive ring floating in a bottle that would look, to most people, like trash as his wedding proposal. Taylor tells her he and Laura love the movie Cast Away and did it as a homage. Paige points out there wasn't any message in a bottle in the movie, but he tells them it's in their fanfiction.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While Bitsy may be a rich and terrible person, she hates her stuck-up relatives because while she worked hard to get where she is, her relatives just coast through life. She hates how they only came to her party just to brag and compare their riches and things they were able to get away with to each other.
• Final Love Duet: Owen and Paige sings a reprise of "How It Happened" near the end of the episode where Paige recreates their wedding proposal but Paige is the one doing to proposal because she wants to give Owen a happy memory of their proposal and move on from the proposal Owen botched.
• Fish out of Water:
  • Molly is worried to attended Bitsy's birthday party because it's going to be full of rich people and she'll feel out of place. When she's at the party, her worries were correct because she doesn't understand or relate to any of the partygoers and goes to a greenhouse to avoid them.
  • Bitsy also feels this way among her relatives because while her life was difficult they got it easy and she doesn't know most of the guests there despite being related.
• Flashback Cut: When Brendan comes to pick up Molly at her home, he tells her he's surprised her parents were cool with her attending Bitsy's birthday party despite their hatred for Bitsy. Molly tells him they were fine with it, then we get a flashback of Paige telling Molly to put a hair in the crab dip at the party, Owen telling her to be careful around Bitsy who might have a secret rich person dungeon for the children of Central Park managers, and Cole telling her to quietly crop dust her without her knowing. After the flashback ends, Molly said they were super cool and very mature about it.
• Howl of Sorrow: Shampagne and the Great Dane both howl when they can't be together, then Cole joins in and for some reason Birdie joins in, too, because he loves group howls.
• Innocently Insensitive: Paige would keep telling Owen that his botched proposal to her in the past isn't something he needs concern himself about because she doesn't care how bad it was and it didn't need to be perfect. Paige would later realize that he wasn't trying to make a perfect proposal for her but to himself. She realizes she should have looked at it from his perspective, because while she didn't care about the proposal Owen cares about it personally since he's the one doing the proposal and working hard on it. At the end of the episode, Paige makes it up to Owen by redoing their proposal and making it perfect for him.
• Let's Duet: "How It Happened" has Owen and Paige singing how Owen's first wedding proposal to Paige went.
• Love at First Sight: While at the park, Shampagne fells in love with a male Great Dane dog and he has a montage in his head about the things they could do together.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After Paige makes Owen realize that his proposal idea for Taylor is making him feel miserable, Owen realizes the mistake he's making and drops his idea to do a simple Cast Away-themed proposal for Taylor.
• My Greatest Second Chance: After Owen ruined Taylor's proposal, he sees it as an opportunity to give Taylor the perfect proposal he never got because he botched it with Paige, despite her assuring Owen that his proposal was fine. Owen ends up going overboard by doing a proposal that Taylor doesn't feel comfortable doing and after talking with Paige he calls it off and does a proposal that's better suited for Taylor. Paige then realizes that Owen wasn't trying to make up the botched proposal to her but to himself because while she didn't care about how bad it was, it really meant a lot to him.
• No, You: After Bitsy tells Helen to go walk Shampagne:
  Bitsy: Go already. Your face is ruining my birthday.
  Helen: Your birthday is ruining my face.
  Bitsy: What's that?
  Helen: I was just saying goodbye.
• Pet the Dog: Among Molly's worries about attending Bitsy's birthday party is meeting Bitsy herself since she's trying to buy Central Park and ruin their lives. When they do meet, Bitsy doesn't recognize her at first and is surprisingly civil to her and compliments her caricatures of her relatives and they bond over Molly drawing caricatures of them. When Bitsy sees that Molly drew a caricature of her and realizes who she is, she understands Molly's reason for drawing it and admits to liking it. She tells her Brendan is lucky to have her and she's talented and pretty put together and even likes her "poor person" dress. Before Bitsy leaves, Molly draws another caricature of Bitsy but in a positive light, which Bitsy likes.
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: Taylor was planning to propose his to girlfriend by putting a message in a bottle with an engagement ring attached to it as a homage to Cast Away, but Owen ruined it by taking the bottle away when he thought it was trash.
• When She Smiles: Bitsy seems to genuinely smile briefly when she sees Molly's new drawing of her.

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♫ What we've got here is more than puppy love
Awoo
Sit, stay, awoo
Sit and stay with me
Look at us, running down the beach
Sit, stay, awoo
Sit, stay, awoo
Sit, stay with me ♫

—"Puppy Love (End Credits)"

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