Recap / Central Park S3E13 "The Brandenpire Strikes Back"

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

"Love comes back around"

Original Release Date: November 18, 2022

Written by: Francisco Angones
Directed by: Tom King

♫ Plant a seed and in the end
Share the bounty with a friend
Even if you're wayward bound
The love comes back around♫

—"Love Comes Back Around"

With Owen's "I Heart the Park" campaign is in full swing, Owen is stressed out about the event and is worried it's a disaster, especially when he hears his boss, Commissioner Krantz, is coming. Bitsy's meeting with Interim Mayor Quincy Leeds is cancelled due to the workers at the Brandenham Hotel going on strike so she makes Helen try to fix it. Meanwhile, while doing a task for Bitsy, Abby is waiting for a call to hear about her audition and her patience is starting to break.

Songs

• "What Do We Want" - Sonia, Moonie, Devora, Lionel, Mauricio, Jasper, Bitsy, Helen, Abby, & Owen
  Written by: Rafael Casal
  Performed by: Sarah Baker, David Herman, Brooke Dillman, Norm Lewis, Tim Meadows, Adam Shapiro, Brian Huskey, Stanley Tucci, Daveed Diggs, Kristen Bell, & Leslie Odom Jr.
  Additional Vocals: Nadia DiGiallonardo & Rich Mercurio
• "Small Stuff" - Elwood & Owen
  Written by: Garfunkel and Oates
  Performed by: Rory O'Malley & Leslie Odom Jr.
• "Enough Is Enough" - Abby
  Written by: Sara Bareilles
  Performed by: Kristen Bell
• "Love Comes Back Around" - Birdie, Owen, Paige, Molly, Cole, Abby, Helen, Elwood, & Glorious Gary
  Written by: Kate Anderson & Elyssa Samsel
  Performed by: Josh Gad, Leslie Odom Jr., Kathryn Hahn, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Tituss Burgess, Kristen Bell, Daveed Diggs, Rory O'Malley, Christopher Jackson, Sarah Baker, David Herman, Brooke Dillman, Norm Lewis, Adam Shapiro, & Brian Huskey
  Additional Vocals: Angelica Cox & Emily Goldstein

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Tropes:

• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Owen hears that Commissioner Krantz is coming to the park to see how it's going and he getting really nervous, Interim Mayor Leeds tries to reassure him:
  Mayor Leeds: Yeah, I'm sure you'll do great. What's she gonna do? Shut down the program? Fire you? Kick you out of your home? Tickle you? Coochie coochie coo, you're fired. [Laughs] She probably won't do that. That's wildly crossing the line.
• Batman Gambit: Helen tells Bitsy that the workers will stop striking immediately if she just apologized. At first Bitsy is just going to do an insincere blanket apology, until she's told that the apology is to one person in particular: Helen. Bitsy tries, but the words gag in her mouth and she gives in to the striker's demands instead. This was Helen's plan all along, as she knew Bitsy would never apologize to her.
  Helen: Bitsy's the owner, but I'm kinda the boss. Don't forget that.
• Brick Joke: In the opening scene, Birdie says that a man named Derek is attending the I Heart the Park Fest and "You don't know him, but he's really fun." At the end, Commissioner Krantz says she's there to meet her friend Derek, adding that he's really fun.
• The Dog Bites Back: After Abby learns that she got rejected from the audition and Bitsy calls her to talk down on her again, Abby reaches her breaking point and tells Bitsy she's tired of how she mistreats her and she quits. Unfortunately, it didn't really mean much because Bitsy got bored the moment Abby spoke and didn't hear any of what she said, but Helen heard her and congratulates her for having the courage to quit.
• Hakuna Matata: Elwood sings "Small Stuff" to Owen where he sings about whenever he makes a mistake or gets stressed out, he tells himself "Oh well, moving on, anyway!" and he lists all the mistakes he doesn't stress out about, but some of those things are pretty concerning.
• "I Want" Song: The appropriately titled "What Do We Want?", sung by the protesters making their demands.
• Is It Something You Eat?: One of the things Owen did to raise money for the campaign is ask people to adopt and name a squirrel. A man asks if he can eat the squirrel he names.
• Mirthless Laughter: Before Owen arrives to meet with Commissioner Krantz, Paige and the kids spent their entire time with her while she waited and Cole mentions Molly filled the awkward silences between them with nervous laughter, which she even does at the end.
• Negated Moment of Awesome: Finally fed up with Bitsy's mistreatment of her, Abby finally tell her she had enough of her and she quits by singing "Enough Is Enough", only to learn Bitsy didn't hear a single word from her because she got bored listening to her.
• Never My Fault: Like always, Bitsy refuses to take responsibility for her workers striking due to her mistreatment of them and blames Helen for not taking care of it because she makes Helen responsible for all of her employees. When the strikers wants Bitsy to apologize to Helen for the way she has been treating her, she doesn't even know what she has to apologize to Helen for.
• No OSHA Compliance: Among the demands the strikers want are less asbestos in the building and fire escapes that actually work.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is a pun off of The Empire Strikes Back.
• Rage Breaking Point: Abby finally snaps after Bitsy calls her right after she learned people didn't like her audition and Bitsy asks why is Abby calling her by her first name.
• Rule of Three: Accord to Birdie, three of Owen's promotions for "I Heart The Park" didn't go well: his advertising banners only said "Park" due to the promoters running out of budget; when he tried to run a "Adopt A Squirrel" program, a man asks if he can eat the squirrel he names to Cole's horror, and a guy got his head stuck in a tree standee when Owen tried to hold photo shoots.
• Running Gag: People being annoyed by Abby's loud ringtone (she says it's so she can hear it in her loud apartment).
• Serious Business: Owen really stresses out over the tote bags, since he considers them crucial to the event. So he almost loses it when he learns that Elwood lost a whole box of them.
• Special Guest:
  • "Small Stuff" is written by Garfunkel and Oates.
  • Sara Bareilles returns again to write "Enough Is Enough".
• Strike Episode: Bitsy's hotel workers finally had enough of her mistreatment of them and goes on a strike, which ruins her meeting with Interim Mayor Leeds who doesn't want to be associated with the Brandenham until the strike is settled. They said they would immediately end the strike and resume their terrible working condition if Bitsy apologizes to Helen, but Bitsy refuses and just gives in to their original demands.
• Take This Job and Shove It: Abby finally gets fed up with Bitsy's behavior and quits in this episode.
• Too Dumb to Live: Among the things Elwood mentions in "Small Stuff" that he ignores are him eating asbestos as a kid, eating raw chicken, and he was supposed to go on witness protection and he never did, and he continues to go out in public knowing he could still be targeted.
• The Unapologetic: Bitsy will not apologize to anyone (at least not sincerely), much less Helen, who uses this to her advantage to get her to agree to the strikers' demands by offering to end the strike if Bitsy apologized to her.
• A Wild Rapper Appears!: Helen takes a moment in "Love Comes Back Around" to celebrate her getting one over Bitsy.

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♫ You know the love that you put out
Oh you know
You know that
Love comes back around♫

—"Love Comes Back Around"

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