Recap / ERS 1 E 24 Motherhood

• Armor-Piercing Response: Diane, quietly to Doug in response to his pleas that his infidelity "won't happen again":
  "Yes, it will."
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Susan's sister Chloe gives birth at the beginning of the episode and Benton's mother dies at the end.
• Bookends: The episode starts with a woman becoming a mother and ends with a man losing his mother.
• Character Death: Mae Benton, Peter's mother, who passes away off-screen.
• Foreshadowing: Carol makes several comments to Susan about how strained things are between her and Tag—"Are you going to try for kids right away?" "If we're still speaking after the wedding", "Tag's going to Paris (for their honeymoon), I'm going to Hawaii." and towards the end of the episode, he hangs up on her after yet another argument. All of which sounds like much more than the typical bickering that can be brought on by the stress of planning a wedding.
• Ironic Echo: Towards the beginning of the episode, Benton is seen giving a standard (if cold) notice of death to a grieving family, and it's suggested that he's not particularly concerned with their well-being. At the end of the episode, a doctor says the same cold, clinical lines to him when he gets to the nursing home to check on his mother.
• Manly Tears: Benton dissolves into these after being told of his mother's death.
• Not So Stoic: The normally-unflappable Benton practically breaks down crying in Jeanie's arms over the death of his mother, despite him trying to hold himself together.
• Not What It Looks Like: Doug, to Diane when she catches him standing outside his apartment building with his ex Linda.
• Relationship Sabotage: Doug invokes this on himself after Diane talks about them moving in together. Although seemingly happy about the suggestion, he almost immediately leaps into bed with his ex and she angrily dumps him after she catches them together.
• Relationship Upgrade: It's heavily implied that, after several episodes of romantic friction between each other, Benton and Jeanie will begin a relationship in the wake of his mother's death. The Season 2 premiere confirms this.
• Shout-Out: As this episode was directed by Quentin Tarantino, several shots have parallels to some of his works, including Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.

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