Marjan's fiance comes to visit, a wedding experiences mass food poisoning, and TK meets Carlos’ parents.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: This ended up happening with Salim, who tells Marjan he’s getting engaged to a periodontist-in-training.
- Arranged Marriage: Marjan has been in one since she was twelve years old. Sadly, by the time she and her fiancée Salim are adults, their lives are too different for them to even consider getting back together.
- BDSM: One of the calls Grace takes involves a dominatrix who ends up getting stung by bees and suffers an anaphylactic response.
- Continuity Nod: While Tonya is absent from her roller derby team to recover from her shoulder injury in “Back in the Saddle”, Marjan fills in her spot during one of the competitions, which the 126 watches at the start of the episode.
- Gayngst: Carlos implies he has this to a degree, being out and proud in public but not quite as much with his parents.
- Given Name Reveal: When Owen re-proposes to Gwyn, he uses her full name, Gwyneth Lynn Morgan.
- Innocently Insensitive: A clearly uncomfortable Carlos introduces TK to his parents as a friend from work, to the latter’s confusion and anger. Later, Carlos admits that his parents were also this after he came out to them; they responded with acceptance and love, but never directly broached the subject or showed their support the next day or in the following decade, causing him to not know where they stood.
- Let's Wait a While: Salim and Marjan initially agreed to keep things slow and follow through on marriage after Salim finished his dental studies. However, Marjan’s move to Austin, her mixed feelings for him, and his own romantic feelings for her going unrequited cause their engagement to fall apart.
- Not So Above It All:
- Off the job, Carlos has noticeably relaxed around TK and his friends to the point he enjoys spending time with them, even joining in with Paul and Mateo on cheering for Marjan.
- Grace makes quite a convincing Drill Sergeant Nasty dominatrix when she encourages the BDSM participant to dislocate his shoulder and free himself from his chains.
- Oh, Crap!: Carlos immediately looks away when he recognizes both of his parents at the farmer’s market, and gets even more anxious when they notice him and TK.
- Parents as People: Briefly discussed after Carlos apologizes for how he reacted at the farmers’ market.TK: (after hearing out Carlos) … oh. [Andrea and Gabriel] seem like such nice people.Carlos: They are nice people, but… they’re not perfect people.TK: Y’know, my parents may be very queer-friendly, but they’re not perfect either. They just gave me this pep talk that seemed like it was more about them than me.Carlos: That explains a lot.
- Rejected Marriage Proposal: Gwyn, in her shock, completely turns down Owen’s re-proposal— and reveals that the reason she was wondering about where they stood was because she’d found out she’s expecting a baby again. Owen is suitably surprised himself.
- Relationship Labeling Problems: Owen ends up in this with Gwyn after the game night with Judd, Grace, Tommy and Charles. They’ve been (for the most part) enjoying each other’s company over the last few months, but while Gwyn does sincerely consider whether they really are rekindling their marriage, Owen prefers not to put a label on the relationship and tends to dance around it until Judd sets him straight.
- Shout-Out:
- The charade rounds’ answers that Owen and Gwyn guess correctly on include pop culture references like “Ballad of Jesse James”, Molly Ringwald, Pennywise, and Carrot Topnote .
- When the wedding crumbles down, when the dispatcher asks about the emergency, the caller declares, "It's worse than the Red Wedding!"
- After Grace successfully gets a BDSM participant to free himself and give his dominatrix her Epi-Pen, one of the other dispatchers quips, “Fifty Shades of Grace.”
- Surprise Pregnancy: Gwyn’s Wham Line at the end of the episode; and she’d already tested herself beforehand.
- Title Drop: At the beginning, Gwyn reminds Owen of the titular term when he boasts about them “being better together when not together.”
- Two-Timing with the Bestie: Kelsey ended up cheating on Jeff with his friend and best man, which is revealed as the 126 take Jeff out of the tent.
- Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Judd and Grace jokingly boast about their winning streak in charades… then Owen and Gwyn crush them.
- What the Hell, Hero?: After his breakup from Alex and a time of starting a new romantic relationship with Carlos, TK is understandably pissed and insecure about Carlos introducing him to his parents as a “friend.” Once he calms down and goes back to Carlos’ house, he asks a milder version of this about Carlos’ Gayngst.
- Worst Wedding Ever: The entire wedding emergency. It has several guests getting food poisoning from the fish, the tent getting knocked down in the ensuing chaos, Jeff getting caught under trusses, and then him learning his new bride Kelsey got pregnant from sleeping with his best man Drew.
- You Are Fat: Carlos’ mother Andrea teases her husband Gabriel about his blood pressure and weight while they’re shopping for vegetables.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Carlos mutters this under his breath the instant he notices his parents’ backs.
