Cougar Town Season 5, Episode 11 “Refugee”
Written by Michael Lisbe & Nate Reger
Directed by Michael McDonald
Airs Tuesday nights at 10pm ET on TBS
“Refugee” doesn’t appear to be hiding its importance in the show’s overarching narrative, with the seemingly unrelated events of Bobby’s boat disappearing and Chick appearing around the kitchen island at Jules’ house. But “Refugee” cleverly distracts the audience with flashy CSI: Miami homages and Grayson hamming for the camera, returning to Chick and the boat (which acts as the episode’s central metaphor) in the final moments to deliver an expected, but nonetheless powerful reminder of just how quickly things can change in life, and not always for the better.
Bobby’s boat disappearing is not just a prank (with ulterior motives, of course) by Chick: coupled with the hilarious adventures of Detectives Gumshoe and Blacktop, the central plot of “Refugee” acts as a metaphor to what’s happening inside Chick’s mind. One day, someone with Alzheimer’s will wake up, and something will be gone: a memory or sensory function will randomly disappear, sending us (the person suffering from it, and those trying to help them throughout) on a journey into the past, trying to uncover the right clues to help bring the afflicted person back to reality, if only for a little while. And in life, these things can happen at any time, often without any explicit warning: one day, things are just different, a space filled with memories suddenly empty, a few pieces of scattered garbage in its place.
Ok, so “Refugee” doesn’t explicitly use Bobby’s boat as a metaphor for Chick’s mind; but it makes for a very powerful visual metaphor, both the sight of Bobby’s boat being missing, and Chick’s confusion when Bobby points out that him and Jules haven’t been married for years. Eventually, that memory may come back – but there’s no telling if it will stay, or if it will replace other important thoughts and memories in Chick’s mind. And it’s with that sudden shock, that feeling of helplessness that Bobby, Chick, and Jules all have to face in “Refugee” (and in many ways, Ellie with her husband’s new tricks) that makes the episode so powerful, especially after the extremely low-stakes, hijinks-filled plots of everything that came before it.
Speaking of the rest of “Refugee”, the only part that doesn’t work all that well is Andy and Ellie’s power struggle. Has there ever been a time where Andy was able to gain the upper hand on his wife without some kind of severe emotional manipulation or supernatural force? Sure, their battle for the upper hand is humorous – but as Andy/Ellie plots often do, undercut a troubling dichotomy in how the two view their relationship. Do they really have a healthy marriage? It’s not a question Cougar Town really cares to concern itself with, but when “Refugee” turns into shit-flinging contests between Andy and Ellie so one will make the other dinner, the dissonance in their marriage becomes uncomfortable, rather than amusing.
I wish there was less time spent on those two, and more on Travis and Laurie’s growing relationship: I’ve been a little disappointed with how cavalier the show’s treated their relationship this season, especially given the amount of attention it was given in countless episodes through the first four seasons (not to mention MULTIPLE season finales). I don’t need Laurie and Travis to be trotted out on a golden platter with fireworks flying around them, but their interactions this season have felt more like items on a checklist for “obligatory relationship hurdles”, rather than stories grown organically to develop their relationship. Even in “Refugee” – if Travis isn’t moving in with Laurie, who gives a shit what she does with her living room? His art school experience doesn’t hold weight against the show’s most fashionable character (not to mention one who literally works in turning boring, cream-colored things into sugary awesomeness) – so why are they even decorating together? While I enjoyed the simple, effortless resolution to their story – “It’s like your crazy and my crazy is the perfect combination” – the contrived set-up takes away from the impact of their final moments together, putting all the pressure on the Jules/Bobby/Chick story to deliver the emotional goods.
Thankfully, it does; the return of Chick in the final scenes brings the kind of emotional weight we’ve all expected the show to carry since his diagnosis last season. It takes a lot of loud distractions to deliver the quiet, poignant moment where Jules and Bobby realize what’s going on with Chick’s “prank”, but it deserves all the credit for getting there. There may not be a lot of interesting, character-based stories left for Cougar Town to tell at this point – but heading into the final two episodes, it appears they’ve got at least one big, emotional narrative left to deliver.
— Randy
