Ah, the cupcake business! Remember that whole thing? You know, the general premise of the show? Max and Caroline finally do. A few weeks ago, I remarked that the final tally at the end of the every episode seemed to get increasingly useless as the series continues. The tally continued to change regularly, usually in very small increments, but it was separate from the actual narrative of the episodes. Of course, it’s assumed that all of the money is from their diner paychecks and we don’t need to have that continuously explained—but last season, the final tally often reflected what had happened within the episode. Sometimes the girls gained money by doing odd jobs like cleaning an apartment and sometimes they lost money by buying things like a Murphy bed. During this second season, the cupcake business has been mentioned a few times in passing but mostly it has taken a backseat to cute storylines centering on Caroline’s love life or attempts to explore the secondary characters that work in the diner.
I keep going back and forth on whether or not this is a good thing for the show. Without the reminder that Max and Caroline are actually working toward a goal, it’s hard to continue to root for them week after week. In spite of that, I’ve found myself enjoying the budding relationship between Caroline and Andy, I liked learning a little more about Han (unfortunately, the Earl-centric episode was a dud), and I do have to give the show some props for taking small steps toward becoming more of an ensemble comedy. What I really want, I suppose, is for 2 Broke Girls to find a way to combine all of these elements—the cupcake business with the character-driven storylines—without it becoming a big mess. The show tried tonight and had mixed results.
“And The Egg Special” picks back up the Martha Stewart plot that I’d been trying so hard to forget about. After months of nothing, Martha Stewart Living finally—and completely out of nowhere, I must add—publishes a blurb praising Max’s Homemade Cupcakes as a “Williamsburg must have.” The girls are immediately bombarded by cupcake orders, reminding them (and us) that the cupcake business is apparently something that’s still around. When they go to visit Andy at his candy shop, they learn that the soup kitchen across the hall closed down due to being the scene of a grisly drug-deal-gone-wrong. It turns out Max reacts to bloodbaths with the same childlike enthusiasm she has for candy and rushes over to check it out. While Max is fascinated by the crime scene (and does her best Dexter-esque blood splatter analysis), Caroline has a more practical reaction and realizes it would be a great, and cheap, space for their cupcake shop. All they have to do is find a way to get the money.
First, they try to take out a small business loan (from a place that specializes in lending money specifically to women, which is a detail the show kept repeating) in a scene that’s pretty pointless. Max suffers through most of the interview alone because Caroline is with Andy and has yet to show up. For a second, I expected the episode to focus on Caroline spending too much time with Andy, thus causing a rift between the two friends that would hinder their business plan. But no, that’s giving 2 Broke Girls a little too much credit and the scene seemingly existed solely so Caroline can talk about having sex.
The rest of the episode is just that: potentially interesting storylines are quickly tossed aside. The girls are immediately denied the loan, as we all predicted would happen, because they have no previous business history. Max searches Craigslist for moneymaking opportunities and as someone who regularly reads weird Craigslist job openings, I can assure you that the “Etc.” section is perfect for ridiculous sitcom hijinks that would fit right in with the tone of 2 Broke Girls. Instead Max decides to try to sell her eggs but is denied, again, at the clinic because she’s too honest on her application—something that doesn’t make sense because Max is definitely savvy enough to know better. In a twist that everyone saw coming from the second Caroline protested too much, the doctor prefers Caroline’s eggs because she went to an Ivy League college. It’s strange how quickly Caroline changes her tune about egg donation, although we know she’s going to back out. The girls are back at square one.
However, Sophie decides to lend them $20,000 despite previously denying them earlier in the episode. It’s fitting with the show’s recent attempts to make the side characters more three-dimensional and it works a lot better than Sophie’s other storylines (which have mostly revolved around one-liners about sex with Oleg). It’s also, most likely, a conscious decision to bring Sophie more into the group since she’s the only character who doesn’t work at the diner. It’s a decision that makes me wary since Sophie is my least favorite character—but hey, it’s possible that 2 Broke Girls will do what it does best and abandon this storyline in favor of Sophie getting stuck in a sex swing or something.
Stray observations:
- If the writers do decide to make Sophie an active part of the cupcake venture instead of just a money-lender, I can definitely see a future episode focusing on Sophie getting too involved and trying to take over the cupcake shop with too many bad ideas.
- When is 2 Broke Girls going to delve deeper into Oleg’s character? Never? I’m okay with that.
- Your 2 Broke Girls drinking game for the week: Whenever anyone says “blurb,” Caroline talks about having sex with Andy, or Max jokes about her awful childhood.
- Max’s description of the photos on Instagram: “Food, food, cat, food, nails, nails, nails.”