Kevin Can F**K Himself’s penultimate hour mostly serves as the setup for the finale
But it’s engrossing to witness Allison question her loneliness, desperation, and therefore, her morality
Annie Murphy is the star of the show in Kevin Can F**K Himself’s seventh episode. She gets to display a range of emotions as Allison goes on a rollercoaster ride in “Broken.” There is the assertiveness in her plan to kill Kevin, heartbreak over ending an affair, surprising agony over a missed chance to have a baby, and apparent fear after an intruder breaks into the McRoberts home. Murphy has been phenomenal throughout the season, but here, she channels her character’s pain in the most unusual of ways. Allison reveals to Patty she hasn’t cried in 10 years—the last time was when she saw a dog get hit by a car outside her former place of work, the liquor store. It explains why her sudden outbursts in “Broken” feel strange. Allison doesn’t know what to do with the tears, flimsily forcing herself to stop them every time they pour out, which is quite a few times.
Allison is certain she wants Kevin dead and instructs Nick to do it on the following Saturday when the episode begins as a home robbery gone wrong when she’ll be in South Carolina visiting her mother for an annual trip. But after a conversation with Patty, who reminds her that his murder is only the beginning and people will be scrutinizing their marriage after, Allison realizes she has to take some difficult steps. First, she dumps Sam in the middle of their closet makeout session, telling him she wants to focus on her relationship with her husband, an idea he scoffs at. Next, she goes to a fertility clinic and tries to get herself noticed so it can look like her and Kevin are excited about having children. But both these actions take a heavy toll on her, and Allison bursts into awkward tears in different places, from the sidewalk outside her home to the clinic itself.
It’s engrossing to witness Allison question her loneliness, desperation, and therefore, her morality. Even the worst decision she’s ever made, hiring a killer for a narcissistic and emotionally manipulative husband, hinges on her giving up the things she enjoys. However, for a penultimate episode, “Broken” is mostly just the setup for next week’s finale and doesn’t have anything new to say this far in, especially after an exciting episode like last week’s “The Grand Victorian.” It does throw us a few crumbs here and there, such as when Allison answers Patty’s question about whether she even wants kids by saying “Of course, it’s what you do. I just didn’t want Kevin’s.” We already know that Allison’s worldview is dictated by traditional societal norms. Perhaps the episode would’ve benefitted from digging into her psyche more as opposed to moving on from her remarks and sobs to setting up the finale.
“Broken” establishes early on that Nick broke into the McRoberts home earlier than planned. He gets fired as a busboy at The Grand Victorian and decides to flee instead of being caught jobless by his parole officer. He gets a call from someone and tells the person they’re leaving after he completes a task. The next thing we see is Allison being interrogated by Detectives Tammy and Bob (Kevin Chapman) but the episode doesn’t divulge much of anything else. Is it Kevin who got shot? Was Nick the only intruder? Do the cops suspect Kevin as the local drug dealer, as Allison and Patty wanted? All the answers will hopefully come in next week’s season closer. For now, we flash back to four days prior to the early break-in as Allison attempts to strengthen the false narrative of a “happy marriage.”
The scene at the clinic is another enlightening crumb. Allison shares with the doctor that she met Kevin when she was 20, and they’ve been together ever since. It makes sense she was so young and definitely more gullible when she got involved with him. She probably agreed to marry him because “it’s what you do.” Allison also adds that on their wedding day, when she was nervous, instead of acknowledging it, Kevin pantsed the priest. Did he really do it to make her laugh and forget her worries as she claims or just because he found it funny? I think the latter is the real truth, but Allison has convinced herself it’s the former. It’s why she believed at the time that Kevin would do anything for her. The roles are obviously and totally reversed.
Meanwhile, Patty goes on a sip-and-paint date with Tammy but their night doesn’t end well when she reveals it’s hard and embarrassing for her as a 33-year-old to still figure out her sexual preferences. It sure looks like Tammy hit a nerve when she asks Patty whether she’s ever had feelings for her “nosy neighbor.” Later, during the bathtub scene when Allison is wailing—mascara smudged all over her cheeks—she tells Patty she’s “broken,” reiterating what Sam called her when they ended their affair. Patty sweetly comforts her by saying she likes this version of her and if “this is you broken, then stay broken.” They both sit side by side in the tub as The Fleetwoods cover of “Unchained Melody” plays in the background, specifically the lines “Oh, my love.” Is it just me or does Patty looks increasingly scared when Allison rests her head on her shoulder? It spurs Patty to confront Tammy and confirm she is the one for her (not, perhaps, Allison?).
I’m not sure if, with only one episode remaining, Kevin Can F**K Himself will venture into the romantic territory for these two characters. I hope not, at least not yet. Allison and Patty both need a trustworthy friend more than anything, not another love complication. Or maybe I’m entirely jumping the gun and Patty was simply motivated when Allison said they’ll both die alone together, realized she doesn’t want that, and decided she’d rather be with Tammy. The two do look quite comfortable hanging out in their pajamas the next morning at Patty’s house.
It’s safe to assume they’re a full-fledged couple now, unlike Sam and Jenn, whose marriage is on the rocks. Their simmering tensions come to a head at the end of “Broken,” after a tiresome dinner with Jenn’s parents, who are rich and loaned Sam the money to start Bev’s Diner. They now enjoy lording it over him. Sam essentially leaves Jenn because he’d rather not waste the next 15 years “trying to distract himself.” His decision could mean big things for Allison. Will she possibly be inspired by him to finally leave Kevin? It might be too late—at the end of the hour, Kevin goes after the intruder with the buried gun he found in their backyard and a gunshot does go off as a horrified Allison looks on.
Stray observations
- In the McRoberts living room, it looks like Allison did go and exchange the brown leather chair she gifted Kevin in the last episode because a black one now sits in its place.
- Who do we think called Nick as he was getting ready to go over to the McRoberts house? Who was he going to escape with and how much do they know of Allison’s plan?
- Kevin, Neil, Pete name their newly formed band Jenny McCarthy Tank Top. It’s too ridiculous to even make fun of.
- Of all the trash cans in Worcester, Allison had to throw the fertility clinic pamphlet in the one right outside her house. Neil finds it and assumes Kevin is betraying him and their horribly named band by opting to have a baby. Almost all the men in this show really are insufferable ego monsters, huh?
- On that note: Neil calls the fertility clinic a “vaginacologist.” Yikes.
- It’s kind of nice that Allison knows Patty’s middle name, Dierdre.
- Well, part of Patty agreeing to see Tammy is to get information out of her, but do we think Tammy is doing the same? Does she know more about the pharmacist’s dealings than she’s letting on? I really don’t want to see Patty heartbroken.
- Annie Murphy using her hands to stop crying as Allison was a reminder of her great physicality as Alexis Rose for all six seasons of Schitt’s Creek.