Kevin's toxicity starts to unmask for everyone in Kevin Can F**K Himself

I mean, we’ve got to start with Rachel Dratch, right? The Saturday Night Live vet makes an all-too-brief cameo in Kevin Can F**K Himself’s latest episode, and it’s a treat. Dratch has a smorgasbord of television comedies under her belt, including episodes of Kevin James’ The King Of Queens, 30 Rock, and The Middle. So it was nice to see her interact with Allison and Patty—two women who are trying to bring down sitcom tropes. She aced her small role as a disgruntled former city council employee gone rogue (35 years of civic duty, and they fired her via email. Is there any job where bosses take their employees seriously?). Her help is essential because it leads to Allison stealing scoring Gertrude Fronch’s death certificate. Here’s hoping Dratch’s Beatrice Morton returns to assist again, but if not, we’ll always have a cameo.

Back to Allison’s achievement: She’s now one step closer to changing her identity and moving to Connecticut. As the harsh reality dawns on Patty, she decides to live with Tammy. If Allison is moving on with her life, she should too, is what I presume Patty thinks on their walk back home from City Hall. Now whether she wants to actually cohabitate with her girlfriend is a whole other issue. She’s acting more out of self-preservation than true feelings, and it’s hard to fault her for that—who amongst us hasn’t? Of course, Patty is unaware that Tammy only asked her to move in so she can keep a close eye on her. At least that’s my assumption because after seeing that Vermont footage, Tammy has apparently avoided her for days. The sudden decision to ask her to move in seems more like a calculated ploy, even though her plea sounds sincere.

The meat of Kevin Can F**K Himself’s fifth episode actually stems from the sitcom storyline. I know, color me shocked, too. It’s kind of thrilling to watch everyone close to Kevin start turning on him, or at least calling him out on his scheming ways. He spends most of “The Unreliable Narrator” interrogating folks at Bev’s Diner. Everyone except Allison and Patty is sheltering there during a power cut caused by his stupidity. No one really stole his generator as he believes, but he uses the opportunity to question, criticize, and poke fun at Neil, Diane, Sam, Pete, and Pete’s girlfriend, Doris, anyway.

Kevin’s interactions with Sam are insightful because of the terrible marriage tips he gives, unaware that it’s the same place where Sam and Allison had their affair back in season one. His advice is to essentially use whatever strengths he has (Kevin allegedly possesses both good looks and humor) to get away with anything. Smells like manipulation, baby. No wonder he thinks he isn’t accountable to anyone at all. Except that’s going to change real soon. Sam finally sees that Kevin isn’t a harmless clown, but an infuriating bastard ruining Allison’s life, so he decides to help her escape however he can. Cue a quick kiss that turns into Allison gratefully breaking down in his arms.

Neil’s descent has been gradually building. Diane’s support gets him to stand up for himself and not blindly side with Kevin when he’s accused of robbing the goddamn generator. Neil and Diane also make out! (This coupling was hinted at in last week’s outing, but is it a little icky, or do we understand why they’re drawn to each other after everything they’ve been through.) They also proceed to a Dunkin’ Donuts instead of joining Kevin at the bar to guzzle beers. It’s a huge Massachusetts representation, to be sure, but it’s noteworthy because they both choose not to drink their sorrows away, as they usually do—at some point, KCFH will address Kevin, Neil, and even Diane’s alcohol addiction, right?

Admittedly, it was jarring that his ever-supportive father ends the episode by reprimanding his son. It’s been a long-time coming, to be sure, but still felt a little random. It just goes to show that, with decent human beings around, even Neil and Pete can discover a moral compass. Pete is especially perturbed on learning Kevin stole Doris’ hearing aids—a truly despicable act that he tried to pass off as a laughable prank. This is exactly the type of gag we’ve seen in many sitcoms, but the laugh track trains us to think it’s funny, so the arc is wrapped up neatly in 20 minutes. Not so much in KCFH. In fact, it looks to me that not just Sam, but everyone might awaken and band together to help Allison make Kevin pay for his actions over season two’s remaining three episodes.

Stray observations:

• In case you’re wondering how Dratch’s cameo came to be, Decider reports that KCFH director Anna Dokoza also helmed 2021's A Clüsterfünke Christmas, starring Dratch and Ana Gasteyer. So they were easily able to arrange an appearance.
• The article from KCFH episode two is finally out, and Allison’s former classmate-turned-journalist devotes an entire paragraph to her high school swimming career and a photo. Kevin’s pissed because the space could’ve been used for more of his quips instead.
• Diane and Chuck have apparently patched up if you’re keeping track. She’s obviously not happy about it, so it might spur her to at least try and help Allison get away, even though, in the past, she’s told her to stay put.
• Kevin knew to seek shelter at Bev’s Diner because he found out Allison was there. How’d he discover this? By tracking her phone, of course. KCFH loves to subtly point out he’s less goofy, and more calculating.
• Why would Allison and Patty go to Beatrice’s correct address in the cops’ car? Couldn’t they have gotten off at Bev’s or something, and then walk over to City Hall? It would delay them, but now they’ve left such an official trace of their misdeeds.
• Beatrice’s pet names for Allison and Patty, respectively, are mousy delinquent and her goth friend.
• Patty’s fresh haircut is hella cute. Who did it for her…we’ve never seen a single other person work at her salon.
• Who else caught that Kevin took notice of everyone laughing at Allison’s joke about him being a mistake, and that’s why he prompted her to leave to “get fuel for his generator?”
• Kevin’s response to everyone telling him to say sorry: “Apologies are like tears, everyone has to let them out unless they’re a real man.” He is the worst.