This is Party Down on drugs

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who love a TV episode where everyone does drugs, and those who hate it. And I’m going to tell you right now that I’m firmly in the first camp.

Seeing characters we know and love tripping balls, stoned off their asses, rolling on E, or otherwise fucked up can lead to everything from sublime sight gags and minor epiphanies to make-or-break relationship moments and massive plot shifts. (See Mad Men’s “Far Away Places,” Girls’ “Bad Friend,” The Simpsons’ “El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer,” Yellowjackets’ “Doomcoming,” or any episode of High Maintenance.) And it’s no surprise that when a show with the pedigree of Party Down introduces psilocybin into the mix, it gets the dosage just right.

Written by Dayo Adesokan and directed by none other than Ken Marino, “KSGY-95 Prizewinner’s Luau” gives the cast the chance to flex their comedic chops to the utmost—including a surprisingly hilarious turn from Jennifer Garner, an A-lister who’s usually stuck playing the straight man, plus a pitch-perfect guest spot from Bobby Moynihan. And vitally, the episode brings the characters’ stories together in an organic way, an element that’s been sorely lacking this season.

The event in question is a pre-show luau for the winners of VIP tickets to a Sting concert, courtesy of Soggy KSGY-95! And you know what Sting fans famously love: Hawaiian vibes, tropical drinks, and yacht rock. Nope, not fishy at all.

Evie tags along with Henry on this gig because…the luau is in Malibu? Look, at this point I’m done being fussed about the increasingly implausible reasons for her to show up in the prep tent; it’s fun, and no one is watching Party Down for the plot logistics. And if you are, may I suggest following KSGY-95’s guiding principle: “The watchword is chill.”

Evie has brought a double-wide Ziploc bag of shrooms to ensure a fun day with her new beau. They’re supposed to be just for her and Henry, but since she brought enough for “two blue whales,” Kyle, Sackson, and Lucy get in on the party. Roman is a harder sell, of course. But thanks to some good old-fashioned peer pressure—and goading from Lucy about his stalled sci-fi opus—he reluctantly joins in. (Speaking as someone who has both worked in catering and dabbled in psychedelics, I submit that combining the two into a single experience sounds like a nightmare. But since this is television, it’s a dream.)

First-timer Sackson tosses back an alarming amount of caps in a bid to—what else?—beef up his TikTok views by livestreaming his trip. (“Can you imagine the numbers if my psyche cleaves in twain live?”) Kyle, meanwhile, is having the Kyle version of an existential crisis, a.k.a. he hasn’t heard back about an audition and his car warranty ran out. And Lucy? She’s just here to make even weirder hors d’oeuvres than her usual weird hors d’oeuvres.

Henry, finally, is having fun yet—because the vibes are hitting, and he’s getting blissfully lost in the patterns of his patrons’ Hawaiian shirts. Evie’s right there with him, and the two do that extremely shroomy thing where they decide everything is connected because the watchword is chill, and they are chill, and there’s a Sting album called Synchronicity that exists!

After being relegated to disconnected side plots since he was introduced, Sackson is finally getting the chance to connect with his fellow caterers—and to have a plot arc that’s about more than how wacky Gen-Zers are. And boy, does Tyrel Jackson Williams make the most of it, from the moment he materializes from behind a dried palm frond to share the news that a bird just looked at him “a certain way.”

Because they are good eggs, Evie and Henry take it upon themselves to trip-sit Sackson; but because they are also messed up, they lose him immediately. Cue a quest to track down their charge based on hints from his livestream, despite Evie getting distracted by a bush that “has a style all its own.”

Roman’s journey takes a turn toward the paranoid—which turns out to be justified, because this isn’t really a pre-Sting luau; it’s a sting. Two big guys hustle into the sponsors’ tent, where the organizers reveal themselves to be cops. Turns out the whole event is a honey trap for deadbeat parents who have skipped out on child support payments; and that charter bus isn’t going to a concert—it’s going to the slammer.

Ringleader Lieutenant Sacker (Scrubs alum Judy Reyes) has singled out Roman as a particularly perceptive dude—which, lol, so she recruits him to help her team ID the worst offender at the party: Jeff Daniels. (No, not that one!) And poor Roman. Is there anything worse than being on your-first ever shroom trip while under the intense observation of literal narcs?

Not that these guys are geniuses at their jobs: Mattea (Moynihan) is worried that Sting was the wrong rock star to pick for their perps, and they should’ve gone more ’90s. (“There’s a new generation of deadbeats that have no connection to Sting at all!”) But Johnson (Tobie Windham) is way too proud of his own elaborate pun to be bothered.

In a wild twist, Ron is the most competent caterer at this gig. Is it because he’s grown as a person? Nah. He’s simply the only one on the team who isn’t seeing Biblically accurate angels in every Mai Tai. Our man has known the true purpose of the party from the get-go and has miraculously managed not to blab it to the world, even if he fancies himself Sacker’s deputy for the day.

His biggest roadblock is Lucy, who is spinning Tuvan throat singing tracks in the prep tent and creating her greatest culinary art piece yet. Dubbed “spinashh,” a word she made up, her latest apps are brown, turdlike lumps bristling with…clear toothpicks? Jury’s out. “Is it even food?” Ron asks after taking a bite. “Oh, my god, exactly,” Lucy replies. Of course it isn’t, silly; it’s spiced wood pulp!

As the hunt for Sackson continues, Evie spins off into a professional/personal crisis: What happened to her dreams of producing indie films? How did she wind up becoming the person who has to pitch Douglas Fir, a spinoff of Human Tree, which itself will spin off into Manputer? Henry suggests that it’s because she’s good at her job, so she just kept climbing the ranks. Evie may not be hurting for cash like her boyfriend and his fellow service-industry grunts, but she’s found herself in golden handcuffs, having long ago abandoned her creative passions.

Red flags appear on the horizon the moment she tells Henry she could cast him as Colonel Striker, a recurring character in her superhero franchise, in a bid to revive his acting career. Never, ever go into business with your romantic partner, kids—especially if you’ve only been dating them for a couple months.

But that’s neither here nor there, because Sackson is drowning in the ocean! Just kidding—he’s curled up in a ball on the beach, staring at his phone, half-buried in the surf, like it just shot a puppy. He tells Henry and Evie that he’s terrified of the skyrocketing viewing numbers on his livestream, suggesting that he’s finally starting to see the hollowness of his influencer dreams. After a healthy bit of screaming, the three resolve their voices into a pleasant “ohmmm.” False (or true?) enlightenment complete.

Roman’s trip, meanwhile, helps him break through his writer’s block. After a little spinashh-induced free association, he whips out his Moleskine (which of course he has on him at all times) and jots down his plot breakthrough. And in spite of everything, he helps Sacker ID Jeff, who has utterly trashed Roman’s Hyundai after using it as a getaway car. Karma sure works in crazy ways.

“KSGY-95 Prizewinner’s Luau” pulls off the impressive trick of moving most of its character’s arcs to the next stage while also being wickedly funny. (Seriously; on my first watch, I laughed so hard I kept accidentally spitting out pieces of my lunch.)

Stray observations

• In classic Kyle fashion, his epiphany is super basic. “Is a man what he does? No. he is who he is,” deadbeat Jeff pontificates. “So basically like, I…am?” Of course, the moment he finds out he got the Lost Boys callback after all, Kyle forgets everything he just learned about separating his career from his identity. “I am an actor!” he shouts from the van, as a newly chill Roman laughs and laughs.
• Perhaps this episode’s greatest masterstroke is combining shrooms with a massive amount of Hawaiian shirts, the trippiest clothing of all. Big Dan Flashes energy. (“’Cause the pattern’s so complicated, you idiot!”)
• Jennifer Garner has a lot of incredible moments, but topping the list is when she calls Sackson “Baby Evie” after deciding he’s a living metaphor for her younger self.
• I’ve been wanting to see Adam Scott play drug-addled again ever since he played Ben Wyatt flying on morphine in Parks and Recreation. (“I’m feeding your eagle. He’s starving!”)
• “So much for so-called drugs camaraderie.” “Oh, no, that’s not a thing, man.”
• Bobby Moynihan is one of the best single-ep guests stars a comedy series can get. Mattea just loves Dumb And Dumber so goddamn much!
• A brief list of things druggy Henry thinks the Mai Tais he’s slinging look like: a Maui sunset, Big Bird on fire, a worrisome urine sample.
• I’m irate that Constance and Lydia weren’t around to partake. Imagine the possibilities!
• With a little aesthetic makeover, spinashh could totally take off as the latest scammy fad diet snack. “It has the quality of food, but no nutritional value.”
• “Hey, guys! Can you tell the seagull that me and Snap are gonna hit the road to Blythe? We’re gonna get some medium-sleeve shirts.”