To a certain extent, every sitcom exists in a vacuum. They always restart at one by the end of each episode. Sure, occasionally the habitat will be shaken up with a wedding or baby, but homeostasis always sets in. The most fascinating thing about this episode is how it begins to show the cracks just a little, finally revealing the growing pains associated with six grown adults who continue to obsess and battle over fantasy football. The league find themselves tasked with finding a place to watch the games every Sunday. It’s a pleasant revolving door set up that allows us to check in on each member of the group and where they are, now, almost seven years from when The League began.
While Sofia and Baby Ruxin are in Puerto Rico, Ruxin has the “illlest, chillest, most maxed out to the relaxed out bachelor pad” for the gang to hang out and watch the games at—if they don’t mind the nanny cams set up by Sofia to watch over her husband. Interestingly, Sofia isn’t the one who seems at fault here: all she asks is that they eat some vegetable and use a couple coasters on the table. It’s the group who looks childish for refusing to abide by basic, civil rules.
As Andre gives a tour of his new place next, we see how his tastes have only escalated with time: When Pete exclaims over the giant projector Andre has provided, he’s swiftly corrected that it’s a work of art (it’s a blank canvas). Not being able to physically stomach Andre, Pete and Co. bail, turning next to their generic sports bar hang to try their luck. But it’s loud, it’s crowded, people keep reaching over Kevin’s shoulder to grab communal snacks: honestly, they’re too old for this shit. Pete uses his newfound interest in refereeing to score on a hot babe, but the only reaction from the group is a loud groan and outburst from Jenny. Are Pete’s antics losing their charm?
At Kevin’s and Jenny’s, the slow march of time stomps into the room in the form of Kevin mistaking his daughter’s bra for Jenny’s. It’s silly and dumb and very “The League” but it’s also a clear reminder that Hey! These people are adults raising future adults! The inevitability of the end presents itself again when Taco—forcibly signing people up for his “EBDBPro” site—cancels the MacArthurs’ cable subscription and Jenny lets loose, finally putting her foot down on her brother-in-law’s insanity in a way that felt more real than any false threats made at Taco in the past.
The group ends up back at the start: Ruxin has found a “blind spot” from his wife that he’s been using to jerk it to “The Bounce Test,” eat Hostess cakes, and generally be the most base, grossest version of himself. This is where the gang huddles, trying not to be seen by Sofia (who’s busy defending her husband to her mother in Puerto Rico.) But when an old, unsettled score revolving around “Dick Chicken” erupts in a duel between Pete and Kevin, the dam breaks and everyone comes flooding out into the open. In front of Sofia and her mother, two adult men whip out their penises and charge each other, snack wrappers and other detritus of Ruxin’s man corner around their feet.
It’s an (extremely) visual metaphor for the group: they are literally too juvenile to contain themselves any longer. So now what? Grow up? Grow apart? Or refuse to grow and finally deal with the consequences?
Stray observations
- The year is 2015: Men and women who once freely roamed the streets now quarantined to their hovels; forced by their overlords to draft, draft, draft. The year is 2015, and we are naught but slaves to our Draft Kings.
- People are going to fight me on this A-, but any episode of TV that sends me spiraling into a mortality K-hole has earned it.
- Kevin’s reaction to finding “Jenny’s” bra: “Oh, Daddy like!” And his reaction to it being Elly’s bra: “We were just saying how great this is gonna look on you! Don’t make it weird!”
- Andre offering up his place to watch: “If I may throw my Oxblood Fedora into the ring…”
- Slot-shaming/slotting all over the field jokes felt shoehorned. Could’ve had a whole episode on it, especially with Pete.
- Go off on Pete and his stupid refereeing, Jenny!
- Excited to possibly someday find out Taco’s real name and ashamed that I’m excited.