Frankie Buries An Old Friend, And Maybe An Old Habit Too

When I wrote last week about the first half-dozen or so episodes of Netflix's new sitcom Grace And Frankie, and took issue with some of those first few outings for being a bit corny, it never occurred to me, as it did to Vulture's Margaret Lyons, that the show might work better as a multi-camera studio sitcom, shot in front of a studio audience. I think Lyons is definitely on to something with this notion -- the jokier parts of any given episode would land better if the performers could play off the immediate feedback of live viewers -- but the moment when the series locked in for me isn't a jokey one at all, and works pretty perfectly just as it is.

In the fourth episode of the season, "The Funeral," our eponymous heroines and their ex-husbands attend guess what. By this point, the news of the two broken marriages -- and what broke them -- has reached all their mutual friends, making the event what Grace calls "Robert and Sol's coming-out party" and even less fun than the average funeral is to begin with. Grace's hope to get in and out before Robert and Sol even arrive is unfulfilled, though at least she can say she had the dignity to remove her wedding ring before occupying the same space as her now-estranged husband; Frankie's won't actually come off. From there, things get worse: Grace is horrified to see Sol wearing a tie she'd given Robert as a gift; Grace and Frankie both have to manage their friends' feelings about their divorces; Frankie confronts a group of people she knows are talking about her behind her back.

And to be fair, it's not so great for the gentlemen either. Sol tries to get out of attending well before he and Robert arrive, and once he's there, his behaviour forces Robert to draw unflattering comparisons between his last life partner and his current one. Whereas Grace was always elegance personified, her Emily Post hard-coded into her DNA to ensure that she always acted with the utmost correctness at even the diciest moments, Sol over-explains his new relationship with Robert as Robert stands by, embarrassed; Sol also monopolizes the widow's time with his smooshy excess of empathy.

But while the clash of interpersonal styles leads Sol and Robert to appreciate and understand each other better, Grace -- hurt by Robert's sister's retraction of a wedding shower invitation -- lashes out to Robert in a coat room: "I've lost my marriage, my extended family. My own family is broken up. And I don't know if you know this, but I just lost my best friend! All I get is stuck with Frankie!" Frankie walks past juuuuuust in time to hear the end of it...or did she?

Here's where things come to a head: Grace chases after Frankie, trying to figure out whether Frankie did hear her uncharitable remarks and, if so, to smooth things over. Frankie, however, is in no mood, and when a car she knows pulls up, she gets in.

It's such a stressful day that Frankie just goes into autopilot. The sigh of relief she expels as she reflexively settles into what's been her seat for the past forty years is palpable: you know all she wants is to compare notes on this horrible afternoon with her very best friend...who's waiting to do the same with his fiancé.

Grace can't help buckling on Frankie's behalf...

...because as shitty as Grace was about Frankie just a minute ago, she knows exactly the impulse that caused Frankie to get into that car, the gratitude she felt as soon as she closed the door on that crappy day, and above all the horror of realizing her mistake and finding herself back in her nightmare life. Frankie keeps her dignity as she mutters an "oh, God," and gets out, telling the just-arrived Robert "I think this is for you." Grace then gathers Frankie in her arm and tells her, "Let's go home." That's all the dialogue we get in a moment when, really, none is needed, as Sol and Robert have to face, once again, the effects of their decision, and Grace realizes that being "stuck with Frankie" might not be what she'd choose in a perfect world, they both could certainly be worse off.