Housework Inequity, Tearful Reunions, And A Marriage That 'Doesn't Feel Well': How Immature Is Teenage Newlyweds This Week?

In the season's penultimate episode, are our teenage newlyweds any closer to growing up? Some aren't, and the rest are...Emma. Let's count down the episode's big moments, from most grown-up to least.

1. Emma's Attempts At Sharing Housework

   Because the show primarily uses only Emma and Joey footage of the two of them together, I feel like it's easy to forget that Emma is essentially working two jobs: going to college full-time, and then working a full shift at night. Which is why it's even more appalling that she must use her relatively minimal free time to clean the house where Joey is apparently lying around most of the time. I'm basing this judgment on the fact that, in last week's episode, his friends were bitching that he doesn't go out with them, so I don't know where else he would be. And yes, I realize that in this episode Joey claims Emma sleeps until 1 PM, but I don't necessarily consider him the most reliable witness.

   Anyway: the central conflict in Joey and Emma's relationship this week is that if she doesn't do the cleaning, it doesn't get done, and she's sick of it -- and, to her credit, she's addressing the matter head-on by asking Joey to start the laundry. And then, when he apparently ignores her to play a videogame and drink a morning beer, she asks him again. Maybe the second time he actually gets off his ass and does it? I kind of doubt it. Since Joey's not going to take any initiative by noticing the housework that needs to be done and doing some of it, I admire Emma's effort to direct him. It's not her fault he's so shiftless that he won't.

2. Emma's Mother's Interference

   ...That said, when Emma's parents come over and Emma vents to them about how lazy Joey is, I'm pretty sure her object was not to get her mother, Susan, to insert herself between them and start scolding Joey about pulling his weight -- and even if that is what Emma wanted, Susan shouldn't have done it. I'm also not crazy about Susan's bragging that Emma grew up in a household where she always saw Jack, her dad, "helping." Maybe hold off on getting a trophy made to congratulate yourself, Susan, given that "helping" makes it sound like it was your job and Jack was just doing you a favour by pitching in, which is gross.

3. Joey's Parents' Excuses

   ...But not as gross as Joey's parents' talking heads, in which they try to excuse their son's slacking. Joey's mother Amy notes that he could stand to learn not to walk past dirty dishes without picking them up, but Tim, his dad, says that "Joey's not there yet," as if that's all that needs to be said. Joey himself says that when he lived with his parents, he would routinely come home from work and go straight to his room to "veg out," so if he was never required to contribute to running the household, THAT'S ON YOU, TIM AND AMY.

4. Joey's Sulkiness

   Hey, Joey?

   

   No one likes to have to sit through criticism of his character flaws, but the literal least you could do is be respectful of your wife's parents. Emma's the one who works nights. Knock it off with the yawning while her parents are trying to tell you to quit being such a lazy piece of shit, and if you can't, at least cover your rude mouth.

5. George's Jealousy Of Halie's Family

   I might be sympathetic to George's heartbreak when apparently the one and only thing that has made Halie smile since he married her is her family's visit. But then he has to take a Tone with Halie's mother Christy and embarrass Halie in front of the people who matter most to her in the world, and the follow that up by crying in the car about how worthless he thinks he is to her and ruin the first good day she's apparently had in months. You want to drive her back to them and away from your sucky ass, George? This is a great way to do it.

6. Christy's Wallowing In Her Loneliness For Halie

   But! At least George has the excuse of being both young and sheltered. All along, Christy has been feeding Halie's depression about having left home to get married by asking if she regrets it and telling her in detail how bereft she's been without Halie; now that she's actually seeing Halie in person, she still can't shut up about how much she misses her at home. Christy needs to give Halie a chance to make it through her own homesickness, and constantly leaning on that bruise isn't helping.

7. Brenda's Description Of Why She And Travis Are Going To Therapy

   Shout-out to Brenda's sister Miriam for being a world-class shit-stirrer and expertly delivering producer-fed lines about how Travis and Brenda's pregnancy scare continues to affect their marriage. The seed thus planted, Brenda starts talking about seeking therapy (and what do you know, they just happen to end up in the office of a therapist who's already been on TV a lot). But instead of owning her desire to address issues in her marriage, Brenda tries to sell Travis on the idea of therapy thus: "If our marriage doesn't feel well, we should see a counselor." "IF OUR MARRIAGE DOESN'T FEEL WELL." If you think that a partner's threat to force you to carry an unplanned pregnancy to term and then leave you and raise the child without you, things are happening that go beyond a case of the metaphorical sniffles.