Ballad Of The Beta Male

When I wrote about the series premiere of Togetherness, I noted that the nascent relationship between Alex and Tina -- the somewhat-unsettled remoras on the shark of Brett and Michelle's marriage and current co-squatters in their living room -- might have been problematic if it were handled less deftly. "Fat guy/skinny wife" is practically an official sitcom genre at this point, with countless other chubby comedians magically landing women way out of their league in basically any movie produced by Judd Apatow. The difference here is that these performers make the idea of Tina and Alex becoming a couple feel plausible as opposed to the wish-fulfillment fantasy of a physically average male screenwriter...which is why the climax of this week's episode is so heartbreaking and effective.

Over the first two episodes, we've seen Tina and Alex growing closer, but within specific parameters: she's decided to take him on as a project. She believes in his talent as an actor and likes him as a person, and when he tells her, in Episode 2, that he's been told by his representatives that he either needs to lose a lot of weight or gain a lot of weight in order to slot into one or another of the available categories to make him cast-able, she makes him believe he's worth dumping the entire pizza he's just bought in the trash and letting her make him over. Tina knows she can motivate Alex -- she's already induced him to get off the couch earlier than usual by flashing him her boobs -- but even though there's a kind of sexual component to their teacher/student relationship, it feels clear at this point that her feelings toward him are almost entirely friendly and that she regards Alex as a challenge for herself. I imagine she regards him as a human jigsaw puzzle: she will feel incredibly accomplished when her effort is at an end and she can look at the finished picture.

The first testing ground for the new Alex -- the one who's been doing Insanity with her in Brett and Michelle's living room and let her dress him up in cool jeans (over Spanx) -- is the premiere of Into The Canyon, the project Brett's been working on/largely sidelined from. Alex is extremely self-conscious, but he has a reason to put himself forward: also attending is Larry, a producer of films Alex has admired and whom he'd love to meet. Tina has the confidence of the very attractive, and labours mightily as his wingwoman, trying to position him in Larry's proximity, fake-bumping into Larry to delay him longer in Alex's vicinity, keeping eyes on Larry throughout the party. This is even after Larry, in a stall in the bathroom, and Alex have an extremely awkward encounter regarding the toilet paper Larry's just asked Alex to drop in to him. ("It's actually really nice toilet paper, you know, this is a nice place, they use double-ply, and it's quilted. You know, I hate when it's single-ply, you know, and your finger goes through and you get shit on your finger." - Alex.) Larry, as a sentient human, can tell that Alex has been basically stalking him through the party, and when he finally comes over to ask Alex what the deal is, Alex compliments his work in a very sincere but comfortable way, and gets invited to the V.I.P. area, along with Tina, to talk movies.

This feels like a turning point, because once Alex breaks through his initial terror of meeting one of his professional heroes, he acquits himself very well. He's charming and fun with Larry and makes an excellent impression, even getting them invited to an after-party. Away from Larry, Tina and Alex freak out over how well everything turned out. And then Tina, still glowing from the triumph that is Alex, her Eliza Doolittle after, she tells him she needs to go back to Houston to get the rest of her stuff, and invites him to come with her. He enthusiastically accepts, and they share a moment.

Tina is businesslike as she straightens Alex's tie...or is there more to it? Is she seeing something different in him? At least, that seems to be what he's thinking, as he takes a beat, and then lets the smile spread across his face. It's almost the inverse of the moment from the series premiere that made me think these two could actually be a couple eventually: in the aftermath of her public humiliation by the guy she thought was her boyfriend, they run into a liquor store for revenge supplies, and he orders her to eat a donut.

She doesn't want to...until she does, and realizes that Alex's confidence is something she should believe in.

Unfortunately, even though Tina's friendship with Alex may be opening her mind to the possibility that spending time with a different kind of man might help her live a different kind of life, if a greater evolution in her thinking is coming, it hasn't come yet. Tonight, she's a beautiful woman in a short gold dress who's spent the past hour, probably, ingratiating herself to a rich, powerful producer.

Tina would have been happy to leave with the new Alex if things hadn't gone their way. But while Alex's success with Larry was her object, leaving with Larry is her reward. At least Alex has the consolation of a good friend, who saw that Alex was about to get his heart broken, but hopeful enough to be wrong not to have said anything.

And the consolation of Rush, which has the power to heal all beta males' wounds.