"Suburgatory" has never been afraid to go dark places with its humor, but the brutality in season finale "The Motherload" is a lot more emotional. The episode reveled in the extreme ways Chatswin celebrates Mother's Day, and all the unresolved tensions the holiday digs up. While the series has always had its serious themes, the drive to a cliffhanger ending stamped out a lot of the humor and good nature we love this show for.
Dallas and Dalia
Even though Dallas (Cheryl Hines) is the very epitome of the extreme Chatswin lifestyle of decadence and vanity, there's always been a sweetness and warmth to her that makes her one of the most lovable characters on "Suburgatory." She got the harshest Mother's Day smackdown, however, when her daughter Dalia (Carly Chaikin) decided to take the annual trip to Israel with her dad -- so as not to break with tradition.
It's a pretty revealing moment for Dallas, who has been slowly realizing that raising a spoiled, selfish daughter does not result in a loving mother-daughter bond. Once she ended up in the hospital with a twisted ankle, with only her maid and Tessa (Jane Levy) to care about her, she realized she wanted her daughter with her.
Barring the weird and unnecessary hallucination of her dog lecturing her with Whoopi Goldberg's voice, this was one of the most moving moments of the show. Dallas was hurting, but she also inadvertently hurt Tessa, who's been looking up to her as a mother figure. Suddenly Tessa was all alone, realizing what she's missing by not having her own mom care about her.
Noah and Jill
"Suburgatory" has always delighted in the absurd, and viewers understand that some of the extreme versions of the characters act as the perfect satire. However, frenetic Noah (Alan Tudyk) and his cold wife Jill (Gillian Vigman) have gone a little too far in their caricatures. As narcissistic and clueless as this couple usually is, it's still a bit much to have guns with live rounds in their "endangered species nursery." Though we have to admit that Jill using a mini Louisville slugger to club a stuffed animal seal in front of a horrified Eden (Alicia Silverstone) was one of the funniest moments of the episode.
We'd like to think that the expectant couple will learn something from Eden's condemnation of their parenting skills, as well as the smackdown from their own grown-up daughter, but it seems like a long shot. With Noah being George's best friend, though, we'd appreciate it if he was a little less obnoxious and annoying in Season 2 of "Suburgatory."
The Shays
Poor Lisa (Allie Grant) has always felt like an outside in her own family, and it was heart-wrenching to see how much she wanted to prove she was adopted. Alas, the DNA results showed she's 100% Shay, and an examination of her obsessive-compulsive mother's blood bank in the basement revealed that her brother Ryan (Parker Young) is the one with different genes. Now we're left hanging with Lisa's broken spirit and the big question of when she'll drop this bomb on him, and what will happen when she does.
With all the heavy drama in the "Suburgatory" season finale, it was fun to get a surprise bit of humor courtesy of the Shays. We weren't expecting James Ingram to turn up in their living room on Mother's Day to perform Sheila's (Ana Gasteyer) favorite songs, but it was even funnier to find out the two had a relationship once. We're not sure if the subject is closed on that one, but it would be amusing to have some references to Ingram in future episodes.
George and Tessa
Having George (Jeremy Sisto) dating Noah and Jill's surrogate hasn't been the best plot line, but at least there was one character with sense who could see that Tessa has a lot more going on emotionally than George thinks. He's been way too oblivious lately, and it was good that George finally saw that he doesn't know Tessa as well as he did before. This was probably one of the most realistic, genuine scenes in the show. There's always a moment when parents realize that their child has grown up and suddenly has all kinds of new ideas, thoughts, uncertainties, and motivations.
After all of the surprises and heartbreaks in this episode, "The Motherload" actually ends on a chilling note, when Tessa finally meets her maternal grandmother. As much as George loves her and has taken care of her, she's always been filled with resentment over moving to suburbia, and now sees this family reunion merely as a way to return to her beloved New York City.
Perhaps there's also the desire to know her mother, but this was a cliffhanger filled with a whopper of teen selfishness. "Suburgatory" has always been good about taking an outlandish episode and ending it on a positive note, usually something that brings everyone closer together. Here we have three families all on the brink of being torn apart, and that's pretty heavy stuff for a comedy. Hopefully there will be some light at the end of the tunnel at the start of Season 2.
What did you think, "Suburgatory" fans? Did the ending surprise you and was it too dark for a half-hour comedy?
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