Since Covid-19 doesn’t exist in either of “Kevin”’s universes, I forget this season is their Rona season, and it might have affected how they plotted the season. Because even though last episode had a surprise party gone wrong plot, I also forgot “Kevin” sometimes does sitcom tropes in their “sitcom” part of the episode. The imbalanced episodes—and Annie Murphy no longer hanging around Eric Petersen as much—have meant shorter sitcom portions.
This episode’s got a blackout, which I’ve seen in at least one sitcom I can readily recall, and there must be countless others. It’s such an easy episode (the blackout episode, not this episode of “Kevin”; this episode of “Kevin”’s an intricate marvel). The action picks up about a week after last episode, which had Mary Hollis Inboden’s birthday party, followed by a cliffhanger with Candice Coke making a show-shattering discovery.
Also continuing directly from last time is Brian Howe’s girlfriend, Lauren Weedman, who everyone finds annoying. And Murphy’s still pestering ex-boss, high school crush, ex-lover Raymond Lee. In fact, she’s bugging him when the lights go out, and Petersen, Alex Bonifer, Howe, Weedman, and Jamie Denbo show up. Petersen thinks Lee’s cafe is the perfect spot to hang out during a blackout, not suspecting he just walked in on Lee telling Murphy to stop complaining about Petersen so much.
Murphy leaves the cafe to commit a felony with Inboden; only then a couple cops—Inboden’s new pals through Coke—pull up on them and want to earn points with detective Coke by doting on her girlfriend, Inboden. It’s an incredibly stressful sequence; Anne Dokoza has done some fine directing work on this show, and I think this episode’s probably her best. The cop adventure leads to an unexpected wrench on the way to the actual crime. Meanwhile, Inboden’s sullen—more sullen than usual—and isn’t talking to Murphy about it, which turns into concurrent character development arcs. Very nice script, credited to Sean Clements.
There’s an excellent subplot for Bonifer and Denbo again, who again ably essay far more complex roles than initially written.
Lee and Petersen “bonding” is also a great bit, especially with Petersen invading Lee’s space at the cafe.
“Kevin”’s second season is quieter than the first (so far) but just as impressive an accomplishment for cast and crew.
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