For someone like Jules – self-involved, though in the best possible way – it seems unlikely that she’d be oblivious to the number of men who want to “water her flowers.”
But her ignorance on this subject lost her a clichéd bet with Grayson, that men and women can be friends without sexual feelings getting in the way. Jules’s next-door neighbour was the first man to let his intentions slip, hose in hand, as he asked the single mom if she wanted him to water her flowers. Then, in an effort to prove Grayson wrong, Jules yanked out her personal phone book and worked her way through male names that dated back to high school.
Of course, one old friend from junior year immediately recognized her voice on the phone (he follows her, and I’m not talking Twitter), and another friend in a wheelchair suggested she call him (he’d regained feeling “down there”).
This revelation, that most of the men in her life want more than quality Blumfy time with her, came as a shock. But why? Jules requires reminders, even in the midst of intense marital arguments like the one between Ellie and Andy, not to make every situation about her. She’s also on the prowl for men now that she’s emotionally available and detached from her failed marriage to Bobby. She is exactly the sort of person to read too far into men’s comments, rather than flippantly ignore them.
Despite this breach of character, the episode finally allowed Grayson to voice his thoughts on the chemistry between him and Jules. Interestingly, though, the show downplayed this breakthrough in the central love triangle. Grayson exposed the elephant in the room, Jules flirtatiously hit him and denounced the sexual tension, and the two continued to focus on flower-guy’s pick-up line. At the end of the episode, they both agreed – in not so many words – that a relationship could build between them, but not now.
This first step is great news … so long as it actually leads somewhere, rather than dropping off into nothingness, like when Jules slept with Bobby. Remember that? If not, you probably missed that episode, and you’d barely know it happened since the writers only briefly mentioned it since.
Without the build-up, Cougar Town’s angst supply (which is gold to any rom-com) is beginning to run low. The show still makes me laugh – it did the right thing, placing all the characters in Blumfies, because people in Snuggies are always hilarious. And I’m pretty sure that Ellie made reference to YouTube’s famed turtle kid, who still makes me smirk after fifty video views. But I think it’s time to stir the pot and make real progress.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go Tweet my feelings to the vast sea of faceless people who want to listen.
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Cougar Town airs Wednesdays, 9:30 p.m. ET/PT, Citytv/ABC.
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