Men of a Certain Age: "Hold Your Finish"

Season 2, Episode 12

The show’s happiest and most depressing moments, all in one hour

“We’re done making bogies.”

-Joe

Traversing between the highs and lows in life is something that MOACA has always done with an impressive ease, to the point where it’s more or less a signature part of the show. It’s such a key part of the show in fact that when the show tries to give our characters some happy resolution – as it did both in the season one finale and (to a lesser extent) at the midpoint of season two – those episodes tend to feel a bit off, a bit unrealistic by the show’s standards. I’m not against this move in principle, as I see the need to avoid having a show become overly oppressive by giving the characters some highs to attain, but for a show meant to focus on the fact that life can be awfully shitty, giving the characters too many bright spots feels dishonest.

Thus I was pleasantly thrilled when tonight’s season (and hopefully not series) finale was able to effectively juggle the highs and lows in life and give them to the characters in an acceptable mix. All three men have faced considerable, life-altering challenges over the past season, and watching them struggle to become the people they need to be in order to survive in their new respective statuses. Yet now that they’ve undergone those changes, it’s almost as if life is conspiring against them, and this time their ill fates are more the results of bad luck than poor decision making.

Joe’s storyline is the best exemplar of this trend, as his up and down golf game can attest to. Having once again gone cold turkey on gambling, and forcing himself headlong into golf, Joe begins to feel pressure – not only from his kids, but also himself – to succeed. Yet for perhaps the first time in his life, Joe doesn’t let his head get in the way of things, and he’s actually putting a pretty good game…until Albert miscounts the putters and they end up with an extra one. (I don’t really play golf, so I don’t know how this could have happened, but I’m just going to assume that’s a plausible thing to happen.) This throws Joe off for a few rounds, until he decided to rally and just goes for it. This was marked by several more rounds of good golfing, before bad luck struck again and Joe went two under on his last hole. Yet fate had one more option up her sleeve when she brought rain down on the course, screwing up enough guys’ games that Joe ended up making the final cut.

It’s a very passive experience at times for Joe, and I can see how this might frustrate some; it certainly upset me a little that Joe only won by a back-in, but I think that’s part of the point of his story. At his lowest, he decided that he doesn’t need golf as long as he has the love and support of his kids and his friends, and he symbolically breaks the unlucky extra wedge in two. It’s a bit treacly to be sure, but it shows that Joe is ready to try and face the world without having to set goals and limitations for himself; he can just be. And that’s a good mode for Joe, as he can just do the tour without the extra pressure, and he can call up Dory and…just talk to her. Okay, he’s still a work in progress.

Owen is similarly done making his own mistakes, as he has thrown himself whole hog into whatever possible-business-saving venture he can find, regardless of the backlash he gets from his dad. I know I have criticized the show on more than one occasion for seemingly having every Owen storyline revolve around the dealership, but what I failed to consider up to this point is that the dealership has really only been a season two focus for Owen. (Even if the weird bifurcated seasons has made it seems as if it’s gone on for much longer.) But in season one Owen’s problems were most often focused on his daddy issues (by way of the dealership), and his ascension to the dealership throne dealt with that in part this season.

That arc returned tonight gloriously, and it worked in all the right ways, even if I’ve never been a big fan of Sr. His grumpy, obstinate old man shtick irritates me, if only because real life grumpy, obstinate old men irritate me. But regardless of this, I like how the show slowly built to Owen’s high moment, as his carwash scheme began to help sell cars, Lawrence was suddenly on a hot streak, and how him telling the staff about the dealerships financial troubles (a risky move) ultimately helped to pull it all together. Then it all came crashing down in the most beautifully dark moment possible, as Sr. throws a major fit, harasses a protestor, and almost risk his and Lawrence’s life in trying to retrieve a busted bullhorn form the street. To cap it all off, Sr., in the ultimate “if I can’t have the dealership the way I want it, then no one can” kind of move, ends up selling the dealership to Scarpula after forcing the offer up. This is all ultimately undercut when Sr. decides to let Owen have the dealership back (I assume the deal wasn’t finalized yet), but it was a brilliant exploration of their father-son dynamic nonetheless. (Plus this move keeps from upsetting the status quo in a way that this show probably couldn’t recover from.)

Terry’s plot certainly saw him making an equally active and positive decision for his life on par with those of Joe and Owen, yet here he wasn’t dogged by bad luck so much as his past. (Though everyone’s pessimism of his new life decision can be seen as its own sort of bad luck.) Still reeling from the high of directing those commercials, Terry is taking everything about his current life with a lax attitude as he passes on sales and doesn’t even try to pitch to the customers he does get. And while his decision to go into directing does seem to hold a lot of promise, and can be considered a serious mover (especially since Terry’s really passionate about it, and he’s not just dicking around), he still encounters a lot of resistance from those around him, as they all just assume he’s gone back to the original, flightier version of himself. Most hurt by this is Erin, who can’t help but feel as if Terry rushed her into an important decision, only to screw her over. But as Terry promises, he just needs her to give him one year at trying to be a director. Terry may be idealist at his core still, but the past year has taught him to temper those dreams, and he’s taking those lessons to heart.

Quotes, Etc:

“I told you not to do this, and now I got a three year old muffin that will make me crap all day.”

“I’ll be rooting for you. In my mind.” “Why you got to make it sexual?” “It’s your birthday.”

“Hey there Baby New Year, don’t poop your pants.”

“I’m praying…should I stop?”

“Sorry…He’s my friend…and he is, he is the man.”

“You got any advice for me? ‘Cause I’m kind of shitting the bed right now.”

“I told you not to come, but I’m glad that you were a dick and ignored me.”

Maybe it’s just me, but the phrase “you and I can’t be in a sandwich together” sounds oddly sexual, and takes on an even weirder meaning with Owen Sr. saying it to his son.