Maggie and Emma accompany Tina to a woodworking class that's being taught by a sexy teacher. Mark and Tina face some uncomfortable truths.
Maggie and Emma's relationship with Tina has been up and down ever since Emma returned to Pinebrook. They started this season in a really tense place with the fallout of Emma's confession that Mark proposed to her while they were dating. But they all were able to move past that and become friends again. They are girlfriends who like hanging out with each other. They want to protect each other. But things do get complicated and emotional when Maggie and Emma do their best to save Tina and Mark's marriage.Attending a woodworking class filled with sexual innuendoes sounds like a lot of fun. Playing House does get a lot of great lines and laughs out of the experience too. But the core story of this episode is in this group of friends doing their best to save a marriage. That's a very hopeful message. Maggie and Emma are happy that Tina and Mark are married - even though they both have a complicated friendship with Mark. They genuinely care about both of them and don't want either to get hurt.
But the thing is, both Tina and Mark have stopped trying to make their marriage work. They both claim to be doing their best to keep it going. But it's apparent that they are no longer trying as hard as they once were. Mark didn't know about the woodworking class until Emma mentioned it when she needed him to build her birdhouse for her. Meanwhile, Tina was willing to continue to flirt with Buck (Rob Riggle), the sexual class instructor, even after Maggie and Emma pointed out that he wanted to have sex with her. It's a complicated situation. Tina and Mark don't even talk to each other until Mark walks into the bar and sees Buck and Tina kissing. Despite everyone's best attempts, this marriage is in trouble and it might not be worth saving.
That's a conversation that Mark and Tina needed to have. They couldn't just dance around the issue anymore. That wouldn't have been fair to the other person. It's depressing and hurts. But it's what they needed to do. The emotional reality is that they both have stopped trying to make the marriage work. Neither one is upset that they've both stopped trying. It's just something that has gradually happened. They have already gone their separate ways. Mark has been focused on making his miniature model of Pinebrook - complete with everything except a functional Emma stand-in. Tina has embraced her figure with the help of Maggie and Emma. Of course that backfires on them when she hits the bar to spend time with Buck. But that's also opening up a new side for her. A side that is fun and not dealing with the stress of a failing marriage.
It does hurt that the two of them will no longer be together. This isn't what they had planned going into the marriage. But it's the outcome that they've arrived at. Maggie does her best to console Mark considering she knows exactly how it feels to be hit with a divorce. Sure, that resolution to the story is somewhat strange because it focuses so much on how Mark is feeling in the aftermath of this decision. The girlfriends bond between Emma, Maggie and Tina was the focal part of the episode. And yet, Tina is no where to be seen after her big talk with Mark. Maggie and Emma are friends with both of them. But it's still slightly odd to see them gravitate towards Mark immediately.
Of course, this episode isn't completely heavy with the tragedy of Mark and Tina's split. The show gets a lot of strong humor out of the woodworking class setting. It's hilarious watching Buck respond positively to everyone except Emma. The show also gives Maggie a new friend who she is a little too inappropriately close to in her delivery man, Rod (Jack McBrayer). That's the closest this episode ever gets to a B-story. But even that connects to the main story in a big way when the three girlfriends all point out that they have these inappropriate relationships in their lives. Maggie is the only one who is able to concretely get away from hers by episode's end. It pains her to no longer be able to get all the neighborhood gossip from him. But she recognizes that it would probably be better to cut the cord altogether. Neither Emma or Tina have a similar moment with Mark or Buck. But that's okay too. Buck got his comeuppance when Emma and Maggie cornered him in a back room. Plus, Emma was actually there for Mark in the end - though in her own special way that seemed a tad too judgmental and not all that comforting.
Some more thoughts:
- "Knotty Pine" was written by Vera Santamaria and directed by Stuart McDonald.
- All of the gossip between Maggie and Rod works because the audience doesn't know who Shirley Lambert is. If she ever were to pop up on the show, her appearance would be too shaded by what is said about her here.
- It really is interesting that Emma goes to Mark to build her birdhouse instead of her new boyfriend. It just goes to show that even when given something new and exciting she still tends to go back to what she knows.
- Those dance moves by everyone were awesome.
- Another awesome moment - Buck working that piece of steel.
- Emma: "It's our right as citizens of the United States of America to purchase you this dress."
- Emma: "We were right. Body be bangin'."
- Maggie: "Good thing I packed my body rolls."
