TV Recap: Don't Trust the B in Apt. 23 - "Paris..."

Left to right: Angelique Cabral, Dreama Walker, and Krysten Ritter

Welcome to the TV Recap column for the ABC comedy Don't Trust the B---- in Apt. 23. Every Wednesday, I will be bringing you a recap of the most recent episode as well as personal insight into why I find the characters to be an infectious version of what 2 Broke Girls wishes it was. So please join me for a fun season as we deal with the bitch, the Beek, and June as they get into wacky adventures. Also, make sure to check out my columns for Bob's Burgers (Tuesdays) and Parks and Recreation (Thursdays) right here on Optigrab.

Left to right: James Van Der Beek and Eric Andre

What a long, strange absence it has been from doing recaps. I last left you with the great episode "A Weekend in the Hamptons..." and we continue this week with continuity. Before I begin, I would just like to share some format changes. Because ABC is trying to churn out the episodes before Dancing with the Stars returns, there will be two recaps a week. I will try to make them Mondays and Thursdays to combat this issue. However, stay tuned for a further announcement this weekend regarding recaps in general for January. Back to the show...

I don't know exactly what is going on, but the show has officially found continuity that I kind of like. However, I don't know that they still have gotten over their broad secondary characters phase just yet. With that, this week is equal parts intriguing as it is a couple of awkward misses. Still, in terms of broad secondary characters, this may very well be one of the least bothersome batches in the show's brief history.

The episode begins with June (Dreama Walker) waking up and getting dressed for work. As she is about to walk out the door, pervert neighbor Eli (Michael Blaiklock) announces how long she took. It is revealed that Eli and June have been working together on the best way to prepare for her first day of work for Mr. Harkin. Eli is essentially enthusiastic and wishes her the best on her job.

After a paranoid tale with Chloe (Krysten Ritter) over her fear of making a good impression, she heads over to her old job, Just Beans. Mark (Eric Andre) is there, enthusiastic to talk to her. He ends up giving her a free drink, which was prepared by Pepper (Jennie Pierson). He even gets a card circulating for everyone to sign. He hopes to somehow convince June to date him through a charming letter. He seeks advice from James Van Der Beek on how to take his game to the next level.

At work, Mr. Harkin (Tom Amandes) shows her to her cubicle. Her neighboring coworker who hears her wimpy sneeze introduces herself. She is Fox Paris (Angelique Cabral) and comes across as real nice. She even invites June to join her and a few coworkers for drinks after work. During this time, everything is going well. She compliments a fatter employee on his weight loss, claiming that he looks good, but has a long way to go. She eventually gets stuck with the check, though Paris is perfectly fine taking June's card to get a few things straightened out, such as take drinks off of the tab.

During a conversation with Chloe, June shares her day with Paris and suddenly it becomes clear. Paris is June's nemesis. She is basically befriending her in order to crush her. She is also assumed to be wearing a wig and have a lower back tattoo. June denies this until the next day at work when several good deeds go wrong. The fatter employee discovers what June said about him and is royally offended. Paris reveals her true nature and that she is out to crush her. Also, she has a beastly sneeze and wears a wig.

June tries to fight this event with kindness. She cites being young and facing a girl's accusation that June's boobs grew in upside down by making her food. June thinks that things will work out if she does that. She makes the fatter employee a fruit basket and Paris a batch of cupcakes. Somehow the fruit basket ends up in the bathroom and Paris ends up throwing the cupcakes onto her butt, to imply that June is kissing up to her. When Mr. Harkin walks by, she accuses June of throwing a cupcake at her.

Meanwhile, Van Der Beek and Mark are on a quest to try and figure out how to get June to recognize him. They spend forever going over messages to swoon her. There is even an extended talk on the meaning of "Lay one on her," which Van Der Beek takes to mean fart on a sleeping woman, where Mark considers it a kiss. They even role play and try to understand how to talk to June. Eventually it becomes clear that Mark needs to get in touch with his emotions before he can continue down the road.

Back in Apt. 23, June is yelling at Chloe about how annoying Paris is. It is soon revealed that Paris, who owns a headbands company, stole her credit card and has shipped a ton of them to her apartment. Chloe suggests putting fake nude photos on her computer and sending them to Harkin. However, that fails, too. At this point, Chloe decides to interfere and tries to take down Paris the way that Paris took down June. She fakes a meeting under the name Parkins and Son, and meets up with Paris. What starts off as tension quickly evolves into friendship, as they both realize that they are cool. They're drinking at the house and everything is going well, even though Paris does't like her at all. June is back to square one.

With Chloe now convinced that Paris is cool, June is alone. After a quick chat with Eli about how she should be focused on her work, she decides to ignore Paris and go straight back to doing work. She does this until it is revealed that it is Harkins birthday and that everyone is having cake. Paris makes little notion that she is out to fire June by calling her out for tardiness and her inability to cut cake as being offensive. June, who is holding the knife to cut the cake, suggests that Paris do it, which quickly turns into an accidental stab wound in a Fred Flintstone tattoo. At this point, Paris accuses June of being from Queens, or the 717 for stabbing someone in the conference room. June is not, but she thinks suddenly that June is pretty tough. 

She goes home, where Chloe is giving her housekeeper Yolanda (Angela Matemotja) headbands. She figured that this is the least that she can do since June finally attacked her nemesis. The episode ends with June returning to Just Beans to talk to Mark. Mark is of course excited by this and after spending the entire episode talking to Van Der Beek on how to talk to her, he finds himself enthused and happy to finally be doing just that.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

I am kind of conflicted by this week's story for one notable reason. I like the idea that there is someone in the show that is worse than Chloe. Someone who is manipulative and mean. In fact, I found the very idea that Chloe and Fox Paris fighting it out to be an intriguing premise. I really felt like the story had potential for it to be a cat and mouse game of sabotage and eventually leave Paris as the loser. While she eventually was, the way that it happened seemed a little contrived and disappointing.

I am not saying that the Paris story was boring or obvious. I just don't find manipulative stories like this to be all that appealing. I admit that June's kindness was a nice trade from the regular mean and meaner battles of these stories. However, Paris was just really unlikable and it made it that much harder to really care about her when the big stabbing comes at the end of the episode. IMDB claims that she will be in another episode. Maybe this means that we'll get resolution and maybe this is a character arc. However, for the time being, it just felt like pinning a meanie down. 

I will admit that it also seems humorous that Chloe and Paris would be friends for being so similar, but at the same time, it almost defuses all of the tension. Of course, Chloe has tricks up her sleeve. For all I know, this could have lead to a big reveal that she was corrupting Pairs. Either way, I found Chloe's involvement in this episode odd. While it was refreshing to see her give June tips on how to be a bitch, it just felt too contradicting to have her turn sides. In the end, she joined the side that will come back next week (or later this week), and that just made for an underwhelming premise.

I cannot really imagine this idea of personal feuds being around too much to fuel a show. In Paris' singular episode, she did wear her gimmick thin and that is bothersome. I am all for June having a stable job, but at the same time, I do not want it to turn into an office comedy where June and Paris are in fights every week. Also, I just hope she gets back on the other employee's good sides. That was an awkward plot device that makes sense, but only felt like a chance to watch an obese person be humorously vulnerable. 

I will admit that I fully pledge to the idea of James Van Der Beek being Mark's guru on the subject of love. Their time together in the past few episodes has been some of the best character bonding outside of Chloe and June. I worry that the show will slip into familiar territory and Mark will just complain a lot, but for the time being, I feel like now that their Dancing with the Stars subplot is out of the way, we can finally develop Van Der Beek into a realistic enough character outside of his cartooony Dawson's Creek celebrity persona.

It is also nice to see the supporting cast getting stronger. We see the return of Pepper, whose position in the show is not quite yet clear, but I get where it can go. Now that June doesn't work there, there is possibility for comedic relief, and Pepper can easily fill that role. Also, I feel glad that we're finally giving Eli, who has honestly felt inessential up to now, a decent premise. He may still have ways to go to not be considered a pervert, but at least we can see that he has compassion and wants to see June succeed. That alone almost redeems a lot of underdevelopment of his character.

Overall, this was a decent episode and I like that we're featuring a lot more continuity. However, the broad supporting characters are a little bit weird for me. They have improved a lot since the Tom Lennon guest star a few episodes back. But still, I feel like the fatter employee (I apologize for not being able to find his name) was a decent established character until the good deeds were undone by his desire to eat cake. Still, it feels like the writers are a little more restrained with their stereotypes, and that is an improvement that makes me believe that this show could be great.