Grace and Frankie: The Coup
May 17, 2016 4:23 PM - Season 2, Episode 13 - Subscribe

Babe left Frankie and Grace some going away presents. Grace finds a secret stash of presents at the guys' house. Frankie is unhappily disillusioned. Grace gets a business idea. Bud celebrates his 8th birthday.

"Just like Babe to get you a little something for killing her." Grace and Frankie receive gifts: Frankie's getting paintbrushes and an art show in a month and Grace got... a vibrator that as we find out later, made her arthritis act up. ("Maybe that's your paintbrush, Grace.") Frankie decides she wants to get her "Hitler's Circumcision" painting back from Kenny Loggins, which eventually forces Sol to have to admit that he never actually sold it to Kenny Loggins. Kenny Loggins did see the painting...and said "huh."
Meanwhile, Robert has a bunch of boxes of presumably Grace' s stuff at the house for her to pick up and she finds a ton of jewelry boxes, labeled to her from Robert with notes like "sorry you had a bad day" on them. However, these aren't gifts Grace has ever seen before...she deduces that Robert bought a ton of gifts IN ADVANCE of her having bad days, which she finds totally offensive. (I see her point, but technically he DID go out and shop for her when she was feeling bad...he just had the ability to get her gifts quicker....) Grace loses it at Robert, Frankie loses it at Sol, Brianna just wants the jewelry. Mallory is all, "Please let my water break."

We find out that Bud's got a Leap Year February 29th birthday, so he's got a mutant ninja turtle cake. However, his birthday is overshadowed by drama and fighting once again. Not to mention hearing tips about how to use a vibrator.

In the end, Grace gets the bright idea to start a vibrator company with Frankie, and they stomp out to go home and accidentally dump Babe's ashes in the sand while "Footloose" plays.

Quote Corner:
"Dear Grace, this is even better than drinking and it won't make your face puffy and it won't break your heart." -Babe's note
In other news, Frankie has done a painting of Grace as "Count Drinkula." Whoever's doing these paintings is a freaking genius.
Frankie assumes Coyote wants her to pose as his girlfriend. NOPE.
"I mean, I wish all my friends were dead...." -Brianna
"I gotta go break Bud's balls" -Brianna
Other juvenile commentary for the day:
"The store was out of puberty"
"The same store said you're a bitch."
"That's why I shop there."
Frankie has a margarita glass filled with olives...only.
"THE PROBLEM IS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM! THIS FEELS LIKE A JAR OF TREATS FOR A DOG!" -Grace
"I've got a belly full of rage and martini." -Frankie
"Couldn't we fight for the right to masturbate after lunch?" -Robert
"Mic drop, let's go home." -Frankie
posted by jenfullmoon (8 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I loved this season, and their friendship so much. The contrast between Babe's thoughtful presents for them and the placating horrible gifts their husbands gave them during their marriages, lies about her art that made Frankie a liar about her own artistic voice because Sol couldn't bear to see her suffer - which is false hope to spare himself her pain. And Robert's hideous drawer of impersonal trinkets that told her that she was something to be dealt with, not worth time and effort, not someone who deserved truth. There was a reason that drawer of gifts and that painting were hidden from the exes, and to see them caught and then fumble for excuses, then with the adult children trying to use poor placating Bud's birthday to smooth things over again, all thrown into bare truth and their refusal to just keep quiet - so, so good.

I wish they'd had another 4-5 episodes to do more on the drinking and yam farmer subplots, but season three!
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 5:08 PM on May 17, 2016 [5 favorites]


I'm not a full-time watcher of this show but have seen any number of them figuratively over my wife's shoulder. The bit about the gifts and the lying about the painting was just great, subtle stuff and completely sucked me in.

You don't - or I don't anyway - go to most television comedy for subtle examination about relationships, but that was good stuff. It's not all black and white; there's some pushback on Grace being angry about a relationship that's over and which everyone already accepts involved significant deception. The exact balance of how much Sol and Robert were being caring versus just trying to avoid their own discomfort is left up to the viewer rather than a concrete line drawn. It's not all fixed at the end but it's not all shrugged off either. Everyone gets to be good and bad.

It's a shame my wife and I are a mixed marriage (she's a binge watcher, I am still working on Daredevil season 2), I'd have liked to have seen all of this from the start.
posted by phearlez at 10:53 AM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]




I thought this season was even better than the first. Frankie and Grace's relationship just gets more and more nuanced and close; the show dares to go places I am surprised at (eg Babe's assisted suicide); it portrayed older women's sexuality in a positive light. How refreshing to see something that passes the Bechdel Test every episode. I love it. Can't wait for season three.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:14 AM on June 17, 2016 [4 favorites]


Did not realize this was the final episode of the season. Am totally crushed.

Favorite show, hands down. Is there one bad character? There is not. I don't know if it would upset the balance, but I would not be averse to seeing more of Brianna's (assistant? company lawyer?) whose friends did not believe Frankie was real.

Martin Sheen is the least likable and maybe the least believable. But I'm not sure that is fair, since at least ONE of these great characters needs to be a bit more difficult. I guess.

SO MANY KUDOS to this excellent show for showing complex and romantic relationships for folks in their seventies. Will many (any) of us look like these beautiful people at this age? Not likely. But I do not mind.
posted by Glinn at 7:23 AM on June 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


yea, this is a great show, I really appreciated the nuanced consideration of love and friendship. And it was hilarious on top of it all. Thanks jenfullmoon for all the awesome recaps and quotes!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:54 AM on August 6, 2016


A leapling.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:07 PM on June 10, 2017


Oh. My. God. I came in here right after this episode just to say how much I love these women. This episode was absolutely epic. Fantastic. Honourable mention to Brianna, she is easily my favourite character after G&F
posted by like_neon at 1:47 PM on December 1, 2017 [1 favorite]


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