Grace and Frankie: The Vows
June 7, 2015 2:17 PM - Season 1, Episode 13 - Subscribe

Robert has problems writing vows. Frankie and Sol move out of their house. Grace has to break up with Guy.

Frankie is painting in her mind on the couch in her studio. Grace comes in. Guy calls. Frankie razzes him about cheese and claims that Grace is on neighborhood watch. Grace doesn't want to break up with him, but she doesn't love him. She may be alone forever if she does. Don't be too sure that I'll be here, Frankie says. Grace mentions waking up alone, Frankie could help but you won't like it.

Robert is on wedding planning and gives Sol a list. "Okay, Grace." Very funny. Do we have to write our own vows? Who wouldn't want to be part of the ancient tradition of misogyny and homophobia? Robert doesn't do writing and wants to copy a poem. Sol is not ok with that.

Grace didn't break up with guy. tomorrow morning for sure! Guy walks in as the ladies are up in the middle of the night. Good night, Frankie. Guy raids the lasagna (note: he's eating!). Grace says she's not sure we're in the same place. He knew it. Is there somebody else? No. She needs time to figure it out. He's hurt. but someday in the future... he'll leave. With your night blindness? So Guy stays in bed and Grace goes to the couch. The next morning, Guy walks down as if nothing had happened. The ladies think he's in denial. Frankie is a "certified amateur psychologist," incidentally. and a "certified amateur sleuth." Frankie figures out the Ambien and he never remembers the next morning. "It was an Ambien breakup!" Frankie is going to move out of her house. "Would you like me to blow a little of my courage into your mouth?" No.

Mallory and Brianna are over at Robert's doing seating arrangements. Brianna says you need a garbage table, drunk corner, and a desperation annex. Mallory thinks that should all be one big table. Robert's vows so far: he has three words. "Sol, I wonder."

Moving out of the house: Frankie takes the windchimes Grace won't want. Maybe I'll hang them in her car. The boys are over too. The boys have hidden broken ceramics in a box for years. Sol joined in. "But they didn't know that I knew, so I'm still a good parent." Frankie will make mosaics out of it all.

Brianna will do oppo research on Sol's vows. She finds them on his laptop. The girls are touched. They laugh. "He loves you!" "So much!" "SON OF A BITCH!"

Frankie and Sol are almost done moving. Sol used to flick the lights to have people leave, and does it again. Group hug! Let's light the shabbas candles one last time. Sol chocks up and cries and runs out. Frankie tells the boys to leave and she'll handle it. Sol is sad in a bedroom. She says it's ok. They kiss. More than once. A huge one. They have sex on the bed. After that, awkward!

Cut to Robert working on vows. Brianna grabs them and reads with Mallory. There are nine pages of heretofores and whereins. You titled it Robert v. Sol-- the v is for vows. Is this a contract? The addendum is comedy gold! What, where you cite precedent? "Are you suing him for his love?"

Grace is recording herself on her phone too now. She's debating breaking up with Guy to her phone and starts mentioning some guy named Phil that she was really into back in the day. Wow, that guy was something, that was everything. Grace cries a little and says, "I'm pretty when I cry."

Brianna edited Robert's nine pages--it looks like the NSA got through with it--and she's managed to pare it down to nice things. "I wrote this?" "Either that or I'm in love with Sol."

Sol is in the house when Grace walks in. He was trying not to scare her. Give me back your key! Where's Frankie? "We had not a fight." The opposite of a fight. Grace says she just broke up with Guy (off camera, apparently) and-oh, you slept with her. She was doing so well! You're setting her back! she tells him to go home and she'll take care of it. "You're 72 years old! Grow up!" Are you going to tell Robert? He'll never forgive me! Are you going to tell him the truth or start this marriage like the last 20 years of this one? Are you gonna be a mensch or a schmuck?

Grace finds Frankie building an awesome castle on the beach. Grace claims she slept with Sol to see what all the fuss was about. You were making such progress! Frankie thought there was still hope. But it felt wrong, like we didn't go together any more. "I still love him, but it's over." Frankie feels stupid. Grace says she broke up with Guy and talking to a phone really did help. It made her realize what could be and what wasn't. "I wish you had a you to help you, but you only have me." They get up to leave. Frankie wants to know more about the other guy Grace mentioned. Maybe later.

Robert reads his vows aloud to himself as Sol hang-doggedly walks into the house. They're very nice vows, finishing with "and I will give myself to no other." Sol opens the door and goes in.

The end. So that's why they called it "the vows" and not "the wedding."
posted by jenfullmoon (4 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I admit I didn't expect it to end that way. I guess gives everyone time to figure out if Frankie will go to the wedding or not. If it ever happens. Not until the end of next season, I suspect.

Oh, Sol. After all of the previous moralizing you did....ouch. Those two do pretty much always end up in a fight and making up in every episode, though. Maybe it's because they're lawyers and like to argue? But this may take awhile, given how jealous Robert already was at Frankie.

Grace and/or Frankie video blogging (okay, probably only Frankie would do it) would be amazing.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:22 PM on June 7, 2015


Not expected (either)! Dang! No idea what might happen, but I thought it was a great episode.

Surprised the comments have dropped off so much for the series, but I guess people find things on Netflix all the time. So hello, people of the future, when you finally wander in.

Can I just say that Sam Waterston is the cutest hippie muppet of all time. The eyebrows! The disarming smile!
posted by Glinn at 5:44 PM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


I liked this series very much.

I especially liked that they got women in their 70s playing women in their 70s, unlike what Hollywood usually does.

And that the differences between the two women aren't just played for laughs. That Frankie has lost a real, solid, meaninful relationship, while Grace probably hasn't, but has instead lost pretty much her whole identity.

I'm looking forward to season 2. Though maybe not quite as much as I was before reading that the 2 men are being paid the same amount as the 2 women. Not only are their parts much smaller, Martin Sheen really seems to be just calling it in.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 10:21 AM on July 13, 2015


Hi from one of the future viewers. My partner and I have been watching this, just as a respite, and damn that was a heartbreaking episode. Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are so brilliant in this, and their relationship is so watchable.

I'm just glad this show is out there, right now.
posted by happyroach at 11:25 PM on July 7, 2016


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