Central Park – Skater’s Circle

By:  Paige Zinaman

Birdie (Josh Gad) once again wanders through the park once setting up on the episode is about to kick off. He points to Edendale Castle where Owen (Leslie Odom Jr.) is rushing around the house looking from his pants as Paige (Kathryn Hahn) points out that they are in the dryer because she was going to wash and he was going to fold. As they are having this discussion Cole (Tituss Burgess) tells Paige that his heart is broken and he can’t find his shoes so he shouldn’t have to go to school. Paige tells him that she knows he’s sad about Shampagne, but he has to go to school. She explains he tossed his shoes from the kitchen because they were stinking up the place. At this point Molly (Kristen Bell) is coming down the stairs smelling Cole’s shoes saying she’s now trapped on the stairwell with the smell. She jumps over the shoes and down the stairs as Cole comes back with his shorts in hand catching the hot iron that was about to fall as she bumped into the ironing board. Owen is rushing to get his pants ironed because he has a call with the Park League and thinks it’s “unprofessional” to not wear pants even though the meeting is taking place via computer. Birdie shows a flashback to what Central Park used to look like without the Park League and what they’ve done with it since he then goes on to give snippets of what will happen throughout the episode.

As Owen is ironing his pants Paige messes with him and Molly mentions that Paige’s shirt is wrinkling causing both Paige and Owen to fight over the iron as the video conference is about to start. Owen starts his conference when one of the Park League members bring up a mugging in Skater’s Circle. Owen tells the League members that he’s going to head over and check things out when Paige tells him she smells something burning. He suddenly jumps up remembering his pants giving the Park League a good shot of his tighty whities that are “might tighty.” Paige arrives at her office where she goes to her editor with an idea on hard-hitting stories only to be shut down and told to cover the City Council Contracts committee meeting.

Meanwhile, at Molly and Cole’s school they are both in the lunchroom where Molly is working on her comic book about the muck man.  Cole is still upset about having to lose Shampagne and Molly notices and tells him that she knows how she feels. When he asks her how she brings up the drawings of the boy she’s talked to only once. Cole tells her that he doesn’t think their relationships are in the same league mentioning how his is pure and eternal and her’s is just her thing. As Molly gets up to leave, she runs into a guy and it becomes immediately awkward. So, she sits back down and puts her head down. She starts explaining to Cole that she lives in a made-up world where she fits in. Throughout the song she does awkward things to show how she’d flip the script and how she wants to be a superhero and fly anywhere she wants to go. She tells Cole that weirdos make great superheroes. Cole starts to join the song and sings about how he is going to save Shampagne. Molly makes a plan to go with Cole after school to the Brandenham Hotel to get him up the penthouse to see Shampagne.

At the Brandenham Bitsy (Stanley Tucci) and Helen (Daveed Diggs) are preparing the board room for the meeting with the investors as she tries to buy Central Park. Helen tells Bitsy that everything is fine and that she needs to calm down. Bitsy, who is not calm at all, tells Helen that she is and that they are about to have five hundred billion dollars in one room and that they need to “knock those bozo’s wieners off.” As Helen is getting Bitsy ready, she expresses her hopes for the investors to not ignore her to which Bitsy says she won’t let them ignore her. She goes on to say that they will respect and fear her. Helen brings up Shampagne who is in a Baby Björn to which Bitsy tells her that the dog therapist told her it’s to help recreate the bond that was broken.

Owen and Birdie check out Skater’s Circle where the person got mugged. Much to Owen’s surprise the area is empty because that was where all the skaters used to be including Glorious Gary (Chris Jackson) who is a rival of Owen’s after he placed the rules for skaters. Birdie and Owen talk about how Owen didn’t like how the skaters treated the park by throwing gum wrappers everywhere. Birdie tells Owen that had Glorious Gary and his crew of been there maybe the mugging wouldn’t have happened. As Owen walks away, Birdie throws out an idea of burying the hatchet with Glorious Gary saying he knows where he works so Owen can see him and apologize for being so uptight.

Meanwhile, at the City Council Contracts Committee Meeting Paige is in hour three of the meeting where she’s fallen asleep on the gentleman next to her. When she wakes up she asks the man if she’s missed anything and he tells her jokingly that she’s missed a fistfight in 1998. Owen takes Birdie’s advice and goes to Glorious Gary’s work where the two started to bicker about Owen’s rules. The two didn’t make progress and just ended up back where they started. Bitsy; however, has started her meeting in the plot to own Central Park. She tries to appeal to their greed as they turn the questions on Bitsy asking her why she’s wearing a dog. When they can’t focus on anything else, Bitsy tells Helen to take him out of the room. As she reflects on why no one would listen to her, she decides that instead of forgiving those who’ve hurt her she wants to make them pay. This includes the investors in the room with her.

Outside the hotel Molly and Cole are staking out the front door where the doorman (Phil LaMarr) is greeting the guests and the ones he knows by name. Molly tells Cole she’s going to create a diversion and then he can sneak in and sneak onto the elevator with someone who has a keycard. Cole gets inside the hotel and makes it to the elevator. As people are getting out, the doors reopen to the doorman who escorts Cole out and tells him that Shampagne is on total lockdown. Back at Central Parkwe see Owen and Glorious Gary are meeting once again. Only this time Birdie is there to keep things civil between the two. Birdie tells the men to come together to skate it out together so they can get back to how things were before. Cole is laying on the ground groaning in heartbreak in the park as Molly draws some more in her comic making excuses as people walk by as to why her brother is on the ground. Suddenly, they hear Shampagne howling out to Cole who then howls back happy that Shampagne remembers him.

Paige has entered hour five of the council meeting where they finally hit the final items on the agenda, the renewals of the city’s P3s (Public-Private Partnerships) that includes Times Square and Bryant Park. When the motion to re-ratify the contract for the Central Park League everyone votes yes except one man who votes no. With the one vote no, the Park League contract goes into a debate with sixty days to discuss and ratify it if it doesn’t happen the contract with Central Park ends. With everything back to normal at Central Park with Glorious Gary and his crew back, Owen skates with them missing the phone calls from Paige warning him about what just happened at the City Council and the P3s. Molly and Cole make it to Skater’s Circle where they witness their dad skating much to their horror. Back at the Brandenham Hotel Helen answers the phone and gives Bitsy the fist bump – signaling that their plan worked. Bitsy announces to the investors that the Park League contract has been put on hold. She is met with blank stares. One guy tells Bitsy he doesn’t get why that’s a big deal, so she tells him that the funds will be cut off to the park and the park will start to die. That’s when the city will sell. Bitsy turns to the window and tells everyone to enjoy the park while they can because it’ll soon be hers. Owen tells Glorious Gary that he will remove the signs in a show of solidarity. As this happens Glorious Gary and Owen apologize in each other (mostly on Owen’s part). Birdie reminds the audience that while Owen is skating he still doesn’t know what’s happened with the City Council that he has everything to lose.