By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell
Bobbie (Reba McEntire) is congratulating Isabella (Belissa Escobedo) on breaking the office spinning chair record. Isabella is glad to have won, but she’s also pretty dizzy. Emmett (Rex Linn) interrupts by telling Isabella and Bobbie that he bought a new dartboard. Bobbie is excited about the dart board, but Isabella is just eager to leave. When Bobbie notes her sister’s odd behavior, Emmett says he hasn’t noticed, but Bobbie says she can’t stand to be in the same room as Emmett. She chides him for not talking to her about how long he knew she existed, but Emmett has been waiting for her to come to him. Bobbie knows that men Emmett’s age hate talking about their feelings, still, if Isabella is important to Emmett, then Bobbie says he needs to reach out to her.
Elsewhere, Gabby (Melissa Peterman) and Steve (Pablo Castelblanco) are waging war on a spider. Normally, this would be something for Takoda (Tokala Black Elk) to deal with, but he won’t be in until later. Steve captures the spider, and Gabby celebrates him, which prompts Steve to uncharacteristically have a beer. Later, Bobbie announces that they’re having a staff-wide dart competition. Gabby isn’t excited, but Bobbie says it’s the best way she can think of to get Emmett and Isabella past being awkward around each other. Speaking of Isabella, she comes in and is excited to be on a team with Bobbie, but Bobbie says she and Emmett are going to be teammates. Neither of them is thrilled about that idea, but Bobbie says it’s a done deal. Gabby is excited to be paired with Bobbie and feels confident post-spider, Steve claims Takoda.
The competition begins pretty lighthearted, although Isabella and Emmett are still tiptoeing around eachother. With the exception of Steve, everyone does great in the competition, but Isabella says Emmett doesn’t need her and leaves.
An unspecified amount of time later, Gabby is riding the high of being chosen by Bobbie, and Steve is still proud that he killed the spider. Takoda says he tries to avoid killing spiders because it’s frowned upon in his culture (Lakota). At first, Steve thinks Takoda is just messing with him, but Takoda says there’s a spider trickster god named Iktomi, and the Lakota people try to avoid giving him reasons to come after them. Steven seems shaken, but says in his culture, there are a lot of traditions he’s supposed to be adhering to, but he doesn’t want to let superstitions dictate his life. Takoda says okay and that he should forget it, but the trickster god has already made an impression. When he’s gone, Steve says he isn’t worried and asks for a root beer, but it breaks and spills all over Steve’s pants. They both think it’s Iktomi.
At home, Bobbie goes to check on Isabella, and she’s in her room journaling about how much the competition sucked. She tells Bobbie that putting her and Emmett on the same team wasn’t subtle. Bobbie apologizes, but says that when she remembers how well Isabella and Emmett got along, it breaks her heart seeing how at odds they are now. Isabella says that if they want to fix it, they will. But there’s a lot she can’t get past yet, and shows Bobbie the letters she used to write Happy on Father’s Day. She’d tell him things about herself, ask him questions, and tell him how much she wanted to meet him. Bobbie says their father was very wrong and she’s sorry. But, Isabella says it’s not her fault because she didn’t know, but Emmett did. She wonders why Emmett couldn’t have told Happy to do the right thing and claim her, and that’s her problem with Emmett.
Bobbie suggests that Isabella talk to Emmett about why he kept Happy’s secrets and tell him how she feels. Isabella feels like it’d be pointless because what’s done is done. Bobbie goes to talk to Emmett and tells him to go talk to Isabella. He still isn’t sure that that’s a good idea. Bobbie explains that Isabella doesn’t understand why he couldn’t convince Happy to do the right thing when she was growing up. This bothers Emmett a little because he isn’t responsible for Happy’s actions; he has always tried to do the right thing, and now he feels like he’s being vilified. Bobbie says she just doesn’t understand, and if Isabella is important to Emmett, he needs to care more about her feelings than continuing to keep her father’s secrets. With that said, Emmett heads off to talk to Isabella.
Outside of the kitchen, Steve had a horrible morning, and he believes that it’s the trickster God. Gabby asks Takoda to help her, and at first, Takoda teases her about it. Then he agrees to help Steve out. When Steve announces that he’s waiting to be further punished by Iktomi, Takoda tells him that there’s a God who blesses people who hunt spiders. Steve gets excited, but Takoda is messes with him, and Takoda says Iktomi would approve. But, Takoda talks Steve down by saying that Steve’s bad morning could’ve happened to anyone, but because Steve told him something bad could happen, Steve expected bad things. So Steve decides to focus on the good and has another root beer that doesn’t spill.
Emmett goes to see Isabella with “I’m sorry for not handling your absentee father better” flowers. Isabella says she doesn’t know if she’s ready to talk about this yet, and Emmett says he isn’t either, but they’re going to. He drinks some wine for liquid courage and then explains that he and Happy only discussed her once, and it was because he had to make a choice. Isabella’s mother told him that he had to go public about her or stop coming around because Isabella had questions about her father. Isabella’s mother didn’t want her to feel like an embarrassment, but, instead, Isabella felt unimportant. Emmett tries to reassure her that she meant a lot to Happy, but when he asked Emmett what he should do, Emmett said the truth would wreck Bobbie and her mother.
Emmett is deeply sorry, but adds that back then, Isabella was a random name and he’d known Bobbie and her mother for years. When he met Isabella, Emmett says, he felt terrible, and he wishes he’d done better. Unexpectedly, Isabella hugs Emmett and thanks him because if Happy had told the truth when she was a kid her happiness would’ve come at Bobbie’s expense and she’d feel incredibly guilty. She is still angry with Happy for the mess he made, but, she gets where Emmett was coming from. Emmett offers to help her write a more honest letter since her childhood letters assumed he was a good guy. They both lambast Happy for the lousy position he put both Emmett and Isabella in.
Later, Emmett and Isabella finally play darts, and it turns out that they’re a pretty great team.