By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell
At the tavern Gabby (Melissa Peterman) is telling Steve (Pablo Castelblanco), Isabella (Belissa Escobedo), and Bobbie (Reba McEntire) about her new signature move as a bartender: getting the glasses to spin at the same time. She watched a tutorial, and she feels confident. Isabella tells Steve it may or may not work, but either way they get a show. There’s not a name yet or a ton of confidence in it yet. Bobbie tells Gabby that she loves her enthusiasm, but not always the results. So, Gabby decides not to try spinning the glasses today. When Gabby’s gone, Isabella thanks Bobbie because her nixing the signature move meant she could keep being the fun boss. Bobbie says she loves Gabby, but the last time Gabby went full Gabby she had to stop her with a half-nelson.
When Gabby returns, she says now wasn’t the best time to discuss decorating ideas for their house and she has to prepare. She pulls out a series of crystals and says her ideas are vibe-based, because her mother is made of bad vibes. When Gabby’s mother, Valerie (Jane Lynch), arrives, she calls Gabby’s crystals “special rocks,” and when Gabby tries to correct her, Valerie points out hospitals don’t use them. Then we find out that Valerie really wants to decorate the house with flowers, which Gabby doesn’t want. She’d like some of the rooms to be serene and filled with earth tones. But Valerie says if she’s going to thrive, the house needs to be full of bright colors and reflective of her personality. Bobbie and Isabella are listening, and Isabella observes that Valerie is steamrolling Gabby and says Bobbie must feel guilty for suggesting they live together. Bobbie says she had good intentions; they just led to hell.
Valerie heads off to go furniture shopping, and Gabby wonders if she should go with her. Valerie says no and says she’ll go look at furniture, have it delivered, and when it arrives sooner or later Gabby will get used to it. When she’s gone, Bobbie asks why Gabby lets her mother make all her choices. She reminds Gabby that it’s her house too. But Gabby wonders if it’s really your home if you don’t have a key. Then Bobbie asks Gabby when she got so into crystals, and Gabby says it happened when she realized that evil could only be defeated by supernatural means. Bobbie tells Gabby to take her special rocks and talk to her mother. Gabby is disappointed that Bobbie doesn’t believe in crystals, but agrees to talk to her mother.
Elsewhere, Isabella asks Steve if he sent her paperwork about electrical bids for the Speakeasy. Steve refuses to look at her and says he hasn’t yet, but he’ll get around to it. When she leaves, anxiously, Steve asks Takoda (Tokala Black Elk) how she looked after his response. Takoda wants to know why he wants to know so badly, and Steve says that as a part of his OCD therapy, his therapist wants him to not be so worried about what people think of them. So, he’s supposed to promise not to internalize how other people are reacting to him. Takoda realizes that’s why he was rude to Isabella, and he says yes. Then Steve asks Takoda how he stays so calm all the time. The answer is that Takoda does a lot of visualizing, letting people who bother him go. Steve says he can’t let anything go because he thinks too much.
It’s nighttime, and Isabella and Bobbie are waiting for pizza, but when the doorbell rings, it’s Gabby. Gabby has a suitcase behind her back and explains that she took Bobbie’s advice, talked to her mother, and really stood up for herself. Unfortunately, for Gabby, it was decided that she shouldn’t stay there for the night. The next day we learn that Gabby snores loudly. Bobbie resolves that she is going to go talk to Valerie. Isabella is relieved that she doesn’t have to do it, but then less than relieved when Steve snaps at her for asking about the paperwork again. Emmett (Rex Linn) notices and asks Steve what’s up with him. Steve explains that he has been practicing not getting overwhelmed by people’s feelings about him. Emmett says that’s admirable, but, in practice, Steve says it’s more overwhelming. He says he doesn’t know how Emmett manages to not care what people think. Emmett’s explanation is that he lives his life as best he can and tunes out the background noise. But Steve says he can’t do that. Emmett suggests he just imagine a wall in his mind and all the annoying stuff bouncing off of it. But Steve says he feels like a tent most of the time.
On an unrelated note, Valerie comes to the bar, announces that Gabby forgot her rash cream, and discourages her from coming home too early. Bobbie takes the opportunity to talk to Valerie and asks her to come into the office. Once they’re inside, Valerie passive-aggressively criticizes Bobbie for how cluttered her office is. When Bobbie says she wants to talk about Gabby, Valerie assumes Bobbie wants to compare notes about how awful Gabby is. But Bobbie asks Valerie not to be so hard on Gabby. But Valerie is surprised that Bobbie has a problem with how she treats Gabby because Bobbie treats her the same way. This shocks Gabby, but Valerie says it’s needed because Gabby needs someone to keep her in check. Bobbie has never seen it that way; sometimes she tries to guide her away from ill-advised things, but she doesn’t want to be Gabby’s guardrail like Valerie says. Yet, it turns out they even have the same phrase for when Gabby goes too far: Full Gabby. Bobbie is horrified that Valerie approves of her nixing Gabby’s signature move. And even more horrified that Valerie’s mom considers them a team.
Bobbie goes to talk to Emmett, and she really hopes that he disagrees that she and Valerie treat Gabby the same. But Emmett doesn’t think Valerie was totally wrong and says they both try to keep her from going “Full Gabby.” Bobbie gets mad, says she’s only said it a handful of times, and storms off. She goes up to Gabby and tells her she changed her mind and her signature move is actually a great idea. She tells Gabby she wants to see it, but doesn’t expect it to work out. But when Gabby tries it, it does work; she gets the drinks into the spinning glasses and showers them in confetti. Bobbie congratulates her, and Gabby wonders what changed her mind. Bobbie admits she spoke with Valerie and what Valerie said about how they treat Gabby. Gabby says that’s a surprise because Bobbie never dropped her off a block away from her elementary school because she was embarrassed by her. Emotional abuse aside, Bobbie admits that she does shoot down Gabby’s ideas a lot. Gabby agrees, but as Gabby’s boss, she says it’s sort of Bobbie’s job. Still, Bobbie is also Gabby’s friend, so she thinks she needs to let her try things more. Plus, she genuinely doesn’t want to make her feel the way Valerie makes her feel. Gabby says Bobbie never makes her feel bad, and Bobbie says she doesn’t want to because Gabby is a wonderful, rare person. This makes Gabby tear up, and she says she feels incredible. Gabby says she could take down King Kong or her mother. She says she’s going to go home, do what she wants, and burn some sage.
Later, we hear Isabella saying, “He did what?!?” and yelling Steve’s name. Emmett thought he was helping and told Isabella, and Isabella is pretty mad that Steve was rude to her for therapy homework. Additionally, she says it wasn’t needed because Steve doesn’t care that much what others think. Steve disagrees, and Isabella brings up times from saleswomen to drivers that Steve didn’t care what someone thought of him. But Steve says he cares what his friends think. Isabella says that makes him like everyone else in the world. She adds that she doesn’t think his therapist was saying to not care about his friends’ feelings, just to spend less time obsessing over the opinions of people he doesn’t care about. Steve says he thinks he can do that, and Isabella has faith in him. But Isabella also tells him to send her the paperwork, or she’ll turn him into origami.
Later that night, Isabella and Bobbie are waiting for Chinese food. But when the doorbell rings, it’s Gabby and Valerie. This time it wasn’t a fight, though; Gabby’s saging the house started a fire, and the fire department thought they should stay somewhere else while the smoke cleared out. While Isabella welcomes them, Valerie asks if the curtains are fireproof, and Bobbie says they shouldn’t make Gabby feel worse than she already does. However, Gabby thinks she deserves it on account of starting a fire. Much to everyone’s surprise, though, Valerie says it’s Bobbie’s fault too. She trusted Bobbie to be a fellow Gabby guardrail, and according to her, Bobbie didn’t deliver. But Bobbie doesn’t want to be Valerie’s partner in putting Gabby down. Valerie says she usually finds Bobbie unrefined and churlish, but thought that they bonded. That makes Gabby snap because she says it’s one thing to make Gabby feel bad but another to be mean to her friends. Actually, she says Valerie doesn’t get to make her feel bad and that she’s sick of her mother shutting her down. Valerie’s rebuttal is that she’s just trying to keep her alive, and she reminds her of the fire. Still, Gabby says things have to change, and she’ll be decorating part of the house whether she likes it or not. Valerie says fine, but she only commits to giving her free rein of the garage. Bobbie and Isabella are surprised, but Gabby is happy that her mother is giving her that much because Steve isn’t the only one in need of therapy.
The next day, Gabby shows Bobbie and Isabella security footage of how the fire started. Long story short, Gabby was saging, Valerie came home, and it startled Gabby, and the smudge flew into a box of rags, hence the fire. Also, we see Valerie trying to push her back into the house to get her charger. Then there’s a speedy montage of her yelling at Gabby, drinking from a flask, and flirting with a firefighter. Isabella says Gabby deserves a drink for reliving this, and Gabby pours them drinks with her signature movie: The Full Gabby.