Living with Yourself – Va Bene

By: Ellie Dolan-Yates

We start with Kate (Aisling Bea) and Miles (Paul Rudd) in a hospital. Kate is in a hospital bed when she sadly asks, “Who wants to change dirty diapers anyways?” Miles kisses her hand and strokes her head. We learn that this moment is from before Miles’ cloning. They’re told by the nurse (Leslie Hendrix) that it technically wasn’t a miscarriage as the ova never took. She tells them to get a care sheet on the way out and, not happy with their aftercare, Miles asks further questions. The nurse tells them not be concerned.

On their way home from the hospital Kate says she never used to want children and Miles tells her it’s okay if she still doesn’t as they can just get a ferret. Kate says she does want a baby and, holding back tears, says she loved being pregnant. Miles takes her for a drive. They arrive at the suburbs. When Kate wonders what she can smell, Miles tells her it’s grass. “Grass? What, like in the movies?” Miles tells her the suburbs also have something called “good schools” and Kate catches on. Kate is touched by the fact that Miles looked up schools as they pull up to what is now their house. Miles says it’s theirs if she helps with the down-payment and, if she doesn’t like it, they come in every possible shade of tan! It’s nice to see the humor and light-heartedness between Miles and Kate and what their relationship once was.

Miles enthusiastically shows Kate around the house. He shows her a room which he refers to as the “baby’s room.” As Kate looks out of the window Miles tells her that the baby will come and they can make this their home. Kate says she’s not sure about the construction of the place or about having the exact same house as their neighbors. Although, she thinks that they and their family could be very happy there. Miles and Kate take a selfie outside of their new home before we see them painting. Miles is painting the baby’s room. He’s painting a hot-air balloon onto the wall as Kate watches on lovingly. Kate and Miles wake for what looks like the first time in their new home considering they are using a cardboard box for a bedside table! Miles gets Kate to go for a run with him on grass!

At work Kate and colleague Meg (Ginger Gonzaga) are preparing for their first house renovation. Meg asks about the house and Kate said she would hate it. Meg tells Kate that she would have to at one point. Looking through what is being given away from the house they are working on as “goodwill” Kate finds a credenza, the one that Miles keeps bumping into in the middle of the night! She says how her mother engraved her parents’ married names on the inside of the one they used to have. Harnold, the owner of the house (Clark Carmichael), refers to Kate and Meg as “goodwill girls” and says he wants a receipt for the write off of the credenza since it’s worth at least a thousand dollars. As Meg tells him, there’s nothing like profiting from generosity! Kate tells him that they’re the architects and he stutters. After Harold has gone inside, Kate gets Meg to help her steal the credenza away. Meg pokes fun at Kate for settling down and says Kate has bought into someone else’s vision for her life. Kate thanks her for her concern, but she loves her husband, her life and her stolen credenza. Back at the house Miles asks what a credenza is for and Kate tells him it’s to store things, but to never put anything on top of it as it will scratch the wood. Kate opens the drawer in which they’ve carved their names. Aw!

In stark contrast to their move to the suburbs, two days before Miles’ cloning the couple gets out of bed on their separate sides. Kate rummages around in the drawer of a now scratched credenza when she tells Miles, who is in the baby/junk storage room, not to forget his fertility appointment this week. Miles asks her what she said, but she can’t hear him either. She shouts bye to him, but he’s still rummaging and she leaves. Meg is late for meeting Kate as she says mornings at pre-school are crazy and the kids had lice. When Kate and Meg enter the house they will be working on they are greeted by the owner, (Peter Grosz), who tells them he wouldn’t change a thing…except for the marble. He wants all of the marble replacing and Meg says they’ll have to rip everything in the kitchen out. Kate says they can do it. Upstairs, Kate asks Meg why their client “dresses like a banker and talks like a rapper?” Meg says he’s the CEO of DA8ER.com – the dating website Clone Miles (Paul Rudd) found Kate on! Meg says that’s where she met Laura and it’s too bad Kate never got to try it.

A day before the cloning Kate notices that she should be on her period, but isn’t. She excitedly goes downstairs to tell Miles, but he seems disinterested in what she has to say so she decides to tell him later. At work Meg tells Kate she’s late, to which Kate replies, “Yes, I am. I’m very late indeed!” Kate rings Miles at work and he says he’s having a bad day, but he has a work party that night. Kate asks if he wants her to go. He just sighs and says he’ll be late. Kate says she’ll see him in the morning, but not to be in his usual mood. Miles asks if she called to start a fight. In the bathroom Kate looks upset and takes a tampon from her bag. Alone at home in bed Kate opens her laptop and joins DA8ER.com, just as Miles bangs into the credenza downstairs. Kate pretends to be asleep as Miles bangs his head on the headboard.

Three hours before the cloning Kate’s phone chimes a couple of times. She has a screen full of messages from people on DA8ER.com! She hastily removes them from her lock screen, but her phone keeps pinging. She leaves Miles in bed. We’re at the scene of the “nice morning” from Episode 1 where Kate is trying to talk about Miles’ fertility appointment. Her phone keeps going off though, but Miles doesn’t seem to even notice.

Whilst Kate is at work two messages pop up on her laptop. One is a low balance alert from the bank and the other, you guessed it, is a message from someone on DA8ER.com. She deletes the DA8ER message. As she pulls up at home Kate braces herself for going inside. However, she finds Miles (well, Clone Miles) preparing dinner. He grabs her face and kisses her, much to her surprise. She asks what’s going on and if [Clone] Miles has been looking at her emails. He obliviously asks if she had a secret desire for squash. She says, “Yes, in a way.”

At work, Kate looks at the worn bunch of grass Clone Miles gave her and wonders if he has a brain tumor. We then see a montage of happy times featuring both Clone Miles and Miles. Then, we get to Miles interrupting Clone Miles’ story and the resulting argument between the three. We see that Kate went to get a cigarette from the credenza during the argument, but thought better of it. Kate is on the bed holding the business card from Top Happy Spa. She asks Miles why he didn’t tell her since it’s been over a week. He says it’s because it had nothing to do with her and leaves.

Kate heads to the fertility clinic to put down a deposit. She’s told at the desk that Miles hasn’t completed his baselines yet, but she says it’s nothing to do with Miles and she could just get someone else to donate the sperm. As she pays the five thousand dollar deposit she’s told that it’s declined so she rings the bank. She finds out about how much money Miles took out of their account and leaves. As their client is having a strop about the veins on his marble being “too fat,” Kate snaps at him. She rants to him about focusing on being a decent adult human being. Neither tile will change his life. At her makeshift desk Kate continues to get questionable messages from various people on DA8ER.com. She flicks through them all but stops to reply to one. Wonder who that is…

Kate is putting on makeup and doing her hair. She tells Miles, who is still in bed, not to bother getting up. She is led to a table to meet her date. She says she doesn’t know what to call him. With a smile he replies, “Miles.”