Mom – Bloody Stumps and a Chemical Smell

By: Sammi Turano

The episode opens with Bonnie (Allison Janney) talking to her therapist Trevor (Rainn Wilson). Bonnie is staring at his lamp, wondering why he hasn’t turned it on since she gave him the lampshade she made him. He says that it had a chemical smell, so he did research on paper mache. They debate on things being flammable vs. inflammable and then the conversation turns to her cleaning the spare room and Christy. Trevor asks her about Christy, but Bonnie avoids the topic, begging him to turn on the light. He finally agrees, only to have the shade go up in flames.

At the bistro Jill (Jaime Pressly) is on her phone, scrolling through her dating sites. Wendy (Beth Hall) asks her how many she is on and she says all of them, including Farmers Only. She says she can get a whole lot of farm in Iowa. Tammy (Kristen Johnston) says she has a whole lot of house here, but Jill says her house doesn’t have a SEXY farmer. Bonnie snarks about how farmers mess with Daylight Savings while Marjorie (Mimi Kennedy) worries that she is moving too fast after her breakup with Andy.

Jill insists she is fine and ready to date again. She even wonders if David from the meetings is single, but Bonnie says he is only two days sober from meth. Jill thinks he can stay up all night and has laser focus.

Marjorie then says it is time to feed the meter again. As she gets up, Tammy says she is driving her crazy. The women then talk about Marjorie until she comes back and has Tammy go outside.

Later on Bonnie is in Christy’s room talking to Adam (William Fichtner) about what to do. Tammy is with Adam and overhears them arguing. When he hangs up with phone she asks about it and he explains that he knows her getting mad is nothing personal. Tammy wishes she could be that zen with Marjorie and tells him how she is driving her crazy. He says he goes to Ala-Non meetings to cope with Bonnie and thinks it can work for Tammy. She says that she isn’t sure she is allowed to go since she is an alcoholic, but he says she is more than welcome and will be considered a double winner. She decides to give it a try.

Bonnie and Jill bring a table Bonnie made to Trevor. They see a woman sitting there in silence when Trevor answers, confused about the table. He tries to be polite about it, even though it is clear he does not want it. Jill says it is not going back in her car and the two begin to hit it off until it is time for Bonnie to start her session.

During the session Bonnie talks about Adam not being supportive of her dreams and fixing the spare room. Trevor says she has a lot of dreams and reads them off a list. Bonnie is surprised he writes down everything she says and thought that he was writing grocery lists and drawing penises.

Trevor wants to get to the root of her issues, but she deflects by asking him why he was ogling Jill. He tries to deny it, but says he is freshly dating. He tries to put his mug on the table only to have it fall and Bonnie decide to photograph babies.

At the Al-Anon meeting a woman talks about detaching with love. Tammy thinks it is a good idea and decides to try it, along with the walking away idea Adam had. She then begins to share at the leader’s request.

When Tammy is at the next meeting she tries the detach with love idea on Marjorie when she begins to nitpick. She goes to talk to the other girls about it, when Jill comes along, complaining about the men at the meeting. Wendy suggests that she date Harry, the guy who gave up corn, leading to his eczema going away. However, she is interested in Trevor, but Bonnie vetoes the idea of them dating, saying she would rather her date the twitchy methhead.

Bonnie is at another session, still confused about what to do with the room. He finally gets her to see that her reluctance to change the room has to do with Christy and that if she does something it means she won’t come back. He wants her to focus on what is going out of the room instead of in the room. She then asks him about Jill and he says they are out of time.

Marjorie asks Tammy for help with groceries and cleaning, complaining about eggy dishes and the cats getting to the salmon if it is not put away. Tammy tries to deflect with love, but Marjorie calls her out on it, explaining how she thinks it works. The two end up arguing, with Tammy going into the other room, while the cats eat the salmon.

Later on, Tammy and Bonnie go to clean out the room. As Bonnie goes through the things Christy left behind, she ends up breaking down over the fact that she is really gone. She is also upset they don’t talk as much and she had no idea she had a new boyfriend named Bennett. She begins to toss things out the window, hitting Adam as he comes into the house. He makes Tammy help him get upstairs so the two of them can talk. He makes her see Christy is thriving because of her and everything will be okay. He then hugs her as she cries.

Tammy goes home to talk to Marjorie. They apologize to each other and hug it out.

The episode ends with Jill bringing Trevor a gift and helping him put it on the table Bonnie made….only to see it fall off.