Mom – Dammit Sandra and the Money Bus

By: Gladys Luna

Bonnie (Allison Janney) pays a visit to her psychologist Trevor (Rainn Wilson) and is surprised to see that it seems as he has been robbed. He explains that he’s going through a nasty divorce and that is the reason why his office looks like a mess with boxes all around and everything misplaced. Bonnie addresses the cause of her visit and shares a series of negative thoughts that have been bothering her recently like the thought of death, global warming, her broken TV that might never get fixed, the idea of her daughter never getting married and even the realization that Adam (William Fichtner) might be getting old soon. Trevor reminds her of a list of exercises he gave her a while ago to help her battle those thoughts and, although the woman says she has been using them, it seems it didn’t give the expected results. Trevor leaves his sit and tries to find another list of techniques to give her and realizes that his AT&T Park snow globe has disappeared from his desk. So, he immediately thinks that his ex-wife took it with her as a way of revenge against him.

In the meantime, at Christy’s (Anna Faris) work the woman is having her own battles against her arrogant boss Chef Ruddy (French Stewart) who claims to have turned the nasty Brussels sprouts into a very delicious meal. Right that moment Tammy (Kristen Johnston) walks in wearing her honesty suit and saying that regardless of what they have prepared for dinner it smells like feet. This is something that turns out to be truly insulting for the chef who immediately retorts and refers to her as “Bob The Builder,” asking when is she finally going to leave. As it is expected, Chef Rudy and Tammy start insulting each other until Christy stops her friend and takes her to another room. She realizes that Tammy likes Chef Rudy and she gets worried since she knows he is not good for her.

At the AA meeting we can see Bonnie truly invested writing something in her notebook. Marjorie (Mimi Kennedy) asks her about what she’s doing and she explains that Trevor has asked her to write her negative thoughts and turn them into positive ones. She asks for some help from her friends. Wendy (Beth Hall) talks about her good appearance while Marjorie suggests her to use the meeting for that purpose too. She also says that sometimes she uses meditation to deal with her dark thoughts and Jill (Jaime Pressly) confesses that meditation has also helped her.

Bonnie and Adam are watching a show on Bonnie’s phone and he asks her if they are so desperate to watch a TV show like that. When his wife suggests talking each other instead, he pretends to be interested in what is happening in the small screen. Christy walks in and tells them that Tammy might be interested in Chef Rudy and that she tried to talk her out of it, but the woman doesn’t seem to understand. Bonnie says that she simply cannot prohibit something to an alcoholic since for them it would be like you are challenging them instead. Christy wonders if using a different set of words with her mom would have stopped her from dating Chef Rudy back then and Adam is surprised to find out that Bonnie dated his daughter’s boss.

The next day at Christy’s work Tammy is making a lot of noise with the drill and ends up driving Chef Rudy mad. This causes him to take a couple of pans and smash them against each other in an attempt to prove that he can be louder than her. She comes out of the walk-in and confronts him. He says that he cannot make a pretentious menu when she is drilling like that. Christy enters the place and is immediately asked by Chef Rudy to take Tammy back to “whatever Home Depot parking lot she found her.” Tammy asks her to tell “the Top Chef first round loser” that she will be gone as soon as she finishes fixing the mess he made and walks back to her duties. Chef Rudy says that she is a horrible person and Christy uses that as an excuse to make him despise her friend. Unfortunately, the Chef is quick to find out that she is trying to trick him and soon realizes that Tammy is actually into him. So, he goes straight to her followed by the blonde who stops in her tracks when seeing that Tammy and Chef Rudy are now making out.

Bonnie joins Jill at a meditation practice at her home where the blonde is trying to teach her what to do. However, her friend does not concentrate at all. Jill asks her to stop talking and focus on her breathing only, but instead Bonnie starts playing with her phone making Jill mad for her lack of effort and commitment spoiling the practice and ending up in a fight.

The next day Bonnie tells Trevor about her meditating experience and how she pissed her friend off. The therapist tells her that she has a pattern of complaining about everything and not using the tools she is offered to help herself. Bonnie takes it personally and tells him that she won’t take advice from someone whose life is a mess. He still tries to help her, but she keeps insulting him. She leaves the place saying that she is crazier than when she started seeing him and now she is leaving just as his wife did.

Tammy and Chef Rudy have their first date at the chef’s restaurant kitchen where he has prepared a Danish meal to honor Tammy’s Viking ancestors. They start talking and Rudy confesses that he always wanted to be a dancer, but he was not skilled. Although he hated cooking while growing up, that was what he turned out to be very good at. Tammy says that she never thought about being a carpenter and recently she has questioned herself a lot about what she wants but still hasn’t found that yet. Chef Rudy suggests that maybe if they put their lips together they’ll be able to figure it out and they start making out.

At breakfast Bonnie tells Christy and Adam that she has fired Trevor and they look terrified at each other by the sudden confession. Christy wants to know if the reason of her decision was because she is getting all better and doesn’t need him anymore. Bonnie tells her that she was tired of his labels and says how he called her a “help-rejecting complainer.” This makes Adam and Christy give a knowing look at each other until Bonnie threatens them with doing something if they keep doing that. Adam says that he has seen her very good lately and he knows the reason was Trevor was helping her, but the comment only makes Bonnie to insult him saying that he is getting bold. When she leaves Adam asks Christy to tell him the truth about that and she says that he is doing alright.

Bonnie arrives at the AA meeting and sees Jill sitting on a bench outside the room.She walks and peeks through the room’s door and Jill says they are having a Lamaze Class so Bonnie is forced to sit next to Jill. The blonde tells her that she is not to hold her anger and she knows that Bonnie is never going to change but loves her anyway. Bonnie confesses that she loves her too and knows she won’t change either. Right that moment, people from the class start walking out and while Jill tries to say words of encouragement towards them, Bonnie tells the women not to play the heroes and take the epidural. Jill walks towards the room and Bonnie stops her saying that she recognizes she was trying to help and she rejected her, but in a way to defend herself she has been diagnosed as a “Help-rejecting complainer.” Jill says that maybe she is “just an alcoholic who doesn’t want to live in the solution.” Bonnie asks her for another chance at meditation, but Jill offers her to spend some hours at her jacuzzi instead.

Christy arrives at work and asks for the day menu. She is surprised at Chef Rudy’s response when he says that the meal of the day is love. He also asks her to give a couple of daffodils to Tammy who is still working there and finds out that the walk-in is filled with more daffodils. Christy assumes that things went pretty good the night before and Tammy confirms it. Also, she mentions that she is planning to break up with him since she is not ready to settle down. Chef Rudy walks in and Christy leaves. Everybody in the kitchen hears a scream from the chef and Christy realizes that her friend has broken up with him.

Bonnie arrives at Trevor’s office and meets with a real estate agent named Chris (Mason McCulley) and some other people walking around the room. He offers her a list for her to sign up and asks her if she wants to see the panic room.. All she wants is to speak with Trevor, so she knocks at his door and then enters asking why he is not ready for their 10am meeting. The man reminds her that she fired him a week ago but she says that he cannot listen to everything she says. Before they start the meeting, she says she got a gift for him from eBay and it happens to be the AT&T Park snow globe that had been taken away from him, something that makes him emotional. Bonnie also apologizes to him and says that he has helped her a lot. She is also curious to find out how is it he has a panic room and he says that he got it because sometimes he works with unstable people. When she asks him when he got it, she realizes that it was around the same time they started working together.

Christy tells Chef Rudy that a client has complained that his food was too salty and the man says that maybe it was because of his tears. So, he asks her to tell the customers to leave but she tells him to pull it together and go on with the situation instead. Since Chef Rudy has always believed that Christy is in love with him, he asks her to show him how to pretend not to since she does it so well.