Mom – Goat Yougurt and Ample Parking

By: Gladys Luna

Bonnie (Allison Janney) is surprised to find out that she and Adam (William Fichtner) have woken up at the exact same time. She cannot believe how in sync they seem to be and finds it amazing how wonderful everything has turned out as she always thought that marriage would be completely the opposite to that. Adam finds her to be really blunt about her comments and jokingly suggests her to save some thoughts for herself. He asks her about her plans for the day and she says that besides taking his shirts to the dry cleaner and getting the freezer fixed. She also has a meeting at the Social Security office in order to change her last name and take his instead. The man tries not to make a big deal out of it and pretends that he doesn’t care about it. So, he focuses on the other tasks she has mentioned. She is surprised that after twenty-two years she’s allowed to be on the grid, something that makes it a big deal for her. When she leaves the room Adam shows his content about Bonnie’s decision and when the woman comes back he pretends to be doing something else instead.

Bonnie goes to the kitchen and meets with a very unsettled and concerned Christy (Anna Faris) while she is proofreading some contracts for her boss. Bonnie tells her that if she had managed to read those papers the day before she wouldn’t have to be so worried about it now, but Christy says that she couldn’t do it since her boss kept her at the office until 2 am. Apparently Christy is not dealing well with her since she considers her to be a very difficult person to what her mother suggests to her that whatever she does she should make sure not to “pull a Christy.” The blonde doesn’t seem to understand quite well her mother’s advice, so Bonnie explains that it is very typical of her to make a big effort on things at first and then quit. Christy says that this time will be different since her goal is for her boss to hire her once she graduates.

At the office Christy’s tension hasn’t diminished at all and to make matters worse she is practically falling asleep. So, she decides to pour some red bull in her coffee as a way to keep herself active and up to her boss’s standards. Just when she has taken a sip of the beverage, her boss yells her name from inside the office and Christy can do nothing but run to her. Once inside Veronica (Paget Brewster), her boss, starts yelling at her while giving her a list of tasks to do for the day. Christy attempts to write down everything down as fast as she can, but unfortunately the pen is not working so she has to record the whole thing instead.

In the meantime, Bonnie shows up at the dry cleaner with Adam’s shirts and is welcomed by Ken (Bernie Kopell) who wastes no time and throws all kinds of compliments at her while his wife Nikki (Helen Siff) is listening from the other side of the room. When Ken tries to register Bonnie’s last name on his computer the woman asks him to change it since she will be at the Social Security office later in order to officially become “Bonnie Janikowski.” However, when trying to spell the last name to the man she just doesn’t seem to get it right. She even tries to write it down but still it doesn’t seem to work quite well for her.

Back at Veronica’s office, the woman is on a call when Christy walks in with her hands filled with files and the woman’s prescription. Veronica suggests Christy to take some pills as she seems to be sluggish, but the girl refuses and leaves the office. Later that day Christy meets with her mom and tells her about her experience with Veronica. When hearing her daughter complaining, Bonnie asks her not to “pull a Christy” again, but her daughter knows that this is more than that. The chat is interrupted by a call from Adam who is at the grocery store and asks Bonnie if there is anything she needs from there. Christy takes advantage and asks him to get her some “special strawberries” for her boss. When he asks Bonnie about her appointment at the Social Security office she lies and tells him everything went just right and adds up some stories about a woman she met in order to make it more believable. After the call is finished Christy asks her why she lied and Bonnie says that she didn’t feel like it was a good day to become Polish.

Mother and daughter and the rest of the group are cleaning after at the AA meeting has ended and getting ready to go to the bistro. When Bonnie’s turn to sweep comes the woman bluntly declines and Christy takes her place instead, pretending not knowing how to do it. Bonnie ends up finally doing it. Suddenly, Christy gets a call from Veronica asking her to go to her dispensary and pick up some pot for her, so she has to cancel her plans with the other women. As some of them have never been to a place like that before, they decide to go with Christy.

When they arrive to the dispensary the group of women are in awe of all the products they can find in there. DJ (Jayson Blair), the clerk, shows them around the store leaving the women dumbfounded before it. Jill (Jaime Pressly) almost loses her mind when she realizes that there is salad dressing with pot in it and asks the other women to physically restrain her from buying it. Christy gives the guy a list of the things her boss requested and as gift for being a first-time customer DJ gives her gummy bears and lollipops.

Later at the bistro the women are enjoying of some ice cream together still looking pretty surprised from their prior experience. Christy looks at her bowl of ice cream and confesses that even though it is not infused with marijuana is still pretty good. Jill also says back in the day it was fun for her to do some but then it only ended up making her crappy and sad so she won’t do it again. Christy takes the chance and brings up the topic that her mother hasn’t changed her last name yet to what Wendy (Beth Hall) replies that she understands her reasons and believes that one of them is because she is old. Tammy (Kristen Johnston) suggests that since Bonnie has been well known as a violent woman with a long reach she shouldn’t be saying that. But then Wendy explains that she feels that when someone younger changes her name it doesn’t seem to be such a big deal, but when someone in her twilight years does it then it becomes harder. Bonnie says even though she has hated “Bonnie Plunkett” for so long there was something within her screaming not to change it. So, Marjorie (Mimi Kennedy) tells her that if this is conflicting her that much maybe she should talk to Adam about it. Jill suggests her to hyphenate it, but Bonnie says that she doesn’t want to be looking like the whole alphabet.

Back at Veronica’s office Christy enters the place looking a little scared about some news she has for her boss and finds her with her back turned on her. As she is explaining that the meeting they have schedule has to be push back a little, Veronica turns back on her looking like a clown with all her make up splattered all over her face. Christy tries to make sense of what she is seeing, but it doesn’t seem to have any. Veronica explains that she took an extra of her Adderall and since she started to feel jumpy so she ate pot gummy bears. She then forgot she had done it and ate some more. The woman doesn’t feel in a good state to handle the upcoming meeting, but she cannot afford to lose the client either. So, Christy thinks of the only solution for situations like this is to slap her until she brings her back to reality. At first she feels she cannot do it, but Veronica encourages her and after the first slap her boss takes her as a game and slaps her back.

Bonnie comes back home and is welcomed by a “very disappointing” greeting from her husband who had planned to surprise her with a gift, but it is not ready yet. He tells her that he ordered a new welcome mat since they are now “The Janikowskis,” so Bonnie confesses him that so far there’s still only one Janikowski and it is not her. She explains that she had hated “Bonnie Plunkett” most of her life since it reminded her of the drunk, thief and terrible mother she was but she realized that after all the work she has done she has finally has come to love who she is and is not ready to let “Bonnie Plunkett” go. So, Adam tells her that she should stay like that. The woman thinks she has ruined the surprise gift but when they open it they realize that the name has been printed wrong anyways.

Christy comes back from work and tells her mother that she had a huge success at the office and all because of her. She explains how Veronica was high so she had to sober her up by slapping her as she used to do with her but now she has earned the right to go to court the next day with her and they end up celebrating with a hug.