Mom – Higgledy-Piggledy and a Cat Show

By: Gladys Luna

The girls are gathered around the bistro enjoying some candy cane pie when Tammy (Kristen Johnston) expresses how much she wishes they serve that kind of pie all year around. Bonnie (Allison Janney) says that she believes the reason they love candy canes is because it feels the same way as rubbing coke in their gums. Marjorie (Mimi Kennedy) agrees with Bonnie on that one and says that the only difference would be that she won’t be vacuuming naked at 3am. Wendy (Beth Hall) asks the girls about their plans on Christmas and invites them to go caroling with her church group. Jill (Jaime Pressly) is quick to decline to the rhythm of “deck the halls.” Christy (Anna Faris) tells them that she and Bonnie had planned to spend the day together, making gingerbread houses and watching movies in matching pajamas.

Right that moment Bonnie gets a call from Patty (Kate Micucci), her sponsee, and Christy looks a little uncomfortable since she says that the girl tends to call her at least for times a day. Jill says that she would do the same since her boyfriend has gone to Minnesota to spend Christmas with his mother and she doesn’t feel so good being alone. Tammy is curious about why she didn’t go with him and Jill tells her that besides all of the reasons she has that the first one is that he didn’t invite her. Jill asks Tammy what she would do if she was her boyfriend and Tammy says that she would take her home for Christmas and parade her around the local Applebee’s. Even though Jill claims to be unaware of what an Applebee’s is, she believes Tammy would be a good boyfriend.

Bonnie comes back from taking her call and says that she has just invited Patty to spend Christmas with them since she is going through a rough patch. Once again Christy doesn’t seem to be so comfortable with it but accepts it. Then, Bonnie ends up inviting everyone. The next day the girls attend their AA group meeting and Jill gets mad at Tammy for changing the way the coffee table is regularly set. Tammy thinks they need to have some fun and do it differently, but neither Jill, Wendy nor Marjorie seem to agree with it. Bonnie walks in with Patty in tow showing her around the place. Christy tells her that she attended on a wrong day once and now she knows how to Heimlich a baby.

With that comment Patty remembers the age of her daughter and how her mother don’t allow her to see her. Bonnie introduces her to the rest of the girls and they prepare for their meeting. Jill shares that she thought she had made amends with Andy leaving her alone on Christmas but then he posted a picture with his mom. It also seems someone else was in the picture but was cropped out and the only thing she can see now is their fingers. although she tries not to be obsessed about it, she cannot stop thinking who is that person. When Marjorie asks who else wants to share Bonnie lifts Patty’s hand making her speak. The woman says that she has been sober for eighty-five days and that’s the longest she has managed thanks to Bonnie. She also shares that she called her mother the day before and she didn’t allow her to be with her daughter on Christmas due to an incident that happened last year when she got drunk before lunch, knocked over the Christmas tree and yelled at her mother. Her daughter ended up spending most of the day crying. She thought that being eighty-five days sober would get her a second chance, but it wasn’t.

The next one to share is Marjorie who expresses how the season makes her feel grateful for her life and the people in it. While she continues speaking Jill asks Christy if she’s overreacting. Christy suggests for Jill to take the 30-hour drive to Minnesota, wear a diaper and go meet Andy.

Later that day Patty thanks Christy for sharing her room with her and tells her that she wishes Bonnie was her mom. Right on cue the woman shows up at their door saying that they should keep it down or invite her in. Christy tells her they will keep it quiet, but Patty invites her in. She tells Bonnie that she is sad that one day her daughter will recall she wasn’t there with her on Christmas day or, even worse, she would remember the years she actually was. Christy tries to comfort her by saying that even though it looks hard right now that one day they’ll look back and laugh about it. She begins to tell a story that happened at Christmas when she was eleven years old and Bonnie went out with the “boyfriend of the week” to buy gifts for her, but instead she got drunk and ended up passing out in a park. Then, she called Christy and asked her to drive there and pick her up. She also remembers how on the way back they stopped at a gas station, got herself her own Christmas present (two Milky Way bars and a Teen Bop magazine) and then went back home only for Bonnie to get drunk again. Bonnie also ate her chocolate bars and put her chocolatey fingers all over her magazine. Bonnie looks visibly uncomfortable by hearing the story, but tries to conceal it. She walks away claiming that Adam will be home any minute.

The next day all the girls are at Bonnie’s house making gingerbread houses. Christy says that she believes everyone living at her house is very happy, but then the roof collapses and Patty says that it seems like after that they are all dead. Christy gets that she is mad at something and Patty confesses that her mom won’t let her even talk to her daughter on the phone. In an attempt to make the woman feel better, Christy tells her that her daughter won’t talk to her and her son has decided to live with his father.

Jill is still trying to figure out who could be the mystery person that was cropped out of Andy’s picture. Wendy seems to have had enough of it and yells her to call him and ask directly about it.

Christy asks Jill why she is not participating in making houses and she says that she has decided to hire a contractor who happens to be none other than Tammy. Tammy tells her that she hopes she likes the 18^th century English country house she’s building for her. Marjorie asks for Bonnie and Tammy says that the woman has gone upstairs to get a sweater. Then, Marjorie realizes that she has taken longer than she was supposed to and goes in search of her. When she enters Bonnie’s room she sees her lying down covering her face feeling disappointe remembering who she used to be based on the story that Christy told the night before. Marjorie tells her that recovery is a never-ending process and the realization of everything they had done will come bit by bit all along. She also believes it to be a blessing.

Tammy shows up and tells them that Patty has decided to go and kidnap her daughter and they need their help. Bonnie tries to stop her sponsee and tells her that when people is angry they don’t make the best choices. Instead, she suggests her to text her mother and just thank her for taking good care of her daughter. Christy asks her to go upstairs and put her things back in place and Patty follows. Marjorie congratulates Bonnie for handling the situation and Bonnie invites the girls to watch It’s a Wonderful Life together.

The girls finally accept Wendy’s invitation to go caroling with her. She explains to them how it is supposed to be done. They arrive to a house and begin to sing, but after a while all of the house lights go off. While they are walking to another house Patty tells Bonnie how she cannot believe that she once stole wrapped Christmas presents from someone else’s car and gave them to Christy. Jill is calling Andy but it keeps going straight to voicemail so she leaves a message saying although she loved the picture he posted, but she wants to know whose fingers are the ones that showed up in it. They arrive to another house and sing again when a whole family comes out and smiles at them. Suddenly, Bonnie starts crying and decides to run away. Tammy notices and tells the girls about it, so they slowly start to leave as they keep singing. They all call for Bonnie, but the woman is nowhere to be found. Suddenly, Jill shows up out of nowhere saying that she just spoke to Andy and he said that the fingers in the picture belonged to his ex-girlfriend, but nothing is going on and she believes him (something that is not common in her). The women split in teams to find Bonnie and when Marjorie, Patty and Christy are walking by a manger they hear someone sobbing. Christy decides to go into the manger and finds Bonnie snuggled with Mary. She tells her daughter that she is sorry she was such a bad mother, but Christy says that she has already gotten over all of it and the reason why she is able to tell stories about her is because they don’t hurt her anymore. She explains that she is proud of her and the healthy place she is in right now. Patty joins them. When Bonnie tells her that she would understand if she wants to have a sponsor that is more put together Patty replies that she doesn’t want anyone else since she really would like to have with her daughter the kind of relationship she and Christy share. She also followed the woman advice and has texted her mother.

It’s Christmas day so Christy and Patty wake up and go down the stairs wearing matching pajamas and try to check out on the presents. Patty is so happy to know that there’s a stocking reserved for her. Bonnie walks out of the kitchen and greets them. She calls for Adam (William Fichtner) and the man does not want to get out of the bedroom as he feels ridiculous. When he comes out he is also wearing the same pajamas as the other three women. Even Gus, the dog, has a matching outfit. Patty gets excited to find out that her mother will allow her to Facetime with her daughter. It seems that everything is back on track for them!