Mom – Tuna Florentine and a Clean Handoff

By: Gladys Luna

Ms. Ferguson (Anna Maria Horsford), Tammy’s parole officer, calls for her from her office and is not entirely pleased to see that Bonnie (Allison Janney) has decided to show up there again with her friend. As they discuss Tammy’s achievements Bonnie keeps interrupting the woman, trying to take credit for her friend’s sobriety. Ms. Ferguson tells Tammy (Kristen Johnston) that due to her commitment and good behavior she has recommended her for an early release from parole, something that makes the other woman truly happy and excited. So, they set a date for her meeting with the judge.

The day has come and Tammy has gotten her release from parole, so the girls gather at the bistro to celebrate the woman’s achievement. She cannot believe that she is a free woman now and is willing to make it work. Bonnie, on the other hand, describes her experience in the courtroom as boring and questions her daughter about why she wants to be a lawyer. Christy (Anna Faris) replies that she wants to help people. Tammy thanks all of the girls for their support all along and Bonnie manages her to say a “special thank you” to her for being there when she needed her the most. So, as a way to celebrate Bonnie decides to buy lunch for everyone as she has just received her own credit card. She tells them that she’ll buy salads for them but without the protein. Wendy (Beth Hall) says that she is starving, so Jill (Jaime Pressly) says that she will buy shrimp for their salads. Although Wendy expresses that she is allergic, Jill doesn’t seem to mind at all. Bonnie also plans to use her credit card to buy Adam (William Fichtner) a birthday gift. Christy wants to know if the gift she will buy is something that she wants for herself or something that Adam actually wants. She then reminds her of the time that she used to buy her gifts that she wanted for herself like that time when she got her a coffee maker for her sixth birthday.

The next day Bonnie shows up looking incredibly excited and happy for Adam’s birthday, so she jumps over the bed and wakes him up to open his gift. Adam startles at the woman’s yell and before he can even try to open the gift box Bonnie impatiently starts ripping the wrapping paper until she opens the box and takes a black leather jacket out of it. Adam looks pleased with the gift, but apparently it didn’t get the reaction that Bonnie has expected. She makes him wear the jacket right there and tells him that she’ll be waiting for him at the kitchen so they can have his birthday breakfast together. Bonnie meets with Christy at the kitchen and tells her that she has finally given someone something they really wanted and not what she wanted as she used to do it. She explains about the jacket. Bonnie also realizes about how good it feels to give rather than receive. Adam enters the kitchen and Christy wishes him a happy birthday. Bonnie is surprised that he is not wearing his jacket and he explains that since he is still wearing his pajamas he didn’t consider it was appropriate to wear it. The woman does not look happy with his response and goes to get the jacket so her daughter can see it. In the meantime, Christy gives him a coupon for when she becomes a lawyer – he can have a free consultation. Bonnie returns to the kitchen and puts the jacket on Adam but then he takes it off to go take a shower.

Tammy is feeding Marjorie’s (Mimi Kennedy) cats but the other woman doesn’t seem to be so pleased with her roommate feeding them with the food that is reserved for special occasions only. Marjorie tries to make her understand about the rules when feeding the cats, but the woman is not interested in following any of them since she is a free woman now. She feels pity about the cats since they are trapped in there and are bossed around all the time by Marjorie. So, she approaches one of them and whispers that she’ll leave a window open in the night so they can escape.

Later that day Tammy goes to work an engages in an exciting and flirtatious conversation with a customer named Mike (Larry Joe Campbell). Adam watches her from afar and calls her to tell her that she should be careful since getting involved with Mike may represent a problem for her given that he has recently signed his divorce papers. He tries to take care of her, but as a result of her recent sentiment of freedom she has acquired from being released from parole she believes that her boss is only trying to tell her what to do and gets mad at him for trying to help her so she ends up walking away from him. Right that moment Bonnie walks in carrying Adam’s jacket. She wants him to wear the jacket and show it to his friends, but the man politely refuses making Bonnie angry as she believes that he didn’t like her gift. So, the woman ends up walking away from him as well.

At the AA meeting Jill is sharing her experience about why she is not sleeping well lately and how all of the things that made her feel good or at least helped her to keep up with her insomnia are no longer a choice for her. When she ends up with her sharing, Bonnie decides to speak about her recent situation with Adam and how he didn’t like the jacket she bought for him. Then, Tammy speaks about how she feels everything in the world is made to order people to do certain things and now that she is free she is not willing to give up to that. She goes on and on making Jill fall asleep and the other women bored at her never-ending speech. When Wendy tries to stop her she gets up madly from her chair and leaves the room.

The next day at the bistro Wendy expresses how worried she is about Tammy’s behavior. Jill says that she passed by her and offered to give her a ride and she just flipped her off and licked her window. Christy is a bit confused about what is happening since she believes that getting released from parole was a good thing, but she doesn’t understand why it seems to cause the opposite effect on Tammy. Bonnie seems to be struggling since she has decided to wear Adam’s jacket and now she just can’t stand it anymore. She needs to take it off, showing her blouse all covered in sweat. Marjorie tries to share how she felt when she was finally free and how they need to support Tammy in her new process. Jill believes listening to Marjorie is better than “Sleepy Time Tea” and assures her that she will call her that same night to help her sleep.

Adam arrives home and sees Bonnie on the couch next to the dog who happens to be wearing his jacket. She tells him that she has found someone who actually likes it. Adam sees this as a good opportunity to finally discuss about it. Bonnie says that she knows what happens and that is that he didn’t like the gift and now he is the mean one for it. However, he explains that when he sees himself in the mirror he feels ridiculous. Adam tells her that he appreciates that she went through a lot of trouble trying to find him something special and that’s what truly matters for him. So, Bonnie understands that the actual gift didn’t matter as much as the effort she put into it.

Christy walks down the stairs and tells Bonnie that Marjorie has called saying that Tammy didn’t arrive home, so they have decided to look for her. As Bonnie and Christy are at the car looking for their friend they recall how they used to look for one another back in the day and the feeling is not good. They hope that Tammy hasn’t gone back to drinking again. In the meantime, we see that Tammy is actually having some fun on her own with Mike, the customer she met a few days ago at her work.

Tammy shows up at Bonnie’s door and Adam actually answers. She explains what happened and looks for Bonnie, but he tells her that she is not there. Tammy calls her and Bonnie says that she is at her house with the other girls who have been looking for her. She decides to put her on speaker and makes her confess that she hasn’t been drinking. Each one of the girls try to comfort her and support her. Tammy says that she has spent most of her life going from one system to the other and that she hates the rules, but she understands that rules are always preventing her from making certain mistakes.

The next day Tammy shows up at the prison where she spent seven years of her life. She talks in front of a group of women about how happy she is that she has found the AA Group and friends that have her back have prevented her from going back to this place.