One Day at a Time – Boundaries

By: Gladys Luna

Penelope (Justina Machado) is at her therapy group sharing that knowing she had a teenager son made her sure that a “certain” day would come and it had finally happened…She knew that the day when someone would open the door they should not and would find someone else doing “specific stuff” with themselves would arrive and it just did. Her friends think that she had walked on Alex (Marcel Ruiz) and saw him touching himself, but the truth is that he was the one who walked on her. She explains that at the Alvarez’s house nobody locks their doors except the one at the front. She walks them through the prior night saying that she was getting ready to have the house for herself, so she was looking forward to it. When she was finally on her own she took her bottle of wine and went to her room to watch “Outlander.” Everyone in the room yells out of excitement but Pam (Mackenzie Phillips) doesn’t seem to understand why so, Ramona (Judy Reyes) gives her a summary of the show. Jill (Haneefah Wood) says that she has also entertained herself watching “Outlander” all alone. Penelope continues with the story and tells them that she didn’t realize that Alex (Marcel Ruiz) had returned looking for his phone and used the landline to find it. So, suddenly he heard a buzzing and decided to follow it something that led him to Penelope’s room where he entered unannounced and saw her. They both screamed and he came out running around the house until he finally left again. Ramona tells her that maybe she can explain that she was just trying to shave her legs…in the dark and under the covers. Penelope replies that she wasn’t exactly covered. She asks for advice on how to approach the subject with him, but her friends recommend not talking about it at all. Jill shares that she once walked on her parents having sex and it was so traumatic that she enlisted.

Penelope returns home and finds Alex doing homework. She greets him as she enters the apartment and goes all the way to the kitchen. She offers him a banana but he seriously tells her that is still too soon to make jokes like that. She says they need to talk about what he saw but he refuses. She insists and takes him to the couch where he covers himself with the quilt. She tries to explain herself and make him understand that what he saw was just an expression of sexuality and that is also completely healthy but then Lydia (Rita Moreno) drastically opens her curtains denying what her daughter just said. Lydia refers to masturbation as a “dirty sinful habit for sad ugly people” and her “papito” is completely the opposite of that. Alex has to explain that it was not him they were talking about but his mother. Lydia gets even more shocked! She asks her daughter if she learned that while she was in the Army because she is sure that no one in their family has ever done that. She says that only men do it because they are like animals, but women are not allowed to since they have to be civilized and give a different use to their hands. Elena (Isabella Gomez) walks right in and seems to be interested in the conversation. Lydia informs her about it and she asks if she can join them since she has recently learned something very interesting about the subject. Alex just asks to be left out but she makes him stay. She informs them that female gratification helps to reduce stress, serves as a pain relief for menstrual cramps and also improves cognition but once again. Lydia denies her facts.

Lydia says that sex is only for married people making Elena question her if she has ever done that herself and Alex yells that he would give each one of them twenty dollars if they just shut up. He also tells Penelope they need boundaries and claims his privacy, but the woman is having none of it. Penelope says that boundaries are only for white people and if that were the case they’d be eating lunch separately and his grandmother would be in a home already. So, in their family, there is no place for secrets.

The next day Lydia meets with a man named Danny (Adam Rodríguez) and asks him to never say they have met. He seems to be surprised since he realizes that she looks nothing like her profile picture, but then Lydia explains that the woman in the picture was actually her daughter Penelope. She says that he is about to be interviewed. So, she goes through his information and asks him about his major in engineering and he says that he did it with a minor in theater. Lydia says that although she loves theater not a lot of money can be made out of it so she will dock him some points because of that. She tells him that she will love her daughter because she a very funny and smart woman but lately she has been touching herself because she feels very lonely and that is why she is worried about her. Danny gets surprised by the bold confession but then says that he finds it very sweet what she is doing for her daughter. He states that he is very close to his mother too and speaks with her every day, something that makes Lydia place him as a top contender. To close the interview, she asks him what his favorite Pope is and assures him that there is a right answer for it.

Lydia enters the apartment doing a happy dance and singing after her meeting with Danny. She opens the curtains to her room and is scared to find Elena behind. The girl tells her she wants to talk to her about female orgasm and gives her a book called hopes she finds pleasure in it. Lydia takes the book and throws it away to the garbage saying that she found that very pleasurable. Penelope enters and her mother happily announces her that she has set a date for her with a man named Danny. She shares that he is an engineer and Catholic. Penelope cannot believe what Lydia did. The woman explains that she took her phone and emailed herself a lot of pictures and created a Tinder profile for her. Penelope is surprised and asks Lydia to let her see her profile. She gets even more shocked when she reads the lines below her bio: “lonely Catholic nurse seeks big strong man to fill a hole in her life.” Right that moment Schneider (Todd Grinnell) walks in asking her about her date with Danny. Penelope understand that he was the one who helped Lydia. He says that he was very concerned for her and that she should thank him because the first profile that her mother created was on Craigslist under the free stuff. Penelope gets offended and asks her mother to back off her life and stop choosing everything for her. She also asks her to respect her privacy and boundaries, something that makes Alex (who was sitting nearby) react to his mother’s petition since he asked for the same from her. Penelope says that unlike him, she is an adult. Alex decides to go to Schneider’s apartment and asks him to go with him, but the man is too invested in the mother-daughter argument. They keep fighting over the situation and Lydia says that she is not willing to become the mother in law of a dust buster and Penelope replies that even if she would get married to her vibrator, she won’t be invited.

The following day Penelope greets her family and asks her mother, who has just woken up, if she had a good sleep. Lydia refuses to answer since they have boundaries now. Suddenly, Dr. Leslie (Stephen Tobolowsky) comes out behind the curtains pretending to have spent the night with Lydia. Penelope says goodbye to her family and asks Dr. Leslie if he wants a ride. He says that Lydia had promised him a breakfast if he’d show up wearing his bathrobe and pretended he had spent the night there.

Later that day Penelope pays a visit to Schneider. She tells him how she feels about Lydia meddling with her life. She also says that Lydia is so mad at her that she started watching a telenovela called “La Mama de la Sucia” (“The Dirty One’s Mother”). Schneider tries to make her understand that what Lydia is doing with her is exactly what she is doing to Alex, but the woman denies it and says she just wants her to stop mothering her. Then, Schneider asks if she would ever do that with Alex and she comes to the realization that everything Lydia has done is in her good interest. She returns home and Lydia pretends to be talking with Leslie using the remote. Penelope apologizes to her saying that she knows that what she did was because she loves her and announces that they are officially back to having no boundaries. In order to prevent Alex from having another trauma, she will lock the door but the guy says that now is even worse since he will know what is happening inside if he finds the door locked. Elena tries to diminish the situation, but Alex tells her that she was not there. Lydia says that is a shame that she has just changed her mind since she met with a very handsome man at the market and didn’t say anything because she’ll get mad. Then, the doorbell rings and Lydia say that maybe she did say something. Penelope goes to open the door while complaining about it but then is surprised to see Max (Ed Quinn) standing there. She tells him that she thought he was in Indonesia, but he says that he just returned in something called “a plane.” He enters the apartment and says that he met Lydia who overshared a lot of things but also told him that she missed him. He misses her too. They start kissing and he carries her. Schneider then walks in and is so happy to see Max. He ignores Penelope’s signs asking him to go away and hugs them.