One Day At a Time – Supermoon

By: Gladys Luna

Alex (Marcel Ruiz) expresses difficulty in his search for the perfect “three-month anniversary” gift for his girlfriend Nora (Raquel Justice). This making Elena (Isabella Gomez), Lydia (Rita Moreno) and Penelope (Justina Machado) think he is very cute for what he is doing this. So, he gathers the courage to ask his mother for forty dollars, which she declines to give him saying that he only needs to be nice to Nora and tell her she is pretty. The best thing about it? It’s free. Still, she gives him twenty dollars and suggests he fold it in half just to pretend he has the forty instead. Elena mocks him by saying that she finds it to be cute the ways heterosexuals use to cover their bad communication. Lydia, who has been listening silently all along, asks Penelope to move over and suggests Alex to take Nora to watch the supermoon that will happen that same night. Elena tries to kill the romance behind it by offering a scientific explanation of the phenomenon, but Lydia tells Alex to run before he gets anything his sister is saying.

Schneider (Todd Grinnell) is at the rooftop of the building doing the final touches on a sign that says “Together Forever.” Avery (India de Beaufort) arrives and seems to be pretty surprised and pleased at seeing what her boyfriend has managed to do with the space. They start a conversation about how happy they are to be together and expecting a child. Schneider says that if someone had told him ten years ago how happy he would be today he wouldn’t have believed it since he was always scared to let anyone in given his family history and also because he used to think that if someone would see him for who he truly is they would run away. So, he thanks her for seeing him and deciding to stay anyway. Avery says that she will stay forever. Suddenly, he bends down on one knee and appears that he is going to propose to her. However, instead he picks up his tools that are scattered on the floor. Before they go back downstairs, she congratulates him for the romantic set up in the roof and says “they’re gonna love it.”

Later that day Elena and Syd (Sheridan Pierce) go to the rooftop and are surprised at seeing the romantic set up and are curious to know who made it. They start talking about their excitement for making the decision of staying together through college. Elena will be attending to Yale while Syd will go to the Quinnipiac University. Then, they decide to take advantage of the romantic arrangements of the roof, referring to it as their “recycled romance,” as a way to honor their cause of defending the environment. Elena invites Syd to watch “Batwoman” with her and they agree. They talk about how good it is they are always open to each other and about their feelings. Suddenly, they start talking about their crushes and Syd doesn’t seem to be quite happy when Elena mentions that one of her crushes is a barista at the coffee shop around the corner. They hear footsteps approaching and run to hide. Alex and Nora show up at the rooftop as well and the girl mistakenly believes that he has managed to do all the decorations for her. At first, he takes the credit for it but then she realizes that he can’t do much with the twenty dollars that his mother has given him, regardless of how many times he can fold it. He tells her that he really just took her to the roof to see the supermoon and that he truly tried to figure out what to give her, but the girl just says that he only needs to be nice to her and tell her she is pretty. Alex realizes that his mother was not so wrong after all.

The couple start kissing and right at that moment Elena and Syd come out from where they were hiding and leave the place in a rush. Alex and Nora continue kissing, but then Alex stops abruptly yelling that he doesn’t want to get divorced. Nora looks disconcerted and then he explains that he knows that after kissing comes sex, then marriage and before he knows he is a single mother struggling in life. He confesses to Nora that he believes that his parents’ divorce has gotten to him after all, but Nora comforts him saying that not everyone ends the same way.

Elena and Alex are in the living room trying to figure out who made all of the decorations in the roof. Penelope walks in eating a pudding and saying that Max (Ed Quinn) has planned to visit her that night and that he will be taking her to the rooftop to see the supermoon. Elena and Alex come to the conclusion that maybe Max is planning to propose to their mother. Max shows up and both of them get nervous about the situation. At the same time, they show their approval of him.

Max takes Penelope to the roof and she looks surprised at the whole set up. She starts to freak out and says that she cannot just marry him without leaving any chance for an explanation from him. When she finally calms down, he says that he didn’t do anything and his only plan was to take her there and spend some time together. However, now that he knows what her reaction could be to a proposal, he doesn’t feel quite comfortable. So, he wants to know why she wouldn’t marry him. Penelope confesses that she made a promise to herself not to marry again regardless of how in love she could be since she would not like to put her family through the pain that a divorce would cause. Since he was hit with a wave of honesty from her, he decides to tell her that given the time he has to travel at his new job he is not sure how much time he’ll be around and how much he’ll be gone. Therefore, he wants to be sure that she is comfortable with that. She agrees and then he bends on one knee and asks her if she wants to never live with him, never share his name, never file joint taxes and hang out as much and whenever they want to. Happily, Penelope agrees.

Elena and Alex show up and congratulate them thinking that Max just proposed to her but then they explain that’s not the case. They try to figure out to whom the decorations were set for when they hear footsteps. Alex suggests they should hide behind the curtain where Elena and Syd hid earlier, but she tells him there is a spider there so that’s not a good idea. They all go hide somewhere else and then Lydia and Leslie (Stephen Tobolowsky) show up carrying a bag. The woman looks satisfied and happy with the decoration that Schneider had set up. They start a conversation that it’s completely misunderstood by Penelope and the others making them jump out of where they were hiding. Penelope sees Dr. Leslie carrying her father’s ashes and asks for an explanation. Schneider and Avery arrive and Lydia explains that even though Leslie and her went to Cuba with the intention of spreading Berto’s ashes there she realized that everything was pretty much the same. So, she just couldn’t call it home anymore. It seems she thought it was inappropriate to leave him there. Because Leslie knew that Berto had a garden on the rooftop of the building, he suggested that it was the right place to spread his ashes. Lydia says that wherever her family is that is home. One by one they start to dedicate lovely words to Berto.

Alex says that his Abuelita always says he reminds her of him and he understands since they both are very good-looking men and assures him that he will try hard to live up to who he was. Elena expresses that she would love if he could see her now and also says that even though she knows he was an old-fashioned man he would have surely accepted her. Penelope shares that she misses him all the time, but she knows he is always close to her because she can see him in his Papito’s smile and Elena’s spirit. It’s finally Lydia’s turn. She sits down by the garden and says that there is nothing she would not do for him and that he can rest now since he is finally at home. Elena, Alex, Lydia and Penelope hug each other. Then, Schneider approaches and tries to deliver a speech himself but Penelope tells him that they are done.