Splitting Up Together – Asking For a Friend

By starrymag | October 29, 2018

By: Ariba Bhuvad

 

After last week’s reveal that Lisa Apple (Monica Barbaro) may be pregnant with Martin’s (Oliver Hudson) baby, the rekindling romance between Martin and Lena (Jenna Fischer) comes to a screeching halt. Of course, Lena has been taking every single off moment as a sign and she perceives this to be the biggest one yet.

 

Martin tries talking to Lena, but she’s too busy focusing her energy into cleaning that she doesn’t hear him over the rumble of the vacuum cleaner. One would think that Martin may be more worried about finding out if Lisa Apple is indeed pregnant, but he wants to work things out with Lena. However, Lena is too angry with him and the idea of him getting someone pregnant at his age.

 

She’s too hung up on how this would affect their family that she doesn’t appreciate Martin’s attempt at being funny about his sperm being “dogged” and how they accidentally had Milo (Sander Thomas) because of “his guys.” Martin asks Lena to give him a chance to talk to Lisa Apple and confirm whether or not she is pregnant because she is willing to end their relationship over something they’re not sure is true yet.

 

And as Lena has often done in the past, she puts her life on hold while Martin figures out the whole messy situation. Later on while talking to Camille (Lindsay Price) at the pottery shop, Lena tells her about the conversation she and Martin had and it doesn’t seem like Camille is on board with Lena waiting around. But according to Lena, love is about setting aside your instincts and putting the needs of someone else before yours. At least that’s what she’d really like to believe, despite her own doubts.

 

Mid-conversation, Mason (Van Crosby) walks into the store with Hazel (Izabella Alvarez) and her camp friends despite the fact that he doesn’t enjoy crafty stuff. But because the girl of his dreams wants to give it a try, so does he. Lena makes a comment about Hazel’s new look, which becomes a hilarious point later in the episode.

 

Maya (Diane Farr) is still dating Frank (Travis Schuldt) but hasn’t yet told him about her pregnancy. She’s afraid, based on the comments he’s already made, that he won’t want to see her anymore once he finds out the truth. It doesn’t help that while on their morning walk he tells Maya, once again, that he loves that she’s so honest, which of course irks her more about the big secret she’s harboring.

 

Arthur (Bobby Lee) is having a meeting with a client named Valee (as himself) when Martin comes storming in asking for his help. Arthur fills Valee in about Martin’s situation, despite Martin trying to keep it on the downlow. But he opens up anyway and goes on to tell him that he’s trying to patch things up with Lena at the same time.

 

Meanwhile, Arthur scours Lisa Apple’s Instagram to see if they can gain any intel from that about whether or not she is pregnant. Her recent post alludes to a lot on her mind, which they automatically assume means that she is indeed pregnant.

 

Back at the pottery store, Mason is following Hazel in everything she wants to do which includes making a friendship tea set. Lena isn’t liking that Mason is changing everything about himself for a girl, but he insists that he really likes Hazel and wants to impress her. Lena points out that he’s taking it too far because he’s even wearing makeup now, but Mason just won’t have it. Later at home Lena finds Camille giving Mason a complete makeover. Unfortunately, she’s horrified at Mason’s decision to change himself so dramatically and goes off on a tangent pertaining to her current situation with Martin. She goes on to tell Mason that he might just be in love with the idea of Hazel being in love with him, but he insists he really does love her. Of course, this is all underlying, pent up frustration with Martin and Lena quickly realizes this as she goes off on her rant.

 

Maya continues to struggle with whether or not to tell Frank when her waiter gives her the advice of broaching the topic by saying she is “asking for a friend.” Although she thinks that this may not work, it seems she may not have any other option. Later, when she meets up with Frank, she gives this tactic a go only to learn that Frank would break up with this hypothetical friend because the days of taking care of babies is behind him.

 

Meanwhile, Martin finally goes to visit Lisa Apple to find out whether or not she is really pregnant. She isn’t exactly happy to see him after their last encounter and the fact that he never reached out after still upsets her. She tells him that the pregnancy test was negative and that she isn’t pregnant, but before she tells him that she wants to know if he ended up sleeping with Lena. It was Lisa, after all, that told Martin he may still be in love with Lena. However, something tells us she may be lying about being pregnant especially considering she only told him she wasn’t after learning about him sleeping with Lena.

 

Back at home, Mason is hiding out in bed heartbroken. Milo brings Lena in to check on him and finds out that Hazel doesn’t want to be with Mason. Once again, Lena goes off on a tangent about her own situation and deflects it onto Mason as she talks about nurturing your own interests and traveling the world. And it’s in this moment Lena realizes what she really wants.

 

Later that night, Lena tells Martin that she doesn’t want to be with him because things will go back to how they were and she doesn’t want to feel neglected anymore. He promises her this time will be different and she just has to tell him what she wants, but she doesn’t want to be the one to do that. She confesses that in her pursuit to get him back she lost sight of whether or not she even wants to be with him still. Lena says Martin has to wait now, but he’s not exactly ecstatic over what she has to say. Angrily, he ends their “experiment” and says that he wants to sell the house.

 

What will happen to Martin and Lena and their family in the wake of this drama? Tune in next week to find out in an all-new episode of Splitting Up Together!