Splitting Up Together – Baby’s First Job Interview

By: Ariba Bhuvad

It’s Mom Week on Splitting Up Together but Lena (Jenna Fischer) is about to get a crash course on the world of social media. Camille (Lindsay Price) is shocked to see that Lena still uses the Yellow Pages and tells her to be up with the times aka use social media. Considering Lena only has fourteen followers on Instagram and has named her company “Gilded Lotus,” Camille feels Lena could really use the help. To get her started Camille says she will buy her followers and Lena can just Venmo her. Lena doesn’t know what that means but says she can write Camille a check.

Milo (Sander Thomas) is finally moved into the laundry room, but Martin (Oliver Hudson) notices something seems to be off about him. And while Martin ponders about Milo, Lena is learning how to use Instagram. She stumbles across the Instagram live feed of an influencer (known as TTV) and ends up commenting when the woman asks about some designing advice. Lena is ecstatic when she realizes this woman, named Tamryn (June Diane Raphael) response to her. It seems that Lena’s social media life is taking off and she might even have a job on the horizon. As a result, she can’t be Room Mom for Milo’s class this year. When she tells Milo this, he acts indifferent about it. Martin steps in and offers to be the Room Dad instead since Lena can’t do it.

Excited about meeting Tamryn, Lena arrives at her house to find that she is on Tamryn’s live feed for their ‘meet-cute’. As Lena walks into the house, Tamryn introduces her to her daughter, Rabbit, and her pet rabbit, Pamela. Lena gets right to work as she begins coming up with ideas for the playroom, and she immediately lands the job.

Martin is in for a surprise when he gets to Milo’s classroom. He has a list of duties which include planning the 100 Days of School party. The teacher is insisting that the theme be Black Panther, even though Martin gives a few other suggestions. Something catches Martin’s eye when he sees one of Milo’s classmates bowing down to him. He gets the inclination that Milo may be a bully, which is confirmed when he confronts the child and he tells Martin that he is scared of Milo. When Martin confronts Milo about being a bully, he realizes that it goes far beyond the reach of the classroom.

Although it was Camille who suggested that Lena be more involved in social media, she is very unhappy about Lena’s obsession with Tamryn. Based on the sass Camille gives Lena about Tamryn, Lena concludes that Camille is just jealous. However, Camille says she is just worried that Tamryn will take advantage of Lena because she only cares about her social media reputation.

When Camille meets up with Lena again, she’s startled to see that Lena is talking and acting just like Tamryn. Ever since she became friends with Tamryn, Lena has gained followers on Instagram, but Camille points out that 5,000 of them were the ones she bought for her. Camille gets annoyed at Lena’s behavior and storms out of the house.

When Martin tries to talk to Milo’s teacher he realizes that she is convinced Milo is perfect. Not to mention she doesn’t even see Milo take money from one of the kids and refuses to believe that he could be bad. This prompts Martin to think that his teacher is in on whatever Milo has going on.

Lena learns the hard way that Camille is right about Tamryn when she asks Lena to blow up 900 balloons for Rabbit’s birthday party. She reluctantly agrees even after Tamryn denies her request to give an Instagram shoutout for her company.  

Confused as to what is going on with Milo, Martin asks Arthur (Bobby Lee) to help him out. They end up turning Milo’s room upside down and finding a bunch of money stashed in his stuffed turtle. When he confronts Milo about what he found, Martin finds out that Milo has an organization at school called Club Milo. Basically, people pay Milo to be his friend and he graces them with a seat at his lunch table and premiere members get a shirt with his face on it. It turns out that Milo got this idea from his siblings who he pays to be friends with him. Martin asks Mason (Van Crosby) and Mae (Olivia Keville) to return the money they got from Milo and he asks Milo to return all the money he took from kids in his class.

Lena shows up at Rabbit’s birthday party and finds out that Tamryn expects her to dress up as a clown. Annoyed and frustrated, Lena tells Tamryn that she only wants to be her designer, not her lackey. When Lena returns home, she finds that Martin is cooking dinner even though it is not his week. He fills her in on what has been happening with Milo and how he found all the money in his room.

Feeling bad about Camille, Lena goes over to her house to apologize for her behavior. She realizes that Tamryn was using her and that Camille was right, especially because the only Instagram followers she has left are the ones she bought for her. And just like that, Camille forgives Lena and the two go back to normal.