Splitting Up Together – Melancholicky

By: Ariba Bhuvad

A family meeting takes place to talk about Lisa (Monica Barbaro) and Martin’s (Oliver Hudson) baby, who Mae (Olivia Keville) found out about in last week’s episode. Mason (Van Crosby) and Milo (Sander Thomas) are curious to know about the baby and how Martin is not in trouble for having one with Lisa. Lena (Jenna Fischer) reminds them that Martin and Lena were not together at the time this happened. Milo wants to clarify if this means that Martin put his “P” in Lisa’s “V.” Kids say the darnedest things, don’t they?

As the conversation veers towards getting super awkward, Mae leaves to go to school because she has a college fair. Lena is surprised to learn that this is happening and asks Mae if she can come too. After the kids head out for the day Martin asks Lena if Lisa has said anything about him being able to see Annie. Because of all the stress and financial troubles Lena says that Lisa needs some time to figure it out. If she doesn’t, Lisa will likely have to move in with her parents and take Annie far away from them. Mason overhears their conversation and has a look of sadness over his baby sister’s current situation. Despite everything, Martin is tired of waiting and wants to see Annie. Lena promises to talk to Lisa about it on Martin’s behalf.

Overwhelmed with everything, Lena vents to Maya (Diane Farr) about how she’s in the middle of everything. It is her fault though so she must learn to live with it. Unsure if she’s supposed to respond, Maya just listens because she’s super pregnant and feels miserable. While talking to Lena we see Maya start having pain and momentarily Lena thinks Maya is going into labor. But, once again, it’s a false alarm – one of many that Maya has already had. Maya has decided that she won’t go to the hospital until she sees a foot and concerned Lena reminds her that a baby comes out headfirst.

In conversation with Mae we see Mason tell her that he is super worried about Annie and doesn’t want her to leave. He thinks they should find a way to raise money and have a Crowdfund. Mae is not very interested and doesn’t feel like helping because she thinks it is super irresponsible to bring a baby into this world in the first place.

Needing Lena’s help, Lisa meets her at the park to ask if she can watch Annie for a few hours. She has a big interview and doesn’t want to miss it. Lena asks Lisa if it’s okay to take Annie to her house so she can meet Martin and the kids. With some hesitation Lisa agrees to let her and starts crying because she’s just been feeling overwhelmed lately. Excited to have the baby Lena calls Martin to tell him to come home STAT! When he gets home and sees Annie, he can’t help but smile and be filled with joy. Lena decides to go visit Mae at the college fair and leaves Martin alone with Annie despite his concerns about Lisa coming and finding him alone with the baby. To solve this issue once and for all, Lena thinks that he should just try talking to her. Later, when Mason and Milo come home, Mason is super excited to see his baby sister while Milo is a bit indifferent and odd towards her. In fact, he stands in front of a mirror and tells himself that he is still the cutest one and everyone loves him.

At the college fair Mae is surprised to see Lena there who is surprised to learn that Mae wants to go to schools in New York City. In an effort to discourage her, Lena starts talking about how there are cockroaches there. One of the college recruiters starts talking about empty nest and Mae makes a sarcastic comment about how her parents keep repopulating it. It turns out that Mae is completely okay when Lena pulls her outside to talk to her, and it’s Lena that needs to get her emotions in check.

In an attempt to help Lisa out Mason makes a slideshow to go with the Crowdfund, but it hasn’t raised any money. Milo says it is because the slideshow isn’t sad enough and he needs to appeal to people’s emotions to get their money. And as Mason tries to work on the slideshow, Martin is head over heels for Annie as he dances around with her and sings to her. Lisa shows up and sees him having a good time, but snaps out of it and takes Annie away. Martin tries to give her advice about Annie being colicky and how to hold her so it’ll help. Lisa breaks out in tears while he does this and reveals that she got the job. Martin asks her why she’s crying and she tells him that she’ll be too busy and won’t get enough time with Annie but they need the money. Martin offers to help and says that it’s his job too, but Lisa isn’t too pleased to hear this. She thinks that he’s just trying to have pity on her.

Mason tries to make another slideshow, but this time it’s quite offensive and full of lies. In an effort to make it sadder he uses Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel” for the background music and makes Lisa look really sad and pathetic. Martin tries to put a stop to it and tells Mason to go be a teenager and not worry about this. But Mason is worried that if Annie moves away then they’ll miss all her firsts.

While talking to Maya about how she’s obsessed with Mae while Martin is obsessed with Mae we see Mae come in to ask for her social security number. She is filling out an application for Northwestern much to Lena’s surprise. Meanwhile, Martin makes one last-ditch effort to convince Lisa to let him help. He rings the doorbell and an angry Lisa comes out saying she just put Annie to bed. Even though she doesn’t want financial support, Martin says that he wants to help in some other way because he wants to be around Annie. He doesn’t think she needs to leave to be with family because all her family is right here. Speaking of last-ditch efforts, Mason meets a man at Quizno’s and decides to let him sublet the garage so they can make some extra cash for Annie. Lena’s thoughts? Hell no.