Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist – Zoey’s Extraordinary Return

By: Madison Ruby

The episode begins with Zoey (Jane Levy) laying in bed as she hears Mo (Alex Newell) singing “Rise Up” by Andra Day. Zoey’s not just hearing Mo sing, but instead she is singing right there to her. It turns out it is Zoey’s first day returning back to work after the passing of her father, Mitch (Peter Gallagher). She has barely interacted with anyone in the past six weeks following his death, even though both of her last season love interests Simon (John Clarence Stewart) and Max (Skylar Astin) have tried.

Zoey hasn’t heard a “heart” song since the passing of her father, which she expresses concern about to Mo. She then meets up with Max who gives her a golden ring with a musical note on it to offer her extra strength. Max is still unemployed since being fired from SPRQ Point, but he is working on a secret project. Zoey arrives to work and begins hearing music… a sign her “power” is returning. Her co-workers then surround her singing “Hello, Dolly” by Jerry Herman to welcome her back. After the performance Zoey meets George (Harvey Guillén) the “new Max” who has been looking forward to Zoey being back, even though he has never met her.

During Zoey’s absence a lot has changed at SPRQ Point. Leif (Michael Thomas Grant) has taken over her role while she was gone, hired George, brought pet dogs in and informed Zoey there are no more bars because they are broke. As she goes to see her boss, Joan (Lauren Graham), she informs her she wants Zoey to move to the fourth floor as the executive manager, but Zoey was looking to ease back into work.

At the family home Zoey’s mother Maggie (Mary Steenburgen) is dealing with the bank asking her to provide Mitch’s account password and Emily (Alice Lee) is struggling with being a new mother to her and Zoey’s brother David’s (Andrew Leeds) baby.

After work Zoey finds out that Max, Simon and Mo have been hanging out quite often and even going on trips together. Zoey being MIA has brought the three of them closer together. Zoey isn’t sure how she feels about everything. Simon and Max both then let her know they don’t want to compete for her because she isn’t a prize, just as Jet’s song “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” sung by the two guys plays in Zoey’s mind. It is all too much for her and she leaves. The three of them continue to hang out and discuss that they all want different types of food for dinner. This leads Max to have an idea about a business.

Zoey comes home to find Maggie drowning in paperwork trying to find Mitch’s email information. Zoey reminds Maggie she is a professional coder and finds it easily. Next to the financials folder she finds one that is labeled “Testimonials” that contains three videos from her father. They begin to watch the one labeled “Zoey” alongside Emily and David. They realize Mitch made videos for his children and wife before he lost his ability to speak. He is struggling to speak in the videos and watching them proves to be too hard on the family as they are still grieving.

Zoey is back at work again and to her dismay, everyone keeps asking her if she is okay. She begins to hear another song and it is George performing “Don’t Cry Out Loud” by Melissa Manchester begins. He is jealous that all his other coworkers are so friendly with each other and that Tobin (Kapil Talwalkar) hazes him. Zoey stops and screams out loud saying she can’t take it anymore and runs out. Joan comes to visit her at home saying she is sorry for pushing her to take a promotion, but she wants her successor to be in place before she leaves to take a promotion in Singapore.

Max goes to Mo’s apartment because he wants to brainstorm the idea of a restaurant that serves food from other restaurants and thinks him and Mo could be successful partners with her creativeness and his tech background.

David is watching the videos of Mitch and stumbles across the one he made for Maggie. He filmed the video on one of his “good” days where he wasn’t struggling to speak. He tells Maggie he loves her and lets everyone else know they have to move on with their lives and cherish their memories instead of grieving over them.

Emily, Maggie and David begin singing “Carry On” by fun as the moment builds brighter and more optimistic of the future. Zoey goes into work and lets Leif know she will be taking over the fourth floor and she is now his boss, with him staying in his temporary role. She then tells Tobin he needs to be nice to George and that this is a kind workplace. George later approaches Zoey and gives her a hug, as it meant a lot to him that she stood up to Tobin because many people wouldn’t do that.

In the last few scenes Max and Mo are working together. George interacts with Leif and Tobin. Maggie holds her grandson more and Zoey enters and embraces her new office and role.

Max comes over to see Zoey because he wants to talk about the new business idea he has going on with Mo. He wants to make sure Zoey is okay with it because Mo was her friend first. Moving past that, Zoey brings up how she knows they have yet to talk about what happened between them. As Max wants for her thoughts on what she wants from him in terms of a relationship she kisses him.