Being Erica recap, episode 10: wherein Erica neglects to wash her hands after peeing (and Jenny returns!)

Being Erica recap, episode 10: wherein Erica neglects to wash her hands after peeing (and Jenny returns!)

BEING ERICA Episode 10

This week, we open on Adam bursting into the bathroom to brush his teeth as Erica is mid-pee. She screeches at him to leave, and he says she’s just going to have to “smoke him out.” Oh, gross. And it gets grosser: Erica decides that flirting with Adam pre-empts either cleaning herself off or washing her hands, so she scoots after him and they start wrestling on the couch. Everyone knows that you don’t walk in on someone while they’re peeing, Erica says, and Adam responds with this week’s lesson: that’s Erica’s rule, not his—she shouldn’t hold everyone else to her standards. Find out what else the typically self-involved Erica Strange got up to in our recap after the jump.

That is not Erica’s rule. That is society’s rule. That is why bathroom doors have locks, and if any old guy can just come on in while we’re peeing, what’s next? Anarchy? Anyway, it’s also Erica’s birthday, and Adam gives her a spa gift certificate (a good scrub would do Erica some good), which they decide to use later that day (because Erica seemingly never works). Cut to Julianne and Brent, practising how they’re going to tell Erica they’re an item. Luckily, she walks in on them kissing and spares them the trouble, and of course she’s very indignant that they didn’t tell her about their torrid affair, even though it has absolutely nothing to do with her. But, surprise, in typical Erica fashion, she decides to be passive-aggressive about it, because everything in the history of the world has Erica at the centre (she’s also the Caramilk secret). When it comes time to choose the cover for Jay Manuel’s memoir (sometimes we can’t believe these sentences are real), Brent sides with Julianne and Erica stomps out in a huff, because a 10-minute discussion passes for work these days.

Later, at Erica’s 35th birthday party, she goes off on Julianne for dating Brent without telling her, landing her a session with Dr. Tom. It’s an unwritten rule that you don’t date your employees, she says, which prompts Dr. Tom to spout his usual cryptic nonsense: “You’re not your patient.” Shockingly, a confused Erica whines, “Listen, just a few episodes ago you said that I am my patient,” leading Dr. Tom to roll his eyes along with the rest of Canada. At this point, Dr. T reminds her of the time she ditched her family’s Purim party when she was 16 and how her grandfather (Zaidi) died a few months later (for the uninitiated, Purim is like a Jewish cross between Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day. It’s awesome). That means it’s time-travel time: Erica and Jenny (sporting a fetching furry jacket and an acid-washed mini) are about to sneak out the window when Mr. Strange stops them and forces them to head down to the Purim party.

Zaidi gives Erica a picture book about Purim and gives 14-year-old Sam (dressed like Mordecai, complete with beard) a stuffed unicorn. The sisters kvetch that their grandfather treats them like little kids and, to kick things up a notch, Sam steals some booze and gets hammered. During the Purim play, Sam reels into the room and starts slurring so Zaidi knows she’s good and drunk, and Erica makes a penis joke. That will show your kindly old grandfather. Zaidi, appalled, gives Mr. Strange a talking-to about how he should have raised his kids better. As Erica eavesdrops, she realizes that he’s holding his son to impossible standards, just like she is with Julianne. She explains this to him and he has a total change of heart in 30 seconds, because that is the power of Erica Strange (her hair is pretty shiny).

Back at the party, Erica forgives Julianne (even though, from where we’re sitting, it should be the other way around). And then in comes Jenny—we know Jenny is serious now because her hair has been straightened and she works as a real estate agent. Erica and Jenny hug and make up and all is right with the world. Except it’s not, because Amanda has convinced Dr. Tom to quit his practice. When he tells Dr. Naadiah, she drops the clincher: after Dr. Tom quits, he’ll never be able to see his patients again. Dun dun dun!

Being Erica #OhBrothers and #Wins

• Jay Manuel’s book, A Tattered Rose, is supposed to be 50/50’s big debut. We see a Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction in its future. #OhBrother

• We missed Jenny, because she says things like, “Zaidi is like Fiddler on the Roof gone postal!” and “This sucks donkeys.” #Win

• Julianne calls herself and Brent “Brulianne.” #OhBrother

• Hey Erica, having your birthday at Goblins is like having it at a particularly nice Urbana Coffee franchise. #OhBrother

• The show went all out with its Purim details: noisemakers, hamantaschen, family-induced guilt. #Win

• Adam rejects a wax treatment on his delicate parts. The show deserves all the credit in the world for not subjecting us to that slapstick nightmare. #Win

• “Julianne’s personal life is now affecting my professional life,” says Erica, also known as the worst friend in the world. #OhBrother