I suppose it was only a matter of time. We get a sort of surprise confrontation and family drama all centered around Hank’s past. The issue of having two families stems from something he either said or did, but little is actually resolved. Other events help push the plot forward a bit, but not by much.

Like last week, the episode comprised of shenanigans we’re used to from Californication, but at least the writers had the restraint to keep the cast size to a minimum.

The episode begins with Hank, Levon and Julia watching the pilot for Santa Monica Cop. Well, Levon and Julia are watching it. Hank’s asleep. He wakes up just in time for the ending, and neither Levon nor Julia are fans. Maybe the episode Hank wrote will be better. Levon decides to call it a night, leaving Julia to advance on Hank since they haven’t been alone together in a long time. Well, maybe if Julia hadn’t randomly popped by last week, there would have been time for that later.

But the two head to Julia’s room. Before things can get steamy, Levon enters with his blanket. He’s worried about his future since he believes the show will be axed. To alleviate his fears, he asks his mother if he can sleep in the annex. Where is this annex?

It’s right next to the bed. So no sex tonight, Hank. Probably for the best.

The next morning, on the Santa Monica Cop set, Rath assembles the team with some bad news: they’ve been canceled. Technically, they’re only being asked to shut down production and go on hiatus, which is just the nice way of saying canceled, let’s just admit that. While production has been a pain in the ass, at least it’s been a short pain in the ass. Savor the little things, you know. But Rath tells everyone to appreciate what you have while you have it. He’ll be in his office drinking if people want to stop by and say goodbye.

Charlie receives the bad news from Hank, but he remembers that Marcy still has to fuck Stu. As the man of the house, Charlie is upset that he can’t provide for his family. However, it’s Marcy’s turn to provide, even if that means spreading her legs. Marcy has a proposition: if she has to fuck Stu, Charlie should be able to go out and fuck any woman that he wants, as long as Marcy doesn’t know about it. Soon, Charlie is hard and Marcy is wet. It goes without saying that they’re sick people, but they take advantage of this opportunity and bone.

Hank enters Rath’s office to find his boss strumming a guitar. Rath isn’t too bummed out about the cancelation. Television is what he does best. He figures the studio will make a deal where he’ll be asked to help save another disaster or write another pilot. But he doesn’t think Hank should work on another show since it’d be a waste of his ability. No. Rath thinks that Hank should write his own show about his life, family and the women he’s encountered. Getting very meta, Californication.

Charlie sets Marcy’s idea into motion to bone a random woman. He finds a pretty young thing by the name of Lisa, played by Cerina Vincent, better known as Mya from Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. Charlie’s nervousness goes away when the two start drinking together. Despite wearing a wedding ring, Charlie tells Lisa that he has an arrangement. As a liaison, he would do many things to Lisa in a hotel room.

No kissing, though. Lisa doesn’t think that’s hot. Instead, Charlie will start with fondling in order to get a sense of her ass. After that, he’d stick his cock in her mouth. Good, since Lisa likes it dirty. After that, Charlie may even wrap the phone cord around Lisa’s neck. For a public demonstration, Charlie pulls Lisa toward him and demonstrates how he would go in circles, which keeps him in the game longer.

So when Lisa’s boyfriend, Mark, played by Scott Anthony Leet, returns, he shows Charlie what he would do to him in a hotel room: punch him in the face. You could’ve warned him, Krull!

At House Runkle, Levon arrives for pizza and movie night. Hank, emerging from the shower, should probably just have this night at Levon’s own place instead of a place where he doesn’t even live. Whatever. He does have some good news: Rath plans to keep Levon on for as long as he can. After that, he’ll have to find a job on his own. He can’t just luck into one. When Hank goes to get ready, Levon accidentally knocks over a glass. Before he can contend to it, the doorbell rings. Thinking it’s his mother, Levon rushes to answer it, but surprise-surprise.

Becca has returned. Needless to say she’s thrown by the fact this stranger knows so much about her, yet she’s never seen or heard of him at all. It also doesn’t help that Levon thinks that Becca is much hotter than the pictures. Please don’t whip out your cock, Levon. Karen’s parking the car, so you can already sense a fun conversation approaching.

Hank emerges and enjoys the reunion with his daughter, who lets him know that she’s got big news. Good to know, so does Hank! And that’s the perfect time for Julia to enter and tell Becca that she should be excited to meet her brother. Gonna be a long night.

Marcy arrives at Stu’s, and both he and Irma are more excited about this endeavor than Marcy will ever be. Stu lets Marcy know that the offer still stands, so she signs a contract that she doesn’t bother to fully read and the deal is done. Why does no one ever read the contract? So Marcy wants to just get it over with, but Stu’s head isn’t in the game. He needs time to prepare. Marcy won’t wax him, so that window is closed.

When Marcy leaves, we see that Stu has a mannequin that he uses for practice. Can’t say I’m surprised. I mean, Irma seems available, and I can’t imagine Stu not wanting to have sex with his maid.

Back at the Runkle household, Becca learns that her father impregnated a woman right before he met Karen, who he them impregnated. She’s not too surprised, given the story of her life. Karen and Julia speculate whether Hank slept with both of them at the same time. That’s not impossible. Oh, Becca isn’t a fan of Levon referring to Hank as his father.

Hank, caught between two sides, leans toward Becca, prompting Levon to call himself and Julia the dirty one-night stand of families. Well, you both did just appear.

But onto Becca’s good news. Her trip was amazing, but more than that, she’s getting married! Roscoe popped the question and Becca accepted.

Hank doesn’t accept that. And now, being the protective father, he tells Becca that it won’t happen. Smooth move, Hank. The night comes to a close with Becca wanting to go home, wherever that is.

Later on, Hank heads to Karen’s and joins Becca on the roof. Becca isn’t angry about Levon. She’d like to get to know him and is glad she’s no longer an only child. A mature way to handle this, as Hank correctly points out that Becca has always been the mature one in the family. Becca wants no condescension. After all, she’s not giving him any about his long list of chronic fuck-ups.

Hank insists that the marriage is a bad idea because Becca is young, but honestly, can he say he’s happy that he never got married? But what if Becca doesn’t know what she’s getting into? What if Roscoe turns out to be the one? Becca isn’t concerned about that. After all, Hank loves to talk about how he got it right with Karen. Becca is just going with her gut. Hank, in good conscience, cannot endorse Becca’s big move, which is pretty fucked up, considering everything Becca has had to swallow. Her good news has been wrecked by his past coming up to haunt him.

At this point, Hank doesn’t know what to say. He says he’s sorry, but Becca just tells her father that the marriage will be in New York and he can be a part of it, if he wants to be. But damn it, she came with good news and she won’t allow him to make her miserable.

End episode.

To sum up this episode, it dealt with going after your true desires in spite of the potential consequences. We saw this play out with Charlie and Becca, above all others. More than that, the episode acknowledged how unprepared we are for what could be life changing decisions. These characters have been asked to swallow and stomach so much misfortune, so they may feel they deserve a bit of happiness. In Becca’s case, she feels she’s ready to take on more responsibility.

Hank’s line about how a morning of awkwardness is far better than a night of loneliness sums up his life to a tee. But I’m better a night of loneliness would have been preferable to the awkward situation he found himself in with this episode. Despite one fucked up circumstance, we can still emerge from it as a better person because we took the plunge and decided to act on our gut instinct, something that Hank knows all about. And not only has it caught up to him, it spoiled his daughter’s good news.

Rath had it right when he told Hank that he should write his own show. Throughout the series, we’ve heard characters say that Hank has untapped potential, but he squanders it. Hank can’t just focus on one thing, as we see through his two families. But, as Karen points out, he doesn’t get to wallow in his own pity.

I feel Hank is being very unfair to Becca. It’s ridiculous of him to pass judgment on her decision to get married, considering all that she’s had to endure. For Hank’s talk about wanting to prove he’s grown up, this felt like a step backwards for him. He’s tried to worm his way out of so many situations, but he did seem to have real regret in his voice when Becca called him out for all of his crap.

And I am glad to see Becca back. While Hank believes that Karen centers him, I believe that Becca grounds him. She’s more willing to call him out on his crap than Karen, I think, because Karen eventually is charmed over by Hank trying to woo her. But Hank’s not trying to woo Becca. Her reaction to Julia and Levon was what I expected. It’s almost as if she’s become numb to her father’s actions, but she handles it with maturity. She never raises her voice, loses her temper or becomes unreasonable. She behaves like a rational adult, and that shows through Madeleine Martin’s performance.

I like how Becca has never been afraid to call out her own father because of the bad example he’s continued to set. And she has a good point: she’s had to put up with her mother and father’s bickering for years. Becca has seen some pretty sick shit. Let’s not forget the naked woman with no hair on her vagina that she found in Hank’s bed. Stuff like that you can’t just ignore. And Becca couldn’t- it’s been right in front of her.

She deserves a shot at happiness and it’s not asking Hank much of anything to have some faith in her. Becca has matured into a young woman who is ready to take on the real world and fend without the help of her parents, and she’s not showing any signs of hesitation. It may be foolish and reckless, but that will be her decision. If you ask me, Becca earned this chance a long time ago.

There were some moments in this episode, most of which come from Charlie and Marcy trying their luck with different partners. Charlie probably shouldn’t have been so open with a woman that he just met, but hey, any woman that’s not Goldie is an upgrade in my book.

And Stu fucking a mannequin? Yeah, not too surprised by that one.

If I could define this episode in a word, it would be “awkward.” We got some uncomfortable situations with the characters realizing that their actions don’t produce the desired reaction. What should have been a joyous occasion had been dampened by Hank Moody’s past yet again. Becca going with her gut was a good move for her, and I’m happy she’s not allowing her father to guilt or talk her out of it. Once again, the characters acknowledge how flawed they are, which is fine. However, this is something we’ve known for a long time. After so many years, and with only one episode left, I’d like to see them grow up.