The first season of You’re the Worst comes to a close with the final episode: “Fists and Feet and Stuff.”  We saw everyone previously trying to do some growing-up, or something close to it.

Well, almost.  Jimmy tries to masturbate, but can’t get to completion…

Edgar is living out of a car…

Lindsay has become even more of a wreck that she’s day drinking and having a quickie with the postal worker…

But Gretchen is trying to get her life right, starting with her body.  She even goes jogging right after downing a vegetable shake.

And it’s not until her stomach starts rumbling and her guts go to shit that she realizes this may have been a bad idea.  Well, at least only the nearby gardener knows that she shit herself.  Women can apparently shit themselves.  Who knew?

However, what may bring the four together is an invite to Vernon and Becca’s barbeque.

At said barbecue, Becca wants everything to go off without a hitch, though Vernon is more concerned with his trash juice.  He’s hoping to get his friends in on this trash juice since they’re too busy being adults: one has a ton of kids and the other is a State Senator.  It’s imperative they get in on this trash juice, and I can’t say trash juice enough times.  Lindsay, meanwhile, tries to talk to Becca about her problems, but Becca doesn’t really give a shit about Becca’s cockaholism.

No.  Becca is more concerned with Jimmy, who is here looking for Gretchen.  It’s worth noting that Becca didn’t intend for either of them to come.  She calls her coming to his place a lapse of sanity, but Jimmy isn’t interested in giving her the time of day.

Lindsay certainly wants his time, though.  She tries hitting on Jimmy and even goes to kiss him, but then Gretchen enters the party and witnesses the drunken almost-kiss.  We’ll return to Jimmy in a moment.

When Lindsay corners Gretchen, the two clash.  Lindsay is still upset about Gretchen abandoning her and her needs, even when her only disease is that she doesn’t love her husband.  Gretchen, though, had to figure out her own shit.  She can’t do that while Lindsay sits on her shoulders like a stacked cartoon devil.  Gretchen spills about the proposal and Lindsay is livid about Jimmy’s decision.

Even still, Gretchen acknowledges that she may have had one foot out the door during this entire relationship.  Obviously.  There’s much more to this conversation that I’ll touch upon when discussing the episode as a whole.

Back outside, Edgar introduces Jimmy to his new English roommate…Jimmy is clearly skeptical that Edgar managed to find another Englishman in such a short amount of time so, in a moment I can’t help but laugh at, Jimmy quizzes the roommate on very specific topics, such as the Scotland situation, whether he lived in a dorm or apartment- instead of a flat- and how he feels about Coronation Street, which has been on the air since 1960, being canceled, when it isn’t.  The ruse works until the two can’t figure out where they’re living, which is in Little Nicaragua.  This is actually Tommy, the actor whom Edgar previously met at the veterans’ commemoration.

Lindsay tries to sweet-talk with Paul, but turns out that he saw her try to kiss Jimmy.  He saw her!  Paul hasn’t normally been all that assertive throughout the show’s run and it’s nice to see him stand up to Lindsay, but this isn’t his finest moment.  That comes in a bit.

Gretchen and Jimmy finally meet face to face for the first time since the break-up, but it’s Jimmy who ends up quickly apologizing for overstepping with Gretchen’s parents.  Huh.  How often do you get the guy saying he’s sorry first even when he knows that he’s the one in the wrong?  Anyway, Gretchen acknowledges the quick connection she and Jimmy share.  She found the whole idea crazy, but would be open to it down the line.  But then she realized that the two of them are like pit-bulls that nullify the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction.  So, after all this expectation, Gretchen’s answer is yes.

But Jimmy has absolutely no idea what Gretchen is talking about.  As it turns out, the engagement ring is the same one that Jimmy had intended for Becca, but after she shot him down, he was too embarrassed to return it.  Well, looks like Gretchen shitting herself is only the second most embarrassing to happen to her today.

Wait, there’s a party going on in this episode.  Vernon and Becca announce that they’re going to have a baby.  Happy day!

Lindsay, not wanting to be stood up and already on the verge of a breakdown, suddenly announces that she’s also having a baby…soon!  Paul, though, isn’t having this and admits that he’s having an emotional affair with a woman named Amy, whom he met in a home brew chat.  Naturally.  Paul wants to begin the process of conscious uncoupling with Lindsay, which is probably the nicest way a man can ask for a divorce.

Oh, but Lindsay isn’t done yet.  She attacks Becca’s so-called perfect marriage when she tried to bang Jimmy.  Though Jimmy clarifies that Becca tried to kiss him and he turned her down, Lindsay then blabs that Jimmy went over to Becca’s place and tried to kiss her.  The woman just cannot stop talking.  But Vernon is irked by the revelation that his forever friend would do this, even though Jimmy barely knows him.  No matter, Jimmy can get to know Vernon’s episodes titles-I mean, his fists and feet and stuff.

Before Jimmy shows up at Gretchen’s, it’s worth noting that Gretchen ends up starting a very tiny electrical fire with her vibrator, but she just covers it up with a pillow.  She does not put it out…

When Jimmy does arrive, he admits that yes, he did choose Becca at one time and it was a stupid choice, but still a choice nonetheless.  He wants to be Gretchen’s couch buddy and offers her a key to move in- for real this time- but she smacks it away like it’s poisonous to the touch.  No.  Gretchen calls this a bullshit offer and thinks that it’s just a Hail Mary since Jimmy knew he would lose her for good, but Jimmy did intend to give her the key earlier.

His entire life has been a sad one, but she managed to floor him.  Even still, Gretchen doesn’t want to move in…yet.

Unfortunately, the two then realize that, yeah, there’s a fire, so looks like Gretchen will be moving in after all.

The season comes to a close with our Edgar, Gretchen, and, presumably, Lindsay moving into Jimmy’s place.  Will this be for the best?  Who knows?  But that, my friends, is “Fists and Feet and Stuff.”  This episode also feels like a midlife crisis episode, but also the adult conversation episode.  Granted, almost every conversation on the show feels adult, but here it’s more in terms of our four main characters growing up and accepting some responsibility in their lives.

And it’s not that it’s too late for them to do so because no one’s demanding that they grow up.  It’s easier to just coast through life without a care and try to mask your fear of becoming an adult.  However, you do eventually realize that adulthood is your future.  And that’s what scares people like Lindsay and Gretchen, who realize with horror that maybe trying and buying-in is worth considering.  It’s a scary realization because they’ll have to put effort into living instead of just going along for the ride.

So here, the characters re-examine their life decisions because they need to get their shit together.  It’s not something they can force or even want to happen, but they are willing to give it a shot.  This feels like a natural progression for them throughout the show’s progression and I like how they don’t just willingly go along with it.  They still want to live that carefree life, but that comes with some responsibility.

More than that, they come to the realization that they can’t outrun the so-called ordinary lives forever.  You’ll get tired of running at some point.  Also, side-note, Lindsay thinks that this sudden realization makes her and Gretchen feminists instead of their fear of their problems.  This woman makes some of the strangest connections.

The conventions of traditional relationships and love in general are still turned on their head for this season finale.  Jimmy gives a heartfelt speech to Gretchen about how his entire life he’s dealt with loneliness and suffering, but the worst draft of his life as a writer is the one without Gretchen.  It’s cheesy, but I got the feeling that Jimmy meant every word of it.  Instead of being instantly bowled over, Gretchen calls this a ploy and still refuses to move in, despite Jimmy’s good intentions.

In addition, there’s a lot of buildup to Gretchen accepting Jimmy’s presumed proposal.  Rather than them both saying yes and living happily ever after, only Jimmy knew that the ring was set for Becca.  The sudden shock on his face when he realizes Gretchen’s error is priceless.

Also, Jimmy isn’t willing to put up with any other woman’s crap if she isn’t Gretchen.  He refuses to go along with Lindsay’s drunken antics and he puts down Becca when she tries to make up for her advances, even going as far as calling her feet repulsive.  This is a man who is cynical to the end, but Gretchen is the one woman able to go toe-to-toe with him.

One of the more tender moments of the episode is when Jimmy and Gretchen make up not because it’s sweet, but because they seem so depressed that they’re actually getting together.  This is something they’ve denied and fought against for so long, slowly got drawn into it, and now that they have it, the thought of their future fills them with dread and misery.  I assume that most couples would normally look forward to a happy life together, but these two don’t even want to imagine it.

Gretchen even says with disgust in her voice that she and Jimmy are inviting a horrible life of sadness and pain that can only end badly, and that may be true, but, like Jimmy with Becca, they’re at least making a choice, which is a sign that they’re growing up because they aren’t wavering on indecision.

I also like the fact that, instead of a quick reconciliation, Gretchen still resists the idea of moving in with Jimmy.  When it comes to affairs of the heart, she’s been more resistant, I think, and despite Jimmy’s good intentions, she won’t just throw caution to the wind and commit to a life where the future holds nothing but sadness.  It’s not that simple.  But they make gradual changes.

They even return the cat to the book store.

Also, I am glad that Jimmy and Edgar reconciled, but it was a bit too fast.  It seemed to only happen because he learned about Edgar’s living situation.  Right now, they look to be back to the status quo, as Edgar probably wouldn’t be able to afford the $1200 a month for his room.  Plus, at the very least, it looks like he has Lindsay.

And that’s how I’ll transition over to Lindsay, who is a train wreck despite doing a pretty good cover of Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work.”  She has that adult life that the others detest, but she squanders it by cheating on Paul and having random flings.  She’s needy and always has to satisfy her lust.  Hell, when Gretchen tries to leave the party, the only reason she stays is because Lindsay threatens to start sucking random guy’s dicks.  Like trying to do cocaine off of her breasts, it’s both a funny and sad moment.

Lindsay is the kind of person who would never be happy because she’s constantly comparing her life to others.  She’s unhappy because she’s both the sidekick and less glamorous than Becca.  She tries to one-up her by announcing her own false pregnancy, which only incenses Paul even more and hastens their divorce.  She wanted the stress-free relationship that Jimmy and Gretchen had, but when she dives into random sex flings, she’s still not happy.  She just continues down a self-destructive path.

But at least she isn’t Becca, who is as unlikable as the others, but somehow manages to make herself even worse by coming off like a pompous asshole.  She tells Lindsay to her face that she doesn’t care about her problems- given Lindsay’s state, that’s not entirely a bad thing, though- she tries to justify her advances on Jimmy, and when her party doesn’t go as perfect as she wanted, she flips out on her guests.  Also, she used the word hashtag in a sentence as if she spoke in Twitter language.  Just why?

Creator Stephen Falk fleshes out what could have been a by-the-number romantic comedy and adds weight and depth to a group of cynics who don’t know what they want in their lives. Given the strength of the performances and the no-holds bar approach it takes to relationships and love in general, You’re the Worst is one of the more memorable shows that I watched in 2014.  Despite their cynicism, Jimmy and Gretchen do come off as relatable because they don’t handle their problems in conventional ways.  Hell, I think it’s how unconventional this show is at times that made me such a fan of it.  This first season was one of the funniest and well-written batches of episodes that I’ve seen in quite some time.

I’m not a doctor, Jim, but whether you’re into romantic comedies, comedies in general, going through relationship issues, or just want a breath of fresh air when it comes to television shows tackling the subject of love, with wit and sarcasm sprinkled on top, I highly recommend FX’s You’re the Worst.  Here’s looking forward to Season Two.