Cougar Town ‘Down South’: See You On The Flip

The writers of Cougar Town have toyed with the idea of a Laurie/Travis pairing since the show was in its infant stages, and Travis was a nerdy, pale-skinned high-schooler. It’s been an ace in their pocket, a long, winding will they/won’t they arc the show can pick up and put down as it sees fit, but always keeping this feeling under the surface that there is one clear direction this show is heading, and that’s with the two of them together. ‘Down South’ separates Travis and Laurie from the group for the large majority of the episode, exploring their current emotional situation and how it fits into their potential planning.

We’ll get to their part of the plot, but in honesty, it was the scenes with the other four members of the Cul-De-Sac Crew that were the highlights of the episode, as the gang hunkered down together as a hurricane made its way up the east coast. By putting the Grayson/Jules wedding on the sideline (again) with Andy’s new mayoral campaign, most of ‘Down South’ is concerned with game-playing and conversations about possible Laurie/Travis pairings. Sometimes the gang of Cougar Town is the most fun to watch when they’re not actually doing anything plot-related, just sitting around, egging on each other and talking about everything from bar closing lines to silly Perfect Storm re-enactments. There isn’t a show on TV that does ‘hanging out’ better than Cougar Town, hands down.

But with the always looming possibility of cancellation in this long-delayed, shortened season, there has to be some kind of stakes, and it appears Laurie and Travis may be among them. And for me, it doesn’t really work, especially in the context of their interactions this episode, which stem from Laurie’s emotional response to her military boyfriend Wade taking another year long tour overseas. In fact, ever since Laurie’s kind of manipulation of him in last season’s Hawaii-soaked finale, I’ve been hoping they would stay away from this possible relationship.

First of all, the show’s made it really clear that Laurie isn’t attracted to people like Travis – as much as she says ‘I wish there were more guys like you’ (which she’s said at least a half-dozen times in the show’s run) it merely feels like a ruse for Laurie to keep someone infatuated with her, so she always has an emotional crutch to lean on. But more importantly, she’s a wild, outspoken woman, and clearly way too much of a woman for Travis to handle, based on the past relationships he’s had.

So shouldn’t this set them up as perfect foils for each other? Travis: smart and quiet, Laurie: loud and stupid… match made in heaven, right? But ‘Down South’ doesn’t set this up as a relationship dynamic, instead making Travis panting and pathetic, and making Laurie willfully ignorant of the heart-wrenching situations she keeps putting Travis in. I didn’t find her lines about them ‘being the last two people in the world’ a cute way to reveal possible feelings for him: it just felt like another manipulation by Laurie to string along Travis to fill a void she really wants Wade to fill.

It all leads to a terribly awkward – but somehow fitting for the characters – scene in the end, where Travis tapes an iPad to his face so Laurie can ‘touch’ Wade while she talks to him. It’s believable because Travis is that pathetic, and has shown through three seasons that he has no balls whatsoever, and it also works for Laurie because well, what else has she used Travis for? The only time she shows attraction to him is when shes in the midst of a rebound or a master plan to get him home, and in all honesty, I can totally buy her non-attraction to the man-child that is Travis.

(Honestly, who would want to date someone like him with a mother like Jules?)

But enough analyzing those two: I just cringe when I think about an ‘aawwwww, isn’t that cute’ moment between them that’s bound to happen down the road at some point. There’s been too much time teasing them to just back away from it now, an unfortunate example of sitcom writers backing themselves into a corner – and according to interviews with Bill Lawrence, Travis/Laurie is the most contentious relationship in the writer’s room, so now they’re starting to struggle with the realities of the situation.

I’ve spent the entire interview on the plausibility of Travis/Laurie, so there isn’t much time left to talk about how the rest of the group reacts. It’s all very predictable fare: Grayson could care less, Jules is freaking out, and Andy the romantic, supports it. They do spend a lot of time kicking the idea around, and it’s a slighty-buttoned down Bobby (still recovering from his own break-up) who provides some moral grounding by reminding everyone that happiness is relative, and what makes someone else happy might not be the same for them. Overall, a solid episode, if not a little off-putting in how Laurie/Travis is progressing.

Grade: B

Other thoughts/observations:

– Buttball might be the weirdest game ever.

– Grayson’s whole ‘bar closing’ line was entertaining, but felt like a sidebar… and another bad origin story (to match with Ellie’s nickname for Laurie). He bought a bar just to close it? I feel like Grayson bought a bar so he could play Sam Malone when he wasn’t home with the wife.

– Grayson’s glasses… ha!

– I question Jules knowledge of the line “This is a pissah” from The Perfect Storm, but she kills the delivery of it.

– Dale is dead…. and Abed had no idea Cougar Town was back on? What kind of world do we live in!!!

What did you think of ‘Down South’?