I’ve talked at length over the past three summers about the value of Two Guys and a Girl‘s ability – and willingness – to let go; season two saw entire characters and stories abandoned as the series shifted away from being a story about frat boys hanging out, and season three’s opening chapter marked the show’s largest creative shift away from the tenants of its first two seasons. Two Guys and a Girl was a series that never looked in the rearview mirror (often for better, occasionally for worse), and “Au Revoir, Pizza Place” is one of the finest examples of that, a terrific episode that resets the show’s creative identity, as Berg and audience alike bid a hilarious, and even slightly emotional, farewell to Beacon Street Pizza.
More impressively is how nonchalant Two Guys and a Girl is about this; with Sharon running around screaming “engaged… in theory!” around every corner while Pete’s new French girlfriend acclimates herself to Boston, “Au Revoir, Pizza Place” has plenty of other plots to fill time with besides Berg’s sudden identity crisis, as he finds himself the only adult left working at the (formerly) eponymous pizza shop, and his co-workers now include people named Germ who skateboard in empty pools. Despite the final scene of the episode featuring fully nude cameos from Blink-182 (performing “What’s My Age Again”, a true classic and one of the late 90’s anthems that bridges generation X and millennials).
It would be easy for Two Guys and a Girl to make a big show of saying goodbye to the pizza place – but in reality, Two Guys and a Girl had mostly left the pizza place behind in the second half of season two, especially as the series shifting to be a show of romantic and internal tensions, rather than strictly existing as a hangout comedy with some light serialized elements (most of which, in the early days, really only centered around Pete’s personal and professional conflicts). So while “Au Revoir, Pizza Place” is a momentous episode of the series – one where Berg goes out of his way to avoid a loud party, as opposed to say, season one’s “Two Guys, a Girl and a Party” – there’s no discernable ripple effect on the surface of the episode when Berg bids adieu to the pizza place, quitting and leaving its fate in the hands of Germ (who immediately asks to come in late the next day, of course).
Part of the reason “Au Revoir, Pizza Place” doesn’t spend a lot of time reflecting, is that it doesn’t really have any, needing to extricate itself from the messy Pete/Sharon corner it backed itself into at the end of season two. Though its devices may be a bit inelegant – Pete’s French girlfriend turns out to be a virulent racist, and Sharon basically forces herself into accepting Johnny’s proposal beyond the theoretical – but it sticks the landing with a touching scene between the two, where they indirectly address their feelings for each other (speaking in the third person), with both admitting that they probably would’ve blown up their lives for something that wouldn’t have ultimately worked out.
It puts a coda on their story without completely cutting out the reality of their obvious, shared affection for each other; it’s a tight rope to walk, but one I think “Au Revoir, Pizza Place” does surprisingly well, able to thread a needle of making their resolution believable, while also still leaving a realistic door open for the series to return to the love triangle down the road, without it automatically feeling cheap or repetitive. Pete and Sharon never admit their feelings for each other were wrong; instead, they have a much more mature reaction to realizing that friends care about each other too, and that there’s no harm in leaving a stone unturned if it risks destroying something already lasting and meaningful.
I also really like how this resolution was less about Pete (who instigated all of it in the first place), and more about helping resolving Sharon’s insecurities, in a way that helps salve over some of her more immature behavior in the season two finale and season three premiere. As Johnny notes while she spends most of this episode with her engagement ring around her neck (in a pretty blatant visual metaphor), he deserves better than to be yanked around by someone he loves so much, and even though it’s probably a solid red flag that they’ve only been together for six months and are already in an emotionally uneven engagement, Two Guys and a Girl does a good job making sure it doesn’t compromise Sharon as a relatable, empathetic character, even as she’s a bit obnoxious with laying on the “in theory!” schtick. Pete lies to her about Johnny moving out to pull the truth out of her – that moment is an important one, reminding the audience that even though it’s willing to engage in some melodramatics, it won’t come at the cost of the show’s true heart and character.
However, “Au Revoir, Pizza Place” will mostly (and rightly) be remembered for Berg’s all-too-accurate description of when the party ends in one’s mid-20s, and the world starts to creep in on the peripheries, when early bedtime becomes appealing, loud music becomes a hindrance to pleasure, and the potential of working in a dead end job becomes a bit overwhelming. As a 26 year old medical student, Berg is no longer quite the laid back party guy he once was – after all, he has painted apartment walls now, none of which contain a basketball hoop. Right in front of our eyes, Two Guys and a Girl pulled off the greatest trick of all: turning Michael Bergen into an adult, which has immediately paid dividends for a series that refuses to stand still and stop growing, even if that means its status quo shifts and changes every handful of episodes (and with cast additions and major plot shifts lying ahead in season three, the fun is really just beginning).
Berg’s final moments in the pizza parlor are as palpable as anything in the series, a reflective moment that Ryan Reynolds mostly plays for humor (“I’m going to go to bed early… because I’m tired!!!” he yells at Germ), but in a way that allows the scene to access the underlying emotional shift honestly. It’s a really well-done sequence, from Berg’s realization to his abrupt farewell at the door of the pizza place; not only did it feel like Berg walking away from a phase of his life, but Two Guys and a Girl walking away from the show it was for the better part of 35 episodes, a bold creative decision that personifies exactly what makes the show so intriguing to deconstruct: Two Guys and a Girl may have always been searching for answers and success it never really found, but it did so by constantly challenging itself creatively – “Au Revoir, Pizza Place” might be sending Two Guys and a Girl into uncharted, dangerous creative waters, but the sheer excitement and confidence with which season three has already wholeheartedly embraced another set of sweeping creative changes is invigorating, a perfect table-setter for the season, and rest of the series, to come.
- I’m sure Two Guys and a Girl was and still is compared to series like Friends, but Community, with its growth driven pathos, pop culture references, and willingness to subvert its own expectations at any given time, is a much, much better comparison point, especially when considering episodes like “Au Revoir, Pizza Place”.
- Yes, Collette’s time is incredibly conveniently short – however, the way her racism just bubbles to the surface is wonderful (and ends with a such a good moment, as she says something in French that quite clearly ends with the word “Japanese”, and everyone just groans).
- Pete: “I was in love and everything was perfect. For a little while.”
- Pete and Berg argue over his relationship with Collette: “No questions asked.” “She asks questions; you just don’t know what they are!”
- Johnny, on aging: “You can’t stop the inevitable. You can only slow it down with beer.”
- Apparently it is Two Guys and a Girl canon that Germ is one of the band members of Blink-182.
- “I’m looking for a Harold Sac?”
- Berg feeling “too old” for Blink-182 is a good reminder that his character would’ve been born in 1973.
- Up next: Johnny messes with Pete in “Teacher’s Pet Peeve”.