Second Look: Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place Season 2, Episode 7 – “Two Guys, a Girl and an Internship”

Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place Season 2, Episode 7 “Two Guys, a Girl and an Internship”
Written by Vince Calandra
Directed by Marjorie Weitzman
Aired November 4, 1998 on ABC

Sometimes a bad episode can bring a character to a good, or at least more interesting, place in a series. Not every transition is elegant – Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place is often the epitome of this idea, as it would shift and morph and change dramatically over its four-season run. We’re already seeing that happen in season two, with a larger recurring cast, a larger focus on romantic plots, and a clear willingness to experiment with form and structure to build on its solid sitcom foundation – and though “Two Guys, a Girl and an Internship” is a pretty noticeable bump down in quality from the early episodes of the season, the vision of where the series is heading, specifically with Pete, is clear, a bit of light shining through what is an otherwise unremarkably underwhelming episode.

The problem with “Two Guys, a Girl and an Internship” is it puts all of its eggs into one basket; Pete getting an internship with the firm Ashley’s father owns is the thoroughline for everything in this episode, the nascent attempts at secondary plots (mostly Berg semi-aggressively trying to win over Ashley) only serving as brief distractions from the central plot. And that central plot is a fairly empty one; ten minutes into his internship, he bang Ashley’s sister Britney (not knowing who she was at the time), and spends the rest of the episode scrambling to keep the truth from the Walker family surrounding him.

While initially, it’s nice to see everyone coalesce around one plot – and even lends to funny moments, like when Berg and Sharon sit outside the copy room Pete and Britney are hooking up in, preparing different breakup routines for Pete to go through. Unfortunately, there’s really nothing to this plot except watching Pete and Berg scramble to keep the facade going; Berg so he can stay in Ashley’s good graces (after annoying her by switching to the night shift at the hospital just as she does), and Pete so he can continue pursuing a professional opportunity he’s waffled on embracing for a large majority of the show’s 20 episodes to date.

“Two Guys, a Girl and an Internship” spends too much time on its undercooked farce, to the point it starts feeling like a mid-era Frasier episode (where the farcical premises were still good, but the execution was about to become increasingly precocious). There’s nothing particularly obnoxious about watching Pete chase his own tail like a horny idiot – but with Britney being such an empty, forgettable character, and Berg constantly pulling at the edges of Ashley’s coattails in the background, there’s just not a lot of juice in the narrative this episode rests all of its weight upon.

By the time Ashley’s father catches Pete and Britney fucking and has a heart attack, it feels like the premise of the episode has completely run out of gas. Which makes it all the more surprising when “Two Guys, a Girl and an Internship” uses a mediocre episode to push Pete into a really interesting place, when he decides he’s been self-sabotaging himself for two seasons, and is only holding onto his dreams of being an architect, because it’s the only dream he’s really ever allowed himself to have. In doing so, it forces the series to find new avenues to explore Pete (which we’ve seen a preview of in “Two Guys, a Girl and an Elective”), another strong step forward for a series explicitly trying to move into a (slightly) more mature phase of its existence, into a place where it can explore them with a little bit more depth.

It’s a bummer it takes until the final two minutes for Pete’s story to finally find its footing – because from there, the episode abruptly ends and we cut to a scene where Pete and Berg are trying to convince Nomar Garciaparra to join their local softball team. I had to double check to make sure my DVD hadn’t skipped; it is one of the most jarring shifts to a random cameo I’ve ever seen, featuring a baseball player who couldn’t stop smiling while the actors did their bits around him. It’s a really strange moment – not quite as weird knowing his upcoming (and mostly offscreen) role in later episodes and seasons of the series, but still comes completely out of left field, a random bit of footage attached to the end of this episode, seemingly because there was just nowhere else to put it.

Though “Two Guys, a Girl and an Internship” is not a good episode of Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, is a rather important one, introducing two incredibly important elements of Pete’s arc (one explicit, and the other a baseball cameo I don’t think anyone expected to expand as it would) along the way. It would’ve been nice if the delivery had been a bit smoother (or at the very least, a little more dynamic and engaging), but for an episode mostly existing to set up future storylines, “Two Guys, a Girl and an Internship” finishes stronger than it starts, and ultimately serves its primary functions incredibly well.

Grade: C

Other thoughts/observations:

• “I don’t know Victoria’s secret… but I certainly yours!”
  
• Another sign Pete was sabotaging himself; at an interview before the episode begins, he puts a piece of gum on the bottom of a Louie the XIV chair.
  
• Pete’s excuse for banging a girl in the copy room: “I was the new guy, I was trying to make friends!”
  
• Sharon… does not get a lot to do in this episode, but her hair look great! Big improvement over season one.
  
• Pete: “Who would’ve thought, me – jobless, directionless, and happy as a clam?”
  
• Up next: Berg gets petty in “Two Guys, a Girl and a Wedding.”