Kim's Convenience recap: Slippery when wet
Spoiler warning: If you haven't watched the new episode yet, you can check it out on CBC Gem.
You can watch "Slippery Slope" here on CBC Gem. If you are outside of Canada, please wait to read this until the episode is available in your country!
So, elephant in the room: It was announced earlier this week that this is the final season of Kim's and thus a sad countdown has begun ticking. Instead of lamenting, I want to keep on celebrating this show with my inane commentary and pointless tangents.
And that's exactly what I will do. Hopefully, you'll keep on celebrating with me.
On with this week's recap...
Guess who's back (back)
Back again ('gain)
Enrique's back (back)
He's brought a friend (friend)
Enrique enters the store with his therapy dog, Chicklet, aka a regular dog, according to Appa, and that is against store policy.
Thank you for blessing us with Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll whose appearances on this show are small but mighty, just like Chicklet!
Caution: Wet tub
Gerald shows up in the Kims' home where he bumps into Umma, who barely offers him a coffee as she heads for her morning shower. He tries to make small talk by telling her about his dream the other night but she just ignores him because no one finds another person's dreams interesting unless they're a psychiatrist.
He suddenly hears Umma let out a cry for help as she has slipped in the tub. Gerald wastes no time—well, he hesitated a little —unlocking the bathroom door and coming in for the save, adorably covering his eyes as he walks into the bathroom.
Later in the store, both Umma and Gerald are sporting some nasty bumps on their foreheads which Appa asks about. He also notes that they both smell like coconut.
They very vaguely recap for him what happened in the tub, as well as fill us in on some never-shot footage of Gerald also slipping in the tub in his attempt to help a fallen and injured Umma, and her having to pick him up like a fireman.
This has Appa in protective mode as he installs a shower chair and safety bars in the tub, but Umma is not having it! Shower chairs are for the elderly and she's not there yet. Plus, if she needs help, she'll call for help, which is technically what she did with Gerald, but as Appa points out, what if no one is there to help her? Still, she says no to the chair.
Pride, thy name is Kim Yong-Mi.
Fast forward to Appa stepping into the shower and wouldn't you know it, he takes a spill in the tub. The thud is heard all the way down to the front counter where our reluctant hero, Gerald, answers the call… more or less.
When Gerald reaches the bathroom door, he very politely asks Appa if he needs help but Appa turns him away just before falling in the tub again. Now, Janet shows up and it soon becomes a comedy of errors where Appa can be heard crying in the shower and she and Gerald argue over who should go in and help the man who is clearly injured and possibly paralyzed in the tub.
Next, Umma shows up wondering why Gerald closed the store and Janet explains that Appa won't come out of the bathroom.
"Yobo, put down the Sudoku and finish up," she says.
Let me take a moment to say this made me laugh out loud because it hit very close to home. My dad has been notorious for occupying the washroom with nothing but time and a Sudoku book.
Anyway, Appa falls a THIRD time and now I'm wondering if their bathtub is lined with a Slip 'n' Slide covered in coconut oil.
Umma pleads with him to just ask for help and he reluctantly does.
As the four of them sit uncomfortably in the living room, much more damp than before, they agree to never discuss what happened though Umma and Appa both agree to install a safety bar in the shower… you know, for Janet's sake.
Janet from the Block
While at the Community Centre, Janet has a run-in with a couple of teenagers who make her drop her very expensive, cold-press juice. After some half-hearted apologies and an offer to buy Janet another juice, they actually start making fun of Janet for her activated charcoal lemonade.
After shaming Janet, whose confidence is easily rattled by these kids, they walk away without even cleaning up the spill.
Later in the evening, Janet is showing some of her street photography to a group of teenagers who can't believe she grew up in Moss Park. In fact, one of them says Janet probably grew up in Koreatown and the other jokingly calls him out for being racist, but like for real, that was sort of racist.
The kids get more impressed as Janet describes growing up on top of a convenience store and getting robbed a few times. It's at this point that she also starts to embellish too much, though it does seem to impress the kids.
As I'm watching this I'm thinking, "Do not engage, Janet. Why are you trying to impress these kids? You're better than this. You went to Tanzania with your ex-boyfriend and we haven't seen him since, FFS. You don't need their approval!"
Then I remember she's in her mid-20s, still trying to make a name for herself, and I'm a 40-year-old woman who's seen some shit.
Unsurprisingly, being a rebellious teenager who steals from their parents and leaves home at 16 sounds pretty badass to these kids and they start to see Janet in a new, non-cold-press-juice light. Unfortunately, we've heard this story before and it's basically Jung's origin story.
Janet then goes over to his place to mine some fresh stories for her newfound audience. Jung seems more keen to forget the past and move forward until Janet leads him to believe that these stories are inspiring kids by illustrating how he's turned his life around.
Seriously, Janet! What are you doing? First, you lie to these kids and now you're manipulating your brother to fuel this fake persona of yourself so you look cool? Like, I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.
The next day, Janet has rebranded Jung's gang stories as her own and it's terrifying how easy this is for her. However, when Jung stops by the community centre, it looks like the gig is up for Janet. After some very cringey misunderstandings, Jung finally picks up on what Janet has been putting down and saves his "older" sister from further embarrassment.
Once the sitcom shenanigans simmer down, we are treated to the heart of this storyline, and that is that neither Jung nor Janet realize how tough they had it during those years where Jung was MIA. Janet never asked about Jung's life on the street and Jung never asked about how his absence affected her life at home with parents who were worried sick about him and projected it all on her.
It's a quiet moment that we rarely see between Jung and Janet and unsurprisingly Simu and Andrea just kill it in this scene.
Awwwww!!!- Shannon reacting to Jung and Janet's heart-to-heart
Reunited and it feels so awkward
Jung and Kimchee's ten-year high school reunion is around the corner and they've (rightfully) decided not to go. Gwen and Shannon insist that they go to "see the old gang" which Jung reminds her their old gang was an actual gang.
Shannon doesn't get to do much in this episode but she does show off some of her old cheerleading squad moves and she still got it apparently. #PleatsInTheStreets
Once Gwen leaves, Kimchee suddenly turns into a nervous teenage boy at the idea of his ex-girlfriend Ingrid going. Umm, Kimchee? Did you just forget that amazing girlfriend of yours who just reminded you about your couples yoga class later tonight?
Later on, Kimchee is creeping on Ingrid's social media accounts and Stacy catches him. She sort of starts stirring up stuff; analyzing the posts, who likes them, and who is tagged and Kimchee is lowkey loving this intel. She is a bit of an enabler and you'd think I'd hate her for it but let's be honest: I am she and she is me.
But then Kimchee does something stupid, and even he knows it's stupid. He says hello to Ingrid on her MySpace page, which I can already tell you at least two things wrong with that sentence. He's opened the floodgates of communication and he shows Stacy who reads back Ingrid's text in a seductive way that totally implies they are two turkeys away from a taco........
Kimchee shows up at the reunion, which has a low turnout because of course it does, it's a ten-year high school reunion. Who goes to those?! Gwen isn't there yet, but oh look, Stacy is there with her front row seat to the Kimchee trainwreck as he waits to see Ingrid.
And by the way, Stacy is looking fine AF!
You know who else looks fine? Ingrid, and Kimchee is nearly speechless at the sight of her. If he'd stop acting like he's about to cheat on his girlfriend, then there's a good chance he won't cheat on her.
After some catch-up chit-chat, Kimchee learns that Ingrid is married and has kids. In most shows, that would signal that our character no longer has to make the proverbial fork in the road decision. Of course, Kimchee is not let off the hook that easily since Ingrid is totally into fooling around with him tonight, either under the bleachers or at the nearby Ramada that has bottomless nachos until 10pm.
(If nachos are the new sexy food then I'm clearly eating them wrong.)
Stacy comes in from the dance gymnasium and Kimchee immediately plays her off as his "serious, long-time girlfriend" because who tells the truth anymore, amirite?
Before Ingrid can properly react, Gwen enters the game for pristine comedic timing. This would seem to be one too many Kimchee girlfriends for Ingrid and she backs off. Kimchee turns to Gwen to apologize and explain.
"You wanted to flirt with your ex," Gwen says, "make her know what she's missing."
"Pretty much," he replies.
Stop the tape.
At no point did Kimchee say that that was his intent as he creeped and texted with Ingrid. But lucky for him, it looks like every woman made the tough choices for him this week:
Stacy spurred him on with Ingrid.
Ingrid backed out of their implied tryst.
Gwen gave him an explanation for his behaviour.
And all Kimchee learned was that Gwen did the same thing at her own high school reunion and he does not like it. Dot. Dot. Dot.
And, that's "Slippery Slope"! What did you think of it?
Join us next week where we'll see Appa make a controversial call while umpiring a baseball game, the Kim home becomes the setting of a legit horror film, and Jung and Kimchee's parenting styles go head to head.
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