You’re The Worst Recap: S3E5 “Twenty-Two”

You’re the Worst spends this week’s entire episode exploring Edgar’s PTSD and returning to its former glory.

You guys.  You guys.  It happened.  It’s back.

If you read my recaps regularly, you will know that for the past few episodes (and really, most of this season), I’ve been really disappointed in this show.  Where the first two seasons were smart and funny and touching, these most recent episodes seemed contrived and faux-edgy.  I was really starting to mourn the excellent piece of art we lost.

But then!  Today’s episode happened.  And about five minutes into it, I literally said, out loud, “This is what I’m here for!”

“Twenty-Two” focuses entirely on Edgar.  In last week’s episode, we saw him very little.  But in the first few scenes of this episode, we come to realize that we are about to see Edgar’s perspective of the last episode.  We finally figured out what’s happening to him.

You’re the Worst, Screenshot via FX

Beginning with a sleepless night for Edgar, we see him freak out when he sees someone leave a car quickly.  It turns out, after Edgar approaches stealthily as though in combat, the person was just delivering the newspaper on a paper route.  Moments like this happen all throughout the episode:  a man trimming trees becomes a spy staring at Edgar, a police officer with a speedometer becomes a sniper on the overpass, garbage bags on the side of the road become IEDs.  In one sequence, Edgar’s trip to the supermarket turns from an everyday chore to a nightmare swarm of people staring at him, reporting the location of the “target” as they talk on their cell phones.

The paranoia of being watched, followed, and targeted is, of course, a result of Edgar’s PTSD.  Edgar’s history as an Iraq War vet and his struggle with PTSD have been well documented in the show in the past, but never featured in this way before.  Up until recently, he appeared to have his disorder under control.  But, in the first episode of this season, he flushed his medication, frustrated with the side effects.

Desmin Borges (Photo by Todd Williamson/Getty Images for Entertainment Weekly)

The camera work here is so different than this show typically uses.  It’s erratic and frantic and cuts quickly; all to mimic Edgar’s state of mind.  The jumps and cuts help us understand, to some degree, just how PTSD feels to Edgar; frantic, dangerous, unable to focus.  The sound adds to this as well, including an ear-ringing white noise when he tunes out of his friends’ breakfast conversation, or muffled voices describing his location to imaginary snipers.  Imagine all the other previous episodes shot in this way, and you can imagine how Edgar felt living them as a PTSD sufferer.

But for the first part of the episode, we have hope that he will encounter some relief at his appointment with Veteran’s Affairs.  The woman he meets with embodies red tape.  She compliments him on even getting in the room, saying it shows he has “grit and determination.”  To which he responds, “Should it take grit and determination to get help?”  She complains generally about how underfunded they are before deciding to offer him a spot in a study, one that Edgar thought was full, because she “likes” him.  He is ecstatic about the prospect of a treatment that might actually help, until he tells her that he went off all eleven of his medications.  Edgar is then told that they can’t put him in the study, until he goes back on his prescribed meds.

And, to be fair, this makes sense.  Exhausting all your options first.  But, as Edgar knows, and as we know, the meds didn’t work.  “It’s just turning down the volume,” he says.  “It’s not living.”  He pleads with her, he vows not to leave, he throws his chair.  And she is unmoved.

Edgar’s desperation to get better is something we haven’t seen in this show yet.  Gretchen never wanted to get help for her depression.  At her worst, she went catatonic, and even then, she tried to go back to normal afterwards.  At Edgar’s worst, after the appointment, he contemplates walking into highway traffic.  He knows he needs help.  But in that moment, he truly believes he will never get it.  He breaks.

You’re the Worst, Screenshot via FX

And then, he finds some hope.  First in the form of a newspaper boat, drifting down a stream.  That ends up being a prop for a student film, but it’s enough to get him away from the roadside.  Enough to put a smile on his face.  Sometimes it really is that small.

And then, finally, finally, Edgar meets a kindred spirit.  I have always felt bad for Edgar.  He is the singular point of sincerity in a show full of terrible people.  He cares in a way that his friends never will.  And they treat him terribly for it.  Sometimes it’s funny, and other times it really makes me sad.  Earlier in the episode, Jimmy makes fun of him for keeping cassette tapes in his car.  Edgar tries to connect, saying his brother gave them to him and beginning to talk about his favorite.  Jimmy interrupts him mid-sentence just to hear the sound of his own voice insulting someone.  Edgar belongs in a different show.  Parks and Recreation, maybe.  Not with these awful people.

But when Edgar meets the guy who is about to tow his car, he finally finds another person who lives in the real world.  The tow truck driver noticed Edgar’s veteran paperwork in his car.  And he’s a veteran, too.  They sit in the car, smoking and comparing symptoms.  When the driver asks if he’s had suicidal thoughts, Edgar is quiet.  And that’s when we learn the significance of the title.  The statistic.  Twenty-two veterans, on average, commit suicide, every day.

“…The minute you stop looking for someone else to cure you, maybe you start living again.” – Tow Truck Driver

When Edgar relays his troubles at the VA and asks what to do, the tow truck driver says, “Figure out what works.” One of his buddies does yoga.  Another hunts regularly.  He himself has a companion dog. “I know you don’t want to hear this,” he says, “but the minute you stop looking for someone else to cure you, maybe you start living again.”

It’s a sentiment that the audience knows well.  It’s the same thing Justina told Gretchen about her depression. It’s the reason Lindsay stays with Paul. It’s what makes Jimmy ignore all his problems.  It’s why before Edgar’s appointment, Dorothy told him, “They can fix you.” It’s why the title of the second episode of this season was “Fix Me, Dummy.”

Because none of these people want to take responsibility for their own unhappiness. Taking responsibility means work, and it means accepting that they can be happier. If they choose to stay miserable, they’ll never have to take a risk. If they wait for someone else to fix them, they will never have to look at themselves and be scared.

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I have an immense amount of hope for Edgar though, after this incredible episode.  I believe in him. I have to.