Esmeralda writes an article about taking her son, Mateo, to The Haunted House on Rose Street at a halfway house that she did not find scary in the slightest (because none of the residents knew their rooms were up for exhibition for a haunted house spectacle). In editing, Barry changes one word in the headline that drastically changes the meaning of the article overall. She dwells in the surge of positive comments on her post that gain traction from an NPR host.
Nicole initially thinks Mare is addicted to drugs before she comes to the conclusion that Mare has found a new friend in Ned, which would be the only reason to explain why Mare would lie about visiting family two episodes prior. Mare agrees to accompany Ned, Detrick, and Travis at a gun range to impress Officer Hank.
Oscar and Kimberly feel invested in Nicole’s seemingly loose rotation of “best friends” when Nicole desperately crawls back to Adelola, her bestie prior to befriending Mare. Adelola takes advantage of Nicole’s attempt.
Ned alleges a rat bit him mid-shooting, but diminishes his own pain to the benefit of his relationship with Officer Hank, which, according to Mare, spares a potential source in Officer Hank about the sanitation of the police department. Mare rejects Ned’s executive decision to avoid investigating the police department, and delegates tasks to Detrick and Travis.
Mare investigates from a rat expert, where she deduces that Ned likely lied about the rat bite, so she enlists the help of a high school musical theater friend who is fully ready to impale him with a rabies shot that is actually a boba straw that Mare painted metallic. Ned would sooner be penetrated by the abnormally long “needle” than admit that he lied. He even pulls down his pants unprompted, thinking the shot would go up the bum.
Ned admits that he was not so concerned about impressing the cop. He was flustered by her armed dexterity at the sight of Mare shooting the bullseye in her first shot.
While in a PR interview with Gross Terry, Esmeralda soon realizes that someone’s revision of her once lukewarm article became the memorable headline. Instead of admitting buffoonery, she pulls an Alexis Schitt by unknowingly showing Terry and by proxy, Terry’s audience, a gross display of incompetence when Terry expresses, “In order to challenge people’s stereotypes, you wrote about a halfway house, but you wrote about it satirically as if it were a haunted house that wasn’t very successful at scaring people.”
It is strange that Mare finds Ned’s insecurity adorable–this might allude to a rocky relationship down the road. Detrick, Nicole, and Adelola continue to serve as underutilized characters that serve a role in developing the A plot behind Mare and Ned. Even The Office leaned into their ensemble characters. Sabrina Impacciatore, the actress behind Esmeralda, continues to land great comedic timing, even amidst an insufferably baseless character that offers cheap laughs.
Rating: 5/10