7x12 The 13 Stages of Grief

[7.3/10] Another solid, if less than perfect episode. The show hasn’t exactly hit amazing heights this season, but it’s managed to raise the floor a bit, which I can appreciate.

For starters, in the bizarre department, I was unexpectedly amused by Rafi’s efforts to fill Sofia’s place in Ruxin’s life. Sure, his usual feces/blood/other bodily fluid material was grossed, but Rafi and Ruxin as an old, dysfunctional married couple was a surprisingly funny bit. And Rafi’s weird attempt to fill in for Sofia in the bedroom being the thing that actually snapped Ruxin out of his funk was oddly engaging (and the vanilla candle dry heaves were a nice tonic to Rafi).

I also really enjoyed the group having to go old school pencil and paper since their league got suspended. Just seeing Kevin in a green visor, taking faxes and phone calls and writing down scores and add/drops in longhand was hilarious. His speech about the purity of fantasy football (“When we reduced the game we love to points”) was a nice bit of satire, and I like how it sets up a “winner take all” 8-man (er, 7-man and one coin) Shiva bowl for the finale.

There were only two bits I didn’t care for in this one. The first was Andre trying to get Ruxin’s reservation at the fancy new restaurant and cajole a grieving Ruxin into making it work. It’s supremely dickish behavior even for this group. The second is Pete’s constant single-week fantasy league references, because it just felt like crass and obvious product placement, even with the rest of the group giving him shit for it. There’s also something uncomfortable about all of the group salivating over an actual Shiva statue (even if it’s kind of a cool shot), but you know, that’s pretty much The League, and it’s churlish of me to complain about it with one episode to go in the series.

Overall, the two biggest bits in the episode were winners, and I’ll take that from The League.

(As an aside, Meegan being pregnant feels like a cheap way to have it be Pete’s baby, or have them get back together since her wanting a child was a big part of the thing that split them apart, to try to go full circle with the pilot, and that would be pretty dumb/cheesy. GBut we’ll see where the show goes with it.)