Somebody Somewhere (Season 2) Episode 3: Living in the same place can be difficult. Sam and Joel, who reunited after years, manage to do that due to their close bond. They know and value each other’s well-being. So, their ‘totally platonic love story’ works out pretty nicely for both. They try to be a strong support system for one another while fighting their emotional battles.
Sam tries to get back to her roots in singing by meeting one of her idols – Darlene Edwards. Sam asks for a lesson since she is apprehensive about singing at Fred’s marriage. Darlene graciously accepts Sam’s request. On the other hand, Trish grapples with how well Charity is doing despite having screwed up her marriage.
Now the latest episode shows Sam starting her singing lessons at Darlene’s. While she tries to get in touch with her emotions, Trish works on getting her career back on track. It feels wonderful to see both reinventing their lives by doing what they love the most.
*Spoilers Ahead*
Somebody Somewhere (Season 2) Episode 3 Recap:
Episode 3: SLS
The episode begins with the interior shots of Darlene Edwards’ (Barbara E. Robertson) house with her accolades and décor. Sam (Bridget Everett) walks in, still a bit hesitant about the wonderful opportunity of learning under Darlene’s guidance. Darlene asks her to sing a song, anything, right off the bat – a song that she used to sing as a kid or even a love song. After a moment or two, Sam starts singing – ‘I Can Only Give You Love That Lasts Forever.’ She mesmerizes herself with how well she sings.
The lyrics hit a moment of raw truth – where Sam suddenly seems to realize – she has all this love she can give someone but does not have a conventional romance archetype in her life. So, she stops singing midway. Darlene asks her to resume. Sam shuts her eyes and goes in almost a trance. Her melodious voice tears up Darlene. “You give me chills, just like you did the first time I heard you sing,” she says. She recalls how rich and mature Sam’s sound was during her childhood while singing for the church choir.
Darlene wants Sam to be more honest with herself about her commendable skills. Sam feels a little worried about acknowledging that. She rather goes on her self-doubt trip. She plans to sing ‘Ave Maria’ by Schubert at Fred’s (Murray Hill) wedding. But she questions whether she will live up to its classical style of music. She feels that she sounds light and flighty as compared to what is needed. Darlene decides to help her step-by-step. She begins by giving some breathing exercises for Sam to free herself. After all, singing is also knowing how to use your breath wisely and to its utmost potential.
What is SLS?
Joel (Jeff Hiller) sits outside, starting a doc file with ‘Dearly beloved.’ Sam walks out, and he stops whatever he is writing. She says that she did only some breathing but looks pleasantly revitalized by the exercise. Then, Brad Schraeder (Tim Bagley) walks in for his lesson, wearing a polo T-Shirt tucked in his pants. Joel and Sam laugh at their embarrassing encounter with Brad earlier when they ate a thing that Brad called his ‘family specialty.’ St. Lewis Sushi (SLS), Sergeant Loose Stools, or Sir Liquid Shits. They try to figure out what to call him. It becomes their inside joke.
Back at the farm, Joel and Tricia (Mary Catherine Garrison) help out Sam with cleaning up the farmhouse. Joel wonders what it would look like if Fred rode their family tractor to the wedding. Trish learns only then about this wedding of Sam’s friend. She asks to chip in to do the décor for ‘Trish Upon A Star’ – her passion project. She wants to develop her portfolio and considers this wedding as just the right opportunity in that direction.
Trish enthusiastically asks about Fred and Susan’s (Jennifer Mudge) favorite color, which makes it hard for Sam to deny her request. Sam feels a little worried about mixing her family with her friend circle. But Joel sides with Trish’s interest, and Sam ends up agreeing with it.
Back at their place, Joel wonders when Trish got so interested in this décor thingy. Sam, however, is hooked to the TV screen. He keeps interrupting, and she almost loses her patience – ‘almost’ being the keyword here. You can empathize with her struggle to be hard on someone as endearing as Joel. She pauses the show so that he can speak. So, instead of talking, he decides to enjoy the sex scene on the screen. While sitting next to each other on a couch, they appreciate the male nudity. Joel can’t help but wonder if that is how straight-people sex looks.
What happened between Sam and Darlene in the past?
The next day, Darlene takes Sam through additional breathing exercises. Sam speaks up about where her fear stems from. Back during her choir days, Darlene said that Sam had a heavy voice and that they needed to work on it. ‘You have a rich, heavy voice,’ Darlene says now, to start their mentor-mentee relationship afresh. Meanwhile, Brad sits next to Joel, waiting for his lesson. He holds a Lutheran church bag on his lap and starts to cradle their chair. They end up having some small talk. Sam walks out to notice a boner on Joel, who argues, ‘It’s just the pleats.’ Is Joel attracted to him? Or is it him wanting to be with someone like his last relationship? Maybe we will know that later on.
Later, Fred and Susan walk into Trish’s house. Susan and Trish find a common interest and have fun figuring out the décor. Sam asks Fred whether she burdened him with Trish’s insistence. He says how he rather likes that Susan found a companion for something she loves. Once Fred and Susan leave, Trish gets a bit pissed at Sam since she was having a laugh with Fred. She thinks Sam was ridiculing her interest in their marriage. Sam says that she can’t take marriage seriously. They go away from dwelling on the examples of unsuccessful marriages from their life. Maybe their relationship issues stem from that.
Joel goes to meet Fred at his office and asks if Fred is fine with letting him officiate their wedding, considering he has been away from the church for a while. Fred tells him not to worry and that he wants to start new traditions with her family.
Meanwhile, Sam and Tricia go to the care house to meet MJ. The receptionist gets the sisters in touch with Ms. Lindgren from the senior staff. Due to some uncontrollable incidence regarding MJ, they give two options to the sisters – either to admit MJ to a hospital or to get her transferred to another facility. So, the sisters realize that they now have another matter to deal with, despite being on MJ’s ‘no-fly’ list. To take down their stress, they share a bottle of alcohol right outside the facility. An employee walking back to her car tells them that she is going to get one herself.
Somebody Somewhere (Season 2) Episode 3 Ending, Explained:
Trish looks through some magazines to get inspiration for her decor work. Suddenly, she sees a notification pop up on her phone. She notices Amy Sedaris tagged her in an Instagram post of the photo of her ‘lying c***’ cushion. She has no idea that Amy’s a comedian but realizes her clout by how many more pings she receives for her cushion.
What makes Sam emotional during her breathing exercise?
Brad and Joel get another chance for some chitchat while waiting for Sam’s class to end. Brad talks about getting some wood to make plaques for his eighth-grade social studies students. Meanwhile, inside the class, Darlene puts her own hand on the top of Sam’s chest and another on her waist for a deep breathing exercise. Sam starts the exercise of inhaling through her nose and exhaling through her mouth repeatedly.
After a few times, Darlene praises Sam. ‘You’ve got it now,’ she says and continues, ‘Remember this feeling? It’s like when the first time you fall in love. It hits Sam a little too unexpectedly, and she struggles to breathe afterward. She gets emotional and walks out of the class.
Sam returns home and lies on her sofa, clearly tense. Joel asks something in his general cutesy demeanor. ‘Your positivity’s getting on my nerves,’ Sam says. Anyhow, she agrees to go for a walk with him. She slowly opens up about the time Darlene asked her about the feeling of being in love.
‘That’s a good feeling, right?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Do you want to change that?’
‘I would rather sit around judging people falling in love.’
They have a heart-to-heart through this back-and-forth. Joel invites her to try out the option of dating apps. ‘We can join the same app together,’ he says, and they laugh. She acknowledges how she feels comfortable with him more than anyone she could find. Even then, she does not feel ashamed peeing right in front of him in the bushes. After sharing this strangely intimate moment, the couple walks back to get some ‘tweamy-dweamy’ ice-creams. As always, the writing manages to expertly walk the thin line between love and intimacy while addressing their infatuation for one another.
