Recapping One Day at a Time - Episode 2 - Bobos and Mamitas

This week in "Recapping One Day at a Time", we'll be looking at an issue that has been a problem for working women for decades now.  And while I feel the solution for this episode is a bit of a quick fix in comparison to what really takes place, I feel it's still a great episode.

This is Episode 2: Bobos and Mamitas.  Now, I am incredibly rusty on Spanish, so I had to use Google Translate to try and decipher them.  I'm still lost on the meaning of Mamitas, but a Bobo is a Spanish word for fool.  Or maybe even stronger than that.  I get the feeling that Penelope is going to have her hands full with stupid people this week.

For now, we pop in where we left off last week, where we see Penelope and Lydia in bed together.  Because as we learned, Penelope used to fall asleep when her now ex-husband used to spoon her.  So, naturally, Lydia decided to take over.  Not that this is weird in any way according to her, of course.  During the night, Penelope wakes up in a panic, and it is clear that she has had another nightmare about her time in Afghanistan.  Fortunately, Lydia is there to help her through it and calm her down.

A side note is that Lydia also happens to wear makeup to bed.  Not weird at all.  No weirder than sharing your bed with your thirty-eight year old grown daughter, anyway.

After Lydia leaves the room to make breakfast, we see Penelope with the bottle of anti-depressants she was prescribed and she takes one, telling her reflection in the mirror that she'll be okay.  Good for her.  It's not easy to admit that one might need help to deal with mental issues, and I applaud her for taking this step.

The following morning, Lydia is doing yoga while Elena is pounding on the bathroom door as Alex flushes the toilet five times in a row.  Elena is furious that Alex is wasting water and is "killing the planet", which Alex seems to take great pleasure in.  See, Elena is very much passionate about ecology and saving the planet, and is actually in the midst of doing some sort of environmental protest at her school.  I think it has something to do with composting, but I didn't really pay attention because at this point Elena kind of annoys me as a character.  Isabella Gomez is a lovely actress.  Elena is a bit of a pain.

She is determined to make her case, but Lydia is too distracted by the fact that she isn't getting ready for school and tells her to put on some makeup - which Elena hates.  See, there's another thing you should know.  Alex (whom Lydia refers to as Papito) is her favourite.  Elena is...not so much.  Though it could be because Elena and Lydia are so different personality wise.

Of course, Penelope isn't in the mood to hear any of it at the moment.  She has to report to work early because there's a staff meeting at the clinic where she works.  But before she leaves, she tells Elena that when she makes her case to not be taken aback by the "Bobos", and that if they try to make her feel bad, to just smile and pretend it doesn't bother her.

And apparently, there's only four people at Dr. Berkowitz's clinic.  Despite this, Dr. B. still insists on taking attendance.  Yeah, I get the feeling that Dr. B. is socially awkward.  Which is fine.  I get it.  I'm that way as well.  Aside from Dr. B. and Penelope, we have the secretary, Lori - who admittedly is a bit of a ditz who believes that wearing the wrong bra size her whole life is a pressing issue that greatly affects the quality of care given to the patients of the clinic.  We also have a male nurse named Scott - and based on his cell phone addiction, his sucking up to Dr. B. and his overall holier-than-thou attitude, I get the feeling that this is our "Bobo" in this episode.

We learn just how annoying Scott can be when Penelope presents an idea to keep patients happy.  She believes that if they stagger the appointments of all of the patients in the waiting room by five minutes, it will make them less cranky because they don't have to wait so long.  It's a decent idea.  But Scott arrogantly tells Dr. B. that the idea will NEVER work because it will actually lessen the quality of care that they receive, which causes Dr. B. to take Scott's side.  You might want to remember this scene for later.  Either way, Penelope is really annoyed, and we see her smiling so huge you'd think she was doing a commercial for Scope mouthwash.  But make no mistake...she wants to kill the Bobo.

Of course, every episode of every sitcom has some filler material in it.  This time around we have Lydia teaching Schneider how to salsa dance.  Nothing really important except for two things.  One, in her mid-80s, Rita Moreno can still slay a dance floor.  She and Todd Grinnell must have had a really good time filming this scene.  And the other is when the rest of the family arrive home, Elena screams out "We get it!  We're Cuban!"  It made me chuckle, anyway.  It then leads to a family dance party.  Again, total filler, but still somehow satisfying.

Anyway, we learn that Elena's quest to save the world from pollution didn't go as well.  As in kids were throwing hamburgers at her head the whole time.  Penelope understands her frustration and proceeds to tell her all about what Scott did - all while trying to stifle the fact that she wanted to rip out his intestines.

Elena remarks that it is sexist - which further proves the fact that she is a social justice warrior in training.  But in this case, she is one hundred per cent correct.  Though amusingly, Penelope remarks that it isn't sexist because he didn't call her a Mamita (ah, so I get the feeling that Mamita is a slang term for baby, or chick, or some other derogatory name for women).  Besides, Penelope explains that if Elena really wants an example of sexism, she needed to look at the army.  Penelope dealt with sexism all the time when she was a soldier, and eventually she proved herself by being better than the males who kept catcalling her.  While it is respectable that Penelope earned their respect, I have to actually side with Elena in that Penelope should confront Scott about his actions.

Oh, and Schneider tries to interject by talking about mansplaining, but really the only thing this serves to do is make me annoyed by Schneider.

Or maybe the annoying one is Lydia.  After everybody goes to bed, she sneaks into Elena's room and opens up a makeup case with enough cosmetics to stock the shelves at Sephora for three whole years.  Apparently Lydia has decided to give Elena an "America's Next Top Model" makeover while Elena sleeps.  Uh, yeah...that's not creepy.  That's not creepy at all.

Predictably, Elena screams and demands to know what the hell Lydia is thinking.  Truth is, if you can get over the creepiness of Lydia's actions, she actually makes a valid point.  She says that lawyers would love to wear sweat pants, but they dress in a suit because they earn respect and power.  Elena seems drawn by this argument and agrees to put on a little makeup to see if that will make a difference in how she is perceived at school.

Well, okay, she's made up to look like Kendall or Kylie Jenner.  Whatever the case, her new look gets the Abuelita Seal of Approval, although Elena looks visibly uncomfortable.  I give it ten minutes before she wipes that stuff off her face.  Elena also once again tries to convince Penelope to talk to Scott about his sexism, but Penelope thinks that if she can talk to Dr. B. instead, then maybe she can convince him to listen. 

At the office, it's not a pretty picture.  Sure enough, patients are getting cranky over having to wait for service, and this causes Lori to suggest giving the patients belly rubs to calm them down.  Ah, Lori...every sitcom has to have at least one person in it who is as dumb as a box of rocks.

Then again, maybe that person is Dr. B.  After complaining about the patients having to wait, Scott comes up with an idea to make the patients happier, and ends up reciting the SAME EXACT IDEA THAT PENELOPE SUGGESTED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE EPISODE!  I don't think Penelope is going to take that very well.

Yeah, no.

And when Dr. B. actually thanks Scott for the idea and gives him full credit, you KNOW Penelope isn't going to like that at all.

YIKES!  She literally scares me in this screengrab.  And if anyone should be scared, it should be Scott!  Completely disregarding any sort of professionalism and completely charging at him like a ram, Penelope flat out calls him sexist, which causes Scott to FINALLY shut up and Dr. B. to nearly have a nervous breakdown!

But of course, Scott DOESN'T shut up and instead shoves his foot a little further down his throat by not only claiming that he is a victim of reverse sexism, but also claiming that he is tired of picking up the slack because he doesn't think that moms are special!  Ooooh, nice knowing you, pal.

Needless to say, this amps Penelope's anger up to a thousand and despite Dr. B's misguided yet hilarious attempts to diffuse the situation, Penelope really lays into him about how moms ARE important - to which Scott replies that they are all equal and that they all make thirty bucks an hour and...

...oh.  Oh!  Penelope makes LESS than that!  And with that revelation out of the way, Penelope decides to quit her job and with that she storms off.  Wow.

Back at home, Lydia is crestfallen to learn that Elena has removed all the makeup from her face, and she demands to know why.  Elena reveals that the reason why is because she felt uncomfortable wearing it, and she felt uncomfortable with guys hitting on her.  But then Lydia takes it one step too far and tells Elena that by wearing makeup, she could look beautiful and then she would be proud to have her as a granddaughter.  Um...OUCH!

Thankfully, Elena has a little self-esteem in her to call out Lydia, telling her that she wears makeup like armour, and that Elena likes the way she looks without makeup and wishes that she could see it too.  And as Elena storms towards her room, Penelope arrives with anxiety written all over her face as she cries about quitting her job on principle and worries about how they will all have to move into the car.

But then we hear a knock on the door, and it's Dr. B. coming to see Penelope.  And judging by the interaction between Dr. B. and Lydia, I get the impression that there might be a smidgen of flirtation between the both of them which I am sure we will see more of as the series progresses.

For now, it's a real conversation about how Penelope feels upset that Dr. B. would give Scott more money than her, and Dr. B. explains that he felt pressured by Scott to do it (translation: he manipulated the poor doctor).  But after a really good dialogue, Dr. B. agrees to give her an eight dollar an hour raise and a couple of other perks, and this prompts Penelope to come back to work.  Now, of course, in the real world this would probably not happen so nicely, but at least Dr. B. was reminded that Penelope is an asset to the team.  And honestly, isn't that what we all want in our jobs?  To be respected as a team member?  Not all of us have that luxury.

One final moment to close off this episode - and it's probably one of the most heartwarming scenes of this whole episode.  Lydia returns to Elena's bedroom in the middle of the night to show her something.  Only instead of another makeover, Lydia shows her a make-under.  

This is the only time that Lydia has ever shown anybody her face without a hint of makeup on it.  And can I say that she still looks beautiful?  Rita Moreno holds her age very well.  Elena is also very impressed, as am I.  It's nice to know that even though Alex is her obvious favourite that Lydia holds a special place in her heart for Elena too.  I mean, for someone to see someone without makeup for the first time ever - that's love right there.  Well, at least until Elena notices Abuelita may have some mascara on which causes Lydia to scurry out of the room as the closing credits air.  But hey, what a good episode.  Talking about the wage inequality between men and women has been an ongoing issue for years - even dating back to when the original "One Day at a Time" aired in the 1970s.  I'm glad to see that Norman Lear and company have made it an issue for the new series. 

Coming up next week, Penelope decides to skip church - and Lydia is NOT amused.

Before I go though, have a laugh with some of the more memorable lines from this episode!  Enjoy!

ELENA:  You know, I know bobo is an insult, but it sounds adorable.  Like he's a little clown.
PENELOPE:  Oh, yes, he is a clown.  And like every other clown, I want to punch him in the face.

SCHNEIDER:  Sorry, I cut you off.  Talk as long as you want.  Not that you need my permission.  I'm just...you know what?  I'd like to hear from the ladies.  Women.  Females.  You guys...Not guys, humans.

LYDIA: (to Elena) Wow, you broke Schneider.

DR. B.:  Guys, guys!  Let's keep our anger where it belongs, with the patients!

PENELOPE:  Mami...I quit my job.
LYDIA:  I don't understand.  The job ended?

PENELOPE:  No, it didn't end.

LYDIA:  Did your boss die?
PENELOPE:  No!

LYDIA:  Was there a fire?  Scandal?  Was he a sex offender and they closed down the business because of the shame?

PENELOPE:  No!

LYDIA:  I have just said all the reasons!

PENELOPE:  I quit my job because I found out that comierda Scott makes more than I do, and he's only been there one month.

LYDIA:  Oh, so you quit because of principles.  ARE YOU CRAZY?!?