Grant, The New Cool Guy In The Gang

Happy Endings, S02E14

This episode was all about Grant.  From the gang spying on Max and Grant, you can see that their relationship is going pretty well.  Yay!  Max is understandably worried about the success of his longest, healthy relationship (2 weeks), but he is most concerned about his friends liking Grant.  We all know that they rarely like anyone and famously root for others' relationships to fail.  I like that Penny tries to turn the attention upon herself about her new bo, Shawn, but Max thankfully puts a cap on her "yapping."  It's nice to have the focus on Max's love life, especially when his brand of romance involves a "sexy fist bump."

Instead of the gang all finding something that they hate about Grant, they all fall in love with him.  And of course, since it's these five crazy people, their approval of him goes beyond just enjoying Grant's company.  They all get obsessive and ridiculously clingy.  And by "they" I mean everyone except Dave, who feels threatened by Grant's coolness.  Somehow he thought he was the "cool guy" in the group.  I don't know how he could have thought that with all of the V-neck shirts (and practically any other top) he wears.

Thanks to everyone loving Grant too much, Max starts to feel neglected and intimidated by him.  Dave's pointless attempt to prove he is cool with his sunglasses, scarf, and new motto of "chillax" doesn't help him.  In fact, when Dave tries to tell Max to calm down about the others monopolizing on his boyfriend, Max returns with a great line:

 The guy in the scarf telling me to chillax?

Dave's scarf is further deemed a failure when Brad (with Jane and Penny) comes to question about Grant, but gets a look at Dave's new look:

Is that an indoor scarf?

Despite that Dave is being a major dork, he still sets up others for good lines.  I was less worried about him figuring out that he is the group doofus and more about Max thinking he should break up with Grant!  It was a good thing that when he was freaking out he went to the friend most convinced that true love exists, Alex.  Although, for a girl who dumped Dave on their wedding day to date another loser that she didn't even like that much, it's a wonder that she is such a believer.  She ultimately convinces him to rethink the breakup after they spend some alone time together away from the meddling of their gang.  Max doesn't listen, but we get another great exchange of lines from them in this scene:

[Max] I know I may be tough on the outside--
[Alex] Not really. 
[Max] --but I'm actually very fragile on the inside. 
[Alex] And on the outside too.
[Max] And I have to be brave for everybody else. 
[Alex] You love to play the victim.

It's funny that when Max and Grant do get a second of alone time, Max is having a one-sided breakup conversation with him.  I'm glad that Grant doesn't know what the hell he is talking about, nor has time to consider it before all of their friends show up.  Penny is determined to steal Grant (and Max as an afterthought) away from Jane and Brad.  Poor Shawn is just along for the crazy ride, not realizing the huge battle that they have joined.  Dave is uselessly again trying to show up Grant, but no one is paying him mind.  Before Max can make another roundabout comment that he wants to break up with Grant at dinner, Dave has his only good line when Alex says that they can learn a lot of facts from Grant:

[Dave] Yeah, well, I got a bunch of facts too, so...
[Grant] Hey, I love learning new facts--hit me.
[Dave] You know what, Guy, you keep your facts, and I'll keep mine.

Finally, Grant comes clean that he was merely sucking up to everyone when they reach the height of their Grant obsession.  I love that Max is so happy to find out that he is needy, and Grant thinks that Max is wonderful because he doesn't care about anything.  Aww--they're a great match!  I'm surprised that no one is offended that he was just trying to be liked by them and probably hates them more than he let on.  But who really cares about that when Max is now comfortable enough to keep dating Grant.

One more thing, I didn't think that Grant's shirtless form was so sexy.  He was all right, but he wasn't anything that Penny needed to throw soda on.  Maybe it just shows how desperate these girls are to have a semi-good looking guy around.  And in that sense, I can say that Grant fits the bill.  Though I think Max is pretty cute when he's not walking around like the slob he is.

Glad things turned out so well in this episode.  I wonder if Dave is going to abandon his competition with Grant or will that continue on.  I'm pretty sure by the next episode the gang will be focused on some other crazy thing and their "best friend" Grant will just be another face in their crowd.