Ellie's Mom--That Explains A Lot

Cougar Town, S03E08

Ellie's mom, Betsy, came into town, and Jules tried to help Ellie get her mother to say something nice about her.  Andy convinced Grayson that he needed to take more interest in his friends if he wanted to lose the title as "New Guy."  He tried to convince Laurie that she should start her dream of selling cakes through his bar.  Travis wanted to steal a statue from campus to make his house an actual party house and got his family to help him.  

I've started to like the pattern of Andy screwing around with Grayson, who doesn't seem to get that Andy takes pleasure in tricking people (no wonder he's a good match for Ellie).  Grayson is such a moron that he doesn't get it yet.  But I do think that Andy was halfway trying to help Grayson stop acting like such a superficial friend.  I don't know if Laurie was the best person for him to dig deep and learn more about as if he was really interested.  Grayson surprised me by actually supporting Laurie's dream (even if it was to benefit himself).  She is practically in his bar all the time anyway, so she might as well become a part-time employee.  I just wonder how that might impact the "work" that she does for Jules.

I didn't think the Travis story wasn't that interesting itself.  It was just weird that he got both his parents and his grandfather involved in stealing the statue.  His wacky family was much more skillful in stealing something than his loser friends.  It's really sad that Travis still needs his family to give him a leg up on being cool.  I know that they are all really close, but at some point can't he be less of a dork on his own?

I really liked Ellie's mother.  It was so weird that she didn't like her own daughter, despite their similarities.  One of the best things about seeing Betsy was that Ellie seemed like a nicer person in comparison.  At least Ellie doesn't pretend to be someone really sweet and talk badly about them behind their backs all the time.  She's mostly the kind who tells you straight up what she doesn't like about you, and I love her for that.  But her mom's brand of two-facedness wasn't bad either.  It just seemed like a device torture Ellie by fooling her friends into thinking she was nicer than Ellie knew to be true.  It's too bad that Ellie decided to cut her out of her life (necessary, though).  I'd like to see her come back and make someone cry again (poor, sensitive Jules).

A little side note--little Stan is crazy.  What kid his age is going around destroying mailboxes?  It's creepy in a way that is somehow funny and cute.  Loved him dragging a random mailbox and Jules letting him slide because it wasn't hers, therefore not her problem.

I liked this episode because Andy messed around with Grayson, but in doing so, he and Laurie got a little closer.  The Ellie story was the best part, and I will miss seeing Ellie's mother around.  She was a cold-hearted bitch, but at least she made Ellie seem quite nice in comparison.