Curse That Fortune-Teller

2 Broke Girls, S02E15

The girls were having problems affording the supplies they needed for their cupcakes when they were being paid so badly at the diner.  Caroline got them an application for a grant for small businesses, but later spent a bunch of money on fortune-telling.  Max took Caroline to get her money back from the fortune teller, and the two ended up being cursed by her.

It was a bit of a shock that Andy was suddenly gone from across their shop, but I guess it makes sense that he has to be gone for good or it'll be strange to explain why we haven't seen him despite being neighbors with Caroline and Max's shop.  I felt the absence of Andy more when Amir was introduced and he and Max exchanged banter in a way that was almost like Andy and Max (if Andy was trying to hit on her).  The two of them were not funny at all as a pair, making me wish Andy was still on the show all the more.  His sudden disappearance does leave room for him to suddenly reappear with any flimsy explanation really, but such a happy outcome is in no way guaranteed.  Boo.

I almost felt bad for Han when everyone was telling him to not be a bitch and just sign the recommendation for Caroline and Max.  I mean, once again they are asking a favor of him (although not one I think would damage his reputation much), and they railroad him into doing it instead of letting him do it on his own.  However, I slightly changed my mind when Han wrote his own recommendation for them and it didn't sound that flattering.  It was certainly truthfully, but I don't think if they had submitted that recommendation that it would have helped them.  No wonder they'd rather just bully him into doing things their way rather than give him the option of helping them in his way.

I was pretty disappointed in how Caroline reacted with the fortune-telling and the curses.  I think she was still in shock that Andy chose to bolt town in the middle of the night rather than see her again.  I'm sure that had rattled her confidence about her relationships with men.  Still, to steal eggs and such from the dinner because they're hurting for money and then turn around to buy a crystal for 50 bucks is barely forgivable.  Max is a good friend not to slap the hell out of her.  It's definitely one of those times where I would want Caroline to think more about the business than her love life.  They're making jokes about whether they'll live until winter and she's going to blow money on something that dumb?  Hell, no.  And hell, no to that bitch fortune-teller who refused to give them refunds, cursed them, and then made them pay another 50 bucks to have the fake curses removed.  It's annoying as hell to see them being taken advantage, especially when the girls are conscious that they are being fleeced!  I hate seeing scam artists like that lady winning in the end.  Wish Max or Caroline would have thrown a fake curse at her.

I don't know if there was much of a good ending to the story.  The girls felt better hearing their fortunes of success and love, but after what that lady put them through I wouldn't believe her if she told me lighting would strike me and it did five seconds later.  Her ability to tell that it was going to snow proved nothing to me.  But I guess if Caroline could be put at ease because she thought she would be successful despite being alone, it's not the worst ending.  However, I was disappointed that they didn't get to submit their grant application nor get their money back.

I suppose you could say I didn't like this episode very much because it didn't turn out at all like I wanted it to.  I wouldn't have wanted Andy to disappear from the show as if he were an afterthought, nor would I want someone to try to sort of replace him.  The biggest fail for me was watching the girls fall prey to curses and the like.  That damn fortune-teller should have choked on that Chinese food she was eating at the beginning for all of her scams.  But at least the girls got semi-decent fortunes revealed by the end.  They live in a pretty gloomy situation now, so perhaps even false hope will turn into real hope for them.

What If Bart Had Failed?

The Simpsons, S24E10

To cut costs, the school with the lowest standardized test scores would be shut down, and Springfield Elementary's only hope of staying open was determinate upon Bart's score on the test.  Homer also found a parking meter at the dump and was tricking people into paying it at various locations around town.

I actually would have liked to see what became of the kids if they were sent to different, horrible schools.  Although, since Springfield is the worst school in the state, it couldn't have been worse (at least academically).  I was sort of rooting for Bart to fail, which it looked like he was going to do because he didn't put an ounce of effort into studying.  It reminded me of that very earlier episode where Bart had to study really hard to stop himself from being held back.  He studied really hard and failed, but proved that he had learned something and got a little extra credit.  In this episode, he just had pure luck, and a bug happened to fill in the last question correctly for him.  I guess that's more likely than Bart doing well on a test through his own merits.  That, short of someone dressing up like Bart and taking the test for him, was one of the few ways it was going to work to keep the school open (status quo).  Again, though, I would have liked to see the kids at a different school for a brief moment.

This story wasn't really funny, but I did find myself laughing when Bart imagined that Groundskeeper Willie was lowering a dead Skinner from a flagpole and folding him into a triangle.  That was a little twisted, but for some reason I had to laugh.  I guess it was because it was such a serious moment for Bart and he was still thinking about screwing Skinner over.  No wonder they were ready to knock down the school as soon as the test was over--Bart was so freaking unreliable.

I also liked one line from the proctor concerning the kids' test results:

This place is worse than the elementary school in prison.  This student filled in everything but the ovals.

This story really reminded me of how dumb the kids are at that school.  With kids doing the direct opposite of what they're supposed to do in a test, I'm not entirely sure it's because of the lackluster staff that teach them that they can't even fill in circles.

Homer's story was sort of cute.  I mean, there's nothing like watching Homer going around trying to scam people for a quick buck, especially if it's in a way that seems more trouble than it's worth.  It reminds me of the time he had the telemarketing scam going on--he was right that this fake parking meter was his most successful business.  The thing that was dumb was that he went to spend the money at a bus station pay-TV.  He might as well have been tossing all the money he "worked" for down a well (which he did, in a disappointing conclusion).  Then again, I guess Homer couldn't very well go around town spending quarters like that when there was a news report about his illegal activities.  Still, it would have been nice to see him do something fun with that money before Marge found out and made him do the "right" thing.

Oh, I also thought the couch gag was nice.  Usually, I just ignore it and just wish the episode would start, but I liked seeing them make them sitting on the couch see like a dramatic, action-packed movie trailer.  The tagline "Don't get too comfortable" made me laugh.

This episode was a little better than some of the others just because it wasn't very annoying in any way really.  I tend to like the stories that revolve around the school, especially when the main character is going to be Bart.  He's shown that when push comes to shove, some kind of unbelievable luck will pull him through and never any kind of effort upon his part (at least where learning is concerned) will.  Homer and his parking meter were a great pair in business, but he barely even got to enjoy the fruits from his misdeeds.  I miss Homer trying all these bad ideas to get money outside of doing his own job properly--it feels like we don't get to see him doing nearly enough of that nowadays.