Casual season 3, episode 5 recap: ‘Look At Me’ or maybe don’t

This week’s episode of Casual involves the eternal struggle between what you want and what you need, but can either Valerie or Alex make the right choice?

So far, the third season of Hulu‘s Casual is in full-blown mid-life crisis mode, with its characters facing problems that wouldn’t be out of place in a teen drama. But because these are adults, it’s less crying and more just wallowing in awkwardness. Funny awkwardness, but definitely awkwardness.

Having made her storytelling class more complicated by sleeping with her classmate Byron (Chace Crawford) in last week’s episode, Valerie (Michaela Watkins) agrees to a second date but immediately regrets it. What results is the world’s most uncomfortable dinner scene, with Val getting progressively more drunk until she winds up sleeping with him again.

You can see this coming from a mile away: after she dumps him, Byron uses their fling as the impetus for his next story, giving her a thinly veiled and very public metaphorical middle finger. It’s hard to blame him for being upset.

Meanwhile, Alex (Tommy Dewey) is still on the path to attempted normalcy. He lands a job interview where he’s surprised to find he’s now in the “people your age” group. He agrees to go on a date with Val’s landlord Tina (Jamie Chung) just to be Val’s escape route (similar to the pilot), but winds up unloading on her. This surprisingly works out for him.

In fact, it’d be a perfect episode for Alex if his Airbnb roommate didn’t bring over a bunch of her friends to party in his house and then blurt out that he’s unemployed, which is an immediate date killer. With Casual, there’s always a “but” somewhere.

And Laura (Tara Lynne Barr) continues to loathe her summer job. She’s taken up flat-out lying to people. But she suddenly starts caring when she’s made wise to who is bankrolling said job, and has a public explosion. At least she meets Casey, who offers her an internship.

It’s interesting to see how at this point Casual has completely turned the tables. Once-stable Valerie, perhaps unhinged by the revelation that she’s got a different father, is sleeping with guys on a whim and moving on just as fast.

Meanwhile, Alex, who started the show as the carefree bachelor, is having a serious rethink of his life and swallowing his pride by getting a job at a company he completely loathes. He’s taking a huge blow to his pride trying to find the stability that he’s never had. Will he be the one giving Val life lessons eventually?

The only downer in “Look At Me” is the complete absence of both Leon (Nyasha Hatendi) and Leia (Julie Berman). They’re such great supporting players that you notice when they’re not around. But heaven knows what they’d say about the events in this episode.

We’re well into Casual season 3 at this point and the characters are going off into completely new directions that are showing us sides of them we haven’t seen before. At the same time, they’re directions that are unexpected and even a little bit maddening.

And maybe that’s the point; you don’t have to agree with or even like what the characters are doing. Casual isn’t about a search for the audience’s approval; it’s about Alex, Valerie and Laura not even being able to get their own approval. How far will they go to be happy, and how much will they screw up along the way?

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For more on Casual season 3, be sure to check out FanSided’s interview with Tommy Dewey by clicking here.