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Casual season 3, episode 6 recap: The ups and downs of Troubleshooting

By Brittany Frederick

CASUAL -- "Troubleshooting" Episode 306 -- Alex reacquaints himself with the demands of working full-time. Valerie catches up with Jennifer and learns an intriguing secret about Jack. Laura goes door-to-door collecting signatures, while interning for a new environmental group. Leon (Nyasha Hatendi), shown.(Photo by: Greg Lewis/Hulu)
CASUAL -- "Troubleshooting" Episode 306 -- Alex reacquaints himself with the demands of working full-time. Valerie catches up with Jennifer and learns an intriguing secret about Jack. Laura goes door-to-door collecting signatures, while interning for a new environmental group. Leon (Nyasha Hatendi), shown.(Photo by: Greg Lewis/Hulu) /
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Loose lips sink relationships in the sixth episode of Casual season 3, but what’s more interesting is what “Troubleshooting” sees on the horizon.

Can you believe that we’re halfway through the third season of Hulu‘s Casual already? This week’s episode “Troubleshooting” is the sixth installment of 13, and it’s also the proverbial “aha” moment where we finally get where all this is going.

In “Troubleshooting,” Valerie’s (Michaela Watkins) penchant for casual sex (ha) gets her into trouble, as she finds out the coffee shop guy she’s been sleeping with didn’t tell her he has a girlfriend.

She discovers the truth when said angry girlfriend comes to her office and has an off-screen confrontation with Leia (Julie Berman). It’s too bad that the yelling doesn’t get shown, because one can only imagine that it would have been an absolutely epic scene for the truly underrated Julie Berman.

Leia still has the best line of this episode of Casual:

"Valerie: Have you ever actually been in a fistfight?Leia: Multiple. I am 25 percent white trash on my father’s side."

A newly single Valerie doesn’t stay unattached for long. She rekindles her friendship with last season’s BFF Jennifer (Katie Aselton), which leads her to reconnect with last season’s love interest Jack (Kyle Bornheimer). Valerie torpedoes her friendship with Jennifer by telling Jack that Jennifer said he’s a sex addict, but that appears to be secondary to her and Jack reuniting.

Meanwhile, Laura (Tara Lynne Barr) also can’t stay on the sidelines. She starts her new job, and on her first day, sleeps with the college kid assigned to supervise her. Laura quickly realizes Todd isn’t all he’s cracked up to be, though, and walks out on him midway through their second hookup.

The real meat of “Troubleshooting,” though, comes from Alex’s (Tommy Dewey) storyline. He also is on his first day as the IT guy at Enframe, and he’s terrible at it because he’s not actually trained in IT. Not only that, but he has to spend the day hearing about how great his predecessor was. It’s no wonder that he eventually finds himself in HR, and that’s where things get interesting.

The HR representative is named Judy, because she’s played by the phenomenally talented Judy Greer (Archer). It’s a bit hard to look at Judy Greer in an office setting and not hear her yelling “You’re not my supervisor!” but she’s a comedic professional, and it’s not long before she and Tommy Dewey are trading banter. Nothing quite as dicey as Cheryl/Carol would say, but give it time.

The addition of Greer is a great get for Casual, particularly playing off Dewey, who’s a master at deadpan yet razor-sharp humor. Add in some scene-stealing from Nyasha Hatendi as Leon has to once again come to the rescue (you have to love how everyone always calls Leon like he’s some sort of human panic button), and “Troubleshooting” has plenty of entertaining moments.

It just leaves Casual fans wondering what’s next. As we saw in season 2, the combination of Jack and Valerie is dangerous, and Valerie herself can’t seem to hold onto one person either. And it’s a treat to see Alex making an effort to make friends with his cosplaying roommate, realizing that he needs to branch out too.

This could be the episode that spins all the characters in new directions, and that could be fantastic for them and for the show, as long as we don’t have to keep talking about Erik and his possible anime porn addiction. But the fact that we just had to type that sentence shows that in this season of Casual, just about anything can happen.

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New episodes of Casual stream Tuesdays on Hulu. For more on Casual season 3, be sure to check out our interview with Tara Lynne Barr here, and our interview with Tommy Dewey here.