Written by Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass
Directed by Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass
Airs at 9:30 PM (ET) on Sunday on HBO
The decisions Togetherness makes in its season finale are poignant and borderline tragic not just because of what they mean for these characters’ futures, but because the entire season has been leading up to some manifestation of these confrontations. The slow sense of foreboding that has surrounded Michelle and Brett’s marriage or Alex and Tina’s friendship allows the audience to marinate in the anticipation of a catastrophe, making the end points of each of the four in “Not So Together” much more gut wrenching than if they were to arrive completely out of left field.
The finale begins with Tina, Alex, Michelle, and Brett enjoying one last meal together before Tina moves in with Larry and breaks up the dysfunctional foursome. After that point, the four leads don’t appear on screen together at the same time, but there is enough mixing and matching of conversations between them that they still feel like a cohesive group even as each of them falls apart in a different way. Michelle talks to Brett, who talks to Alex, who talks to Tina, who talks to Michelle, and so on. Each interaction deals with varying levels of emotional instability but they all boil down to the fact that each of these people are dealing with insecurities on a very deep level that they have no idea how to handle on their own for the most part. Even Michelle’s eventual decision to give in to her feelings about David comes after an extended note passing session in their hotel (not dissimilar to two crushes in a high school math class).
Throughout the season, Michelle and Brett have been reticent to explicitly state their feelings about their marriage despite moments of clarity from both of them. Michelle’s commitment to her marriage was, up until this episode, partially the result of a societal push to stick with it until it works itself out. Not that she doesn’t love Brett, but most of her wavering is due not to unsure feelings for her husband but that of another man. Keeping a marriage together because of bygone years of love and for the children has its merits, yet her choice to be with David in that moment is almost definitely the correct choice for her at this point in her life. Melanie Lynskey does a wonderful job portraying the pure giddiness that Michelle feels as she is passing the flirtatious note back and forth, followed almost immediately by the paralyzing expression of a person that doesn’t know what the ramifications of her next move could be if she gives in. The entire hotel “conversation” with David and Michelle is as tense a sequence as Togetherness has done yet and forces the audience to hold their breath in between every message with the same stress that the characters on screen are soaked in. After her persuasive and passionate speech about her children at the charter school meeting, this is an episode filled with professional and personal highs for Michelle. It should be noted that she is not blatantly trying to look sexy or beautiful in her suit, as she has done multiple times previously, yet she looks gorgeous anyway due to the confidence she finally has in herself.
Brett also gets a chance to be overly confident in his decisions, continuing a trend that began when he met Linda, but his imminent profession of love to Michelle has a tinge of melancholy to it because the audience knows that it can’t possibly pan out as he hopes, even if he doesn’t realize it yet. Brett and Alex’s friendship is the strongest pairing on the show to end the season and as each man has either recently experienced heartbreak or is about to, they will need to rely on each more than ever in the coming months. The difference with Alex’s sadness and Brett’s is that at least after the former’s teary dismissal at the hands of Tina, he could turn to his best friend to deal with the hurt. His time in New Orleans might be a mixed bag of excitement about his role and the sting of rejection, but at least he had the opportunity to get a hug from his closest ally before getting on the plane. Once Brett finds out about Michelle, who will he turn to if Alex isn’t back in LA yet? Brett’s excitement about recommitting to his marriage is underscored with sadness even further because the episode makes sure to show how good a father he can be when he isn’t plagued by depression-like symptoms. Him going to the beach voluntarily and having a great time with his children proves that he isn’t so disconnected as he seems and that his love for his kids can still trump and professional or marital bumps.
Tina doesn’t receive as much attention as the other three, but Amanda Peet’s performance this episode makes sure her emotional state stands out just as sharply as characters with double the screen time. Alex’s city-spanning bike ride is almost definitely deranged, rude, and in complete disregard for the potential happiness of others, but it is sincere enough to throw Tina off her axis for the duration of her relaxing stay at the hotel with Larry. The shot of Amanda Peet in the pool leaning against the side is one of many stunning shots this episode (also great work by the Duplass Brothers: the opening shot of the city blanketed in an orange sunrise, Brett driving home to close the episode, Alex staring forlornly at nothing on the plane, Santa Monica Pier as Alex gets to the beach, and Michelle in the hotel bathtub). She could be contemplating the entirety of the universe just as soon as she could be thinking about nothing at all, which is such an accurate portrayal of the human condition, and Peet deserves most of the credit for that simple stare. That single look sums up the pervasive mood of the episode itself; the feeling that everything or nothing is about to happen, that your whole life is about to tumble out from underneath itself just as soon as you make a decision one way or another. For the time being, Togetherness remains in limbo, waiting until its second season, which means the audience is mired in this painful, lovely, gloomy limbo as well.