You’re the Worst Review: The Only Thing That Helps (Season 3 Episode 7)

Starting with a strong montage about Jimmy’s struggles to find inspiration for his writing, You’re the Worst season 3 episode 7, “The Only Thing that Helps,” goes deeper into Jimmy’s grieving process as a box of his father’s ashes arrives on his doorstep unexpectedly.

With the arrival of the ashes, Jimmy’s creative process is put on hold once again. Unable to deal with his loss, Jimmy blames his father for his failure to concentrate. Gretchen’s offer to help leads to sex, the go-to activity of the two to avoid any sort of responsibility… at least for a moment.

Gretchen seems uncharacteristically put-together in this episode. Okay, she does begin to treat the front yard as a garbage dump, but other than that, her actions are surprisingly tame compared to what she has gone through in the previous episodes. After talking to Jimmy about the importance of closure, a fact she learned from her therapist, Jimmy, who is slightly drunk and deeply in denial, agrees to a memorial.

Jimmy: Dad, I hope you truly do rest in peace… as opposed to how you usually rest — in a pair of urine-soaked sweatpants.

Everyone deals with grief differently, and while Jimmy’s way to do it might seem kind of ridiculous, there are little moments there that make his grieving process incredibly touching. Situating the tin of ashes on the table while he writes, Jimmy pours a drink for his father and reads his unfinished novel (which sounds awesomely pretentious) out loud.

Gretchen’s professional life has been on the backburner for a while as the show has focused more on the personal lives of its characters, but “The Only Thing that Helps” introduces Gretchen to a new client — the singer-songwriter Ben Folds, “just a regular guy from North Carolina.”

By the end of “The Only Thing that Helps,” Gretchen’s personal and professional lives collide as Ben Folds shows up to the memorial with his piano. Fittingly to the nature of the show, he is also there to gain something for himself, as proved by his attempts to sell Ben Folds merchandise to the memorial guests.

While Ben Folds might lack the charm and hilarity Gretchen’s previous clients have added to the show, here’s to hoping that Gretchen’s professional life becomes a more pronounced aspect of the narrative again! Jimmy’s writing has gotten quite a lot of narrative attention recently, so maybe now’s Gretchen’s turn.

Revelations made at the memorial make Jimmy feel like he has been betrayed by his father for one last time. Feeling like he was deprived of a chance to have closure (and a chance to say goodbye), Jimmy delivers a heartfelt speech to the tin of ashes, a sort of eulogy just for him and the remains of his father.

As his attempt to let the ashes go fails, the scene shifts very quickly from a brief moment of hilarity caused by his failure to a moment of complete heartbreak.

As the ashes fall on him, Jimmy realizes, probably for the first time, the true nature of his loss, and the walls that he has built around himself fall down. 

While the ashes disturb Jimmy’s day to day life, at the Jillian residence the introduction of Raul from Swingerhole.com makes Paul question his promise to be more open to Lindsay’s wishes.

Seeing Paul trying so hard to make Lindsay happy, while Lindsay continually finds reasons to be unhappy, makes the future of their relationship incredibly interesting to speculate about. More so than Gretchen and Jimmy, who clearly are meant for each other in their often shared horribleness, Lindsay and Paul seem so unsuited for each other that maybe, at the end of the day, they will actually become an example of those “opposites attract” couples everyone keeps talking about.

The saying “all relationships require sacrifices” really comes alive with Paul and Lindsay. The horror on Paul’s face when he watches Lindsay with Raul definitely brings up the fact that he is ready to do anything for his family, even if that includes watching the woman he loves with someone else.

After last week’s episode, which brought all of the principal characters together into a shared storyline, “The Only Thing That Helps” effectively introduces separate storylines for the characters — Jimmy’s grieving process, Gretchen’s professional life, the struggles of Lindsay and Paul, and the continuing attempts of Edgar to get better.

There are six episodes of the third season of You’re the Worst left, which means there is definitely still time for the storylines established in this episode to develop.

The main questions “The Only Thing That Helps” brings up include whether the inclusion of Raul to Lindsay and Paul’s relationship will actually help them or further drift them apart, whether Edgar is able to really take control of his recovering process, and whether Jimmy really has gained closure now.

What did you think of this episode of You’re the Worst? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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You’re the Worst airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FXX.

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