You’re the Worst Review: A Bunch of Hornballs (Season 4 Episode 8)
On You’re the Worst Season 4 Episode 8 “A Bunch of Hornballs,” Gretchen throws Lindsey a divorce party while Jimmy travels to promote his book at an erotica convention.
After a steady series of particularly strong episodes, it’s rather disappointing to find an episode of You’re the Worst that isn’t amazing.
Granted, not everything has to be amazing and not every episode of You’re the Worst has to live to the standard that this season has set it to. That hardly changes the fact that “A Bunch of Hornballs” is easily one of the weakest episodes of the season.
The main problem with the episode is that characters either don’t have an arc throughout, are rehashing something the show has already done earlier, or are just vaguely unsatisfying. To be fair, everyone gets stuff to do in this episode, even Paul, who crashes Lindsey’s party. It’s just that what they’re doing is slightly underwhelming.
“A Bunch of Hornballs” exists primarily to propel and set up characters for where they need to be for the last stretch of the season.
Gretchen, for example, needs to be neck deep in her relationship chicken with Boone (Colin Ferguson) to put her in a position to make things right again with Jimmy, and while that final exchange with them on the phone is perfect and sublime, it feels like a manipulation on the show’s part.
Jimmy, on the other hand, has no arc to speak of. The only redeeming bit of the Jimmy section of this episode is the aforementioned telephone call. Anything beyond that is transient and meaningless.
This is perhaps because Jimmy is only truly interesting as a character when it has to do with Gretchen. The way that interacts with her and lights up whenever she’s in the proximity is what makes Jimmy worthwhile. Anything outside of that is banal and rote.
Gretchen does not have that problem. Aya Cash could have a cactus as a stage partner and it would still be some of the best acting on television right now. Chris Geere is great and does a lot to make Jimmy a likable character, but he’s only capable of doing so much with that.
The cold fact of the matter is Jimmy needs Gretchen, but Gretchen does not need Jimmy, which makes that final scene — and some of Gretchen’s actions throughout the episode — somewhat maddening. She doesn’t need to deal with Jimmy in any significant way, nor does she need to set Boone up for failure.
This is a bit of the point of Gretchen, though. She doesn’t have to buy crack from a homeless guy, but she does. She doesn’t have to volunteer to throw Lindsey a divorce party, but she does. At the core of Gretchen, there is something that has sat for all her life: a deeply self-destructive streak.
To be happy would be to imply a measure of internal, existential success that Gretchen will never, at least at this point in her life, have fully. It’s what makes her a fascinating character and also one that should make you nervous at all possible times.
What did you think of this episode of You’re the Worst? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
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You’re the Worst airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FXX.
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Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.