Four Weddings and a Funeral Review: Four Friends and a Secret (Season 1 Episode 9)

Multiple storylines come to a head on Four Weddings and a Funeral Season 1 Episode 9, “Four Friends and a Secret.”

The episode is filled with one big moment after another, to the extent that Craig’s first true meeting with his daughter and Ainsley and Bryce’s reunion feel like afterthoughts.

In almost any other episode, those moments would feel like huge turning points, but they’re somehow the less important plot points here.

The Duffy-Gemma coupling that the show has been hinting at for some time at last comes to fruition. Gemma, like Zara, has grown into one of the most endearing characters on the show.

With that said, her characterization here seems uneven. On one hand, it’s understandable that Gemma would struggle with jealousy when Duffy reveals he’s going on a date with a woman he met on Bumble.

On the other hand, it’s surprising that she struggles to articulate herself clearly in this moment and again when she skirts around the fact that she looks forward to her drives with Duffy because she’s in love with him.

While Duffy’s willingness to confess that she’s his favorite person to spend time with is admirable, there is something about that moment that doesn’t feel entirely honest.

For weeks now, Gemma’s been direct with Duffy, telling him to get his act together or have more confidence. It’s interesting that when push comes to shove that Gemma isn’t direct with Duffy about her feelings for him.

It doesn’t seem as consistent with the relationship dynamic we’ve seen between them before.

It’s also disappointing that we didn’t get an opportunity to actually see any of these aforementioned drives. We’ve been robbed of valuable content!

While Gemma and Duffy have only played small roles over the past few episodes, it’s been clear — even in these brief glimpses — that their comfort level and rapport with each other has been developing.

It’s to John Reynolds and Zoe Boyle’s credit that every moment we’ve seen of these two has counted, and that something as small as musings about the movie Coco could feel flirtatious. Still, a bit more insight into their connection would have been nice.

Speaking of another couple where it might be nice to have more insight into their connection, there’s the matter of Tony 2 and Andrew. 

These two are an odd match. After all, Tony’s mother refers to Andrew as a “butler from a cartoon” when he shows up on their family’s doorstep to propose marriage to Tony. 

While the coupling itself still seems underdeveloped, Four Weddings and a Funeral does deserve some credit for how they have avoided having this storyline go full rom-com trope.

As an aside, I adore Love Actually, but there are multiple moments on this episode where the show felt like it was going to echo that movie and veer into schmaltzy territory and it (thankfully!) did not.

While it was always a given that Andrew would seriously consider changing his vote, there were some unexpected twists. In most rom-coms Tony would have still accepted Andrew’s statement-making marriage proposal as his whole family looked on.

Later, when Andrew defies his party and votes no on the bill, essentially killing the immigration bill and damning his political career, no one else is roused by his attempt at an inspirational speech and urgings to not close the borders and instead “open [their] hearts.”

In most fare, this would be the moment where cold politicians would realize their wrongful ways, but realistically…they did not.

This moment illuminated something the show has done well: showcase the awkwardness that can accompany moments we tend to romanticize.

As in Ainsley’s case in Episode 8 “Game Night,” rousing confessions of love sometimes fall flat. Other times, like Duffy  in Episode 6 “Lights, Camera, Wedding,” you realize you’re caught in the middle of someone else‘s love story. 

As much as certain parts of this show may be wish fulfillment, it’s not afraid to try to show aspects of love that are a little messier and less rosy.

You can’t discuss messy without discussing Maya and Kash. Ironically, this episode is the one where they have the most chemistry and where Nathalie Emmanuel does her best work (maybe she’s just better at playing sadness rather than happiness and comedy?)

Ainsley’s reaction to the revelation that Maya and Kash are together is about as terrible as you expect it will be and reality finally seems to set in for Maya.

It’s been confounding and troublesome that Maya hasn’t exhibited more angst about her decision to pursue a relationship with Kash.

Her devastated sobs to Kash that they’re bad people and can’t start a relationship given how they’re hurting Ainsley makes sense, but also feels many episodes too late.

She’s clearly affected by seeing Ainsley’s pain but it does beg the question: what did she think was going to happen when Ainsley found out?

Given that she tries to defend herself and explain that Kash was the caramel Ryan Gosling she’d instantly clicked with long ago, and couldn’t resist, the only reasonable explanation is that she had deluded herself so much in order to justify her selfish actions. 

On the last episode, she remarked to Kash that what they had was worth giving everything else up for, but based on her reactions on this episode, she hadn’t really fully weighed what that meant.

While it’s possible that Ainsley will forgive Maya, there’s a large part of me that hopes she won’t. This is a significant breach in their friendship and trust, and I don’t see how something like that would easily be forgiven.

Even if Ainsley gets past the fact that Maya is with Kash, the fact that she lied for so long is a huge issue.

Four Weddings and a Funeral has tended to have a balance of grounded realistic plot lines and more whimsical fodder, so it will be interesting to see which way it leans in wrapping up this story on the next episode.

Stray observations:

• Zara is all of us. Upon finding out that Maya is with Kash, she remarks, “I didn’t think Maya was capable of doing something so interesting.”
• Keanu Reeves is really having a comeback these days. First, a winning appearance in Always Be My Baby, and now the apparent model of excellence for Kash’s dad, who wants Kash to go be the “Pakistani Keanu Reeves” in NYC.
• If I was a betting woman, I’d say our fourth and final wedding will be Duffy and Gemma and that setting will be used as a backdrop for Ainsley and Maya’s eventual reunion. 

What did you think of this episode of Four Weddings and a Funeral? What are your final predictions for who will walk down the aisle in our last wedding? Will Kash still follow Maya to New York? Will Craig finally reveal his true identity to his daughter? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Four Weddings and a Funeral airs Wednesdays on Hulu.

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