The Baker and The Beauty Review: Ruin My Life (Season 1 Episode 2)

As Noa celebrates her birthday with business, the Garcias find themselves dealing with an influx in customers and a challenge from a local food critic on The Baker and The Beauty Season 1 Episode 2, “Ruin My Life.”

The hour continues to build on the pilot, offering more depth to Daniel and Noa’s budding relationship, and the Garcia family dynamic, while also bringing more light-hearted fun.

The bakery’s dealing with a massive influx of hipsters and customers in the face of the new publicity. While Rafael’s prospering, it lands them in the sights of a renowned local food critic, who places a wild order.

It’s sweet to see Mari and Mateo supporting Rafael as he sets out to complete the order of 50 extravagant pastelitos, the magnificos. Through massive order and malfunctioning ovens, they make it work, leading to a secured positive review.

The food critic’s story allows for some more time with the Garcia family, including offering up more of Mateo. Even when Daniel wasn’t available, Mateo making an effort to help fix the ovens.

Despite his failure, it’s nice to see Rafael and Mari’s reaction to him as being supportive of that effort. There’s always a concern that a character that can play up the laughs will be turned into the perpetual punchline, but The Baker and The Beauty give Mateo this moment to add another dimension to him beyond the funny screw-up.

While Mateo, Mari, and Rafael are dealing with the bakery’s challenges, Daniel’s dealing with a further introduction to Noa’s world in the form of her birthday blowout. Daniel begins feeling out of his depth almost immediately when he arrives in his bakery truck.

It’s only when he’s about to leave that you realize that Lewis’ words have stayed with him.

The entire night—from Noa’s conversation with Lewis to her call with her mother, and fraught relationship with her birthday—adds another side that allows for a deeper dive with Daniel.

The pair’s quiet moment after the phone call is lovely and continues to build on the foundation set. Despite their sweet moment, it still feels sudden that Daniel jumps from Vanessa to Noa in such a short span, ending the episode with a kiss and a nighttime dip.

Of course, Vanessa’s decision after getting stood up via text message leads her to plan what will probably be a disastrous scheme to prove that she’s the one for Daniel.

I’m curious to see what will become of Vanessa’s plan and how much it will come into play when it comes to Daniel’s relationship with Noa and her celebrity status. How will she get the Garcias to see that she’s the one for him? And how much cringing will it cause?

Does anyone else think the jump is sudden? How much of an obstacle will Lewis and Vanessa present for Noa and Daniel?

Random Thoughts

• Mateo’s Calle Ocho song is fun, and I’m glad that it’s not solely existing to be a punchline.
• It’s nice to know that Lewis’ sense of protectiveness stems from their years of him seeing her grow up.
• Seeing Natalie making friends and joking is heartwarming. I wonder where we’ll see her story go as the season goes on?

What did you think of this episode of The Baker and The Beauty? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Beauty and The Baker airs Mondays at 10/9c on ABC.

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