Bless This Mess Review: The Tornado: Part 2 (Season 2 Episode 20)

Bless This Mess Season 2 Episode 20, “Tornado Season: Part 2,” brings the season to a close while highlighting one of the show’s central themes — community. When Bucksnort is faced with a possible disaster, everyone puts their differences aside and lends each other a hand.

Every single one of us goes through some tough times. On occasion, the problems are our fault, but other times, life is completely taken out of our hands. No one can control a tornado, we can only control how we react to it.

One would think Bucksnort would be well-versed in the incident of a tornado popping up. With a majority of the townspeople living in the area their whole life, preparing for these inevitable events should be second nature. To some extent, they are, by having well-equipped storm shelters.

On the other hand, the way Rudy and Constance zoom around town in a panic screams amateur. 

With Mike and Rio being the least experienced in the situation, it would be understandable if they were up in arms about what seems like impending doom, but for the most part, they seem calm enough. Mike gathers up everything not tied down while Rio sorts out this whole pregnancy ordeal.

I can only assume that the preparedness of their neighbors gives them an amount of comfort in this time of chaos.

While panic creates more panic, a sense of calm can saturate a situation, unraveling the tension and keeping anxiety at bay. A community of levelheadedness promotes ease instead of erratic behavior. By focusing on something else besides the elephant in the room, we can keep things in perspective without dwelling on all the possibilities of the worst-case scenario. 

Rio, Kay, and Janine all do this by sorting out which one of them is pregnant. 

Surprise, surprise, Rio has messed up the order of the pregnancy tests. With one of them testing positive, the need to know which one it belongs to is quite dire.

Honestly, I had a feeling they were all going to come back positive, giving us a quasi set of triplets next season. This could have given us some major laughs from the antics of three very different mothers. Instead, they chose to use the situation to build tension between the characters giving us an even more heightened sense of urgency.

I must admit, it works quite well.

When communication begins to break down between the three ladies, Rio tries to reign them all back in by focusing on the fact that there is new life budding in the room with them. She comments that now is not a time to point fingers or exclude anybody — it is a time to celebrate. 

I, for one, am glad that Rio singles this event out as a blessing. Many times in this current age, a child is seen as a nuisance, getting in the way of people’s dreams and passions. It warms my heart to see Rio embrace the situation, using it as a means to draw people together.

After all, as the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child.

Meanwhile, Beau and Mike continue to bicker between themselves. Beau is bending over backward to help Mike gather the chickens and anything else not tied down at the moment. Mike begrudgingly accepts the help but doesn’t do so graciously.

Even when people offer an apology for wronging us, we feel the need to punish them. Truthfully, we will forgive them in the long run, but it needs to be on our time and by our say so. Sadly, forgive and forget isn’t really in our vocabulary. 

Eventually, Beau comes clean to Mike about why he acted the way he did. This removes the blinders from Mike’s eyes and gives him over to compassion. My feelings are Mike actually sees himself in the scenario and possibly pictures himself acting likewise.

It is awesome to see Mike’s partially hardened heart crumble in mere seconds. 

He understands the stress of trying to keep everything afloat and knows that when danger befalls the family, a man will go against himself to make things right again. 

Kay: How are your doorknockers feeling?

As I knew he would, Mike offers to back away from the deal with Dolores, giving strange excuses as to why his chickens are subpar to Beau’s. Of course, Beau isn’t done giving himself a guilt trip, so he refuses the deal calling it an act of pity.

They go back and forth between each other, and Dolores is caught in between them. Never once does she offer a word of advice or incentive. It is clear she is a businesswoman and that’s it. Not a friend, comrade, or partner, just someone who is looking to make a buck.

This is there to show the opposite of community. Her apathy does nothing to help the situation. She doesn’t see herself affected by the outcome, so she doesn’t bother with the details.

As the tornado hits closer to home, everyone bunkers down and rides out the storm safely. Although our main characters keep everything intact, not everyone in Bucksnort is that lucky.

With the “overwhelming” destruction taking its toll on the town, Mike brainstorms an idea that not only keeps Beau and him in the deal with Dolores but also includes the entire town. By including everyone in on a co-op, everyone can be made whole — breathing new life into a town that could go bankrupt otherwise. 

This idea binds everything and everyone together. No one has to choose to go without, and everyone gets their fair share. Even Dolores makes out ahead by getting good PR. Bailing out a small town that has met disaster head-on can only promote positivity. 

With community, everyone’s goals are met simultaneously leaving no one behind to fend for themselves. With community, we all grow stronger giving us all fewer expenditures. With community, we prosper as a whole inspiring others to act similarly.

That’s what it is all about folks — coming together in a crisis. 

I can’t help but notice how this episode mirrors our current situation. With all the negativity being passed around, choose to seek out the positives. 

The positives often get hidden under a pile of finger-pointing articles and conspiracy theories, but they are out there — people coming together for the greater good. 

What did you think of this episode of Bless This Mess?  Are you excited for Rio’s baby? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Bless This Mess airs Tuesdays 8:30/7:30c on ABC.

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