Up All Night - 1x08 - First Night Away

Aww, okay now that was fucking sweet. I mean, not in like a "fuckin sweet brah" kind of way, but in a just...just, you know... awww, motherfucker! Reagan and Chris decide it's finally time for them to spend a night away from little Amy so they can get their swerve on, leaving Ava to babysit little Amy and flirt with Studly Single Dad Jason Lee. And aside from a few painfully awkward moments with the hotel clerk, everyone comes out of this episode looking pretty awesome and like someone you'd like to get to know better. Fuckin Sweet, Brah.

There's not really much to the plot. After a series of interruptus to their coitus, Reagan puts her foot down and lines up a special evening involving "doin' it and our babysitter Patricia". I do give Chris credit for not actually saying anything until Reagan explains that the babysitter will watch little Amy for the night, while the two lovebirds spend the night at the World Famous Beverly Hilton Hotel (I assume World Famous is part of the name). Chris is a little nervous about being away from Amy for the first time, but when Reagan points out that, as we learned last week, Chris probably doesn't have much more time left on earth to tap Christina Applegate's fine ass, he gets on board. Patricia bails at the last minute though, so they're forced to call on Ava for emergency babysitting duties, a task which she is surprisingly up for, considering her previously established inability to share the same room as Amy for more than 45 seconds.

"One more step and I'll send the carriage careening into
traffic!"

I'm not sure I would've left a sea monkey in Ava's care, never mind a fully formed human with a prominent soft spot, but she actually turns out to be a pretty adept babysitter. She's adequately (and hilariously) wary of strangers approaching Amy, seems to have few problems actually feeding her and getting her to bed and stuff. I mean, she has a lot of help from #1-On-The-Emergency-Contacts-List Neighbor Kevin, played a VERY Paul Blackthorne-esque looking Jason Lee. Neighbor Kevin's scruffy, affable, and divorced single dad-ness charms Ava pretty much immediately and despite her initial reluctance to even let Amy give him a high five, she doesn't need a cliche "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you! I love you!" plot to get her flirt on. It's surprisingly actually really sweet. I didn't think Ava had this ... genuineness in her. She's still undeniably Ava (like gleefully interrogating Kevin's daughter about the status of her mother while also tossing in a few insincere "I'm sorry about your broken home"'s), but she's also open and vulnerable without turning into a Lifetime movie. Her early-episode speech to Reagan about how she just needs to meet a normal guy, while  cheapening the whole Jason Lee thing with heavy-handed foreshadowing, was actually another genuine and sweet moment between two friends that was not ruined by the over the top buffoonery that Ava's usually reduced too. Bottom line is she straddles the line between Ava-esque and normal person very well this episode, cluing us in as to why other people would actually want to get to know her. Awww.

Seriously though.

Back at the hotel, the parents, though a little nervous and on a hair trigger to head back at the first sign of trouble (Chris comes this close to straight up carjacking a valet), are having a pretty sweet date night. Chris insists on being romanced before he gives it up, so Reagan valley-girl asks him to the fancy Prom some high school is having in the hotel. As usual, Christina Applegate pulls off earnest-yet-hilarious valley-girl perfec--wait hold on! A High School Prom already in a hotel? Are they at least handing out condoms at the door? For their part Chris and Reagan are walking around pretend chaperoning the kids, insisting they leave room for Jesus and all that jazz. It's actually cute. Especially since it only takes them about forty seconds to start doing everything they've just yelled at the kids for. Once Chris asks the DJ to play their song and it turns out to be Sabotage, I'm officially in love with this couple.

The most romantic of the Beastie Boys oeuvre, no joke.

"I WILL SHIT ON YOUUUUUU!!!"

Later unanswered phone call to Ava panics the two and sets off the aforementioned hair trigger, and before you can say "twirl that sexy stocking Kelly Bundy", they've driven all the way back to their house. Peeking in through the back window, they can see everything's fine, and Ava's even called Kevin for little child-care backup. They accidentally trigger Ava's hilariously scary ass Mama Bear protecting instincts when they make a noise ("I'VE GOT A GLOCK IN MY PURSE!"), but manage to stay long enough to see Ava and Kevin kiss. Aww. Afraid of the Glock in Ava's purse they high tail it out of there back to the hotel where, inspired by the blossoming love they just saw, they share a night of epic, hungry, passionate uninterrupted sleep. Oh and they also had sex.

Other random thoughts:

• Ava's now-ex, Julian. So contemptibly douchey, he emits a douche-chills radius of 500 milli-Pivens. His belly-chain presents just seal the deal. "I love it when there's a sparkle in your navel." Poor Missy who seems to be his latest victim.
• Chris singing Cat's in the Cradle before he's forced to leave Amy. That joke never gets old.
• Hated the buffoonery at the hotel clerk's desk. Horrible shades of Cool Neighbors. 
• I don't know why, but it's weird seeing another guy's shirt being pulled up from the back during make-outs. It's obviously true to life, but I just think I wasn't prepared to see Will Arnett's pale trampstampzone come out of nowhere. Pretty sure that's what he meant when he said they'd scarred Amy for life.