Of all of our Best of the Year lists, “best episodes” is getting to be one of the hardest to pull together. Between binge models of release, strange multiple-episode drops on a weekly schedule, and old-school network TV seasons strewn across two calendar years, it’s hard to keep up with which episode aired when and included what, and even more difficult to remember specific episodes in a sea of Peak TV content in general.
Thankfully, our brilliant writers have put their heads together to make a point to seek these episodes out and uplift them, nominating and voting with the editors on the year’s best, along with notes to remind all of us what happened. As a result, below you’ll find some really stand-out chapters of great TV worth revisiting, with passionate commentary about why each was so good and made an impression on us in a year where TV networks tried very hard to completely overwhelm our senses.
To be eligible, episodes had to air between January 1st and November 30th of 2022. As for spoilers, we try to keep things relatively general—but if in doubt (if you haven’t watched yet) just scroll on by.
For more Best of the Year lists, check out our 25 best overall, as well as the best genre offerings like anime, reality TV, and LGBTQ shows.
“Review,” The Bear
Written by: Christopher Storer, Joanna Calo, and Sofya Levitsky-Weitz (story editor)
Directed by: Christopher Storer
Network: FX on Hulu
Who could have ever guessed that The Bear, a nitty-gritty dark comedy about the inner workings of the Chicago restaurant scene, would become the breakout show of the summer? The series centers on Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), a fine dining chef who returns to run his late brother’s sandwich shop, only to clash with the rest of the kitchen staff. The Bear has been critically praised for its uncomfortably realistic depiction of the restaurant environment, and its penultimate episode is by far the show’s stand-out.
In “Review,” the staff are preparing for their lunch rush and discover that Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) forgot to turn off their new digital pre-order system, leaving the shop with hundreds of tickets to prep for in 20 minutes. The episode features a stunning 18-minute take that painfully maneuvers through the kitchen’s descent into madness. As the clock ticks down, Carmy’s sanity quickly unravels as he manically shouts at everyone around him. The high-strung circumstances reach a peak when Sydney verbally assaults Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) before accidentally stabbing him with a kitchen knife, to which Carmy, without hesitation, quips back that he “probably deserved it.” “Review” is claustrophobic and disorienting, and its seemingly never-ending camera shot contributes to making an already tense environment feel all the more frantic. —Dianna Shen
“Sic Transit Gloria Mundi,” Yellowjackets
Written by: Ashley Lyle & Bart Nickerson
Directed by: Eduardo Sánchez
Network: Showtime
Yellowjackets gave us the wildest ride that TV had to offer throughout the course of its first season, and the crown jewel of that journey came in the form of the season finale. “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi” grabbed the wildly waving plot threads and tied them into what turned out to be a very neat bow.
In the present day, Misty (Christina Ricci) leads the rest of the group in the exercise of crime scene cleanup and body disposal. The crew then rolls up to their 25-year high school reunion where they’re met with Allie (Tonya Cornelisse), who somehow managed to worm her way into being in charge of the event despite not being a part of the class it’s celebrating. Presumably because all she knows how to do is exploit trauma she wasn’t actually a part of, Allie has made the reunion a team showcase that concluded in Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) and Jeff (Warren Kole) dancing together as a photo of Jackie stares down on them. Afterwards, Taissa (Jasmine Savoy Brown)—much to her surprise—wins her bid to become the first black female senator of New Jersey. Unfortunately, her wife finds their dog’s head and heart as a part of the creepiest shrine of all time, and the oddly menacing smile Brown leaves the season with is just… disconcerting. The biggest of the game changers comes in the form of the reveal that Lottie is still alive—and that she probably has an entire cult of people working for her who just kidnapped Natalie (Juliette Lewis).
Back in the ‘90s, we’re met with horrible emotional devastation of Jackie’s (Ella Purnell) death. For something you know is coming the entire season, the way this played out was brutal. At its core, Jackie’s fight with Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) was very high school (because, you know, they’re high schoolers), and the way they dealt with it was in the same vein. Banishing your friend from the room because you’re mad at her during a sleepover is par for the course-if this was an actual sleepover and not an abandoned cabin in the woods. Jackie freezing to death is a cruel way to go, and watching everyone find her in the morning was an incredibly tragic way to close things out. —Kathryn Porter
“I Still Believe,” Reservation Dogs
Written by: Tommy Pico
Directed by: Sterlin Harjo
Network: FX Network
Sterlin Harjo’s charming comedy series, Reservation Dogs, came full circle in the show’s Season 2 finale. A year ago, Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Elora (Devery Jacobs), Cheese (Lane Factor), and Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) made a pact to honor their late friend Daniel’s wish to leave the rez and head to California in the hope of a better future. In “I Still Believe,” the four finally make it to The Golden State, but trouble finds them right after they arrive: Their car gets stolen from a parking lot with all the hard-earned cash they saved for the trip. So they’re back to square one (with no money, help, or prospects) in a foreign state, having nothing but each other to find a way out of this mess. Nevertheless, resourceful and determined, they still make it to the ocean to say goodbye to Daniel and let go of the pain they’ve carried since his tragic death.
This finale serves as a culmination of the show: it’s wittily amusing and quietly moving while honoring its Indigenous roots with an uplifting approach. The episode’s last few minutes, showing the four kids hugging in the ocean as they evoke Daniel’s spirit, are heartbreaking yet also hopeful in a way. We feel that no matter what happens, these teens will be ok because together they can overcome any adversity that life throws at them—and ultimately, that’s what Reservation Dogs is all about: friends and family helping one another. —Akos Peterbencze
“Retired,” Hacks
Written by: Andrew Law
Directed by: Paul W. Downs
Network: HBO Max
Hacks is fueled by the all-powerful engine that is Jean Smart’s Deborah Vance. The dimensions to her character, her ability to be witty and cruel and even—very rarely—kind has made her one of the best characters on TV right now. “Retired” works so well because we get to see every part of her on display. Playing against the always wonderful Harriet Sansom Harris’s Susan, everything petty about Deborah rises to the surface, only to come crashing down after being upstaged by a cow giving birth to twins. “Retired” examines the sacrifices that Deborah, Ava, Marcus, and Susan have made. Ava and Marcus’s surprisingly existential caricature session is that perfect mix of funny and depressing while also proving that Hannah Einbinder and Carl Clemons-Hopkins are the most underrated duo of the show. Authenticity may have been something Deborah gave up, but seeing former rival Susan find a fulfilling life in the middle of nowhere is one of the great shocks to her character that makes Deborah even more interesting. And to top it all off, the episode ends with one of the best scenes of the show, where Deborah teaches Ava to float as the two riff off each other. Everyone in Hacks has made sacrifices, but “Retired” argues that not all sacrifices are losses. —Leila Jordan
“Go Flip Yourself,” What We Do in the Shadows
Written by: Marika Sawyer
Directed by: Yana Gorskaya
Network: FX
If you weren’t paying close attention when you started watching Season 4’s eighth episode of What We Do In The Shadows you might have thought your TV was turned to the wrong channel and you were mistakenly watching yet another home improvement show. The episode opens not with everyone’s favorite TV vampires but with the Sklar Brothers doing their best Property Brothers impression, complete with corny jokes, hackneyed cartoon graphics, and more spoofs of the home makeover genre than Nandor can shake a sword at. There’s even a big reveal with Simon the Devious (Nick Kroll). But the brothers’ mission? To turn a certain rundown Staten Island home that’s all kinds of Frank Lloyd Wrong into a Frank Lloyd Wright on their show, Go Flip Yourself.
The home improvement theme spans the entire episode with hilarious results. We see railroad employee and part-time graphic designer Laszlo in need of more storage space. Meanwhile, newlyweds Nandor and Marwa, who describe their style as French country meets shabby chic, are looking to upgrade their kitchen and master bedroom. The episode was written by Marika Sawyer, the former Saturday Night Live writer who’s been a longtime collaborator of John Mulaney’s, who not only skewers the home improvement TV genre but also proves that the antics of Nandor, Laszlo, Nadja, Guillermo, and Colin Robinson are high comedy regardless of format. —Terry Terrones
“The Swordsmanship of a King,” Ranking of Kings
Written by: Taku Kishimoto
Directed by: Shota Goshozono
Network: Crunchyroll
The first (but hopefully not last) season of Ranking of Kings aired from October 2021 through March 2022; on the strength of its first half alone, it made second place in our Best New Anime of 2021 list. While the season’s second half had more questionable narrative decisions than its near-perfect beginning, it still delivered some of the biggest thrills and most heartwarming moments of any TV show this year. In “The Swordsmanship of a King,” the show’s climactic third-to-last episode, the thrilling and heartwarming scenes are one and the same. Bojji’s duel against his resurrected father Bosse is a stunning feat of animation, and it’s impossible not to feel proud for the disabled hero proving himself to have become the strongest in the kingdom. —Reuben Baron
“Waterworks,” Better Call Saul
Written by: Vince Gilligan
Directed by: Vince Gilligan
Network: AMC
The final season of Better Call Saul ratcheted up the tension to almost unbearable levels at times as the series approached the dramatic events of Breaking Bad. It was littered with remarkable episodes that all have a strong case to be on a list such as this one. But if there can only be one, it’s “Waterworks.” Written and directed by series co-creator Vince Gilligan, the penultimate episode of the series finally answers the question that fans have been asking for too long: Why wasn’t Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) in Breaking Bad? The answer—that she moved to Florida, got misery bangs, and became a shell of herself in order to punish herself for her role in Howard’s (Patrick Fabian) death (and, well, everything else that transpired over the course of the series)—is as emotionally devastating as anything this universe has thrown at us. That Kim’s confession and ensuing breakdown on an airport tram butts up against Jimmy’s (Bob Odenkirk) continued fall as Gene only makes it that much worse. And yet, somehow, the biggest gut punch is not that he almost kills sweet old Carol Burnett once she discovers who he is, but that Kim, fresh from signing her divorce papers, runs into Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) outside Saul’s office, where he asks her whether Saul is the real deal. It’s this moment that forces us to confront just how much has changed since we first met Jimmy McGill all those years ago, how much he has already fallen by this point, and how much farther he still has to go over the course of the rest of this story. Gilligan and co-creator Peter Gould might not have known what Better Call Saul was going to be or where it was going when the show first started, but they absolutely nailed the landing with “Waterworks” and the stellar finale it sets up. —Kaitlin Thomas
“Trevor’s Pants,” Ghosts
Written by: Kira Kalush & Talia Bernstein
Directed by: Trent O’Donnell
Network: CBS
The delightful Ghosts answered a major question in a fantastic late-season episode: where are Trevor’s pants? The Wall Street ghost bro had evidently died with his hair coiffed and his work attire intact… other than his pants. So what happened? Though Trevor (Asher Grodman) has provided some of the show’s best one-liners and reactions, “Trevor’s Pants”—while also being a hilarious send-up of late ‘90s / early 2000s bro culture—was a surprisingly tender and nuanced explanation to a long-running sight gag. It worked, in spades, and was ultimately a major departure from the story of Trevor’s UK series counterpart, Julian, whose death was far more nefarious. One of the best things to discover about Trevor throughout this first season is that he really is a d-bag with a heart of gold. (And perhaps he’s not even a d-bag at all.) Further, the episode solidified some of the ghost friendships in the house, and brought everyone together to celebrate while a villain chugged a Chekhov Chill. Dude… it was totally awesome. —Allison Keene
“Dear Billy,” Stranger Things
Written by: The Duffer Brothers, Paul Dichter, Caitlin Schneiderhan (staff writer)
Directed by: Shawn Levy
Network: Netflix
While the latest season of Stranger Things more often than not found itself falling victim to bloated episode runtimes and overstuffed plot, “Dear Billy” is an incredible episode of television. It features two of the season’s most iconic story moments: Robin (Maya Hawke) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) uncovering the true identity of Vecna, and, of course, Max (Sadie Sink) running up that hill. “Dear Billy” features Sink’s best performance to date, as she perfectly captures the fear, anger, and guilt that consumes Max as she wrestles with her final 24 hours with both her friends and family. As Max reads the letter she wrote to her brother Billy, finally saying everything she never got to before he sacrificed himself for her, she’s transported to the Upside Down’s perverted Creel house, and comes face to face with Vecna himself. As the hauntingly beautiful “Running Up That Hill” begins to play, Steve (Joe Keery), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) can only watch as Max levitates in the air. Max’s desperate sprint towards her friends is the emotional core of the episode, and leaves no confusion as to why it resonated with so many. —Anna Govert
“Oh, so you’re the sun now? You’re the giver of life?” Minx
Written by: Ben Karlin
Directed by: Rachel Lee Goldenberg
Network: HBO Max
Minx is a show about the compromises necessary to fulfill your dreams. It stars Ophelia Lovibond as feminist writer-editor Joyce Prigger, seizing her moment by finding the most fun and practical way to engage her audience with Jake Johnson’s pornographer publisher Doug Renetti, an unlikely partnership that grows over the course of the series, and reaches a stumbling block in Episode 8.
“Oh, so you’re the sun now? You’re the giver of life?” perfectly encapsulates the show’s themes of fighting to have one’s voice heard and vision respected as a woman, while people (especially men in positions of power) take advantage of talents without returning respect. Joyce and Doug’s Minx magazine—feminist writing on lifestyle and political topics, nude male centerfolds, and risqué puzzles and games—courts controversy and acclaim while selling out magazine stands.
On the heels of their newfound success, Joyce is invited to New York to be interviewed by Dick Cavett (Erin Gann), returning to her university stomping grounds, revisited by memories of her time dealing with sexism at an anti-war commune and in the magazine offices she started out in. Meanwhile, Doug’s business mind and fast talk drive a wedge in the professional relationship they’d recently balanced. That projects a ripple into the shared social lives of their community while photographer Richie (Oscar Montoya) and centerfold director Bambi (Jessica Lowe) watch the interview with Tina (Idara Victor) and interrogate her about her love life. “Oh, so you’re the sun now? You’re the giver of life?” helps this first season of Minx swing into its final arc and set a new status-quo for the second season. It had everything we loved about the show: A fierce and fun exploration of gender dynamics and social norms with a narrative that always kept us on our toes. —Kevin Fox, Jr.
“One Way Out,” Andor
Written by: Beau Willimon
Directed by: Toby Haynes
Network: Disney+
An absolutely stunning episode in the year’s best series, “One Way Out” gave us two incredible monologues. The first came at the culmination of the show’s prison break plot line, where Kino (Andy Serkis) and Cassian (Diego Luna) fight their way to the control room and take over. From there, Kino reveals the truth of what is happening to his fellow inmates, and empowers them to join the fight for freedom—there is, literally, no other way out. And yet for Kino, who shattered our hearts in this final moment, even this was not an option for him: “I can’t swim.”
The second monologue came from Luthen (Stellan Skarsgard), looking for all the world like Darth Vader when approached by an informant believing the cost of the operation is too high. Luthen’s speech is set up to look like a villain’s, which makes it all the more powerful since we know he is, in fact, a good guy. And yet, as Beau Willimon’s script here and Tony Gilroy’s show continually asks us: what is “good”? What defines a hero? Here, Luthen is willing to sacrifice 50 men to save the position of one for the good of the revolutionary cause. And yet, the show does not let him approach this glibly. He tells his informant, in no uncertain terms, the cost he has paid himself, and the deadening that must occur to fight this immense evil surrounding them. This battle requires sacrifice. Not everyone will get out alive. Yet all of it is working towards something essential: freedom. And truly, what is the alternative? —Allison Keene
“Act of Grace,” Our Flag Means Death
Written by: David Jenkins, Yvonne Zima and Eliza Jiménez Cossio (executive story editor)
Directed by: Bert and Bertie
Network: HBO Max
While the absolute best *moment* of the first season of Our Flag Means Death technically happens in the last two minutes of the episode that precedes it, the season’s penultimate outing, “Act of Grace,” spins out from that scene with such exquisite (and funny!) tenderness that it’s hard to argue that it’s the best episode put out by David Jenkins’ gay little pirate rom-com to date. I mean, these 27 minutes have everything: A hero turn! An unspoken conversation between two men in love! A gag about contract law! A very explicitly spoken conversation between two men in love! Soap!! That writers Jenkins and Yvonne Zima were able to cram in not just a half-dozen meaningful callbacks to what viewers thought were just throwaway gags from the beginning of the season, but also an explicit, full-mouth-kiss confirmation of Stede’s and Blackbeard’s gay love story and a shocking heartbreaker of a wrench thrown headlong into those proverbial works? That’s just a testament to the intricate genius of the entire series. — Alexis Gunderson
“Ribbit and Rip It,” She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
Written by: Cody Ziglar
Directed by: Kat Coiro
Network: Disney+
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is the first live-action Marvel TV show since WandaVision to fully embrace being a TV show as opposed to just a super-long movie, which means more opportunities for great one-off storylines like “Ribbit and Rip It,” the season’s penultimate episode. In it, Charlie Cox makes his long-awaited return to the role of Matt Murdock/Daredevil, and his chemistry with Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk is delightful, whether they’re fighting each other in court, fighting bad guys as a team, or having the best sex anyone’s ever had on Disney+. After Daredevil takes his “walk of shame,” the episode ends with a shockingly dark cliffhanger that’s admirable for trying to address some serious issues but is somewhat weakened in retrospect by a season finale that passed over fully dealing with said issues in favor of meta cheekiness. Everything in the episode before that ending, however, is tied with the Bilall and Adil-directed episodes of Ms. Marvel as the most effortlessly entertaining MCU material this year. —Reuben Baron
“Yasper,” The Afterparty
Written by: Jack Dolgen
Directed by: Chris Miller
Network: Apple TV+
The joy of The Afterparty is that every episode is different. The murder mystery from Chris Miller and Phil Lord cycles through different genres with each outing, as Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) interviews the suspects in the untimely death of a high-profile celebrity (Dave Franco) at his high school reunion afterparty. But not every episode of the eight-episode first season is created equal. “Yasper,” which is told from the point of view of its eponymous larger-than-life character (played by Ben Schwartz), easily stands out as the show’s best. Not only that, it is also one of the best episodes of the year so far.
A toe-tapping good time thanks to Yasper’s infectious energy and three show-stopping original songs crafted by Jon Lajoie with input from writer Jack Dolgen (an Emmy winner for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), the episode is an example of everything coming together perfectly, from the writing and casting to directing and acting. The comedic and high-energy elements, like the Eminem-inspired rap “Two Shots” and the pop number “Yeah Sure Whatever,” are softened by Yasper’s vulnerability and the relatability of “Three Dots from Stardom,” a ballad dedicated to Apple’s best and worst invention: The three dots that let you know someone is typing… and then not. At the same time, Aniq (Sam Richardson) is trying to clear his name and solve Xavier’s murder by asking everyone at the party to spell diarrhea in the hopes of matching a handwriting sample. I’m really not sure what more one could ask for in an episode of TV. So yes, “Yasper’’ is one of the best episodes we’ve seen all year, and it’s unlikely that we’ll see anything that comes even close to matching it in creativity and originality by year’s end. —Kaitlin Thomas
“The Agreement,” Derry Girls
Written by: Lisa McGee
Directed by: Michael Lennox
Network: Channel 4
There’s a profound sense of fracturing in the Derry Girls series finale. Like a lot of great finales, there’s a time jump from the last we saw our characters, as Lisa McGee wanted to focus on the 1998 Good Friday Agreement referendum, which promised to end the violence of the troubles and grant extended constitutional rights to Northern Ireland. The girls are a smidge more divided, the mood is notably more tense, and amongst all the heightened shenanigans of 20-something actresses performing like 60-plus Irishmen, there’s a trepidation that can’t quite be articulated. As is Derry Girls tradition, we close out on an emotional Cranberries track, here with a direct-to-camera theorizing on how Irish change will affect our newly-adult cast and the broader nation. Seeing everyone as they cast their vote brings a gigantic lump to your throat, as every minor and major character considers for a second the enormity of the pain and worry they’ve been asked to bear. We leave Derry Girls filled with hope for healing, and are ever so proud of them. —Rory Doherty
“710N,” Barry
Written by: Duffy Boudreau
Directed by: Bill Hader
Network: HBO
Barry, for all intents and purposes, should not be a comedy. It’s a show about a hit-man with post-war PTSD who is, at this juncture in the series, basically holding his mentor hostage and threatening the lives of the man’s son and grandson. However, it’s one of the few shows that actually succeeds in coming at the word “dramedy” from the comedy side of things.
Named for one of the freeways in Los Angeles (although, c’mon folks, you know it should be the 710N), the episode is memorable for two things. One is an epic freeway chase scene featuring the city’s infamous stop-go traffic and the state’s policy of sharing the road with motorcyclists who weave in and out of said traffic at lightning speed. The titular Barry’s (star/co-creator Bill Hader) survival skills are superhuman as he dodges bullets from a revenge-seeking motorcycle gang. The stunts become more absurd (a shoot-out at a car dealership?) as the body count rises. But Barry survives physically unscathed.
The other is for the sage wisdom offered by a new character: Baker Mitch (Tom Allen) of the fictitious, but totally believable, Los Angeles restaurant Beignets by Mitch. Speaking in the perfect SoCal surfer dude/stoner cadence, Mitch is both a therapist to several of the series’ protagonists and their dealer for overpriced gluten.
But there’s also another important scene in this episode. Vanessa Bayer guest-stars as a development executive looking to hire actress and writer Sally (Sarah Goldberg) to help bring more “yeah” to a show that helped tank Sally’s own program. In a conversation spoken almost totally in inflection-tinged interjections, Bayer’s Morgan Dawn-Cherry and Sally’s agent Lindsay (Jessy Hodges) discuss what she can and cannot bring to a series while the talent looks on in horror and confusion upon hearing this foreign language for the first time.
The whole episode is a dunk on Los Angeles stereotypes more than any of Saturday Night Live’s “The Californians” sketches ever could. —Whitney Friedlander
“The We We Are,” Severance
Written by: Dan Erickson
Directed by: Ben Stiller
Network: Apple TV+
Severance took its time ushering us into the eerie world of Lumon Industries, a corporation where some employees undergo a surgery that divides their memories between work and their personal lives. Through the eyes of Mark S. (Adam Scott), the show delves into the compartmentalization that capitalism demands with offbeat humor and unsettling production design. Inevitably though, these separate selves bleed together, and the previous eight episodes’ slow build pays off in a nail-biting finale that thrillingly feels like a finale instead of just another episode. Playing out nearly in real time, “The We We Are” cuts between Dylan G.’s (Zach Cherry) waffle party-deserving heroism and the rest of the MDR department’s innies getting unleashed in the outside world for the first time. Down to Mark’s final desperate yell, the episode offers just the right amount of answers and catharsis to make the show’s lingering questions all the more tantalizing while we wait for Season 2. Because seriously—what’s going on with those goats? —Annie Lyons
“Unbroken Circle,” Station Eleven
Written by: Patrick Somerville
Directed by: Jeremy Podeswa
Network: HBOMax
“Unbroken Circle” is the best tying of loose ends that a television series could hope to achieve. The finale to the masterpiece that is Station Eleven is the perfect encapsulation of everything the show strove to achieve. The centerpiece of the episode—a performance of Hamlet that unites Tyler with the mother and father figure that abandoned him—is an expertly crafted piece of storytelling and poetic catharsis. Throughout the series we understand the extent of what has been lost and that a return to the world before the pandemic would never be possible. It’s a message that would be hard to hear any year, but especially this one. “Unbroken Circle” does not shy away from the tragedy that ties its story together. Like the Shakespere play the episode adapts, it is a work profoundly connected to loss. Station Eleven proved that you could be a story of grief without denying it. “Unbroken Circle” also resolves the series’ most major theme: how can we learn to say goodbye? The answer, embodied by Kirsten and Jeevan standing at a literal fork in the woods, is that goodbye is not the end. There are bountiful lives that exist between farewells. Change is an unrelenting force that pursues us until our last days but there are moments along the circle that can be cherished. “Unbroken Circle” manages to be a perfect finale while also rejecting the idea of a definitive end. It’s a celebration of goodbyes and the opportunities moving along can bring. The people of Station Eleven may remember damage but they are still capable of creating something new. —Leila Jordan
“Open House,” Abbott Elementary
Written by: Brian Rubenstein
Directed by: Jen Celotta
Network: ABC
How do you choose the best episode this stellar comedy offered up in its first season? Was it the season finale which featured Ava’s best and most self-aware line yet (“Girl I know! I just say whatever I want”)? Was it “Desking,” where the students partake in the latest social media challenge and we finally meet Jacob’s boyfriend Zack (“So he knew you and was like… ‘more.’”)? Or was in when Janine and Ava collaborated on teaching the kids in “Step Class” (“We like to play this game called ‘call and no response,’ the kids are so good at it.”) and we learn Gregory doesn’t like pizza? The truth is, the show’s inaugural season didn’t miss for 13 episodes. Every outing was a gem. But we settled on the episode that epitomizes what makes the comedy so special: its unique mix of humor and heart without being sardonic or saccharine.
While the teachers prepare for an Open House and a visit from the superintendent (Reginald Hayes), Jacob (Chris Perfetti) slyly outsmarts Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) in a game of poker. We finally understand how the not-exactly-competent Ava (Janelle James) got the job as Principal (she saw the Superintendent cheating on his wife) which sends Gregory (Tyler James Williams) into a tailspin (he’s so upset he’s even loosened his tie). But the episode belongs to Janine (star and executive producer Quinta Brunson) and Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph), as we learn why Janine so blatantly craves Barbara’s approval. It’s not just the professional development and expertise Barbara provides, it’s the emotional void she fills for Janine, whose mother ignores her. Barbara also struggles with her own daughter Taylor (Iyana Halley), who visits from New York and works for a “high end alcohol company.” “With your gifts you could be helping people,” Barbara says.
While she may not be “Saint Barbara” as Janine has dubbed her, we see what a truly wonderful person Barbara is as she tells her daughter that even though she may not approve of Taylor’s life choices, “I love you and I’m proud of you and I will always be there for you.” Sensing that Janine needs that same type of unconditional love, the episode ends with Barbara inviting Janine out to dinner. “Am I dreaming?” Janine wonders. She’s not, but the episode is the stuff TV dreams are made of. —Amy Amatangelo
“Alloyed,” Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Written by: Gennifer Hutchison and J. D. Payne & Patrick McKay
Directed by: Wayne Che Yip
Network: Amazon Prime Video
There was one question that overshadowed the entirety of Prime Video’s (excellent) Rings of Power in its first season: Who Is Sauron? The Season 1 finale, “Alloyed” answered that. But it also gave us (and its characters) so much more to chew on. The season did a wonderful job of setting up this era of Tolkien’s stories, not only putting that billion-dollar budget to sumptuous visual use, but in allowing us to sit and enjoy character connections that ultimately serve to make Peter Jackson’s beloved films all the richer. Whether you were new to this world or someone who has read the lore exhaustively, there was so much to dig into.
But “Alloyed” was, above all, about answers. We found out who Sauron is, we found out (with 99% certainty) who The Stranger is, and we now have a good sense of how all of these players might start to come together in Season 2. The episode was also one that launched a thousand ‘ships thanks to so much forbidden angst (or is it love?) between Galadriel and Halbrand. It was, frankly, just exciting, making the long wait for the next season that much harder to bear. —Allison Keene
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