So Help Me Todd 1×06 “So Help Me Pod” is probably its most relatable episode to date, in a weird way. It also tonally verges on being slightly jarring, though it pulls through with another moment of real heart and connection in the end. But it once again highlights the flaws in the way the series is handling the relationship between Todd (Skylar Astin) and Susan (Inga Schlingmann). Let’s break it down.
Looking Back
This week’s episode of So Help Me Todd is all about the past. Margaret (Marcia Gay Harden) is working with a podcaster, Lea Luna (Vella Lovell), to overturn a wrongful conviction from the early days of her career. It’s another one of those feel-good plots that you know is going to turn out by the end of the episode. But, hey, I’m not complaining. It’s nice to have those television shows that you can always rely on to wrap everything up in a nice little bow.
That said, the episode almost starts off on a weird note. For this stage of the season, at least. As I wrote last week, the series has done an impressive job in the way it has let Margaret and Todd start to move forward. With their relationship, if not with their personal problems. The beginning of this episode almost seems to falter, with Todd horning in on Margaret’s podcast territory in order to complain about what a bad mother she could be. Only to then butt heads with Lyle (Tristen J. Winger) over whether he should be allowed to work on the case.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not naive enough to think that a couple weeks of getting along would solve all of Todd’s pretty long-standing Mommy Issues. However, it felt for a moment like the show might be doing a slight backslide, having the characters rehash old territory for the sake of drama. Luckily, however, just when it seemed like they might be moving backward, things turned around, revealing that matters aren’t always what they seem.
Yes, Todd sort of forces his way onto the podcast – a podcast about a case he had absolutely no knowledge of, no less. And, yes, he pretty much immediately blurts out that his mom had missed his 18th birthday because she was too focused on her career. All of which makes his first cameo on the podcast more than a little cringeworthy. But, as it turns out, he’s not forcing his way onto the podcast for the attention of the masses. He’s trying to get the attention of one person: Lea Luna, the podcaster. He’s looking for a date.
Which means he needs to work on his game, more than his Mommy Issues. In fact, while he acknowledges that her forgetting his 18th birthday sucked at the time, he doesn’t seem all that perturbed or bitter about it now. That plot is used more for Margaret’s development, so she can realize the mistakes of her past. Meanwhile, Todd is more focused on, “Yes, that absolutely happened and it sucked at the time. But more importantly…do I sweep Luna off her feet by an act of petty crime, or do I woo her with conspiracy theories instead?”
So while he’s focused on his faltering love live, Margaret is the one who has to come to terms with the past. Maybe it was necessary. Maybe it was for good reason and the best of intentions. But her focus on her career meant she missed a pretty big moment in her son’s life. And clearly didn’t realize it until just now. All this leads to a sweet moment of realization and atonement for her, in which she tries to make up for the birthday she missed. It isn’t something Todd demanded, or even expected, but it’s appreciated all the same.
Just as their antagonism and banter has been the strongest part of the series from the start, the sweet moments between Margaret and Todd are consistently the highlight of each episode.
Missed Opportunities
I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I want to like Susan. I want to ship her and Todd. I really do. It’s clearly the show’s intended OTP, just in the way they’ve set the characters up. Which makes what So Help Me Todd has done with them – or not – so absolutely baffling.
All I need is one good reason to ship these two, and the show is not giving me anything to work with!
I get that it’s not the point of the series. Believe me, I do. I get that the Susan/Todd ship isn’t the show’s priority right now. That’s fine. I don’t need to see them lunging toward the altar this early in the game. But it is clear that they have something planned for these two. Susan appears on the show every single week. She just…isn’t given much to do when she’s there. And I can’t for the life of me understand why not.
In some respects, So Help Me Todd has improved in its handling of background characters. The dynamic between Todd and Lyle is getting fleshed out a little more. Yes, it’s happening slowly, but that’s to be expected when you have an entire cast of characters to develop. Francey (Rosa Arredondo) finally got the chance to do more this week. Which is great, because she’s really been underutilized thus far. By establishing both her history with Margaret and the fact she’s dating a cop, the show is giving us insight into the type of role she may play in future episodes.
But Susan. Ah, Susan.
I get – to a degree – what So Help Me Todd was trying to do this episode through the introduction of Luna’s character and the potential for future Todd/Luna romance. She is, in many ways, very similar to Todd. She’s got a similarly dubious grasp of legality and ethics. (And Margaret is slowly sinking to their level, making her attempts at plausible deniability one of the funniest moments of the episode.) She also believes in the same conspiracy theories. She’s like Todd, if Todd had his act a little more together.
Susan, from what we can gather, is more of his foil. From dialogue over the last few episodes, we can gather that Susan has always had her act more together than Todd. We have no reason to believe she’d be on board with any of his more outlandish actions or theories. Leaving us to wonder what the heck brought the two together and what made them work to begin with. To the extent they “worked” as a couple, given that they broke up. Which really means to the extent they could “work” as a couple in the future, giving us a reason to ship them. Or care even a little about their past or future ship at all.
While I enjoyed this episode of So Help Me Todd, it was a little frustrating because I can’t help but wonder what we might have learned about Susan – both as an individual character and in terms of her relationship with Todd – if she’d been the one working with him to uncover the truth. Maybe she wouldn’t have been on board with breaking into a suspect’s apartment. (Though maybe she would? Honestly, I don’t know that we know enough about her to figure that out, either way.) At the very least, locking Susan in a cellar with Todd for a couple extended scenes would have given the audience insight into who they were, are, and could be. Insight which is sorely needed.
I don’t know if Luna will appear in future episodes. The door is open for her to do so. If she does, I don’t really object to the implication she will stand as a possible romantic rival. Heck, Todd/Luna may even be the interim ship, giving him opportunities for romantic growth as the series deals with Susan’s pesky engagement.
It just seems weird to set up a possible romantic rival in a love triangle before actually doing anything with what assumes will be the primary ship. It certainly seems strange to devote an entire episode to getting to know a character we may never see again, when we still don’t know anything about a series regular we are presumably supposed to care about. We got a really good feel for Luna’s character this episode. What did we learn about Susan? She speaks Chinese and probably isn’t a conspiracy theorist (though she may be willing to get a little more on board). That’s pretty much it.
In that respect, So Help Me Todd 1×06 “So Help Me Pod” seems poorly placed in the season. I would have enjoyed getting to know Luna’s character a lot more if I wasn’t spending the entire time wondering why they didn’t utilize Susan as his Girl Friday for the episode, allowing us to get to know something about who she is as a character. Literally anything about who she is, in fact. Give me any reason to care about Susan, show. I’m begging you.
So Help Me Todd airs Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS.
