Happy’s Place Season 2 Episode 6 “Izzy and the Professor” made me realize that I side with Bobbie a little too much. Maybe it’s the older sister in me… wait it totally is the older sister in me. Because sometimes I can’t relate to Isabella at all. But she clocked Bobbie in such a way this episode that it made me look at her different while also appreciating how this show directly addressed the older/younger sibling dynamics that sometimes turn parental.
First off, the whole dating the professor thing. Bobbie was right in calling out Isabella for the power imbalance. It doesn’t matter that Isabella asked Lucas out first. Even if it worked out, they moved in together, bought a house, and had a couple kids, it would all start with a basis of a power imbalance. Keeping all of that in mind… Isabella was absolutely right in calling out Bobbie for being a hypocrite.
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Bobbie is in a relationship with someone she has power over. And as a viewer I love how Isabella upended my expectations and made me go, “Wait a minute….” This in turn made the whole “Isabella dating her professor even more complicated.” For one, Bobbie went and talked to Emmett. And even though his response was a little too “I’m being forced into this thing,” a trope I hate because they always make it seem like men are suffering when it comes spending time with their partner, they had the conversation. They laid it out. And I think Bobbie and Emmett are better for it.
This goes back to what I say week after week, and that even Cheri Oteri from “Mouse in the House” said about comedy. Shows like Happy’s Place act as a full course meal. You think you’re just eating a nice little comedy. But as the layers get pulled back and the laughs erupt, you’re hit with a conversation about the dangers of power imbalances. Because it might’ve solved itself on this show, but somewhere out there, there’s someone in a situation like this. And they didn’t know there was something wrong with a relationship like this.
Another thing in Happy’s Place “Izzy and the Professor” that they pulled the layers back for was… parentification. That’s honestly what I suffer of. My parents didn’t treat me as a kid. They treated me as another parent for my siblings. And even thought I thought I shook off that weight as an adult, it’s apparently still here since I was ok with how Bobbie was questioning Isabella in the wee hours of the monring. And the latter is right in basically saying, “Hey, we’re sisters. We’re on the same level. You can’t treat me like this.”
Bobbie is not Isabella’s mom. She never will be. Plus Isabella already has a mom. Same thing with Bobbie if we flip things around. Isabella will never be her daughter. Bobbie already has a daughter. Instead they’re siblings with two different life experiences and who have gotten comfortable with each other enough to be honest. And the matter of the fact is that yes, Bobbie can advise. But she doesn’t get to question Isabella in the way she did in this episode. It’s a statement from the show of how their dynamic is now and how it will be in the future.
Additional Thoughts About ‘Izzy and the Professor’:
- Watching Emmett hug somebody so easily was… weird. lol.
- But football, I guess?
- Taxi co-stars Christopher Lloyd and Carole Kane. Didn’t expect that.
- At all.
- Also didn’t expect how freaky their characters were. But age shouldn’t stop you from being creative like this. Plus it’s consensual.
- What I did expect was Gabby and Steve being nosey AF.
- It was funny.
- But they nosey.
- Thank God for Takoda, the true real one of this episode. He knew his friends would try something sneaky so he locked it away.
- Also his facial reactions. Soooooooo funny.
- More Takoda please!
Happy’s Place airs new episodes every Friday at 8pm ET on NBC.
