I don’t want this to be the end.
Pitch has been one of the best shows on television this season. It’s relevant, it’s entertaining, and it’s so important.
This show has a wonderfully diverse cast. Its writing is much better than that of most of the other shows I watch. Its characters are engaging, complex and always evolving. Ginny is a fantastic role model. Pitch is wonderfully emotional, and provides a realistic yet critical look at sports culture. I need more.
Give me a season 2, FOX.
A-W-K-W-A-R-D
If I had to sum up this episode in one word, it would be: AWKWARD. Nobody expected Mike to stay on the team. They all made some decisions and said some things in the last episode that they would probably like to take back now that Mike is sticking around.
Oh, the awkwardness of staying on a team that everybody knows you’ve approved a trade from. Blip is furious with Mike for giving up on the Padres. The rest of the team is undoubtedly hurt that their captain has so little faith in them. Mike is mad at the front office for backing out of the trade and leaving him in such an awkward position. Not to mention that they kind of ruined his chances of winning a World Series.
Mike, in short, has lost the room. The team has rallied around Ginny, not their captain. And that’s never a good thing going into the playoffs.
No Bawson for now
Speaking of awkward, Ginny and Mike had to pretend like nothing happened between them last episode, despite the fact that something very clearly did happen and neither one can get it out of their head.
Mike goes back to his ex-wife Rachel only to find out that – surprise, surprise – she’s single again, and lonely, just like he is. I doubt these two will stay together long term, but they’re making another attempt.
Meanwhile, Ginny goes back to Noah, asking Eliot to stalk him. They find the billionaire singing at a cafe, which elevates him from “annoyingly perfect” to “cartoonishly perfect.”
I really don’t mind Noah that much. I don’t think this relationship is going to last very long, but there was a moment there when I wondered if he might actually be a good fit for Ginny. When he was talking about going on vacation during the offseason, I thought, you know what? Maybe this would do Ginny some good. Just get away from baseball for awhile, hang out with a cute guy who can sing and make coffee and knows nothing about sports.
Until that ending kind of destroyed the possibility. Oh well. Maybe Ginny is better off staying in San Diego anyway.
Relationship drama
As much as it breaks my heart to see Evelyn and Blip at odds – and it REALLY breaks my heart – I’m definitely siding with Evelyn on this one.
She had a life before Blip. She’s clearly a very smart, capable woman who would do a good job running a business. Of course she’s happy being the wife of a professional baseball player, but she’s had to make a lot of sacrifices for this life and Blip kind of seems to expect her to keep making them.
I can’t blame Evelyn for wanting to make something of herself. I understand that Blip’s job is difficult and that he puts the Padres above everything else in his life, but I would really love it if he could be a little bit more supportive of the woman who has had to drop everything to become a stay at home mom.
Blip has absolutely no right to be upset about this. It’s too bad that he wants more kids, but this family has revolved around him and his career for a very long time. It would be nice if he could offer Evelyn a fraction of the support she’s given him over the years.
I hope they work this out because damn, this family is goals, but they’ve got some serious issues right now. They’re going to need to talk about them.
Amelia and Ginny
I’ve always thought Amelia and Ginny’s relationship was an extremely precarious one. I think they have the potential to be a fantastic team, because they’re both extremely strong and capable women, but their personalities tend to clash a lot.
Neither one realises quite how much they need the other. Amelia is a very successful woman who has succeeded without Ginny and would doubtless succeed without her. She sees Ginny as a headstrong woman who’s constantly selling herself short and doesn’t know the first thing about PR, endorsements, or finances. Amelia probably thinks that without her Ginny never would have even made it to the big leagues.
Ginny, on the other hand, is the superstar, the reason Amelia is where she is. As she says in this episode, she thinks Amelia is supposed to do whatever she says. Instead, her manager has been constantly bossing her around, and her ideas haven’t always panned out. Remember when Amelia asked her not to defend Al? Or when she encouraged Ginny to demand that Blip stay on the team? I knew they would affect the relationship between the two women.
I love this dynamic, and I really hope it gets explored more in a second season. These two kickass women have so many problems to sort out.
Everything you represent
This episode brought us full circle, in a way. Just when Ginny was truly starting to feel like a part of the team, it reminded us that she is very, very special. Every milestone she achieves is a victory for women everywhere. The little girls we saw in the pilot are still rooting for Ginny, still looking up to her as a role model.
And the best part? Now the Padres are rooting for her too. She’s not alone anymore.
That baseball scene at the end was a clear callback to the pilot, but with one huge difference: this time, Ginny wants the record. It only took her ten episodes, but she’s finally embraced her fame. She understands what throwing the first no-hitter in Padres history means to little girls all over the world, and she wants to do it for that reason. Screw being one of the guys.
Her final game of the season wasn’t supposed to be the end of her career with the Padres. I don’t think it will be. The fans showed up to thank her for everything she’s done, like they did for Mike in the last episode, but with the idea that they would see her again. It marked the end of an important chapter in MLB history. For the very first time, a woman pitched for a major league baseball team.
And she absolutely killed it.
Random Thoughts:
- I don’t know much about baseball superstitions, but I very much appreciate Pitch showing us the silly side of sports. Because sports are extremely silly.
- I’m really intrigued by Ginny’s comment about women’s ligaments being different from men’s. Hopefully that can be a potential storyline for next season – the Padres might have to adjust their analytics.
- “Besides, the Cubs’ll never win it.” I see what you did there, Pitch.
- Is anybody surprised that Will used the restaurant money to settle his debt? No? That’s what I thought.
- Noah and Mike taking the same elevator was so awkward. I love it.
- I can’t believe WIll actually thinks he could do without Ginny’s support. DUDE. You would be nowhere without Ginny. Nowhere at all.
- Al’s smug look when Ginny refused to sit out the rest of the game was priceless.
- Ginny’s swagger has improved over the course of the season and I love it. You go girl.
- I LOVE YOU GINNY. DON’T LEAVE ME. Is an actual quote from my notes for this episode.
- This show had better get a second season, because that end was not an end.