Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Written By: Michael Libman and Daniel Libman
Original Air Date: October 26, 2011
Watch It On: Amazon Instant Video
What It’s About: It’s Halloween, and the Happy Endings gang is psyched for an annual party. Well, sort of. Penny (Casey Wilson) is bummed because her boyfriend of three weeks freaked out about her couples costume idea. Max (Adam Pally) offers to join her costume idea as the meat on his Lady Gaga costume spoiled. Brad (Damon Wayans, Jr.) is surprised when his wife, Jane, tells him that they’ll be housesitting for friends in the suburbs. Dave (Zachary Knighton) is pumped to break free from the couples costume trap, while his ex Alex (Elisha Cuthbert) is sick with the flu but determined to wear the costume she’s been dreaming of “for like four hundred years.”
Why It’s So Good: The brilliant yet short-lived Happy Endings was apparently too good for this world, and I can only hope it can muster a second wind on streaming video. “Spooky Endings” is not just a great episode of the series — it’s also a great Halloween episode, even if it doesn’t have the spooky tone its title suggests.
The Halloween dance party is milked for an incredible amount of laughs. There’s Dave’s Austin Powers costume, which comes so late that most of the women he hits on assume he is Elton John. (“I can’t wait to see your Borat costume in nine years,” Alex tells him.) Meanwhile, Alex, with a raspy voice from her cold, is mistaken by a hot gay guy in a Chicago Cubs costume as a man who is there to compete in the drag competition (and, of course, the dim Alex doesn’t quite understand why he’s so mesmerized by her “legit boobs”).
But the real stars of this episode are Casey Wilson and Adam Pally as Penny and Max. Ridiculing the concept of a couples costume is already a top-notch effort, but Happy Endings was never afraid to go to comedic extremes. Here, Penny is dressed as a new mom with Max’s head poking through a Baby Bjorn, leaving them to hobble around the party. Things turn sour when Penny starts flirting with an Abraham Lincoln (played by UCB co-founder Matt Besser) and Max has the hots for a guy in a bomber jacket and fake beard (“ZZ Top Gun”). That their couples costume leaves them physically attached results in some of the best sight gags of any recent network sitcom.
Don’t Forget the B-Plot! With the rest of the gang at a warehouse party in Chicago, Jane and Brad spend the evening in the suburbs where they can take in the idyll activities like offering candy to trick-or-treaters and enjoying the hot tub. (Brad, naturally, is resentful that he’s missing the Halloween bash, so he refuses to wear his western omelet costume, leaving Jane dressed in her bacon suit all on her own). They underestimate the power of candy, however, when they run out early in the evening and are then harassed by the neighborhood “big kids” who torment Jane and Brad by egging the house, throwing bricks through the window, and stealing the front door. Suddenly, the ‘burbs don’t seem as peaceful and relaxing as they’re cracked up to be.
The Best Moment: It’s difficult to pick which Penny/Max moment is the best (I’m leaning toward their biting fight when they realize they want to go after different dudes), so I’ll settle for the episode’s ending when Alex decides to take full advantage of her new-found androgyny and try to win that drag contest.
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Photos: ABC
