Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist season 2, episode 3 recap – “Zoey’s Extraordinary Dreams”

By Jonathon Wilson
Published: January 20, 2021 (Last updated: December 16, 2023)
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Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist season 2, episode 3 recap - "Zoey's Extraordinary Dreams"
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Summary

“Zoey’s Extraordinary Dreams” falls back into some bad habits as Zoey realizes she feels trapped and spends an entire episode trying to figure out what was obvious to the audience from the beginning.

This recap of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist season 2, episode 3, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Dreams”, contains spoilers.


Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist has never really bothered with subtlety, so when “Zoey’s Extraordinary Dreams” opens with Zoey trapped in a nightmare soundtracked by “Nowhere to Run” by Martha and the Vandellas, it’s pretty obvious where the episode is going – and that’s before the same sequence repeats several times in slightly different forms as Zoey tries to diagnose her night-time anxieties.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit irritated with this latest installment, or at least cautious about what it means for the show going forwards. In the beginning, Zoey is living with Max at Maggie’s house, and by the end, she’s back in her own apartment; since she still feels like she has nowhere to run, though, the obvious assumption is that it’s Max who’s making her feel trapped in her surreal Motown dreamscape. They both tearfully decide that they’ve rushed into things and she needs more time before she commits to a proper grown-up relationship. That they both stare at each other all befuddled and ask what’s next speaks to a larger problem. What is next?

Given it’s Simon, of all people, who Zoey turns to for advice, what’s next might well be the same played-out love triangle that bogged down a lot of the first season and that I perhaps naively thought we’d seen the back of. Max and Simon are friends now, remember, but I don’t think we’ve actually seen them interact since the premiere. There’s a moment in “Zoey’s Extraordinary Dreams” where Simon mentions that Max already told him about their relationship, and I did a confused little double-take until I remembered that they’re supposed to be buddies. Max is understandably a bit paranoid about Zoey confiding in Simon about her sleepless nights that are obviously rooted in anxiety over being with him, and let’s just say I can see where he’s coming from.

Because it’s so obvious what we’re building towards, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist season 2, episode 3 can feel a bit plodding. Zoey making the decision to actually leave Maggie’s house takes up almost the entire episode, and is delayed because Maggie is working on a big landscaping project, her first since Mitch’s death, and sings “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi when Zoey first approaches her about potentially moving back out. Nice song, obvious plot beat. This is also what first prompts Zoey to speak to Simon, who seems to just be in the office at all hours and knows intuitively that Zoey’s increasingly-large coffee cup is a dire sign. Of course, he’s well-positioned to help since he also had lots of nightmares when his dad died. Does he have any other character traits?

Then we’re to pretend that work might be the issue since Zoey is suddenly in charge of the fourth floor’s resident man-children, so on Simon’s advice, Zoey starts delegating tasks and responsibilities, which backfires rather drastically. I’m pretty wary about SPRQ Point’s company culture at this point, and I’m not sure I’d trust that team of programmers to open a tin of beans, though they’re good for a song and dance number – “It’s the Hard Knock Life” – just to remind everyone that they still exist. Props to George, though, for having the temerity to wear a grey t-shirt with a slightly-darker-grey stripe that just looks like titty sweat.

So, you know, it’s Max. We know it’s Max, even if Zoey herself doesn’t quite admit it outright when the conversation finally comes up. After falling asleep in his arms at her apartment while he tries to explain the merits of professional wrestling – they really are athletes! – she has the dream again and realizes enough is enough. Or, more accurately, he realizes enough is enough, singing a rather heartfelt rendition of “Say Something” by A Great Big World. She does, even if it isn’t what he wants to hear or, if we’re being honest, what she’s really feeling. But the message gets across nonetheless, which is how we get to that awkward “what next?” moment.

It’s a bit tedious if we’re being honest. And the subplots don’t help. David and Emily are still acting like they’re the only people in the world who’ve ever had a baby, and Jenna, Emily’s sister, who apparently neither Emily nor David can stand for reasons that are entirely unclear to me, worms her way into the plot for the foreseeable future by becoming an indispensable part of Maggie’s landscaping business. If you say so! Really, I could do without this entirely, but at least it actually feels like it’s going somewhere, which is more than can be said for Max and Mo’s business. They agree to rent a rundown space in Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist season 2, episode 3, which has the advantage of a liquor license but the disadvantage of looking like a bomb hit it. Mo spends almost the entire scene shouting at his off-screen boyfriend, who we later learn he has broken up with. Maybe relationships in this show just don’t work.

It makes me miserable to be down on “Zoey’s Extraordinary Dreams” since I still like the show and the characters. I just wish they were doing something more interesting. The song choices remain spot-on and the emotion is there when it’s needed – Skylar Astin in particular has some moments in this episode that rival the best acting the show has ever produced. So, hope isn’t lost, by any means. But we cannot do the love triangle thing again, and the SPRQ Point stuff needs to rise above “bro programmers aren’t progressive enough” claptrap, and David and Emily need to get over themselves. And I don’t think any of that is too much to ask, is it?

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