Summary
DMV reaches a couple of high points in “The Next Window”, a midseason finale that finally breathes a bit of life into Noa and Colette’s relationship.
Trust DMV to radically improve just in time for the midseason finale. Episode 9, “The Next Window”, finally moves Noa and Colette’s relationship in a meaningful direction, has (arguably, Randall Park provides some competition) the best guest star in the form of Leslie Jones, and creates the most convincing vibe between the employees of the East Hollywood DMV we’ve seen yet.
Admittedly, the hook of the episode – Noa and Mary have broken up, creating a brief window of him being single for Colette to capitalise on – has conveniently happened off-screen between episodes, which is pretty annoying. Not that Colette minds. Even if the DMV’s customers aren’t swayed by the quasi-cheer of the holiday decorations, Colette is suddenly full of festive cheer.
And just in time. Colette decides to use the long journey to the office holiday party in Sacramento as a six-hour driving lesson, but the rest of the crew – sans Ceci, sadly – tags along just to make things awkward. Which they do. And yet Colette’s plan is sort of seen to be working. Noa is definitely noticing her, despite the circumstances. Is something brewing?
DMV Episode 9 features the much-talked-about Leslie Jones cameo. She’s playing Sally, the assistant to the Sacramento director, but the joke is that she’s basically a more upbeat version of Barb. Speaking of Barb, she also has a mishap with a Christmas tree that is one of the better moments of physical comedy in the season. I really wish Molly Kearney had more to do, and the focus wasn’t so much on Colette and Noa.
The same applies to Gregg and Vic. Unusually, “The Next Window” directly picks up a plot thread from the previous episode, with Gregg trying to track down the elusive “Kevin” at the party. We know that Kevin is an AI chatbot, but Gregg doesn’t, and Vic tries to perpetuate the illusion to avoid hurting his friend’s feelings (and revealing that he knew all along). As silly as it all is, it amounts to a nice character moment, seeing how much genuine loyalty Vic has for his friend.
But anyway, the point is the relationship between Noa and Collete, as ever. For the first time here, it really does seem like there is a bit of a spark between them. They share a dance. Colette is even able to offer meaningful advice without being super over-the-top. But in a harsh lesson about why she’s probably better off not being entirely honest and open, her sage wisdom manages to repair the relationship between Noa and Mary, locking herself out of the potential opportunity. As per the title, she’ll have to wait until “The Next Window”.
We’ll have to wait a while for that. DMV is on hiatus until February 2026, which is perhaps just as well, since the plots we’ve had thus far have been getting fairly stale. But this strikes me as a decent place to leave things. Not only was there finally something between Noa and Colette, validating her constant pursuit, but it also ends with the best moment of togetherness thus far, with Colette, Gregg, and Vic all sitting down to drink champagne at 6 am. It has taken a while to get to this point, but I can kind of see myself sitting down to see what else these three have been up to in a couple of months.
