Recap Vomit: Trophy Wife (The Wedding Part Two)

Weddings on a sitcom are never easy. Then again, weddings in real life are never easy. You think it's your day but it's not really your day - it's everyone else's day. This is the refrain I continually hear from my married friends. And so even though Kate and Pete think their wedding day is their day, it's not really their day - it's everyone else's day. This is to say, it's Megan Mullally's day, because Megan Mullally plays Malin Akerman's unhinged, bad-kid-at-heart mom Cricket. From the moment she steps off the plane to the moment she ascends the roof of the Harrison pool house to have a cigarette, it becomes all about her.

But then that's the precise problem with these "event" sitcom episodes - it becomes all about the stunt casting. But then does anyone know half the people at their wedding? The Groom & Bride get top billing, sure, but they can easily become bit players in the biggest day of their lives. That's kinda what happens to Kate and Pete. Cricket dominates the proceedings with her bawdy ways, like hiring a couple male strippers for the intimate pre-wedding family dinner in a gag so exhausted it barely wheezes across the finish line.

Elsewhere, Pete's parents, played by Florence Henderson and Bob Gunton (sneakily great casting), show up too, revealing themselves as jaw-droppingly uncommunicative and trapped within the confines of mundane lovelessness. So, son and daughter try to appeal to their respective parents to change their ways, though Kate seems more determined to do this than Pete. Pete just seems exhausted. Best Line of the Episode, in fact, goes to Pete. "At least you try. I just sigh." *Nick nods furiously.*

Of course, the episode's title means that a wedding awaits even if the wedding as planned gets scrapped for partially dubious reasons. But the scrappage allows for a surprise which, let's be honest, cribs from "The Wedding Singer" (minus Billy Idol) and just seems a bit too sugary in the face of all that has come before. There's a niftier scene of Kate and Pete fleeing to the garage to be alone and I almost wish the episode had just ended right there - as in, they only need this, not all that other Surprise Wedding On A Sitcom nonsense.

In truth, not much changes here. The way things were more or less remain the way things are by episode's close. Which might actually be the most precise detail "The Wedding Part Two" reveals. A strong subplot involves Warren and precocious Bert announcing to their respective mothers - Dr. Diane Buckley and Jackie - that they no longer wish to be called "adorable." After all, they are now Best Men. Not Best Boys. And Best Men are not "adorable". Dr. Diane Buckley and Jackie pledge to honor their request. They do.....for about half-a-second. Then Warren and precocious Bert are right back to being adorable.

"The Wedding Part 2" might be meant as a kind of affirmation, but it just comes across like a placeholder.