Joint Break

*Season 2,* *Episode 3a*

**"Joint Break"** is the first segment of the eleventh episode (and the twentieth story overall) of *Close Enough*.

## Synopsis

Pearle makes new friends in a water aerobics class who turns [sic] out to have a sinister secret.

## Plot

Pearle, Alex, Josh and Candice are playing a game of cops and robbers, with the first three acting as cops, while Candice plays the role of a cartel boss "El Chupacabra". After Josh and Alex are out of the game, Pearle is left to chase Candice through the house and all the way outside. The game is abruptly ended after Pearle injures her left hip after power-sliding over the hood of a car during the chase and landing on the asphalt. Later, Pearle is arguing on the phone with a health insurance agent. Instead of covering the expenses for a partial hip replacement, the agent (heard only by Pearle) instead informs her that the L.A.P.D.'s retirement insurance can only give her aspirin and a prescription for water aerobics for her damaged. Despite her anger towards the police force, Pearle is coaxed by her son to try giving the aerobics a try.

At a YMCA building, Pearle is at the water aerobics lessons, struggling to keep up with the other elderly people. As the class ends she is befriended by a trio of women: Barb, Gertrude and Shirley, who allude to the fact that they share in a checkered past. While Pearle reveals to them her status as a retired police officer she further expresses her disdain towards their medical insurance practices and four of them strike up a friendship. Together the women drive off and spend some time together (at least a week) doing several typical elderly activities: buying and smoking medicinal Marijuana, eating at an all-you-can-eat-buffet, playing Bingo, riding scooters and going to the swimming pool as a group.

One day after a lesson of water aerobics Barb asks Pearle to make a stop at a bank so that she, Gertrude and Shirley can go to cash in their social security checks. At the bank the ladies go inside the bank, wearing robber masks and carrying guns, robbing the place and hiding the money inside their gym bags. They escape the police in a brief car chase by putting on a kindly old facade. Pearle is once again angry, this time at her new friends for having kept their crime activities a secret from her, to which Barb counters by saying that they are simply taking back was they rightfully deserve. The medical insurance policies will not help them appropriately with their surgeries and other needs, as seniors they are overlooked by society, so instead they decided to take up robberies to prove the system wrong, as well as feeling a sense of euphoria. And to finish her point Barb tosses a stack of money in Pearle's hands, her cut of the profits.

Back at home Pearle is torn over what has happened between her and her her new friends, wondering if a wrong makes a right. She gets a call from Barb who informs her of a robbery that is guaranteed to grant her more than enough money for her hip surgery. Pearle reluctantly agrees. The four women enact an elaborate plan to steal an armored car from a Santa Monica bank. The plans goes off perfectly and the ladies escape trough the sewers to the ocean with the money in hand. While at the beach they plan on riding a motor raft away, but Pearle reveals to them that she cannot let Barb and co to escape with the money. She's remained a police officer at heart and so tries pulling a gun on Barb, but Barb had already removed the bullets, revealing that she knew Pearle might betray them. However, Pearle also called in the police who immediately handcuff them, Before being taken in Barb asks Pearle to let her go for one last aerobic session in the wild ocean currents, to which she agrees. As the water currents intensify they swallow Barb, thus alluding the police and possibly killing her. Pearle walks away from scene, alongside the beach where she is met but Randy, asking if he should have picked her up from water aerobics. She responds in an hardened accent by saying that she is done with those classes, likely do to how Barb and the others had affected her moral compass.

## Characters

* Pearle Watson
* Barb
* Gertrude
* Shirley
* Randy Watson
* Josh Singleton
* Alex Dorpenberger
* Candice
* Emily Ramirez (no real lines)
* Bridgette Hashima (no lines)
* Tony (Water Aerobics Instructor)

## Trivia

* This segment of the episode is the only Pearle centered segment of Season 2 wherein she doesn't play the role of deuteragonist. In "Meet the Frackers" and "Handy"she shares the spotlight with her son. In "Where'd You Go, Bridgette?" she is partnered up with Bridgette, while in "Secret Horse" she shares equal screen-time with the rest of the main characters.
* It is revealed that Pearle had been top of her class at the police academy, was rewarded by the Los Angeles mayor for her service and retired well into old age. Likewise, Pearle is resentful of the manner in which the L.A. police treat their retired senior officers medical needs, but nevertheless still loyal to them.
* Pearle is implied to have smoked marijuana, albeit for medicinal purposes, as shown during the buffet scene where her, Barb, Gertrude and Shirley are holding joints and have blood-shot eyes. This makes her the fourth known main character to be a weed smoker, next to Bridgette and Alex, who partake in recreational drugs, and Emily who first tried it in "100% No Stress Day."

### Pop Culture References

* One of the plushies resembles Skips from J.G. Quintel's previous series, *Regular Show*
* Randy closes of the segment's cold opening by putting on a pair of sunglasses, delivering a one-liner, then transitioning to a pan-shot of L.A. with a mock remix of the song "Baba O'Riley" by The Who. This is an obvious reference to the crime-drama *CSI: NY*.
* Pearle's line: "I'm to young for this shit!" is an obvious reference to "I'm to old for this line", sergeant Roger Murtaugh's catchphrase in the *Lethal Weapon* movie series.
* The episode's title is a reference to the 1991 film *Point Break*.
	+ The scene in the latter portion of this episode is a reference to the end of the movie, wherein Keanu Reeves' character allows the villain of the film to go into the waves for one last surf.
	+ Additionally, an earlier scene in this episode references a moment in the film where the villains rob a bank wearing masks modeled after former U.S. presidents.
		- The only difference is that the characters in the episode wear masks modeled after former first ladies.