Mitch Clarke

**Mitchell Richard Clarke** was a main character on the first season of *Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist*. He was the father of David and Zoey and also the husband of Maggie. In the Season One finale, Mitch passed away from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), which had prevented him from speaking and moving normally.

He is portrayed by Peter Gallagher.

## Biography

* S1
* S2

### Pilot

Mitch is being spoon-fed soup by Maggie when Zoey offers to takeover, which Maggie declines. Zoey suggests opening the window but David insists he's fine. Zoey, based on her headaches and eye pain, is concerned she may have early signs of the same disease Mitch has, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. She doesn't want to get an MRI due to her claustrophobia and Maggie says Mitch does too but has received many in the past six months. While Maggie organizes Mitch's medication, she admits she tried some, hoping to feel what he is. Maggie talks about how they were able to communicate with him only months ago and now they don't know if he processes what he's hearing. Zoey suggests asking him how to handle it as her and Maggie look at Mitch on the couch. Zoey visits later and vents about how overwhelmed she is and how much she misses talking to Mitch and he sings "True Colors" to her. Zoey tells her family that he is processing and insists they go sailing with him. On the boat, Maggie asks him a question, but realizes he can't reply. But to the whole family's surprise, he reaches for Maggie's hand and squeezes it.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Best Friend

The Clarke family all attend Mitch's doctors appointment, hoping that his condition is improving. Dr. Hamara tells them he's not being cured but his medication is working and his mobility will be improved due to the disease slowing down. David finds an old game of Taboo and gives Mitch the buzzer to answer questions to, one buzz for "yes", two for "no". Zoey visits to see Mitch repeatedly buzzing "no" in response to Maggie holding up various items. Maggie tells her that he's been trying to say something all day but they haven't gotten anywhere. Zoey asks him what it's about and begins to vent when Mitch sings "Moondance" to her. She reminds him of her power and he confirms that the song is related to what he wants to say to Maggie. Zoey talks with Mo about the song, coming to the conclusion that Zoey must talk about her parents' sex life with Maggie. Maggie assures her they are okay in that department but tells Zoey the story that while at a Van Morrison concert, Mitch told Maggie he loves her for the first time during that song. Max comes by after his date with Autumn and visits Mitch, giving him butterscotch pudding. Later, Maggie sings a verse of the song to Mitch later and he happily pushes the buzzer.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Boss

Zoey shows the family a program she coded, allowing Mitch to spell out what he's thinking instead of using the buzzer. The first thing he types is 'Lemonade'. Maggie seems disappointed that it wasn't more meaningful. Maggie and David go to the store to buy Mitch lemonade, which ends up being all gone, as a sorority has bought all of it. Maggie gets in a fight with the girls, ending up with her in jail. David and Maggie return home later, Maggie having been banned from the grocery store. David and Zoey confront Maggie, telling her they want to help and give her a break. As Maggie resists, they hear a buzz from the other room and Mitch has typed out 'let them help'.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Neighbor

As David and Emily argue about whether or not to open the result of the sex of their baby, Mitch abstains from taking aside. David wants to wait, citing Mitch's mantra that he would say, "bigger moments, bigger memories". David hangs out with Maggie, giving Maggie time for herself. As David does a crossword, Mitch says he's bored. David asks Mitch for parental advice and pulls up Emily and David's wedding video, in which Mitch makes a toast. Watching the toast, Mitch begins to cry uncontrollably. David, later, beats himself up for making him cry and how he probably won't meet his grandchild. Emily comes up with an idea to make a bigger moment and bigger memory for Mitch. They throw a gender reveal party. When they pop a balloon right in front of Mitch, blue confetti rains down, indicating that it's a boy. Mitch starts crying again and Maggie insists it's a happy cry to a worried David.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Failure

Mitch buzzes with his buzzer back at David, playing a beeping pattern game. Later in the episode, Maggie worries about taking on a new client for the landscape design business she used to do with Mitch. As she voices her worries, Mitch sings "It's Your Thing" and Zoey tells Maggie to talk to him about it. He happily confirms that he is supportive of Maggie when she tells him she wants to take the job.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Night Out

Maggie worries about leaving Mitch alone to attend Simon and Jessica's engagement party, despite an old family friend Paul is coming over to hang out and take care of Mitch while she's gone. Paul and Mitch play a card game and Paul wallows over Mitch being the one to be going first, despite Paul's less healthy lifestyle. Maggie calls Zoey, saying that they fell as Paul was carrying Mitch up the stairs. After Mitch is home, now with a back brace on, Maggie beats herself up for leaving but Zoey tells her to stop. Maggie says she's not ready to lose Mitch.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Confession

David and Zoey fight in front of Mitch. After Maggie sings "A Little Less Conversation", David promises to help find a caregiver for Mitch. The three of them interview multiple candidates and Mitch laughs at one of them. Maggie and David decide to go with a woman named Nancy. Nancy insists they purchase a bunch of medical equipment and Mitch agrees, despite Maggie saying he never wanted to feel like a patient. Nancy brings in a hospital bed for him but Maggie says no, as she and Mitch don't want it to feel like a sick house. Mitch then requests a chocolate milkshake, which Nancy is appalled by. Later, Mitch and the potential caretaker he chuckled at earlier, Howie, are playing an online game together. Mitch requests a milkshake and Howie goes to make one. He talks to Maggie, saying he was surprised to hear from them. Maggie questions when Howie puts spinach in the milkshake and he says that it's for vitamins and minerals. Maggie smiles in return.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Glitch

At a doctor's appointment that the entire family and Howie attends, they are told Mitch is entering the final stage of the disease and will pass soon. Maggie and David call Zoey throughout the day, as she left in a hurry, but she ignores the calls. AFter an argument with Max, Zoey admits to him that Mitch only has a short time left. Max says he should probably confront those feelings with Mitch to stop her power from glitching. Zoey goes to her parents' house and her talk with Mitch turns into her singing "How Do I Live" to him.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Silence

Mitch kisses Zoey's injured finger and when Howie asks, Zoey says it's been a tradition since Zoey could injure herself. Howie hurriedly walks off, upset. Zoey questions Mitch why and he and Howie duet "The Sound Of Silence". Mitch tells Zoey howie has a daughter and to talk to him.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Outburst

Zoey insists that Mitch and Maggie celebrate their anniversary at the restaurant they normally go to, despite Mitch's condition. Later, as Zoey and Maggie talk, Mitch chokes and coughs on food, causing the women to rush in. Maggie realizes they can't go out for their anniversary. After a frustrating day, Zoey comes over to a hazy Mitch. Howie tells her that he wasn't doing great so he gave Mitch a sedative. Zoey screams at Howie. Later when she comes over on her parents' anniversary, she apologizes to Howie and ends up recruiting him with something for the anniversary. Howie wheels Mitch into the greenhouse where Zoey, David, and Maggie have set up an anniversary dinner for them. Maggie and Mitch sing "Perfect" together.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Mother

Maggie, David, and Zoey go to a funeral home to make plans for Mitch's funeral and are very overwhelmed. When trying to make decisions about various things at home, Zoey suggests asking Mitch, who is asleep and out of it on a chair, next to all of his medication. David, Zoey, and Emily narrow down options for plots to help Maggie out, which she rejects because they are too close to the highway and Mitch hates traffic. Zoey sets Maggie to speak to Deb and Maggie mentions that her and Mitch have been together for 40 years. Maggie is able to make a decision about plots, choosing one under a tree to shade the headstones.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Dad

Zoey visits her parents' house, asking if anything seems off, as she's been singing "Bad Moon Rising" all morning. Mitch and Zoey laugh together. Zoey rushes to the hospital where Emily was having Braxton-Hicks and David airs his sadness over the fact that Mitch won't get to meet his grandson. Later, while Zoey is hooking up with Max, Howie calls her. He explains to the family that Mitch's body is shutting down and he will pass in a matter of hours. Max says goodbye to him and tells Maggie "I let him know exactly how I feel about his daughter" and Maggie says Mitch knows. David goes to talk to him and Emily asks if she should come. David insists she does, saying Mitch loves her. They sing "Lullaby (Goodnight, My Angel)" and Mitch touches Emily's pregnant stomach. Maggie sings "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" to Mitch, now in a hospital bed. Zoey has a conversation with Howie about death when they hear Mitch struggle to breathe in the other room. Howie turns up the amount of morphine he's getting to ease his pain level. As they say their final goodbyes, Zoey hears a noise to look to the other room to see Mitch in a suit, calling her over. Changing into a red dress, they dance to a instrumental version of True Colors. When the song ends, Mitch spins Zoey back over to the other room just as Mitch has passed. Zoey, Maggie, David, and Emily get talk before getting out of the car for Mitch's wake. They, along with Simon, Max, Mo, Joan, and Howie sing "American Pie". Zoey ends the song, singing out loud.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Return

Six weeks have passed since Mitch's death. While trying to access old files, Zoey and Maggie discover a collection of videos recorded by Mitch prior to his passing. The videos, recorded during different days, were messages for Zoey, David, and Maggie. Though Mitch has more difficulty speaking in the videos for Zoey and David, in his video for Maggie, he is able to speak more clearly, gently reminding his wife that he loves her and that they all have to move on after his death.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Memory

In a flashback, a young Zoey and Mitch watch the Leodons meteor shower. Zoey asks Mitch why he isn't watching and he replies, "seeing you have the moment is the moment for me." Later, Zoey tries to recreate this memory.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Birthday

Zoey wears a pair of earrings that Mitch gave her for her sixteenth birthday. She and Maggie talk about how much Mitch liked parties.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Mystery

Zoey goes to see a psychic in hopes of contacting Mitch, bringing along a watch of his. David requests to ask if Mitch is proud of him. The psychic, Nova, claims Mitch popped up but soon faded. Zoey makes a connection between something Nova said and the switching of the songs, noting that she and Mitch watched *Freaky Friday* when she was a kid.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Session

Mitch comes in waving a landscape design magazine that he and Maggie have a centerfold in. He gives Zoey a packed lunch for her first day at SPRQPoint. Later on a call with Zoey, he and Maggie are on the way to the hospital, as Maggie was having breathing problems and chest pains. Mitch later calls again, informing Zoey that Maggie failed her stress test and has to get surgery, due to a small heart attack. Before Maggie's surgery, Maggie tells him that he should take care of himself as well as David and Zoey if something were to happen to her and he voices his fears about losing her. In therapy, Zoey says she always saw her parents as super human, but realized she could lose them at any moment. Mitch is shown sitting very still, eerily similar to how he looked in Season 1. When Max comes by to tell Zoey she got the SPORQPoint job, Mitch says he likes Max after he leaves. The Clarkes go to see Maggie after surgery and to help her get some rest, he sings "Dream A Little Dream Of Me", a callback to what Maggie sings in 1x12, "Zoey's Extraordinary Dad".

### Zoey's Extraordinary Goodbye

Zoey's in a meeting when she, distracted, dismisses it. She turns from shutting the television monitor off to see Mitch's reflection in it, similar to how he did in the "Pilot" before "True Colors". As Zoey shows Mitch her new office, she vents about the powers causing problems. Max shows up and when Zoey questions why, Mitch asls her as it's her dream. Zoey complains about the universe testing her and Mitch tells her that he has some part in her powers, as he's apart of the universe now and that everything happens for a reason. Mitch says how proud he is of her, despiting not getting to tell her, when Max says he has to leave. After he does, Zoey admits she wish she told Max at MaxiMo, not to go but she didn't because she didn't know if it would work, referencing her not wanting his death to happen. He apologizes but encourages her to take the risks, though he can't tell her what to do. He sings "I Lived" and they dance together. Zoey wakes up, telling Mo about her dream and decides to go after Max. Maggie has a conversation with the family, considering the idea of moving on and dating again. Later, after singing "I Melt With You", Zoey tells Max that she's scared to be with him because of the unknown, but that someone special, Mitch, is watching over them.

## Physical Appearance

Due to his progressive supranuclear palsy, Mitch is essentially rendered immobile for much of Season One, except when he is singing heart songs.

## Personality

Not much is revealed about Mitch's personality due to his limited ability to communicate, but he is shown to have a sense of humor through his interactions with Howie. In "Zoey's Extraordinary Best Friend," Max says that when he spilled soda all over Mitch's favorite chair, Maggie got mad at him, but Mitch didn't care at all, showing his easygoing personality.

## Songs Performed

* S1
* S2
* Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas

### Heart Songs

* "True Colors" - Cyndi Lauper (S1E1)
* "Moondance" - Van Morrison (S1E2)
* "It's Your Thing" - The Isley Brothers (S1E5)
* "The Sound Of Silence" - Simon and Garfunkel (S1E9)
* "Perfect" - Ed Sheeran (S1E10)
* "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)" - Billy Joel (S1E12)

### Other Songs

* "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" (reprise) - Ozzie Nelson (S2E12)
* "I Lived" - OneRepublic (S2E13)

### Other Songs

* "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" - Judy Garland

## Gallery

* "Zoey's Extraordinary Session"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Session"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Session"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Session"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Session"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Session"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Session"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Dad"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Glitch"
1/9