[Editor’s note: The following story contains spoilers for “Nobody Wants This” Season 2, including its finale.]
Of the various pleasures in Netflix‘s smash rom-com collection “No person Desires This,” Joanne’s (Kristen Bell) skill to see past her personal petty foibles and romantic mishaps doesn’t usually rank. However when one thing is so apparent and so unsuitable that even Joanne can’t ignore it? Now we’re cooking.
Within the fifth episode of the second season of the collection, such a second arrives in essentially the most benign of locations: a bowling alley. As Joanne squints and stares at her boyfriend’s sister-in-law Esther (Jackie Tohn), we additionally squint, stare, and labor to see what’s totally different. “I imply, are we simply, like, not gonna discuss this?,” a gobsmacked Joanne asks Esther, Noah (Adam Brody), and Sasha (Timothy Simons). “You bought bangs!”
Don’t sniff: As Joanne instantly notes, such a snip alerts a “main life transition.” And Esther? Oh, she’s going by means of it.
In its first season, the Erin Foster-created collection was repeatedly known as out for its depictions of Jewish girls, together with Esther who, at greatest, reads as abrasive. At worst? She’s a harmful stereotype: a demanding shrew, a gossip, and a meddler. And it didn’t assist issues that she was pitted in opposition to a sassy blonde within the type of Joanne’s sister, Morgan (Justin Lupe), who loved a flirty friendship with Esther’s husband Sasha that, fairly frankly, appeared to take everybody unexpectedly.
That included Foster herself, who was fast to quash chatter concerning the two “loser siblings,” telling The Hollywood Reporter in October 2024 that, for the collection’ second season, “We’re going to wrap up their bizarre ‘Is it romantic?’ factor. As a result of we wish to see them collectively in Season 2, hanging out. We wish to see Esther. I feel we went down that highway sufficient that now we’re going to tug again and reposition so we are able to have all of them in scenes collectively with out [Morgan] being, like, a full homewrecker.”
No, Morgan just isn’t a “full homewrecker” this season — not even half a homewrecker! or 1 / 4 of 1! — and whereas audiences may initially miss the spark of Morgan and Sasha’s bond, it’s ultimately Esther whose appeal and sass show to be the very best foil for Sasha. (Of notice: This season has added a pair of latest showrunners in Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan.)
That doesn’t imply it’s all sunshine and rainbows, although.
Esther has been softened this season, affording her a bit extra grace as she and Sasha navigate some tough waters. And whereas the turns their relationship take are heartbreaking, there’s something infinitely extra satisfying about watching a long-term couple hash out their issues in a collection that’s constructed on the enjoyment of watching a brand new couple attempt to work issues out.
Within the Season 2 opener, Joanne and Noah choose to throw their first joint ceremonial dinner, a particularly literal option to be a part of their disparate good friend teams and additional meld their lives. In fact, a few of these get together company already know one another, like Morgan, Sasha, and Esther, and the latter two bicker beforehand about tips on how to greatest method the Morgan-sized elephant within the room. Esther, so comfy being in cost, even coaches Sasha on tips on how to say hiya to the lady.
And but. And but. When the trio descend on Noah’s home, they’re nearly instantly pushed right into a single room collectively to hash issues out. Morgan is relaxed. Sasha hopes for a threesome. And Esther? She’s one thing else. Esther, so fired up within the first season, involves launch her anger. She’s simply unhappy concerning the flirtation, she tells Sasha. However her disappointment isn’t essentially the results of her getting over it, however perhaps absolutely getting round it.
Nobody can deny it: Morgan and Sasha loved a enjoyable and, sure, flirty relationship, “I’m enjoyable!,” Esther yelps when Sasha dares to invoke the f-word when describing his bond with one other lady within the first episode of this season. It’s perhaps that aspect that hurts essentially the most: that by considering another person is enjoyable, Sasha is displaying that he thinks Esther just isn’t. Esther tries her damndest to show her enjoyable bonafides early within the season: dancing alone at that horrible ceremonial dinner, altering up her Purim costume (from her traditional Queen Esther to an attractive cat get-up, all pleather and pretend whiskers), and choosing these rattling bangs.
By Valentine’s Day, Sasha is attempting too: taking Esther to a dance class, after she talked about all of the issues she will be able to’t wait to do after they grow to be empty nesters in simply 5 years (dancing, transferring to a cool neighborhood, sleeping in on Sundays). However as candy because the gesture is, it doesn’t fairly land. Within the following episodes, that turns into a pattern.
As Morgan and Sasha chat it up at Noah’s household’s Purim get together, a sad-eyed Esther stands off to the facet, quietly watching the interplay. (It’s a far cry from earlier this season, when Esther demanded that Sasha spend simply two minutes in Morgan’s automotive along with his fellow “loser sibling” when she reveals up at their residence begging for relationship recommendation.) When Joanne strides over and asks Esther if she needs her to interrupt it up, she says no.
And when Joanne asks her if she’s mad, she says no once more. She means it.
Firming down Esther’s abrasiveness actually helps batter again criticisms of her character, however there’s additionally some compelling character work right here: It’s not simply Esther loosening up about Sasha and Morgan, it’s about her really not caring. Jealousy may be a nasty look, however a minimum of it’s a passionate response. Esther’s apathy? That’s actually scary.
As the gap between Sasha and Esther begins to develop, we be taught extra about their romantic origin story, which additional clarifies Esther’s reactions to Morgan. When Sasha makes an attempt to go off his bond with Morgan as being purely a friendship, Esther reminds him that they too had been as soon as “simply pals” … till they weren’t. Esther isn’t utilizing their beginnings as a weapon, however as a lesson.
We additionally be taught that Esther and Sasha married shortly — the undercurrent being “earlier than they had been able to” — when Esther obtained pregnant with their daughter Miri. Whereas Noah and Joanne combat continuously concerning the methods by which they’ve acted in earlier relationships (an analogous drawback befalls Morgan and Dr. Andy too), plainly Sasha and Esther haven’t any different foundation for his or her quibbles — their marriage is their solely actual level of reference.
A final-ditch effort to bond them — as impressed by Sasha and Noah’s perpetually meddling mom Bina (Tovah Feldshuh) — ends in a fast flirtation with having one other child. However Esther doesn’t need that. That’s when she will get the bangs. That’s how unhealthy this all is. And when she tells Sasha that she doesn’t wish to strive for an additional child? The ache she feels, that Sasha feels, that the viewers feels? It stings.
Noah and Joanne’s issues are myriad, however all of them stem from one central battle — itself the very spine of this complete collection and Foster’s personal experiences — concerning their spiritual affiliations. Nobody who has watched all two seasons and 20 episodes of “No person Desires This” might presumably labor underneath the delusion that, if Joanne merely transformed to Judaism, every little thing could be excellent, but it surely positive would sew up some greater issues proper fast.
Sasha and Esther’s issues are each extra nebulous and extra painful. There’s one thing unsuitable right here, however nobody can fairly identify it. That doesn’t imply it’s not apparent. And that doesn’t imply it’s not threatening their relationship. By the point the season finale rolls round, and Esther and Sasha (main spoiler alert) break it off, or a minimum of choose to take a break from their marriage, it seems like the one proper plan of action. It’s additionally the one which hurts essentially the most.
Take into account this: Noah and Joanne know who they’re, they usually’re attempting to determine the methods by which they’ll match collectively. However by the top of Season 2, the compatibility query of a completely totally different couple has taken middle stage. Sasha and Esther don’t know who they’re, and that makes it unimaginable for them to suit collectively. That’s actual heartbreak.
All episodes of Season 2 of “No person Desires This” are actually streaming on Netflix.
