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Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season 3, Episode 1 Recap: “Kimmy Gets Divorced?!”

By Leighann Dicks

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Season 3 of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt dropped on Netflix May 19th, bringing us back to its weird, unfailingly cheery world.

Even if we didn’t get the whole season at once, episode one makes it pretty clear where the characters in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt are heading. Though we don’t return to them immediately where Season 2 left off, we rejoin those storylines just a bit down the road.

Kimmy has gotten her GED and, complete with a professional photo to mark the occasion, is having a party to celebrate. This season begins with Kimmy thinking about her future in multiple ways. After getting out of the bunker, the first couple of seasons saw Kimmy figuring out how to navigate the world as an adult. Here, we start to see her get some solid footing under her beyond a place to live and work.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

She talks with Lillian at the party and realizes that college isn’t just for “rich kids” after all, so she quickly decides to pursue that. Though she’s a bit older, for most people right out of high school, or in this case a GED, college is just what you do. Lillian is an interesting person to push her in this direction, but she has been pretty industrious as a character lately, too. Her run for city council is front and center on her shirt (slogan: “The Future is Then!”).

Kimmy also has to figure out what to do about that second season cliffhanger: she was apparently legally married to the Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne (hilariously played by Jon Hamm – also, that’s a serial killer name if I’ve ever heard one) who wants a divorce. Here, it’s Jacqueline who proves most helpful, having had some experience with divorces.

She’s bored and desperate for activity with her lawyer boyfriend Russ gone, and drama, particularly toying with a man, is right up Jacqueline’s alley. This also gives Kimmy a sense of control over the person who controlled her for so long. It’s not really like Kimmy to manipulate someone like this, but in this case, it’s understandable why she’d give in for a bit. Their phone calls are some of the funniest bits in this episode.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Titus Andromedon is also dealing with relationship issues – he washes up on a beach in the very first scene of this episode, the very unceremonious ending to the cruise he was performing on. He’s worried about disappointing his boyfriend Mikey, who encouraged him to take the job in the first place, so we see Titus attempt to get hired on Sesame Street, a stable gig.

The process is hilarious and it goes great, until the exec interviewing him (and, notably, a puppet) very awkwardly proposition Titus. You just have to be there for that one. This causes Titus to reassess, and he decides to just go see Mikey. Unfortunately, he sees him going into his apartment with another man. The entire storyline really emphasizes how important Mikey is to Titus, so this comes as a pretty painful blow.

Lillian, too, is having relationship problems. She breaks up with her boyfriend, Robert Durst (a brilliant imitation by a very dead-eyed Fred Armisen), out of interest to her campaign. When he returns to give Lillian back her stuff (which is actually just an empty box because he “couldn’t find anything”), he tells Lillian that she’s stuck in the past, and she let someone back into her life who’s holding her back.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

This resonates with Kimmy, who’s on the phone with Richard as the conversation plays out. Her whole M.O. since getting out of the bunker has been really live and experience things, and she realizes she’s now spending her time with the Reverend again instead of working toward her goals or enjoying life.

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When Kimmy goes to sign the papers, though, Jacqueline explains that she can contest the divorce and get money for college. This keeps Kimmy tied up with Richard for a bit longer, but she can stand it if it’s leading somewhere productive.

This episode is largely about setting up our main characters for what they’ll be dealing with for the rest of the season. One of the things I appreciate most about this show, besides how bizarrely funny it is (I loved Kimmy’s pretend trash bag Titus), is that the characters have real development. Though everything gets filtered through Kimmy‘s sunny “10 seconds at a time” filter, the emotional stakes are still real. There are certainly some new roads for these characters to explore in this season, and I’m excited to see where they go.

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