Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season 3, Episode 4 Recap: “Kimmy Goes to College!”

One thing Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt does really well is give us earworms.

The theme song itself it’s a pretty sweet Schmoyoho autotuned number, “Peeno Noir” is basically a classic by now, and I’ve watched the “pizza party for one” clip about 600 times. One of the great things this episode does is give us another one of those earworms.

The episode opens with Titus coloring a drawing of a dollar bill. He has officially hit hard times, but Kimmy has the idea to sign him up for TaskRabbit (even though Titus is afraid of both tasks and rabbits). Fortunately, someone’s looking for a singer, a task Titus offers to do for $100 an hour.

Amazingly, Titus’ offer is accepted. Gordy, played by guest star Judah Friedlander, needs backup vocals, and his work is controversial, to say the least. As Titus says, “Gordy’s got some opinions.” Here are some choice lyrics:

• “Milk has an expiration date. / We should do that with the elderly.”
• “Benghazi! / Benghazi! / Benghazi! / Hillary was there.”
• “The Supreme Court wears robes / to hide their octopus bodies.”

Titus clearly feels a little odd about the songs, but he tells Gordy he’s a honey badger when it comes to politics. He’ll sing anything until they get to the most special song that Gordy doesn’t have the range for. Titus’ line “He’s a monster!” leads us to think that this song must be insane. He even calls Lillian to ask her advice – should he sing this “deeply offensive” song?

Well, the song is basically a summer jam for people in middle America with Salt Life stickers on their vans. “Boobs in California” is an anthem for people who just like dogs and boobs and Smashmouth and saying “hella” a lot.

The accompanying music video is delightful, if not only for Titus, wearing an amazing bleached blonde wig, and Gordy riding a Vespa together in their resort wear. There’s also a dog driving a convertible. I’m not sure what else you could ask for in a music video.

The end of the episode shows people dancing to the song in a club, so I wonder if this will be Titus’ breakthrough? The residuals from an international hit could give Titus some new avenues to explore. We’ve never really seen Titus with money!

Meanwhile, Lillian is fighting the owner of the “Big Naturals” grocery store who wants to locate in East Dogmouth. Her weapon of choice is a filibuster, but Lillian needs sustenance. Kimmy, also working as a TaskRabbit, gets Lillian’s request for tea. After Lillian downs it, we find that Kimmy accidentally bought her Sleepytime Tea (caffeine free means the caffeine is free!).

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With Lillian’s filibuster over, Big Naturals gets a unanimous vote. Lillian is left with the affable owner, Artie Goodman (played by Peter Riegert), who makes her the community liaison for the project. It sets up a potential romance between the two characters, which I think could be interesting to see.

Kimmy’s work as a TaskRabbit makes her world again collide with Jacqueline’s ex-step-daughter Xanthippe who has moved into a dorm at Columbia. Though she was called by one of Xan’s roommates, Xan is the only one home and has to hang out with Kimmy while she completes her task, putting together a rowing machine.

It turns out that Xan’s popularity in high school didn’t translate to college. Being rich and having her family name on the dorm hasn’t boosted her popularity. Her roommates, three friends from the rowing team, don’t have any of the same interests.

Later that night, Kimmy returns to do a task for Xan, who has requested alcohol. Of course, her rowing team considers a wild night going hard on their rowing machine rather than drinking. While Xan feels ostracized again, Kimmy jumps on the rowing machine and is wildly successful.

Turns out that turning a crank in the bunker can lead to some serious upper body strength. This leads to Kimmy’s admission to Columbia, where she’ll get a scholarship to be on the rowing team.

Next: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season 3, Episode 3 Recap: “Kimmy Can’t Help You!”

I suppose this means that Kimmy and Xan’s paths are going to cross a lot in upcoming episodes. Hopefully, Xan’s teen angst finds an appropriate outlet. If Xan’s presence means we get to keep running into her “completely sex positive” RA (played by Tami Sagher), I’m okay with this.

This season has really been Titus’ time to shine in a lot of ways, and I’m not complaining. You’ll return to “Boobs in California” at least once on YouTube I bet.