Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt season 4, episode 8 recap: Kimmy is in a Love Square!

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is back for part 2 of her final season, and it looks like Titus is about to have his own #MeToo moment after what happened during his Sesame Street audition for the lecherous puppet Mr. Frumpus and his puppeteer at the beginning of season 3.

As “Kimmy is in a Love Square!”, the eighth episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt‘s fourth season begins Kimmy is hosting a party at the Giztoob offices where she’s unveiling the company’s new logo — which is the same logo with the orange and blue swapped.

Credits roll and the scene switches to Titus and Kimmy’s apartment. Titus gets a call from a number with a 212 area code — “that’s where Broadway is.” Intrigued, Titus answers. It turns out instead of Broadway it’s Ronan Farrow, The New Yorker reporter known for his stories on the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

Of course, Titus has no idea who he is and is now annoyed that someone’s trying to sell him the magazine. Farrow corrects him — he’s actually calling about a story on Titus’ Sesame Street audition for Mr. Frumpus.

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Titus flashes back to the unfortunate audition. Mr. Frumpus tries to get him on the casting couch but Titus couldn’t go through with it. He ran out of the audition being chased by Mr. Frumpus and his puppeteer, who insists that Mr. Frumpus is just “old-fashioned.”

Back on the phone with Farrow, Titus tries to play things off by saying he goes on lots of auditions. But Farrow’s looking at Titus’ credits from the prior year and tells him that doesn’t appear to be the case.

Farrow explains there are a lot of rumors about Mr. Frumpus and he just needs someone to go on the record.

Titus flashes back again. After he ran out of the Sesame Street audition and got into the elevator, Mr. Frumpus stopped it. He asks Titus if he’s “going down,” and with that, his pants drop and both Titus and viewers get an eye-full of puppet penis.

Titus, still traumatized from the experience, insists nothing happened to Farrow. He then claims he has someone on the other line and hangs up.

Back at her party, when Josh, the freelancer responsible for the logo redesign, comes her way Kimmy starts to complain about him to office robot C.H.E.R.Y./L. Kimmy thinks Josh’s a buzzkill because he’s allergic to shrimp and peanuts (he’s the reason the office stopped doing shrimp and peanut Fridays).

C.H.E.R.Y./L is too drunk to be sympathetic. She vomits glitter.

Josh starts to chat Kimmy up when an older couple, Janice and Dave, enthusiastically come over. They are Josh’s parents and they were the only ones who laughed at the jokes in Kimmy’s speech about the new logo earlier. Janice hugs Kimmy and Dave compliments her.

Josh is embarrassed. He explains his parents insisted on coming. But Kimmy is touched by their devotion. Her mom never came to any of her events. Josh’s parents also reveal that Josh still lives with them. Kimmy is jealous and completely unaware that this is mortifying to Josh.

Despite that, Josh asks Kimmy out. Enamored of his parents, Kimmy hastily agrees.

Later at the apartment, Kimmy gets ready for her date. Lillian notices her getting dolled up and asks who she’s going out with. Kimmy confesses she’s really just hoping Josh will take her home to his parents.

Titus emerges, sighing, from his room. He says he doesn’t want to talk about what’s bothering him but Kimmy points out it would be an opportunity to talk about himself. So Titus tells them what’s going on with Mr. Frumpus. Lillian is aghast. She knows what happened to Titus because her husband Roland had a similar experience when he did Sesame Street in 1976.

Lillian tells Titus that if he can take Mr. Frumpus down he should. He counters that it’s humiliating.  Kimmy tries to correct him, but Titus interrupts her. In the elevator, Titus touched Mr. Frumpos after he presented himself to him and Titus still didn’t get the job.

Kimmy and Lillian are shocked.  But Titus is afraid of being defined by that one action — after all, he’s touched lots of things.  Despite Kimmy telling him that it’s the right thing to do, Titus still doesn’t want to share his story.

Then he turns on the TV and learns attendees of the Tony Awards will be bringing harassment victims to the show as their guests and will be wearing shorts as a show of solidarity. Titus decides to do the interview with Ronan Farrow.

On her date, Kimmy has offered to walk Josh home. Josh mentions his parents will still be up so maybe they should go elsewhere, but Kimmy races inside. She plays board games with Dave and Janice as Josh watches. He goes to bed while the trio stays up to play more.

The next day, Kimmy arrives at the office in the same clothes she was in for her date. Jacqueline saunters over, picking up on the fact that Kimmy didn’t sleep at home. Kimmy lays out what happened. Jacqueline breaks it down: Kimmy doesn’t like Josh, but she’s having an emotional affair with his parents.

Titus storms in and tells Jacqueline his story of puppet harassment. Jacqueline tells him she believes his story but he’s not going to the Tonys because of it. Another actor came forward about Mr. Frumpus that morning and the backlash is fierce. Jacqueline’s not going to let Titus confess what happened after that.

Kimmy, Josh, and his parents arrive back at the office after lunch at the Olive Garden. Dave and Janice invite Kimmy over that night but Josh tells them he and Kimmy will let them know. When they leave, he suggests he and Kimmy go to her place that night instead. Kimmy says it’s not an option because she lives above a shrimp and peanut factory. Josh goes in for a hug as Kimmy turns away.

Elsewhere, Titus gets a call from his ex-boyfriend Mikey. Mikey was reading about the accusations against Mr. Frumpus and remembered that Titus auditioned for him. Mikey wants to know if the accusations are true. Titus avoids the question, so Mikey just asks him to keep in touch.

Titus comes home to Lillian watching the ruckus over Coriolanus Burt, the Frumpus accuser and Titus’ rival. Lillian wants to know why Titus is letting him take all the heat instead of corroborating his story. Titus tells her it’s career suicide.

As if to prove his point, Jacqueline calls to tell him that Dairy Queen wants to reshoot a national commercial it had made starring Coriolanus with Titus instead.

At the office, Kimmy approaches Jacqueline for advice on her situation. Kimmy wants Josh out of the picture. What do Dave and Janice even see in him? Jacqueline tells Kimmy that before she does anything she needs to figure out if they feel the same way about her.

So, Kimmy meets Dave and Janice at a mini-golf course. They’re surprised Josh isn’t with her and Kimmy reveals that he isn’t coming. Dave and Janice are relieved. Over the last few days, Kimmy’s made them feel young again like Josh used to. After a moment of hesitation, Kimmy convinces them to forget about Josh and hang with her.

At the shoot for the Dairy Queen commercial, Titus is dressed in full queen regalia. They show him the playback of Coriolanus doing the commercial. Titus can’t get past in when he utters the line, “Please, help me.” Titus quits. He calls Mikey to go with him to see Ronan Farrow.

Meanwhile, Kimmy is going at it hard and heavy with Josh’s parents. They even got a hotel room and did a jigsaw puzzle together all night. Dave and Janice lied to Josh about where they were. Jacqueline cautions Kimmy that as stupid as the whole thing is, there are real feelings at stake. Maybe she needs to take a breather. Kimmy insists she has it under control.

Later, Dave and Janice text Janice to come over. They’re making stew and they have the DVD of The Sting. At the same time, Josh comes in to invite her to an a cappella concert. Kimmy turns Josh down and tells him he has to work late.

She goes to Dave and Janice’s house. As they’re setting up to play Pictionary, Josh comes home.  Kimmy insists they can explain but Josh knows what’s going on — he saw their texts because his parents never logged out of the Cloud on his iPad.

Josh can’t believe Kimmy was just using him to hang out with an old married couple. And he can’t believe his parents didn’t think about how the whole thing would make him feel. He and his parents start to fight but Kimmy interjects. She tells Josh to treat his parents right and takes off.

Sunday night, Titus watches the Tonys red carpet on TV with Mikey, Kimmy, and Lillian. Coriolanus is attending as a victim of Mr. Frumpus, but Titus isn’t. He’s depressed, but Mikey reassures him that someday he’ll go to the awards show as a nominee.

On the TV, they see Jacqueline approaching Coriolanus on the red carpet to ask if he needs representation. As she gives him her card, security drags her away.

That’s all for this episode. We’ll have the recap for episode 9 up soon. In the meantime, you can check out our recap of episode 7 and stream Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix.