Weird City season 1, episode 2 recap: A Family

After the first episode of YouTube Premium’s Weird City introduced us to the world of the Above the LIne and Below the Line citizens with a sweet and tender story, episode 2 just goes completely off the rails.

In “A Family,” we meet a guy who wants a family so bad that he is willing to go to any lengths to keep one — but those lengths are disturbing and a little too creepy.

Michael Cera is Tawny (with a pot belly and way too awkward) and when the episode starts, he is at a support group meeting for people with a Pomegranate Electrolyte Juice addiction. However, he is not addicted to the drink and just wants to be in a group that treats him as part of the family.

Sadly, once the meeting is over, the guy in charge (Ian Roberts) asks him to not come back, which sends Tawny off the deep end. He races out, almost gets beat up by two big jerks on the street and then goes to work.

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At work, his boss — who happens to be the same guy who recommended the One program in the last episode (Ithamar Enriquez) — tells Tawny to do his work — checking data.

However, Tawny explains he had a bad week and was kicked out of his support group.

Instead, he wants to just pay attention to his invention, which is worms that he is raising to try to create a terrarium because since worms aerate soil making it better for food to grow so why not just eat the worms?

When he doesn’t get his work done, he is fired. He yells at his boss, compares him to his dad and says he hates him. When he leaves, he almost gets beat up by those two big guys again.

It turns out that he lives Above the Line and can’t even keep a job Below the Line. He calls his dad for money and he gets it, but then hears his dad telling his new wife that he does it so he doesn’t have to see his son.

Even his AI on his mobile device uploads herself to the cloud, committing virtual suicide to keep from helping him anymore.

When Tawny buys an ice cream cone from a vending machine and it falls to the ground, he drops down to eat it off the ground when he sees inside a window people working out. The place is called Shape Cult and he reads “make yourself what you want to be” on the door.

He goes in and meets the head trainer Delt (Rosario Dawson) and says that he wants to join. He said he wants to “max out” and Delt lets her boss know that he is a mark and they can get a lot from him. Thanks to his dad giving him so many credits, he buys a membership and starts working out there.

One month later, the gut is gone and he no longer looks like a slob and is ripped. He starts to freak Delt out a little when he says that he wants to be a trainer too. When he buys a 10-year membership, the owner (Gino Montesinos) lets him do what he wants.

However, soon Tawny starts to freak out the members by giving them unsolicited advice and then he freaks out when he is told to leave them alone by Delt and the owner of the gym. When he asks the people if they want his help, no one does and he runs out to the sidewalk throwing a tantrum about not being wanted again.

Those two big guys that threatened to beat him up before in the episode are there and mock the gym for being a cult. Tawny tells them to shut up and when one approaches him he punches him across the sidewalk. He then breaks the other one’s hand, wrist and arm and makes him apologize — to the cheers of the gym members.

The next morning, Delt comes to work and sees that the smoothies are gone from the cooler and Tawny is sleeping in there with the worms, all biting on him. He said that the worms feed on him, then aerate the soil with his essence and then he eats it — the circle of life.

Delt has had enough and terminates his contract. The two start to fight and when she hits him, a worm comes slithering out of his nose, falling to the floor. Tawny drops down to pick it up to eat it when she charges him, misses and falls into the cooler where the worms them devour her.

The episode then shows that Tawny is the new head trainer and the guy from the support group that kicked him out is there to get “maxed out.” He offers him a drink called “Delt” and said he will work with him because they are all like family there.

What did you think about the second episode of Weird City? Let us know in the comments below.

Weird City is created by Jordan Peele and Charlie Sanders. The second episode, “A Family” was directed by Adam Bernstein and written by Charlie Sanders and is available to stream on YouTube Premium.