Bridge and Tunnel Season 1, Episode 3 recap: Are Stacey & Mikey finished for good?

In Bridge and Tunnel Season 1, Episode 3, “A Perfect Couple,” Stacey gets insecure when she starts to think Mikey might have a thing for Tammy while Artie tries to spend more time with Jimmy before he leaves for Alaska.

Caution: The following post contains spoilers for Bridge and Tunnel Season 1, Episode 3.

The majority of this episode focuses on the push-and-pull relationship between Stacey and Mikey. Even though Stacey is living with her boyfriend Wayne in Manhattan, she continues to come home on weekends to hook up with Mikey.

She wants to have the best of both worlds, but this episode shows that Stacey does have legitimate feelings under her cool-girl exterior. She wants to be with Mikey full-time, but she’s scared of being rejected and winds up pushing him away instead. Potentially right into Tammy’s waiting arms.

Jill and Jimmy’s drama takes a backseat this week as Jill catches up with her girlfriends, first with Stacey and then Tammy. Both conversations primarily revolve around Mikey. I’m actually not sure if this show passes the Bechdel test, which is pretty sad considering there are three central female characters, yet all they seem to discuss is Jimmy and Mikey. This episode certainly doesn’t.

Bridge and Tunnel Season 1, Episode 3 recap: Artie dreads Jimmy’s departure.

With Jimmy’s departure date drawing closer, Artie starts doing what he can to spend more time with his son. For starters, he invites him to help with a paint job for the day at a notable photographer’s house. Artie encourages Jimmy to peek at his art and maybe try something different in his own photography. Despite knowing that his son will be leaving the nest soon, Artie genuinely wants what is best for him and anticipates Jimmy doing great things.

It’s why he’s not enthused whenever Jimmy casually finds a way to bring Jill up in conversation — as he does so often (as The AV Club previously pointed out in their initial review, Jimmy’s story arc is very cyclical). He fears that Jimmy will let his on-and-off romance with Jill hold him back. But Jimmy is inspired by the artist and recruits his friends to help him emulate the other photographer’s style in a set of images similar to those he saw hanging in the artist’s home. Unfortunately, his friends struggle to make the photographs look candid.

Bridge and Tunnel Season 1, Episode 3 recap: Stacey calls it quits with Mikey.

This episode opens with Stacey pontificating on the nature of her easygoing relationship with Mikey. She likes that they don’t “demand” things from each other and that she can have Mikey and her boyfriend, Wayne, without it causing problems. But then she admits to Jill that she’s starting to wonder if she might want more with Mikey.

The problem is that she’s afraid if she asks Mikey to get serious, he’ll reject her. She’d rather live in the fantasy, juggling two men, even though she’s clearly not happy. That becomes especially evident when Stacey grows jealous of Mikey’s interactions with Tammy. She learns that he regularly visits Tammy at the diner where she works for coffee. And it’s obvious Tammy still has a huge crush on Mikey.

Even though he assures Stacey that he would never act on it if Tammy made a move on him, it’s hard to ignore the chemistry between them. Once Stacey starts to worry about what could be going on between them (nothing, yet), she begins to self-sabotage her own relationship with Mikey. At the end of the episode, she tells him that the little tryst they have going on is over, leaving him baffled and confused. Is it really over? I guess we’ll have to wait to find out!

New episodes of Bridge and Tunnel drop weekly on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on EPIX.