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Childhood best friends Maggie Caruso and Emma Crawford have shared countless adventures growing up together. Now, Maggie and Emma are in store for one of their biggest adventures – raising a baby.
While the premise of “Playing House” is focused on two best friends figuring out the ins and outs of raising a baby, baby Charlotte is merely a cute distraction in a show about two best friends figuring out their life after a few curveballs have been tossed in their general direction. The chemistry between the two friends Maggie Caruso (Lennon Parham) and Emma Crawford (Jessica St. Clair) is undeniable and that’s partly because they are best friends in real life. They set the standard for “kooky best friend relationship” and obsession with Kenny Loggins in the first season and kept it going right into the second season, with some help from Maggie’s brother Zach (Zach Woods), Emma’s ex-boyfriend/local police officer Mark (Keegan-Michael Key), and Emma’s eccentric WASP-Y mother, Gwen (Jane Kaczmarek).
“Playing House” ends its second season with two back to back episodes, “Officer of the Year” and “Celebrate Me Scones,” with steady comedy and the geeky, yet romantic, tension between Emma (Jessica St. Clair) and Mark (Keegan-Michael Key).
Episode 7, “Officer of the Year,” starts with Emma planning annual Officer of the Year event for the local police, and ultimately, is the episode where both Mark and Emma have to face facts and their feelings for one another. With Maggie caught in the middle, she is the catalyst for which feelings are given the O.K. to be revealed. After an intense conversation, Emma is whisked away by Maggie in a drunken and celebratory conga line, leaving Mark standing alone and everything still up in the air.
The final episode, “Celebrate Me Scones,” departs from the seriousness of the previous episode with some Kenny Loggins fun as a misadventure begins with the help of Maggie’s brother Zach. Maggie wants to show her appreciation to Emma for moving in and helping her with baby Charlotte by taking her to a Kenny Loggins concert and have him dedicate a song to Emma. The only problem is Zach failed to get tickets, which takes them on a crazy journey, invoking familiar alter egos, and ending the night on Loggins’ tour bus. After a ridiculous night of mayhem, Emma finds Mark on her doorstep, leaving us hanging for what happens next.
This season has led us through the searching for, beginnings of, and endings of relationships as well as self-discovery. We’ve watched Maggie working her waitress job with wet blanket enthusiasm only to rediscover her love for nursing and the desire to finish the degree she started, and then with the disintegration of Mark and Tina, we finally see a more vulnerable side to Emma. We have been set up this far, for a defining moment between Emma and Mark, and it will be interesting to find out what will happen between them, whether Mark’s fear of being hurt again will encourage him to walk away or if they are both willing to make things work despite their history. Regardless of what happens I’m sure Maggie will be in full supply of body rolls and moral support.
“Playing House: Season Two” Finale airs tonight at 10/9c on USA Network.
