Pitch Season 1 Episode 5 Review: Alfonzo Guzman-Chavez
Jasmine Blu
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Pitch really loves playing with our emotions. I for one had no idea trades could be so stressful!
My feelings about Pitch Season 1 Episode 5 are mixed, but I commend the show for squeezing some emotion, any emotion out of me each and every episode. I'm no robot in cleats, more like a robot in Converse, but Pitch always gets to me.
Unfortunately with the MLB trades, those damn flashbacks, the state of Ginny's personal life, Oscar, and that ending all of my Pitch feels this time around were not warm and fuzzy ones.
None of the revelations this week were particularly shocking. In fact everything was rather predictable roughly halfway into the episode. But I didn't mind the ride to the end too much.
I'll start with the tragic flashbacks. I appreciated the fact that the flashbacks coincided so well with what Ginny was dealing with in the present. The fear of losing Blip and the Sanders family for one, and actually losing Tommy for the other.
That's right, Ginny's frenemy Tommy was shipped off to the Cubs. But more on that in a bit.
Ginny: Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm not about dating teammates.
Jordan: Don't take this the wrong way, but neither am I. How are you about making friends?
I adored seeing Ginny and Jordan's friendship! I mean, it's clear now that Ginny didn't exactly have any friends growing up. So it's bittersweet to think about the fact that by the time she actually got a best friend, she was what? Seventeen?
Jordan was charming. There was something about him that actually reminded me a lot of Tommy. Their friendship was fast and fleeting too, and I liked the parallels to that and the budding friendship she was forming with Miller, only for it to be ripped away.
I suspected there was something more to Jordan's home life. The disapproving or absent father, a drunk, and it was pretty much on the nose. By the time they showed Bill leaving that message I instantly knew what was about to happen.
Jordan's father was the drunk driver in Pitch Season 1 Episode 1. He was the driver responsible for Will Baker's death! What a dark twist of fate that the only friend Ginny ever had, was related to the man who turned her entire life upside down!
As if mourning her father wasn't enough, she had to grieve the loss of her best friend, too. It was almost eerie thinking about the fact that Jordan was just telling her that he was afraid she'd forget him when she went off to college. Now she can never forget him!
Blip: I'm a baseball player without a no trade clause, nothing is written in stone.
Ginny: But, I mean you can't move! You're the only real friends I have.
It was easy to understand why Ginny freaked out about Blip possibly being traded. Not only are they the family that she always wanted but never quite had, but they're some of the only friends she has!
I loved the many scenes of "Aunt" Ginny at the Sanders home setting the table for dinner or playing videogames with the boys. I know she's an adult, but Ginny seemed so childlike in those moments. It was as if Blip and Evelyn had another kid.
Those scenes were tinged with so much sadness because it spoke to just how lonely and alienated Ginny really is. At 23 you'd expect her to have friends her own age, maybe doing things that other 23-year-olds do. Partying, drinking, dating, or some of anything.
You don't expect her to be playing house at a married couple's home and hanging out with seven-year-olds.
Blip leaving would have ripped that sense of normalcy away from her and would have been another person in the long line of people who just keep leaving her. The abandonment issues are so real with Ginny. Understandably so.
Ginny was frantic and desperate, willing to do anything to not have that happen. As much as I understood why Ginny was behaving the way she was, I also understood why Blip eventually flipped out, too.
Ginny this isn't your life, it's mine! Any minute now I might have to wake my kids up and tell them we're saying goodbye to the only home they've ever known! I just don't have it in me to make you feel okay.
Blip
This was such a fantastic episode for Mo Mcrae! Blip is such a lovable character. He's the doting husband, the family man, the stand-up friend and resident funny guy, and as Lawson once put it, "Black Yoda." We finally saw him a bit unsteady.
He had every right to remind Ginny that his life and the life of his family could be turned upside down in a minute and it had absolutely nothing to do with her! He's always supportive of everyone else, he just needed a moment to deal on his own.
But because he's Blip, he still found time to give Lawson some sage advice. I loved when he kept needling away at Mike until he figured out that Mike was sleeping with Amelia. Then followed that up with he can't keep anything from Evelyn and Evelyn can't keep anything period!
Whatever it is that you and Amelia are doing, you gotta tell Ginny bro. Because you know it's gonna get out. It'd be a lot better for everybody if she hears it from you.
Blip
Blip was right. This entire secret Mike and Amelia thing has gotten on my nerves. I don't mind them together, but I do mind them treating Ginny like she's a kid that can't handle the truth. If they're all adults with personal lives, then why couldn't either of them be decent enough to tell her from the beginning, or at least not actively hide from her?
The longer time passed the more pissed off anyone would get. And honestly, the truth really should have come from Mike. She may have known Amelia better, but she's clearly closer to Mike.
Amelia: I just wanted to let you know that Mike Lawson and I have been seeing each other. Just for a few weeks.
Ginny: Oh...okay.
They waited too long, didn't come up with a plan, and had crap timing coming clean on the same day where she almost lost one friend and did lose another. Ginny has limited friendships and values the ones she has deeply, however tenuous they are, so it had to sting to find out that two of them were keeping something from her.
Is there a ship name for Amelia and Mike yet? Slawson? Those two are far from casual marathon sex partners now. They're in relationship territory and Mike doesn't seem to know how to manage his first real relationship with a woman after separating from his wife.
Just a little tip from a professional, don't apologize for calling me a groupie by treating me like one.
Amelia
Mike was wrong lumping Amelia in the same category as groupies. They vandalized her car and he seemed amused by it all. Amelia isn't a fangirl of his, and he did treat her like one.
He did okay making up with her though. I'm rather surprised with them, because I had Slawson pegged for a really casual arrangement, but despite the fact that neither of them know what they're doing relationship wise, they both seem smitten.
Ginny: He's back! Tommy, your boy's back!
Mike (about Tommy): They sent him to the Cubs about 15 minutes ago
I wasn't the least bit surprised that Tommy got the heave-ho. The slight parallel to her childhood friend Jordan was one thing. But there was also that great bonding moment Ginny and Tommy shared after Butch got traded. Tell-tale signs of a swan song.
I hated the fact that only then did we find out that he had a kid. Then later on found out he also had a wife. Both of whom Ginny blew off being introduced to because she was too worried about Blip.
There it was. She spent so much time thinking about Blip and how devastating it would be for his family, she didn't even think about anyone else's.
Even though I saw it coming, it still bummed me out a great deal. Tommy grew on me, like a fungus. He was sort of like that one cousin you don't really like but you'll still go to bat for because they're family. Plus, I just really enjoyed Ryan Dorsey.
Tommy and Ginny are basically the reluctant sibmance ripped away too soon. They were just teasing us with it and now it's gone. With Tommy gone and her and Mike presumably on the rocks, who else will Ginny hang out with?
I'm just going to say it. Oscar is a dick. Out of all the versions of Oscar they have given us (what are we up to four of them now?) I like this one the absolute least. I also don't know which version of him is the real Oscar and after this episode I'm not sure I care anymore.
I still think learning about the other characters is a plus for this show, and I appreciated a bit of his back story and his bonding scenes with Duarte in Pitch Season 1 Episode 4, but I'm inclined to agree with our PItch Roundtable regarding Oscar.
Enough with the focus on him already. I like Mark Consuelos. I like the exploration of the backroom baseball things. The trading stuff in itself was fascinating. But Oscar was the worst.
Was everything he told Duarte a lie? He told Duarte that baseball was his dream and passion and that the Padres were a family, and from what we've seen, they really are. So why the hell was he so callous about it all when Ginny approached him?
I didn't care for Ginny's approach either, and I'm sure he was stressed out from Dick #2 in the episode, Charlie, but he really came off in a poorly.
Does he really think the game he made a career off of is a child's game? That players are just chess pieces that he moves around at will because he doesn't give a crap as long as it gets them wins and money?
Obviously he's right and this comes with the job, but I saw him in a whole new light after that one. I don't necessarily agree that he shouldn't be prominent in the series, but I do think there are more interesting routes they could explore with him, like his relationship with Al or something.
So far the only thing I like about Oscar is his assistant Rhonda. And it's difficult to sit through a scene where he's being boring or being a jerk, when I can think of other underdeveloped characters that could use the screen time.
Like Tommy who is gone now. Or better yet, Elliot. For God's sake, why the hell is he so underused? It's been killing me from day one.
His scene with Amelia was funny, and I actually enjoyed the phone conversation he had with Ginny. I was shocked she even had his phone number! And was that the first time she actually spoke to him directly? Why can't he be her new friend?
Additional Notes:
- Am I the only one disappointed we basically got the tail end of the game in the beginning of the episode? I kinda wanted to see it. I'm enjoying the sports action more than I thought I would.
- How old was Tommy supposed to be? For some reason I thought he was a lot younger and he didn't strike me as married with a kid.
- Oscar's creepy doll head, and the abscess tooth are old now. Can we move on?
- It was so awesome to see Josh Peck, but it was so disappointing that he didn't have much presence.
- Bill's final phone call was to the man who killed him. That entire situation crushed me.
- In Living Color is a classic and I totally remember watching it as a kid, but it felt like such an odd choice for Ginny and Jordan to be watching. They had to be watching it in syndication, because they were babies when it actually was on air. I don't know, that threw me for a loop.
- It felt like Ginny took a backseat in this episode. It also was light on Bawson. Neither of those things make me happy.
So what do you guys think of the episode? Are you officially shipping Slawson? What did you think about the latest revelation on Will's accident? Are you sick of Oscar? Will you miss Tommy? Are you happy Blip is staying?
Hit up the comments below, and don't forget you can watch Pitch online here at TV Fanatic.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You'll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on X.
