God Friended Me Season 2 Episode 2 Review: The Lady
Lizzy Buczak
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The God Account was working overtime in two different countries, which means so are Miles, Rakesh, Joy, and Cara.
On God Friended Me Season 2 Episode 2, Miles and Joy were helping their latest friend suggestion in New York, while Cara embarked on her own journey with Simon and Annie in Paris.
In addition to helping Joy with her friend suggestion, Miles was also trying to figure out his new role within the God Account.
He assumed the mysterious message left by the account on his Facebook wall -- "follow the lady, follow your path" -- meant that he should assist Joy with her upcoming friend suggestion but after successfully helping, he was still no closer to finding out what the message meant.
God Friended Me Season 2 Episode 1 Review: Joy
Despite being on two different continents, Cara and Miles needed each other to solve this riddle.
Miles was led to the Statue of Liberty and was sure that this was where the God Account wanted him to be.
And he wasn't entirely wrong -- Cara's day in Paris also led her to the Statue of Liberty albeit a different one. Who knew they had a replica in the City of Lights?
Thus, "follow the lady" meant that Miles needed to jump on a plane to Paris to reunite with his girl.
The God Account misses Cara and Miles tag-teaming on missions as much as we do.
Plus, Cara and Miles have unfinished business since Miles never got to tell her how he truly feels and she's been afraid to say it out loud and avoiding the situation entirely.
They have to face their feelings at some point.
Even though they both "know" how the other feels saying it out loud takes on a whole new meaning.
Joy's third friend suggestion was a self-help guru (it's purposefully ironic) named Teddy Preston, guest-starring the fantastic Bryan Greenberg (Jake Jagielski for all of you One Tree Hill fans).
One of the greatest things about this series is how it carves out opportunities for some awesome guest-stars.
It's as much about the friend suggestions as it is about the lessons impacting Miles, Cara, and the gang.
Preston was so good at public speaking to a room full of hopeful people that he could sell them anything. Even Rakesh was eating up all the "hack your life" stuff.
But Teddy's off-stage person didn't exactly exude the same confidence.
He wasn't exactly living by his own words, he didn't have it all figured out, he wasn't self-made, and he didn't own up to the mistakes of his past.
Until the God Account made him.
During the seminar, Preston was approached by a 15-year-old named Jacob Abbott who claimed to be his son.
Preston shot the whole thing down rather quickly saying he didn't know anyone by the name of Karen Abbott, but obviously, that was a lie.
It turns out, Preston knew he had a child but took a 50 thousand dollar bribe from Karen's father to stay out of Jacob's life forever.
But now, with Karen's passing, the God Account was giving him another chance at being a father.
And Joy, Miles, and Rakesh were tasked with helping him make the best of it.
Preston's story connected with Joy's since she knew all too well what the father felt 15-years ago and the guilt and shame he was feeling now.
She knew exactly what to do to smoothe things over between a man terrified of being a father and a child that felt abandoned.
Joy may come off strong and often makes things worse before she makes them better, but that's her way of helping.
And it's exactly why the God Account chose her as his next apostle, for lack of better words.
Joy: Teddy Preston. He's some sort of self-help guy.
Miles: You know, it's sad that people actually buy into this stuff.
Joy: Desperate.
Rakesh: Says two people taking orders from an internet diety.
While Miles has figured out the God Account's formula by now, his approach of sitting back and letting a situation work itself out wouldn't exactly apply in this case.
Joy makes decisions, sometimes haste ones, that Miles doesn't agree with, but she's right -- the God Account summoned her for a reason, and she has to do things her way.
Miles is welcome to assist, but he's no longer calling the shots.
Miles has been teaching Joy plenty when it comes to helping people and navigating the God Account's cryptic nature, but Joy has also been teaching Miles plenty of valuable lessons.
Miles' believes there's consequences to everything they do so he doesn't really want to rock the boat.
And it's worked out well for him so he doesn't see the need to change it.
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However, Joy comes from the mindset that every action causes a reaction.
It doesn't matter if she confronts the grandfather and calls him out on being a terrible human being or if she riles up Jacob by telling him the truth about his father because she believes it's necessary to get them to a better place.
She believes that things can only get better after they get worse.
Her approach is risky, but what's life without a little risk?
There's no reason to keep playing on the safe side.
With a show like this, the stakes have to increase. Maybe that's exactly the lesson the God Account wanted Miles to learn.
The God Account pushed Miles out of his comfort zone, but now he's comfortable. He gets it. So the God Account pushed Joy out of her comfort zone and in turn, she's pushing Miles even further.
If you look at it, there's lessons on top of lessons.
There could have been unwanted repercussions to Joy's decisions, and personally, I don't think it was right of her to tell Jacob the truth.
Miles was right -- it was Teddy's secret to tell.
But there's no denying that it helped in the long run. There's no guarantee that Teddy would have come to the realization himself or said what needed to be said.
When Jacob outed him for being a fraud, Teddy realized that the only thing he cared about at that moment was getting his son back and getting to know him.
I teared up when he told Jacob that meeting his son was the best day of his life.
Look, I don't mind your help Miles, but if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this my way.
Joy
Hopefully, we'll have a chance to check-in with these characters again in the future.
Maybe I didn't notice this on God Friended Me Season 1 or maybe it's because Miles is more comfortable with the friend suggestions now, but the way they approach the helping aspect is almost too much at times.
With Preston they didn't explain why they were there or why they were getting so involved.
Half the time he asked "who are you people" while they stalked down his family members and inserted themselves into the mess.
The audience knows they're simply trying to help but you have to admit, it comes off slightly creepy.
Maybe they have to get better with explaining why they're so eager to help?
The friend suggestions also helped Joy realize that maybe there is a chance she'll successfully reconnect with her daughter.
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I'm not too familiar with adoption laws so correct me if I'm wrong, but if it's a closed adoption that means neither the child nor the biological parent can inquire or locate the other.
It may complicate her search, but I don't doubt for a minute that the God Account doesn't have a plan up his/her sleeve.
How are you feeling about Joy after this episode?
Do you think she comes on too strong? Do you think she complements Miles and is necessary to get the job done?
My prayers have been answered (thank you, God Account) because Ali finally has a storyline.
Arthur learned that Ali was becoming a member at a new LGBTQ-welcoming church, First Advent, and felt disappointed that she was turning her back on the congregation at Harlem Episcopal, her family for all the years that he was Reverand.
That's your problem Miles. You're so worried about not making things worse that you can't see what it takes to make them better.
Joy
But Ali didn't feel the same love that Arthur felt at the church -- she knew all about the members who left the church when she came out.
Arthur eventually realized that his community wasn't necessarily hers and embraced her desire to feel welcome somewhere else the way he had.
We're all trying to find our place where we feel accepted and loved.
God Friended Me shines a light on the importance of being there for loved ones and specifically, how important it is for a parent-child dynamic.
When parents are supportive and accepting, it changes everything. Arthur's becoming more open-minded in God Friended Me Season 2 and it's strengthening his relationships all around.
We could all learn a thing or two from his parenting.
Maybe Ali's new congregation will play a role in the God Account somehow.
I'd like to see her more connected with Miles and friends.
Another lesson the God Account attempted to teach in just one short hour: forgiveness.
Cara took to the streets of Paris to crack the God Account's code and was joined by Simon and Annie.
The two have a long history as Simon admitted to being the one who destroyed Annie's journalistic career.
The Facebook hack on Annie's computer, which led Cara to reconnect with her mother, brought them all together but it's unclear why.
The map Simon found while investigating the hack eventually led Cara to the Statue of Liberty in Paris, but it had nothing to do with Annie or her mother.
Will Annie have a tie-in with the God Account?
Or is this just their way of bringing her in so that she develops a relationship with Simon?
Those scenes where she confronted Simon were emotional.
He was truly sorry about what he'd did and while she still blamed him, spending the day around him made her realize that he's not the asshole she expected or wanted him to be.
When she asked him what it's like to not care about anyone but yourself, his reply was so genuine and heartbreaking: "it's lonely."
Will Annie forgive him? Will they forge a romantic relationship?
My guess is that she'll take over writing Simon, Pria, and Henry's story when Cara goes back to New York.
She'll have the chance to redeem herself as a journalist by finally telling the story that Simon shut down years ago.
It all comes full circle.
Don't forget to watch God Friended Me online and sound-off about the episode in the comments below.
What did you love? Were there moments you didn't like?
What do you think will happen when Miles arrives in Paris?
Lizzy Buczak was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in June 2021..
