Ginny deals with Al’s uncomfortable history, Lawson considers his future, and Amelia has more stake in this game than it seems in Pitch 1×02.
Our second outing with Ginny Baker and the Padres shows that Pitch may have even more zip in its fastball than Ginny’s league-minimum 87 MPH. “The Interim” quickly adds much-needed depth to several of the character’s sketched out in the pilot episode, most notably hotshot catcher Mike Lawson and Ginny’s agent Amelia.
But the surface drama in Pitch 1×02 comes from Padres manager Al, and the internet that never forgets. Ginny is still eager to fit in with her teammates, determined to be “one of the guys” despite Amelia’s insistence on her singularity. Unfortunately, the overwhelming media attention angers her fellow Padres, and a old video of Al commenting on Ginny’s potential rise to his team makes national news.
“She’s easy on the eyes,” Al says in the clip. “A lot of the guys would love to have her in the locker room.”
Ginny is eager to brush off the incident, especially when Al makes a stilted but heartfelt personal apology. Unfortunately, fed up by questions on the Padres’ coherence as a team, the manager goofs again and asks the media if they can “go back to talking about how pretty the girl is.”
This precipitates immediate consequences. Clubhouse tensions dribble onto the field, as the Padres lose a lead over the Dodgers. Team owner Frank, who had decided on a stay of execution for Al, orders GM Oscar to fire the him and find an interim manager ASAP. The dial lands on Buck Garland, whose primary talent seems to be a bewildered expression.
Frustrated, Ginny tells Amelia to draft a statement in support of Al, which Amelia decides not to do. Tensions boil over between Ginny and her agent, as Amelia makes plans for Ginny’s “brand.”
“When I met you,” Amelia says, Ginny’s life “Became my life too.”
As it turns out, Amelia has a few secrets of her own. Facing her failure to conceive and the end of her marriage, Amelia quit her vapid agency (Eliot in tow) and sought Ginny out in Texas on a whim and a prayer. There, she convinced Ginny’s protective older brother Will, who had taken on the role of Ginny’s manager, to let the big name step in.
Ginny’s family drama can’t just conclude with her father’s death, after all. Ginny and Will are both heartbroken at his decision, even as he tearfully promises that Amelia will make Ginny “the most important woman in the world” — and that no matter what, Ginny will still be the boss.
Their relationship seems steady even as Will departs from Ginny’s career, but he is nowhere to be found in the present-day story of Pitch. Given the fate of Ginny’s father, I’m inclined to be concerned.
Meanwhile, Lawson is also dealing with personal issues in “The Interim.” Though the growing confidence between the veteran catcher and Ginny develops beautifully (Lawson spares neither criticism nor honest praise for his protege) he is distracted throughout Pitch 1×02.
As with so many catchers before him, Lawson’s knees are giving out. He can hear the clock ticking loudly down on his career, and his attempt to reconcile with his ex-wife fails when she breaks the news that she is engaged.
Bummer.
Even Blip is unhappy in “The Interim,” desperate for his wife Evelyn to find his slump-breaking lucky tee-shirt. The shirt, it turns out, was destroyed in the wash, but the writers of Pitch are careful make it clear that Evelyn is awesome — and one half of a refreshingly strong marriage. She comforts Blip with sex that they both seem to enjoy, and finds a replacement shirt the next morning on Ebay.
Forget the Padres, guys. I’m Team Evelyn.
Everyone else’s drama comes to a head in the clubhouse, while Ginny appears on Jimmy Kimmel at Amelia’s insistence. As yet another brawl brews among the team, Lawson vents his frustration; in a slightly hokey speech, he laments the fact that his only legacy will be the squabbling boys left behind. Concerned for Al’s job and desperate to make an impact on baseball, Lawson challenges the team to rise to the pressure.
“We’re gonna shock the world!” he says. “And yeah, we’re gonna do it with a pretty girl in the dugout!”
On her very meta and deliberately awkward Kimmel appearance (which probably takes place while Ginny would have been required to report to the ballpark, but hey, details!) Ginny decides to be the boss. She doesn’t go along with a rather sexist skit planned for her, and instead speaks out in Al’s defense. She also breaks free of her reluctance to comment on other gendered issues in sports, and condemns the tepid reaction to the rape of a female track runner by her a male teammate.
After the taping and a buoyant Padres win, Ginny informs Amelia that there will be no further screwball played with her decisions. “I’m the boss,” she says, wondering why a hotshot film agent sought her out two years ago.
“I came to South Texas, Ginny, because you needed me,” Amelia says, making it clear to the audience how desperately it is Amelia who, in fact, needs Ginny.
But, you know, lots of people need lots of different things. Like Al, who may need a job really soon. And Lawson and Amelia, who end the episode sitting tellingly close together at the hotel bar, about to make a fascinatingly ill-advised decision.
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