"Quilty Pleasures" is the first segment of the first episode (and the first story overall) of Close Enough.
Synopsis[]
While working on Candice's class quilt, Josh and Emily get trapped in the underbelly of the L.A. fabric district while Alex and Bridgette prove to be incompetent babysitters.
Plot[]
Josh films Candice riding on a homemade skate park inside the house, which goes well until she cracks open the A/C system, causing her and the roommates to be caught in its pull, before Emily comes in and shuts it off. Josh looks at his phone and realizes he only took a photo instead of shooting it on video .
While picking up Candice late from Chamomile Elementary, which is apparently not the first time it’s happened, her teacher Mr. Campbell stops them and voices his concern that Candice hasn't turned in her family tree quilt project that's needed for a school event the following day, else he will fail her. Josh and Emily resolve to do the project.
After "dropping off" Candice with their divorced roommates, Alex and Bridgette, (forcing them to babysit her so they don't do disgusting stuff), the couple head to the Fashion District, a run down swap-meet. The two split up to find the required materials. Josh can't understand Spanish from a saleswoman that (ironically) sells thread and is distracted by a churro cart. Emily haggles in Spanish to a salesman to get cloth cheaper. Josh ends up getting fitted for a zoot suit before purchasing a bird modeled after him (and does not take a liking to him).
Meanwhile, back at the duplex, Alex and Bridgette notice Candice is missing and frantically go looking for her all around the apartment. It shows that Candice went next door to the landlord Pearl's apartment for dinner, where she finds her son Randy struggling to make a scrapbook, and she helps him by simply pasting two pieces of paper and drawing a heart around it, much to his delight.
Back at the Fashion District, the shops are all closed and the couple have done nothing to progress their project. Josh got distracted by many things and ended up getting his wallet stolen by what appears to be a small child, while Emily failed to successfully haggle for a bargain. After sending his bird out to get thread, he encounters the kid that stole his wallet and tracks them down to an abandoned building, where he is surrounded by other children, all of whom talk like and are dressed like British orphans, and are all named after fish. Rather than attack him, they beg him to scold them like a parent would. Emily catches up with Josh, and the children mistake her for their mom. They tell Josh and Emily they’ll help them with the quilt if they get parental love in return. Through a musical montage courtesy of Emily and her guitar, the children gather materials and battle sewer rats to make the quilt, which looks stunning to them. After tucking them in, the couple reconcile for their errors before having sex, with one of the orphans Scrod watching them from a grate.
Josh and Emily wake up lovingly next to each other under the quilt, but to their horror Scrod is beside them, looking much older. The pair find out that the "British children" were really street urchins. Making a run for it, the urchins were about to trap them but Bird Josh knocks them out of the way, giving them time to break for Emily's car, but not before witnessing the urchins' own bird slice Bird Josh's head off. As Josh mourns him, Scrod launches himself onto the windshield, but Emily shakes him off into a mailbox, killing him. They arrive back at the duplex where Pearl reveals here was a whole incident with Alex getting stuck in the air vent, Butch Candice is fine as she took her to school.
After arriving at the school, they find that Candice has done her own (highly inappropriate) quilt of the three of them naked. Bridgette and a disheveled Alex are there too, with Bridgette saying they both learned they’re never having kids. After Mr. Campbell passes her for doing the project herself, since he revealed that most parents at the school actually do their kids projects instead of letting them do it themselves, Emily quietly orders Josh to get rid of of the quilt they made.
Characters[]
- Josh Singleton
- Emily Ramirez
- Candice
- Alex Dorpenberger
- Bridgette Yoshida
- Timothy Campbell
- Bird Josh
- Bird Josh
- Elderly Urchins
- Pearle Watson
- Randy Watson
- Bright Thread Fred vendor
- Pajaro Pals vendor
- Consuela (non-speaking role)
Trivia[]
- This episode, along with "The Perfect House", was briefly released early on June 29, 2020 on the HBO Max website under the title "Season 1, Episode 1A".
- The cast did a table read of a portion of this episode at their 2020 Comic Con Panel.
- John Early was unable to participate, so Calvin Wong, the supervising producer for the show, read for Timothy Campbell.
- Due to the show being cut down from 22 to 11 minutes, the subplot of Alex and Bridgette babysitting Candice is reduced to a handful of scenes.
- Emily is shown to be bilingual and can speak Spanish fluently. "So Long Boys" would reveal that she is of Mexican descent.
- She is also shown playing guitar while singing a song she made up, showcasing her skills in both for the first time. Following episodes will reveal that she is in a comedy rock duo alongside Bridgette, who also sings, plays guitar, and songwrites.
Pop culture references[]
- One of the stores in the fashion district is called "Bright Thread Fred", a reference to the band Right Said Fred.
Production Errors / Goofs[]
- When Calamari introduces her friends, there are five urchins surrounding her, but only four of them get introduced.