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The Perfect House

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"The Perfect House" is the second segment of the first episode (and the second story overall) of Close Enough.

Synopsis[]

Emily becomes addicted to visiting open houses as an escape from her home life.

Plot[]

In Los Angeles, many houses are bought, sold, or mortgaged (including a certain townhouse inside of a park). While Emily swoons over a mansion in an open house, Josh is moping around, bored out of his wits. While Emily does improv between the kitchen and the living room, Josh joins in, before breaking for the pool in a jackknifed cannonball, sending 3 bystanders, including the realtor, into a cactus patch.

After getting kicked out, the family returns home, only to find Alex and Bridgette half naked, the former claiming to link Garfield with Jesus Christ and the latter body painting the kitchen, which Candice joins in. Fed up with everything that's happening in the house (the lamp breaking, Josh jamming the drawer with a screwdriver, etc), Emily decides to go for a walk to vent some steam. During this, Josh finds a family bike ad which brings him back to memories of him wanting one after a kid taunts him with a double bike, and resolves to get one for his family, only to find that Emily left 30 minutes ago.

Out for a walk, Emily roams around the streets of Los Angeles, moping at houses that she'll never have, and decides to sneak inside one of them. Singing about it being the perfect house, she bumps into a man named Dave Coldier who was looking around as well, then a girl approaches and Emily asks Dave if she's his daughter, to which the girl says no and proceeds to introduce herself, but before she can do so, Dave recognizes her as superstar Mona Arizona (to which she confirms that she is, although her real name is Caitlin Olsman) and Emily prepares to leave, but after some pressuring from the real estate agent as well as the family's antics, she accepts to tour around the house.

After an extremely long sitcom intro, Dave and Caitlin are doing things similar to a sitcom, something Emily is uncomfortable with. Meanwhile, the UPS guy shows up with the family bike Josh ordered, to the latter's joy, questioning how it got to his place so fast, thinking only 20 minutes have passed, but he was corrected by the UPS guy that he ordered it 3 days ago, making him snap from his happiness and angrily question Emily's whereabouts (which the UPS guy confuses for sex dolls of the same name).

Back at the open house, Emily then questions the house and its features that Dave tests, which only cues laughter from the audience. Suddenly, her phone begins to ring, and Josh fails to find her whereabouts since her cell has lost signal. Despite this, he heads out to find her on the family bike (while being taunted by a grown man about his lack of a family). Finding her, he attempts to bring Emily back home, only for the house to pull him in and shut the door, putting a cliffhanger finale to the sitcom situation.

Realizing what's going on, they try to find a way out to no avail. In frustration, Emily curses, leading to boos from the audience, deciding to find a way out by cancelling the show through flashing, flipping the birds, and saying expletives constantly. However, that only confuses the plot further as Dave, Caitlin, and Josh start questioning her motives. After hearing stereotypical sitcom music, she decides to call a family meeting where she explains everything to everyone, telling Josh that she needs to take breaks sometimes after all the chaos that goes on back home, while peacefully disowning Caitlin and Dave, which they surprisingly accept without any hard feelings. However, as the couple return home, they encounter Dave's ex, Michelle, who has a problem with his triplets, causing Dave to shut the door to return to his peaceful sitcom.

At the beach, the family is having fun with the family bike (with Alex and Bridgette in tow). Soon Pearl and Randy zoom past them in a double bike with Randy sarcastically complimenting Josh's family, (though not exactly the best compliment) something which he takes with pride. Keeping with that, he gives Emily a present, tins (including one for tea), allowing her to have some solace throughout the chaos of their life. Unfortunately, the moment is spoiled as the entire group ends up pedaling into the ocean, with canned laughter being heard, something Emily hears uncomfortably.

Characters[]

Trivia[]

  • This episode, along with "Quilty Pleasures", was briefly released early on the HBO Max website on June 29, 2020, under the title "Season 1, Episode 1B".
  • Before being introduced as a central character in the episode, Dave is present at the house featured in the cold open.
    • He can be seen in the background at least twice in this scene.
  • Its revealed that Emily and Josh live with Alex and Bridgette both due to financials and so that they could afford Candice going to a better school district. "Robot Tutor" would reveal that her old school was poorly run with the kids running wild and barely learning anything. The previous episode mentioned that Candice attending Chamomile is a fairly new change.
    • However, other episodes would show that they lived with Alex and Bridgette before they even had Candice/when Candice was an infant.
    • It could be likely both Chamomile Elementary and Candice’s old school were in the same area.
  • During the Open House segments, each of the characters undergo changes in their designs.
    • Emily has a purple sweater, a lavender shirt, light blue pants, and yellow boots.
    • Dave has dirty blonde hair, a green-, purple-, and yellow-striped sweater, blue jeans, and brown loafers.
    • Caitlin has brown hair, a pink tank top, aqua shorts, and turquoise shoes.
  • In addition to the characters' clothes changing color in Open House, the house's interior becomes more vibrantly-colored.

Pop Culture References[]

  • The Open House segments are a reference to the 1987 sitcom Full House.
    • Additionally, the two characters who share the house with Emily appear to be modeled after actors from Full House:
      • Dave Coldier represents Dave Coulier, who played Joey Gladstone.
      • Caitlin Olsman represents Mary Kate Olsen and Ashley Fuller Olsen (also known as the Olsen twins), who took turns playing Michelle Tanner.
  • This episode contains two references to JG Quintel's previous series, Regular Show:
    • One of the homes for sale greatly resembles Pops' House.
      • Additionally, it has a sign out front advertising "Park-Like Grounds".
    • The Ulti-Meatum can be seen in a framed picture in the kitchen of the open house.
  • Caitlin's alias, "Mona Arizona", is most likely a reference to the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana, wherein Miley Cyrus played the titular character.
  • Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth fame can be seen on the sign in front of Pops' house.
  • Alex has Garfield comics in his conspiracy web, as well as a small reproduction of The Last Supper.
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