2 Broke Girls episode 9 recap: Herpes and more knit hats

2 broke girls cassandra — Cassandra addresses Max and Caroline at a group art show.

This week’s 2 Broke Girls episode almost didn’t get recapped because I came very close to throwing my TV out the window when Caroline says to Max, “Girls cannot be friends with guys!” This again? It’s 2011. Haven’t we settled the great debate about if men and women can be friends with each other yet? Yes, they can, of course duh obviously. But Max cannot seem to be pals with Johnny, her bartender/street artist crush who, we found out last week, has a secret girlfriend. When Max and Caroline end up selling their cupcakes at one of Johnny’s art shows, there is sneaky kissing in the bathroom and all-around stress for everyone involved, including the viewer.

Luckily, this episode redeemed itself with not one, not two, but three jokes about Adele, as well as a much improved effort at reflecting real life Brooklyn.

KEEPING IT REAL

Local Ingredients: The show was trying a lot harder with its Williamsburg jokes than usual, and the references were more frequent, specific and accurate than they’ve been before. Caroline warns Max that their cupcake-selling gig at Gold Space Loft is for a “cool group art show, very Williamsburg, very pot brownie.” When they go to the show, they’re welcomed to “Space Blast Art Attack” by a convincingly dressed hipster girl who Max calls the “grown lady dressed like a doll.” And the art exhibits include a dreamcatcher with buzz words in it and an ice sculpture of a penis. Caroline tells Max that after the event, their reputation will “spread faster through Williamsburg than knit hats and herpes,” which was cute, although a little worrisome that the writers went back to the knit hat hipster joke well after that derided line from the pilot (“I wear knit hats when it’s cold out, you wear knit hats ’cause of Coldplay.”)

Name Game: Johnny’s super cool, formerly secret girlfriend is named Cassandra…but she pretentiously pronounces it “Ca-SHAN-dra.” And people call her “Cash.” Ugh! But…yeah. There’s also a guy at the art show named Traever.

Low Fi: When Caroline complains to Max that her internet connection is really slow, she replies, “Don’t tell me, tell KathyHome17.” Like many surely have done before her, Caroline is forced to go to a coffee shop to send her email when her stolen free WiFi isn’t cutting it.

Catching Zs: Caroline tells Max that she should indulge her boy-induced depression by “taking to bed.” Max says that “giving into feelings is for rich people,” and instead ultimately settles for setting an alarm so she can take a 20-minute nap before going to work at the diner. Since I personally set my alarm so I could take a 20-minute nap before watching this episode of 2 Broke Girls, I can confirm the veracity of such behavior.

UH, WHAT?

Dollar, Dollar Bills: After the girls bust their butts to bake cupcakes for the art show and work at the event despite all the on-site romantic drama, they totally waste the $500 that they earn for doing it! Instead of adding their compensation to the savings they’ve set aside for the cupcake business, Caroline uses the cash to buy one of Johnny’s paintings so Max can destroy it. So basically they ignore their motivations for everything they’ve done so far in the episode to engage in a rom com-style ritual for getting over a guy, and the money count at the close of the episode stays exactly the same. Whoops!

Get caught up on episodes 1-8.

Follow Ariel: @ArielKarlin.