'Funny Woman' Recap: Season 2 Episode 4

Funny Woman airs Sundays at 9:00 pm on WTTW and streaming. Recap the previous episode.
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What could come out in a newspaper article on Barbara that’s so bad it has led her mother Gloria to return to her husband George, whom she left decades ago? As Gloria and George explain to Barbara, George isn’t Barbara’s biological father. Barbara has been lied to her entire life. George feared that he would lose her if he ever told her the truth – but now he has done so anyway, she tells him.

At rehearsal for her new show Flat Birds, she’s subdued. Dennis asks what’s wrong, and she explains the situation. She doesn’t know who she is any more – but she pulls together her resolve and gets back to work on the debut of Flat Birds.

It needs to be successful, given Ted Sargent’s skepticism of bringing her writing team back after they went to work for another network. He’s not confident in a show that stars two women, particularly two funny women – one should be a straight woman for the other to play off.

After rehearsal, the newspaper columnist Lynda Jay shows up at the station bar and approaches Barbara – she’s the journalist digging into Barbara’s past who prompted Gloria to reveal the truth to Barbara. Barbara refuses to talk to Lynda.

She goes to her lawyer friend Pandy with Marge and Diane for help. Pandy suggests that they take the bite out of the story by telling it themselves, via a friendly journalist like Diane. Barbara decides to do it – she doesn’t want to hide like her mother has for years; she will tell her own story.

She calls George and asks for the real story. He explains that Gloria fell in with an American soldier during the war, while George was himself in the military. George came back home to marry his sweetheart and found her pregnant, abandoned by the American father, who was married.

When Diane’s story is published, Lynda Jay rips up her own story in progress. Barbara’s agent Marc calls and says it’s great news: she can get dual citizenship in America now, and easily work in Hollywood. But Barbara wants to stick with Flat Birds for now. Dennis is proud of Barbara for her bravery, as is, surprisingly, his almost-divorced wife Edith. Edith apologizes to Barbara for everything she has put her through, and asks her what she wants now. Barbara tells her she just wants Dennis to be happy.

So Edith visits Dennis to apologize to him, too. Barbara really loves you, she tells him. And Edith has been offered a job with the CBC in Canada. She’s going to take it – and move without Vernon, the host of the show she worked on with whom she cheated on Dennis. She’ll also allow Dennis to charge her with adultery so that they can divorce quickly and Dennis can be with Barbara. Edith is starting over.

Gloria is also happy about Barbara’s story. She thanks her daughter for taking away a cloud of shame from herself. And she also realizes, with a mother’s intuition, that Barbara is pregnant. She vows to stand by her – and suggests that she tell Dennis. Gloria doesn’t regret having Barbara, even if she wishes she had done things differently.

So Dennis and Barbara both have things to tell each other before the live debut of Flat Birds. But they keep getting interrupted: by Barbara’s new costar Greta, by Aunt Marie, by flowers from Marc, by the announcement of Tony’s new daughter.

Yes, Tony and June had their baby. Tony, Bill, and Dennis all rushed to the hospital in a cab with Barbara, who was on her way to Marge’s equal pay demonstration at Trafalgar Square. (Marge has taken over leadership since the department store’s union representative Miss Sykes was fired for her organizing.) Barbara’s star power was enlisted to bring attention to the cause, and Marge’s erstwhile boyfriend Roger stepped in to prevent another policeman from shutting down the speeches.

The taping of Flat Birds begins before Barbara and Dennis can speak to each other. Barbara thanks George in her speech before the taping, saying he’s all the dad she ever needed. Things start off a bit rocky, as a nervous Greta accidentally slaps another actor for real and goes off script because she forgets a line – but Barbara rolls with it and improvises to great laughter.

Still, Greta runs offstage in between scenes on the brink of a panic attack. Barbara consoles her – and Greta realizes Barbara is pregnant when she has a wave of nausea. Greta pulls herself together and goes back onstage, and the pair pull off a rollicking physical comedy scene to close out the show.

While everyone in the control room feared the worst, Ted is ebullient: he loves the show. He waits in Barbara’s dressing room to tell her that it’s possibly the greatest success of both of their careers.

When Dennis arrives, Ted leaves to let him and Barbara talk. Dennis explains that Edith has agreed to the divorce; Barbara reveals that she’s pregnant with Dennis’ baby. Dennis hugs Barbara – and then Ted comes back in, having heard the revelations through the door. The rest of the team and cast follows, and Ted makes a toast. He congratulates everyone on the show – and Barbara and Dennis on both their baby and their impending marriage. He can’t put an unwed mother on TV.

Barbara interrupts and says that it should be her and Dennis’ decision whether to marry, not a corporation’s. Ted replies that they’ll do the show without her if she doesn’t. Everyone defends Barbara, and she appeals directly to Ted: this could be groundbreaking.