‘God Friended Me’ Season 1, Episode 6 ‘A House Divided’ Recap: Love and Religion

Should religion matter in the prospect of love? God Friended Me takes a run at that question in this week’s episode, titled “A House Divided.”

Religion is the answer to most problems the majority of the human population face. But in the case of love, sometimes it can be the main hindrance. With millions of people with different family backgrounds passing in and out of our lives, chances of finding someone with similar religious upbringings is much slimmer than it seems.

Tonight on God Friended Me, Miles (Brandon Michael Hall), Cara (Violett Beane), and Rakesh (Suraj Sharma) meet a cab driver whose daughter wishes to marry a man with a different religion. Meanwhile, Miles’ uncle celebrates his 25th anniversary with his wife, but tension is boiling under that bridge. And since friending God again, Miles decides to get that promo and hang up flyers for his podcast.

Driven by fate

Cara and Rakesh help out Miles stick some posters around town, so he offers to pay for dinner. Then God sends another friend suggestion: Hasan Amir, who coincidentally was their cab driver. Hasan tells his story of how he brought his entire family to America from Afghanistan. He then gets a phone call from his wife. Being an urgent matter, he drives them to their home where he finds his wife and son arguing outside. As thanks for letting him make the emergency drive back to his place, Hasan invites the three in his house for dinner.

Miles and Rakesh walk along the city when Miles sees that DJ Trek covered all of his posters. This, of course, enraged him and so he swore to print more posters and cover every DJ Trek poster there was.

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Miles and Cara decided to stalk Hasan’s son to see what he was up to. They see him pass a man saying that he “couldn’t do this anymore.” They then followed the man to an apartment where he was with Hasan’s daughter Tara. It turns out that she was the one keeping secrets from the family. She was engaged to a Jewish man, which she knows her father would not approve of considering their Islam background. Miles agrees to be their witness for their wedding at the city hall.

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Faith and Fatherhood

Hasan’s son caves and tells his father about his sister’s wedding. Hasan makes Tara come home and forbids both the groom and Miles from seeing his family.

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Miles turns to his father for advice, asking why someone would put faith over their own children. His dad thinks maybe the problem is more universal, that perhaps Hasan is just scared of losing his daughter. Before heading out to his uncle’s anniversary party, Miles visits Hasan to have a quick chat about his faith and his daughter.

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At the party, Miles makes a toast for his uncle, calling him a “second father” to him. This stings just a little bit to his actual father. While Miles was having fun with family, Rakesh and Cara were taking another crack at the God account. They get a location to a train station with a train leaving in an hour. Then Hasan shows up to the party and tells Miles that his daughter ran away and he didn’t know where. Miles figures that Tara and her fiance were on the train the Rakesh and Cara spoke of.

On the ride towards the train station, Miles tells Hasan about his story with his mom and dad. When they got to the train, Hasan gives his daughter his blessing for them to marry.

Frustrated by the God account outwitting them again, Rakesh promises to call in a friend to help. Cara goes back to making things work with Eli. And Miles takes a marketing class to help with his promotions. There, he meets a girl who turns out to be DJ Trek.

‘God Friended Me’ Season 1, Episode 6 ‘A House Divided’ Overall Verdict

This series is trying. God knows that it’s trying so hard.

The main problem of this series manifests in this episode in particular. It is not the religious theme that makes this show dull. The story of father disapproving because of faith ending with the classic “I love you so I won’t stand in the way of your happiness,” thing is nothing new. Them finding a lead on the God account then it turns out to be something to help on the current problem has been used repeatedly in previous episodes. But despite the lulled out story, kudos to the writing that’s being put into the show. The dramatic speeches that the characters have with Miles are well versed and provide perspective.

If one of the goals of the show is to have an open discussion about religion, it is failing. The contrasting ideas of religion are becoming more and more biased towards the Christian faith despite incorporating the story of a Muslim man. If another goal of the show was to provide inspiring and heartwarming stories, it is slipping. The creativity continues to regress. There is a difference between a story you can relate to, and a common story brought back from the world of cliche, and sadly this episode along with several episodes of the series leans towards the latter. The series has become predictable, and every new “revelation” isn’t something you’d be staying at the edge of your seat for. If there is hope in this series, it’s hanging on a very thin thread.

God Friended Me continues next Sunday, November 11th, with “The Prodigal Son” at 8:30/7:30c on CBS.