'The Mick' Season 2, Episode 10 'The Climb' Recap: The Complicated Art of Social Climbing [SPOILERS]

“The Mick” is back with a whole half-hour dose of laughs and a mildly shocking revelation tonight on the winter premiere episode titled “The Climb.” After three weeks of hiatus, the FOX comedy show returns packed with more pins and needles guaranteed to kick out the Holiday hangover. It’s certainly an interesting episode, as it once again sets its focus on Chip’s (Thomas Barbusca) unfortunate backstory as a bastard child. Meanwhile, we have Mickey (Kaitlin Olson) and Sabrina (Sofia Black-D’Elia) organizing an “art gathering” so they’d be able to make an advance for themselves in the art and entertainment community. Of course, Alba (Carla Jimenez) chips in with her dumb ideas (that seem to work after all?). Surprisingly, Jimmy (Scott MacArthur) is absent in tonight’s winter premiere.

We all need to social climb once in a while

“The Climb” opens with Sabrina busy preparing for a salon (as she puts it, a salon is an “intellectual gathering of young tastemakers) for the junior board of the Met Gala. Mickey wants to help, but Sabrina knows that it’s a bad idea. It’s more evident when Mickey makes fun of an art installation that Sabrina put up for effect. Mickey wonders why Sabrina is doing all of this, and Sabrina tells her that a seat opened up on the board, and she wants in. To put it plainly, she’s social climbing her way to the top. Alba also help Sabrina with art terms by quizzing her. It’s a win-win situation for both of them since Sabrina’s giving Alba a pair of diamond earrings after.
Ben (Jack Stanton) comes in with his new self-aware and politically-woke friend Totsi (guest star Jack Fisher). He’s got everything a cool friend could have: a blue belt in karate, a stable and conscious mind, and a pretentious yogi vibe. Ben asks Mickey to make Totsi a cup of brewed coffee, and she reluctantly agrees. Later, Mickey brings the hot cup of coffee to Totsi, only to find Ben waiting outside his room because Totsi is busy meditating. Mickey has none of it and tells Ben that there are other things way better than hanging out with Totsi. Mickey walks in with Ben and hands Totsi the coffee. However, he notices that it’s instant coffee, and he pours it on to a plant. Mickey flips out and decides to take Totsi back to his mom. They arrive at Totsi’s house and ring the bell. To Mickey’s surprise, his mom turns out to be “Beverly Hills, 90210” actress Jennie Garth (playing herself).

Back home, Mickey tells Alba about her, and they’re both excited. As soon as Sabrina walks in, Mickey says to her that she will be co-hosting the salon. Mickey also tells Sabrina that Jennie is coming over to the party. Sabrina doesn’t know her but also agrees because she couldn’t do anything about it anyway. That night, the artists begin piling up in their house. Jennie arrives, and Mickey greets her. Apparently, Jennie forgets who Mickey is and calls her random names that rhyme with “Mickey.” Oh, and she brought Totsi along too, so it’s going to be an exciting night. Mickey tells Totsi to play with Ben as she calls Alba and introduces her to Jennie (for some reason, she remembers Alba’s name easily).

Later, Jennie thanks Mickey for letting Ben be friends with Totsi. She then does some weird personal development ritual with Mickey, which freaks her out. Luckily, Mickey hears Ben and Totsi screaming upstairs and runs to the rescue. There, she finds Ben’s stuffed toys ripped out by Totsi. According to him, he’s doing Ben a favor by setting him free from the slavery of his possessions. Ben then tells Mickey that he’s tired of playing with Totsi, to which Mickey also agrees because she’s tired of faking friendship with Jennie too.
Meanwhile, Jennie huddles some of the artists and goes on a litany of pretentious gratitude and self-righteous agenda to the art community. Sabrina knows that it’s all bull, and she’s tired of her as well. Mickey pulls Alba aside and tells her that she can’t be friends with Jennie anymore. Sabrina butts in and agrees, and the two devise a way to extract Jennie and Totsi from the gathering subtly. Mickey tries her luck with Jennie but ends up changing her mind when Jennie mentions the upcoming party with Mario Lopez as one of the guests. And guess what, she’s inviting Mickey.

Later, Mickey goes back up to check on Ben and Totsi. She finds Totsi doing a sleeper choke on Ben, and she pulls his hair away to get him to stop. Realizing her mistake, Mickey tries to reason with Totsi, but he says he’s telling his mom about what Mickey just did. Afraid that she’ll lose the invitation to the Mario Lopez party, she ties Totsi to a chair to keep him from getting out of Ben’s room. Mickey fumbles around to look for something to shut him up, but Ben slaps Totsi hard. Alba barges in and sees the mess, and Mickey tells her that Jennie mustn’t know about it lest she lose the party invitation (or as Mickey puts it, “the access to all of Hollywood.”) They place Ben on guard duty.
Downstairs, Jennie is at it again. She has the attention of the guests and thanks them for making the night an awakening for her. Sabrina apologizes to one of the board members of the junior Met, but he thinks it’s okay because Jennie is a great and passionate actress. It turns out; the board member is a fan of her. Sabrina then introduces him to Jennie. Mickey takes Jennie aside to get the invitation from her, but fails because Totsi confiscated her phone so she won’t be “too reliant on technology.” Sabrina butts in and introduces the board member to Jennie. She then asks where Totsi is, but Alba aggressively says no. Jennie feels that something’s up as Mickey goes up to get Totsi.

Mickey sees Totsi still tied to the chair, but with most of his hair missing. Ben cut out pieces of it, and Mickey freaks out. Sabrina and Alba follow her and is shocked to see Totsi like this. They try to make up a plan that could validate Totsi’s shaved head, but none of it makes sense. However, Jennie walks in on them and is furious at what happened to Totsi. Because of this, Mickey loses all chances of getting into Mario Lopez’ party with Jennie.

Chip reconnects with his real dad – Part II

Elsewhere in the episode, we see Howard Buckley (guest star Matthew Glave), Chip’s biological father, visiting Chip after his soccer game. He says he wants to apologize for driving him away previously and spend some time with Chip when he’s free. Chip says that he’s free now, but then Howard couldn’t because he’s flying to Maine for a business trip. However, Howard decides to bring Chip along with him. Later, we find that Howard is flying himself to Maine in a small plane. He has Chip with him, and they both try to reconnect. Howard even plays a prank on Chip by purposefully making the flight appear to crash, to Chip’s horror.
As soon as they land on Maine, Howard tells him that they will be camping to test out the tents that Howard will be selling for his business. As they’re setting up, Chip tries to pull a rack of canoes, but it ends up falling on Howard, injuring his foot. Frantic, Howard tells Chip to run back to the campsite and get a tarp, a lantern and a bottle of whiskey. Chip refuses and lets his cowardice get the better of him, but Howard screams at him to run.

That night, Chip arrives with the supplies. Howard shows him his injury and tells Chip to sterilize the exposed wound—just as Chip throws up on it. Howard instructs Chip to pop the exposed bone back in, to which Chip does wrongly. Seeing how there’s no hope left for it to heal with his failed first aid attempt, Chip runs to the highway and flags a car, asking the driver to take them to the hospital.
In the hospital room, Howard tells Chip (who’s tearing up like crazy) that he’s proud of him. He again jokes with him that he’s suffering from internal bleeding and that he’s dying. Then, Howard’s assistant comes in and hands him an envelope. He reads it and is disappointed. This piece of news is not good news for Chip. It turns out that Howard did a paternity test to see if Chip is indeed his biological son—and apparently, he’s not. Howard had his friend from the FBI do a DNA match of Chip’s birth father this time, and he hands Chip a picture of a convicted felon.

“The Mick: The Climb” Overall Verdict

Kudos to Mickey and the gang for making “The Climb” another shock-filled episode. “The Mick” never fails to deliver these minor revelations along with no-brainer laughs, and it’s interesting to see Chip’s character being built up into someone who’s broken and fatherless. It’s a complete turnaround for his usual cocky nature, and I’m excited to see how this would affect him in the coming episodes, even in the season finale. However, there’s one element missing on tonight’s episode—Scott MacArthur’s Jimmy. The previous episode had him rekindling his relationship with Mickey, and the aftermath is left unanswered. Nonetheless, things are back to their ordinary course of oddity and antics for Mickey’s crew, so let’s see what the next episode has packed up again next week.
“The Mick” continues next Tuesday, January 9th, with “The Trip” at 9:30 PM on FOX.