Photo: Stefania Rosini/Netflix
The second installment of our rabbi-gentile rom-com is very much about two people realizing it is insane to attempt a real relationship, that their lives are just too different, and then going for it anyway. That’s love, baby! Or a terrible choice that will only lead to heartbreak. We shall see in due time!
In “A Shiksa Walks Into a Temple,” Noah and Joanne go out on two not-exactly dates with wildly different outcomes. If Noah thought no one was paying attention to his little run-in with Joanne after services, he is kidding himself. More than one person wants to know why he was standing so close to that woman. Noah’s dad, Ilan, however, asks the important first question: “Does she have a degree?” Of course, the most upset at this new revelation is Noah’s mother, Bina. While Tovah Feldshuh is intimidating from the jump, here’s hoping Nobody Wants This does more with her than lean into the meddling Jewish mother trope. In a later scene, when the family confronts Noah about what he’s doing with Joanne, she does make it clear that her concerns are about more than just marriage — this could affect his work as a rabbi, too — and that helps a little, but I worry about Bina becoming a caricature.
Regardless, Noah doesn’t mind pissing off his mother a little to see where this thing with Joanne might go. He tries his best to get out of the crowd of people airing grievances or making him watch trailers of their sons’ documentaries on the history of documentaries to meet up with Joanne, who is supposed to be waiting for him outside. But when he and Sasha, who has begged to come along because he is the saddest sack (albeit a self-aware sad sack, which we love), get outside, he finds Joanne seconds away from hopping into Morgan’s car and taking off.
You see, once Joanne explained to her sister where she was and what she was up to, Morgan forced her to take those rose-colored glasses off for just a hot second. “He asked me to wait outside, but not in a bad way,” she tells her. “Is there a good way?” Morgan responds, cringing on her sister’s behalf before swinging by to get Joanne out of there. She’s right — it’s not a great sign that he immediately pushed her out of sight from everyone he knows. But Noah acknowledges it was a bad move, apologizes, and then makes sure Joanne will actually like him by asking her to come with them for a drink (Sasha has already forced his way into the car). This man just oozes charm in such a non-threatening, non-overbearing way, and honestly … do men like this actually exist? They can’t, right? He’s just, like, so nice and funny. It’s really throwing me.
The sister and brother pairs hop in the car, and it gets awkward almost immediately. When Joanne plugs her phone into a charger, she doesn’t realize it’ll connect to the speaker system, which means Morgan’s text of “He’s cuter than I expected, he doesn’t look that Jewish. The brother is brutal, ogre emoji, vomit emoji” gets blasted out loud for everyone to hear. Now, on the one hand, there is no world in which a person wouldn’t rip that phone out of the jack immediately upon that text being read, but on the other, the sentence “the brother is brutal” is objectively hilarious, and I’m so glad we all got to hear it. Joanne is mortified, and Noah and Sasha take it upon themselves to just really dig into that embarrassment for a little. “What does Jewish look like to you?” Noah asks Morgan. “Does my brother not look like he could control the media?” Sasha follows up. They also remind the women that there are a lot of very handsome Jewish guys out there. Paul Rudd, for one. And “have you ever seen a young Mandy Patinkin?” Sasha wonders. They sufficiently shame Joanne and Morgan and move on. As Noah explains, Sasha wasn’t even really offended: “He’s just happy people are talking about him.” I’m obviously into our main couple’s story, but I’m really hoping the show opens up into some subplots with our sibling sidekicks, because they are easily stealing the show.
It certainly seems like our main characters will have some story lines outside their romance since once the foursome reaches the bar, there’s a palpable tension between our sisters once they start talking about their big Spotify meeting. Morgan is hyping up the fun sex aspects of the show, but Joanne wants to emphasize that the show is about more than just sex — it’s about honesty and encouraging people to open up, and about the empowerment that comes with that. She does not want to be some Call Her Daddy knockoff. When Morgan scoffs at not wanting a $60 million podcast deal, Joanne has to walk it off. In their meeting with Spotify later, we see them having the same disagreement about the direction of the show — expect that to come into play later.
For now, this fight means two things. First, that we get to watch Morgan and Sasha interact on their own, and it’s as wonderful as you’d expect. When she is shocked to hear Sasha is married because he has “no husband energy at all,” and he shows her that he’s wearing a wedding ring, she reminds him, “Yeah, but I haven’t been looking at you” in a matter-of-fact way so hilariously cutting. Naturally, Sasha isn’t offended at all — he’s just happy to be out in public with other people.
However, the more important by-product of this fight is that Joanne and Noah get more time to be alone. Sure, she’s riding high because Noah and Sasha just explained that a “shiksa” is basically an unlikable non-Jewish hottie and that is pretty much her brand, but she also is worried that Noah will see her podcast as unimportant fluff. Joanne wants Noah to understand the way she sees her podcast — she obviously feels silly making her work as a podcaster seem as important as his work, she’s self-conscious about it — but Noah has listened to some of it, specifically the “Dil-dos and Dil-don’ts” episode, and he gets (or at least says he gets) where she’s coming from. She just thinks if people were more open about things that make them uncomfortable, other people would hear it and “carry around a lot less shame.” It’s, like, kind of a lot to ask of a podcast, but okay.
Their conversation is interrupted by a loud, obnoxious honking from the street — it’s Sasha’s wife, Esther, trying to get their attention, and, speaking of no shame, the woman does not care who sees her causing a scene. She also seems deadly serious about running her husband over if he doesn’t get in the car right now. Esther drops a fun little bit of news for Joanne, too, when she yells at Noah about how he’s getting engaged to Rebecca and he shouldn’t be “out here with whore No. 1 and whore No.2.” You might as well play a record scratch — the moment Joanne hears the word engaged, she is out on pursuing this, whatever it is, with Noah any longer. When she leaves, she’s clearly annoyed that she didn’t see this coming and disappointed that something that seemed so great is not going to work out.
Noah is not deterred. In fact, after the ambush from his entire family, he seems even more determined to see what could come of him and Joanne. She is not anything he expected. His mother telling him that he tried it out, it wasn’t for him, and it’s time to move on to something realistic only makes him realize that the opposite might be true — whatever he’s feeling with Joanne feels like it might very much be for him.
He is absolutely convinced this is the truth after a meeting with a married couple he’s counseling. He remembers what Joanne said about opening up to people so that they, in turn, feel more comfortable opening up, and so that’s what he does. He tells them about the end of his relationship with Rebecca — how they never really talked about the hard things and, because of that, didn’t know each other at all. It works — the couple actually starts talking to each other. He immediately texts Joanne and asks for one dinner as a friend.
Joanne comes in hot. She swears she isn’t staying. This is too messy and she warned him she was not looking for messy. But slowly, as Noah apologizes for not telling her about the Rebecca situation and tells her how she helped him at work, she starts ordering things. She takes off her jacket. By the time he tells her that “what you do is important,” boy oh boy, I honestly cannot believe she doesn’t reach across the table and plant one on him. Again, I feel like these recaps are just me becoming hyperaware that my standards are too low, but someone telling you your work is important, even when it’s kind of silly? That is so fucking hot.
Don’t worry, friends, the kissing is coming. The “one dinner as friends” goes so well, the two end up taking a stroll afterward for some ice cream. Joanne asks him about Rebecca, and she seems kind of great — she seems like someone Noah deserves to be with instead of a menace to society like Joanne. She tells him to get back together with her. Suddenly, they are saying good-bye before their Ubers arrive and realize that it’s kind of weird that they haven’t even kissed once throughout this entire thing. Maybe they should have one good-bye kiss, Joanne suggests. This woman did not understand the chaos she would be unleashing with this request. The moment my guy takes their cups of ice cream and puts them on the sidewalk, you know this is going to be more than just a good-bye kiss. You know he is serious.
Guys, he is so, so serious. This kiss! This kiss is a very good kiss from which it took me several minutes to recover. Like, I know Adam Brody is not Seth Cohen, but also, GET IT, SETH COHEN. Bell and Brody’s chemistry and comedic timing has been spot-on from the get-go, and it is reassuring to see that the chemistry extends to this aspect, too. The only problem now is that if these two ding-dongs don’t end up together, I’ll probably flip a table or something.
And it’s certainly not a given that they will end up together since this kiss is interrupted first by Noah catching his breath to ask, “Is there a world where this works?” and then a second time by his phone ringing. He says it’s work before he sends Joanne off in her car, but we know he’s lying — it’s Rebecca, and she’s called multiple times. Even more concerning: He calls her back.