How It All Goes Down
- Zoë and Enzo share a moment of introspection in her grandparents' backyard.
- Zoë is clearly coming to grips with Eve's illness—and with the thought that she might not have a mother anymore.
- Enzo plays the role of bumblebee—because Zoë knows how to play dress up with the best of them. He's also a comforting companion, because that's what he's best at.
- Zoë goes to "real school," a.k.a. kindergarten, and she takes the position very seriously. It's a milestone for her, and for Denny, and he and another parent share the moment of watching their children get on the bus.
- Denny, Maxwell, and Trish discuss the logistics of bringing Eve home, and the Twins recommend that she stay with them. They're probably twirling their mustaches right now, giggling maniacally.
- Eve returns. She is clearly very sick.
- Denny still thinks Eve's beautiful. Cue our collective "awww".
- Eve wants Denny to go home, because she doesn't want him to remember her as she is now. She wants him to think of her as she used to be.
- Although Denny doesn't understand, he accepts Eve's request.
- Eve also requests to keep Enzo for the night, because she wants him to protect her.
- Enzo, of course, happily and bravely steps up to the plate, and despite a run-in with an unsavory maid who tries to lock him away in the garage, he is able to protect Eve from the demons hiding in the night, and she wakes up the next morning.
- Trish and Maxwell think Enzo is lazy, but we know the truth.
- And that's just further proof of how terrible the Twins are.
- Denny is accepting of the new living arrangement, with Eve and Zoë living with the Twins.
- Enzo and Denny get along well enough, reliving their bachelor days while Zoë is with the Twins.
- As if the Twins didn't control enough of Denny's life at this point, Denny and Maxwell fight over which school Zoë should go to.
- Seriously, are the Twins not the worst?
- The Twins offer to enroll Zoë in private school, but Denny insists that she should stay in her current school, despite the fifteen-minute drive.
- The Twins relent, but they don't stop being awful.
- Denny, Zoë, and Enzo go to visit some of Eve's distant relatives at a ski resort during the winter.
- Enzo doesn't really like Eve's distant relatives, because they're sweaty and loud and smelly and live in chaos.
- Enzo particularly dislikes Annika, one of Eve's cousins, who seems to have attached herself to Denny like a fifteen-year-old barnacle.
- Remember Annika, too, because things will get sticky with her later.
- During the trip, Annika makes every available opportunity to be close to Denny, to position herself next to him, to touch him "innocently," and so on.
- May we just say that this does not bode well?
- At the end of the trip, when Denny decides to leave early, Annika jumps at the chance to go with him, and they make their way home in horrific conditions.
- Think Blizzard of '78, but worse.
- Okay, maybe not, but it does add to the dramatic effect.
- Annika also manages to convince Denny to let her spend the night at his house, since the roads are too terrible to drive any longer, and she doesn't want to go home.
- At this point, things could start getting into rom-com territory, but theydefinitely don't, because Denny is married and Annika is fifteen.
- We repeat: this is not rom-com-y.
- It's about as rom-com-y as Nero fiddling while Rome burned.
- With a sleeping Zoë safely tucked away, Annika slips into Denny's bedroom with mischievous thoughts in mind.
- Denny shuts down all of Annika's romantic insinuations and tells her to call her father to take her home.
- Yeah, go home, you little barnacle.
- We blissfully believe that's the end of that, not aware of how wrong we could be.