Average Joe Season 2 Episode 7 Review: Teddy Is Even Worse Than You Thought

Average Joe Season 2 Episode 7 Review: Teddy Is Even Worse Than You Thought

Teddy is somehow worse than I imagined, and yet, exactly like I imagined.

We’ve heard Teddy’s name throughout this series almost as much as we’ve heard Joe’s, so it made perfect sense that in Average Joe Season 2 Episode 7, the penultimate hour before the big finale, we’d finally get to see father and son together.

It was a reunion steeped in anger, resentment, and decades of emotional neglect, set against the backdrop of a prison in a castle basement.

Average Joe Season 2 Episode 7 Review: Teddy Is Even Worse Than You Thought
(Paramount+)

Average Joe Season 2 has had plenty of bright spots, but its biggest misstep has been trying to cram too much plot into every episode, especially in the latter half of the season.

The series has always demanded that you pay attention and piece together clues alongside Joe and the gang, but at a certain point this season, it started to feel a little overwhelming.

But Teddy’s arrival finally gives us some answers regarding Teddy’s big plans, though the hour is less about finding out the whole story and more about analyzing the fractured relationship between Joe and Teddy.

It’s easy to forget that everything that’s happened from Average Joe Season 1 to now has transpired over just a few months. So much has happened, and everyone’s lives have been changed.

Having only ever heard about Teddy and never getting a chance to see him in action, it was wild and incredibly sad to see the dynamic between him and Joe. Joe was a shell of himself sitting across from his father, only showing a modicum of genuineness when he brought up his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers.

(Paramount+)

Their relationship clearly existed at a distance, mainly driven by Teddy, who, within minutes of meeting him, had the air of someone who always has something better to do.

Joe wasn’t naïve enough to think Teddy cared about him the way he cared about his own daughter, for instance. A wall stood between them, and Joe built it.

Fast forward to the dungeon they found themselves in, and Joe couldn’t even pretend to be anything but frustrated and pissed as hell that Teddy was standing in front of him.

Teddy’s a real piece of work. He tried so hard to get under Joe’s skin, showing not an ounce of concern for Joe or the situation he found himself in.

His attitude wasn’t surprising, but the way in which he tried to turn things around on Joe, insinuating that the two of them were the same kind of man, was a little infuriating.

(Paramount+)

Joe isn’t a perfect man, and he would be the first to admit it. But acting as if his family wasn’t important to him is far from the truth, even if he’s done things that haven’t necessarily been in the best interest of the people he loves.

Joe got swept up in Teddy’s games before, inviting a lot of violence and pain into his family’s life, but he didn’t ask for the Russians to show up on his doorstep. You could also argue there were many times he could have walked away but chose to keep moving forward, to the detriment of the people he loved.

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It was never a black-and-white situation, and that’s what Teddy was trying to make it.

Yes, Joe could have made some better decisions, but it’s disingenuous to act as if his feelings for his family are comparable to Teddy’s.

When the two of them came to blows, you could see that Joe was unleashing years and years of frustration. It was a little ludicrous, since they should have been trying to figure out how to escape instead of beating each other up, but it was also long overdue.

(Courtesy of Paramount+)

When Teddy finally walked us through his whole plan, I was ecstatic and a little annoyed at the same time, which probably doesn’t make much sense, but it’s the truth.

For as much as I wanted to figure out how everything was connected, it was pretty anticlimactic to have it all explained to me in a massive info dump.

Listening to Teddy explain everything was almost creepy because he stated these events with such detachment, as if he was just retelling a story he heard and not detailing how much he screwed people over and directly caused so much carnage.

Hearing him talk about Imani and her mother was probably the worst of all because how horrific do you have to be to speak about your own daughter like she was nothing more than a means to an end?

In the end, Imani thought she had this beautiful relationship with her father, a man who seemingly didn’t even care for her, while Joe lived with this terrible relationship with Teddy, who, in his own way, maybe loved Joe at least a tiny bit.

(Paramount+)

That contrast is truly heartbreaking. Imani was given this illusion of a loving relationship that didn’t actually exist. At the same time, Joe had to suffer in a relationship with someone who acted as if they didn’t love him, but maybe they did, in their own twisted way.

Speaking of Imani, getting detained by Akinyemi was the worst thing that could have happened to him.

Akinyemi had the potential to be a cooler character, especially if he’d somehow teamed up with the crew to go after Sipho or something. Instead, we get these glimpses into his pain and continuously see him be two steps behind everything.

I want to think that he’ll get his big moment in the finale because the way he was just left, discarded on the sidewalk, was deplorable.

The way everyone ended up at Sipho’s castle at the end was clearly something the season was building toward, and I liked how it became Joe having his own reckoning in the basement, while Touch and Leon had to team up to save him.

(Paramount+)

Joe is the anchor of the friend group, but Leon and Touch also share a deep bond; they get under each other’s skin, but they’re an incredibly efficient and charming duo when they team up.

Getting into that heavily fortified castle without anyone noticing was impressive, and Malcolm Barrett and Michael Trucco have such great comedic timing.

Average Joe does many things well, and one of those is infusing humor into any situation. The dark comedic beats, alongside the over-the-top action sequences, set the series apart from so many other shows on television.

It was fairly obvious Leon was going to find Cathy trapped in that tower, but I didn’t see Touch and Phyllis get their moment, and it was so damn sweet.

That better be their first kiss, not their last, because Touch so deserves to find a love of his own, especially one as pure as the one he’s building with Phyllis.

(Paramount+)

They’ve been surrounded by chaos, but something so gentle comes over them when they give in to the invisible thing that keeps tugging them back to each other.

On the flip side, Leon and Cathy need to cut the cord.

It’s going to be supremely frustrating if, after all the things Cathy has done this season, all is well and she and Leon are perfectly fine. Cathy has to face consequences for all the crap she’s pulled, because we’re past the point of excusing her actions.

Even if she saves the day in the end, how can Leon possibly look past everything? Love isn’t always enough when you’re forced to reckon with the fact that you’ll never be able to fully trust the person who once pledged to love you through sickness and health.

What do you do with that kind of betrayal when the love is still there?

And why is that a question for more than just Leon in the final hour?

(Paramount+)

Extra, Average Notes

  • Joe and Teddy talking about Kenny Pickett like he was going to be the Steelers’ savior. If you know, you know.
  • Do we think we’ll see Angela and Jennifer pop up in the finale?
  • F Tom Brady.

One more episode left! If you’ve been here all season, drop your finale predictions below!

New episodes of Average Joe air every Wednesday through September 30, only on Paramount+.

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