Eliza Crashes Book Club

I realize I probably got a little too worked up over the ukulele make-under scene from last Tuesday's episode of Selfe. I maintain my position regarding impromptu ukulele performances in general, but I think I let the feelings that bubbled up during that moment cast an unfair shadow over Bryn and the book club. Yeah, they’re twee AF, but Bryn and the book club are not monsters. If anyone steers into monster territory, it's, as I learned during this Tuesday night's ep, a Facebook account-equipped Henry Higgs. Dude went on a freakin' bender. Fortunately, Henry saw the glassy-eyed monster inside, and he deactivated that social networking account before it consumed him like it has consumed so many others.

Henry saves himself from a Facebook black hole and Eliza texts herself down a literal manhole! Oh, those two!

But before Eliza winds up in the hospital, she attends Bryn's book club. She, at Henry's suggestion, decides to do something other than a dude (to which I say, sure, she's obnoxious, but let Eliza live her life, Higgs). At book club, Bryn presents Eliza with a tray of homemade Pop Tarts. [Fires finger guns.] Now you’re talkin’, Bryn. Yeah, you can buy Pop Tarts—or any baked good, for that matter—at the store, but don’t challenge the glory that is a from-scratch, freshly baked toaster pastry.

Before the book club Pop Tarts can be warmed up, Henry throws open the apartment door. He needs Eliza to help him undo the Facebook mess he got himself into (read: he accidentally tagged himself in a photo of an ex-girlfriend breast-feeding). The entire book club loses its mind. Because the entire book club is convinced Eliza is having a Jerry Maguire moment.

“I’ve been in this book club for three years and she gets a Jerry Maguire moment on the first night?” one book club member asks.

What is a book club, really? Sure, we say it is a group of individuals that meets once a week to discuss the novel they (or an outside force) agreed upon. They eat snacks. They share updates about their personal lives. But before anyone gets too carried away with gossip, someone brings it back to the book. It's about the books!

But perhaps, at the root of it, it's about achievements. Perhaps it is not so different from being a Girl or Boy Scout. Or being in karate. You have to earn your patches. You have to earn your pins. You have to earn your black belt.

You have to earn initiating the discussion. You have to earn bringing your mulled wine for everyone to try. You have to earn suggesting which book to read next. You have to earn your Jerry Maguire moment.

Eliza was not having a Jerry Maguire moment and it is probably for the best. Because she did not put in the time or read the pages required to achieve Jerry Maguire moment status. For that is the black belt of book club. And we must not disrupt the order of book club.

Image: ABC