‘Transparent’ Recap (Episode 207): Days of Atonement

It’s Yom Kippur, and the Pfeffermans are all about dat atonement. Sarah is the first to get in on the action: she marches into Tammy’s office, uninvited, and offers an apology as a grand gesture. But, typical Sarah: it’s all about her. “I had this epiphany and realized what my problem is,” she says. “I wasn’t parented.” She goes on to talk about the holiday and how it’s trick-or-treating for apologies and forgiveness, and Tammy, in her right mind for once (when does she start regretting the neck tattoo?), rebuffs her and refuses to forgive Sarah for breaking her heart.

Sarah, then, goes straight to Dr. Steve’s office for medical-grade pot and casual sex. But it’s just about going through the motions. I’m not sure if she’s too stoned and inside her head or if the sex is actually just that bad, but Sarah’s certainly not into it. Besides, she wants more from Dr. Steve that he’s seemingly unable to give. I mean, he’s a pothead doctor; one wouldn’t expect him to take a lot of action. And Sarah wants to be taken — punished, but in a friendly, consensual, non-violent way — and even Dr. Steve can’t give her that.

Maura is dealing with having a cis-male roommate all of a sudden with Davina’s boyfriend Sal hanging around the house. Sure, Sal seems like a sweet enough guy (he brings her an air conditioner for her room), but he’s also putting his nose where it doesn’t belong (he asks her about her hormone treatment and offers unsolicited advice about facial reconstruction). Maura, then, goes straight to Davina to complain about her boyfriend and suggest that she can do better. Davina, no surprise, bristles as Maura’s boundary-pushing criticism. “Mind your own goddamn business,” Davina says. “I am a 53 year-old ex-prostitute, HIV-positive woman with a dick. I know what I want and what I need.”

Josh, for once, has a big secret he’s keeping from the family: he doesn’t know how to tell them that Raquel has left him. It’s partially because he’s not sure Raquel has left him, and she stops by her office when he goes to temple with Shelly to give her a heads-up and to figure out where they stand. She gives him a curt answer: “We’re over.” Returning to the service, Josh has a bit of a freak-out. His life is crumbling around him, and Shelly is too focused on a handsome older guy named Buzz that she’s immediately started to imagine as her third husband.

The family convenes at Syd’s apartment, where she and Ali are hosting a fast-breaking dinner. Syd’s a little on edge; Ali went over to Leslie’s house and stayed over, and naturally Syd is a little upset about it. Ali, though, is embracing this queer lifestyle head-on, offering up the suggestion that they don’t have to pay attention to heteronormative rules and can make things up as they go along. “What is being queer without questioning everything?” she asks. Syd, thankfully, says what even I was thinking: “You’ve been queer for, like, thirty seconds.” Ali needs to chill out on how she’s suddenly special and interesting because she’s now dating a woman.

At dinner, after Ali attempts to give a special blessing in Raquel’s absence, the Pfeffermans and the Feldmans break their fast. Everyone’s asking about Raquel and where she is, and Josh finally cracks. He tells them about the lost pregnancy and the breakup, but that he’s moving on. His sisters seem genuinely upset for him, a brief sense of affection that is broken in two by Shelly’s over-the-top response. Literally howling, like a sad wild dog, Shelly begins to blame herself because she revealed the news too soon at Sarah’s ill-fated lesbian wedding. “I killed the baby!” she shrieks. Buzz, new to all of this (he’ll get tired of it soon, too), consoles her while the rest of the family rolls their eyes.

Josh, though, isn’t dealing with things well. He’s still sore about Colton leaving (and the reveal that Maura and Shelly got rid of him all those years ago). When Maura tries to comfort him, he quickly rejects the help. “It’s OK to be sad,” Maura tells Josh. “It’s sad.” Josh replies, “I don’t need your permission.” He does, I suppose, need some cold cuts — because he goes straight to the grocery store and has a near-manic episode in the deli section, shoving sliced ham and turkey into his mouth. Someone needs to apologize to Oscar Mayer at next year’s Yom Kippur.

Tyler Coates is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter at @tylercoates.