【clitoral v.s. vaginal eroticism】

We know the old adage about progress: One step forward,clitoral v.s. vaginal eroticism two steps back. That's probably doubly true for television characters, not least because we need them to stagnate and regress for the sake of the story. And because if attractive, fictional people flounder, we feel better about having done it ourselves.

With that bright introduction, we dive into this week's episode of You're The Worst, "Talking To Me, Talking to Me."

SEE ALSO: 9 TV crossovers we'd love to see

This episode starts with the latest of a suspiciously high number of montages this season, though I'm not complaining. Montage Jimmy is my favorite Jimmy; Montage Jimmy does jumping jacks and crossword puzzles and can't swallow a raw egg before powerwalking (slowly) through the neighborhood with what I assume are the same women from Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Coral Palms episodes.

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Jimmy helpfully recaps for Gretchen (aka the audience) that he's lost focus since his father's death; he realized that he only ever became a writer to spite Ronnie and now that he has no one to spite, he feels no need to write.

Gretchen realizes that she's in a similar situation: Her mother put too much pressure on her as a child and she's still trying to prove herself (also, Wheel of Fortune may be the most stable thing in her life). Even though Jimmy talks over her in his dulcet narcissistic tones, the scene touches upon a bond they didn't know they shared.

Now entertaining the possibility that writing isn't his destined career, Jimmy tries his hand at carpentry (Carpenter Jimmy has a nice ring to it, too).

Meanwhile, a temporarily PTSD-less Edgar wonders if marijuana might be inhibiting progress in other areas of his life. His Dr. Weed videos are going viral, but he doesn't want to be the weed guy, and Dorothy supports that.

Montage Jimmy meets Carpenter Jimmy in a brief building montage, during which Jimmy learns a lot, starting with how to correctly hammer a nail. When he finishes the treehouse, Jimmy invokes his father aloud -- not exactly a marker of sane behavior -- to see if Ronnie’s voice is still in his head. Apparently, it’s not. Jimmy starts throwing things off the treehouse, and we can guess where this is going: He ends up knocking over the ladder and being stranded in the treehouse.

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Meanwhile, Edgar and Dorothy find themselves in a very actor-y conundrum; Dorothy gets called in for the wrong audition and ends up reading for “overworked mom” while Edgar gets discovered and hired as a comedy writer for his Dr. Weed videos. At the same age, Dorothy is being shown her Hollywood shelf life and her boyfriend's career is only just beginning.

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Dorothy is, understandably, rattled by Edgar’s new job. He’s doing what she’s wanted to do for years, and he stumbled into it with the serendipity that artists dare not dream of. Suddenly Dorothy feels like a washed-out teacher watching her students -- not only Edgar, but others she auditions against-- live out her dream. Collette Wolfe shows the first cracks in perpetually positive Dorothy, and it's the most unsettling part of the episode -- until that point.

Lindsay schedules an abortion (I wholeheartedly reject the term “abobo”) but has second thoughts when Paul starts texting her outside the clinic. The deluge of messages remind Lindsay that she does love Paul in her own convoluted way, and he's her family. The scene nicely endears us to Paul without erasing the fact that he is kind of a clingy know-it-all.

Stuck in a tree, Jimmy has no company now that his father’s voice is gone -- except that it’s been replaced by other, louder voices -- the voices of his characters. They start talking and acting of their own volition and point out to Jimmy what he’s meant to do: write.

Lindsay goes through with the abortion, as she always planned to, but not without a little soul searching with a woman protesting outside the clinic. Even though she's pro-life, the woman classifies Lindsay’s pregnancy as “extenuating circumstances” which defy any category she’s ever encountered before.

In a jarring spell of compassion, Gretchen appears concerned for Lindsay, who seems unchanged.

“You just had an abortion, you’re divorcing your husband, and you’re literally only thinking about what’s happening in this moment?” Gretchen cries in disbelief. She says it critically, but she’s nonplussed. Is Lindsay’s perceived obtuseness the sign of an internal enlightenment to which her friend could aspire?

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Montage Jimmy returns briefly in an assortment of uncomfortable tree poses, then observes the neighborhood from his prison of a perch. He unwittingly takes Gretchen's advice and looks at his life from an outside perspective -- and what did he see, as he watched his girlfriend walking through their shared home and life?

"I don’t recognize my life," a shell-shocked Jimmy tells Gretchen when he finally makes it back home. "I don’t know whether I made any of the right decisions. Everything could be wrong."

"Everything?" Gretchen asks. Then she realizes what he's implying: Her. Everything.

Oh, f*ck. Everything??

And just like that, what might have been progress takes a deep and treacherous turn. One step forward, two steps back -- although, it could be more than that. It could be everything.