The following recap contains spoilers for Somebody Somewhere S3E1, “Margarini” (written by Hannah Bos & Paul Thureen & Bridget Everett and directed by Robert Cohen)
Somebody Somewhere Season 2 ended with Sam (Bridget Everett) coming home from Fred’s (Murray Hill) wedding with the intention of trying to hook up with her neighbor, Drew (Brian King). Finding him to be asleep, Sam threw one of her shoes at Drew’s window, breaking it. Thus, I thought that Season 3 might pick up right there.
Instead, an indeterminate amount of time has passed as we enter the Season 3 premiere. Drew is nowhere to be found within the episode, which isn’t surprising in the grand scheme of things given that he has never been more than a very minor character in Somebody Somewhere—he might not even be in the show again—and given what “Margarini” is up to in setting the stakes for the show’s final season.
What we see in S3E1 is that the relationships that structure Sam’s life are basically good. She and Tricia (Mary Catherine Garrison) have overcome the tension that used to define their sisterhood and landed in a much healthier place. Early in the episode, the two meet for margarinis to celebrate Tricia’s divorce, and though Tricia has a moment of sadness about nobody needing her, Sam is able to pull her out of that by joking with chips and queso. We’ve come a long way since Season 1 with these two, and it’s nice.

Unfortunately, Tricia’s line about being “nobody’s person” also seems to provide the theme for S3E1 (and, I would expect, the season as a whole). But, that’s not in terms of Tricia—who by the end of the episode is embracing the freedom of her fresh start in life and the success she’s already had in selling profane pillows—but for Sam.
Over and over again, “Margarini” sees Sam disappointed in her attempts to connect with others. There’s no malice here, and I wouldn’t even say that anyone is doing anything wrong. Joel (Jeff Hiller) is moving in with Brad (Tim Bagley), and their relationship is great to behold. It just also means that Sam and Joel can’t be as close as they once were, when Joel was renting out his house as an Airbnb and staying with Sam. Indeed, he’s selling that house now.
Fred got married in the Season 2 finale, and Susan (Jennifer Mudge) is great, but this means they have plans for some couple’s fantasy football thing when Sam asks them to hang out. And then it means that Fred has to cancel regular brunches at Chef with Joel and Sam because Susan made him visit a doctor.
We don’t know what kind of health problems Fred might have, only that he orders an egg white omelette with broccoli and no cheese (which I’m not even sure qualifies as an omelette if I’m honest) and wants to replace brunch with visits to somewhere called the Catch Club, which he insists will be fun. All you need is a glove and a good attitude!
Sam notes that she has neither of those things.

It’s really only Tricia who does something that could be taken as a real slight to Sam in S3E1, when she cancels their plans to go on a date after Sam has already come to Tricia’s house expecting to spend the evening together. But, given how much Sam has been encouraging Tricia to date and embrace her freedom as a single woman, it’s easy to see how she’d presume that Sam would be OK with it.
The thing is: Sam is lonely. Throughout “Margarini” she thinks about adopting a dog. She visits a shelter, where she meets Pepper—an adorable little white dog she’d seen on the website—but she doesn’t want to make a spur-of-the-moment decision. Later, after Tricia cancels their plans, Sam goes back with her form filled out, ready to adopt Pepper, but someone has beat her to it.
She goes back to her truck and begins to cry before calling Joel. He’s busy making dinner with Brad, so he asks to call her back later, and that’s where we leave things. Cue Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy”—which Sam had been happily singing along to earlier in the episode—and the credits.

“Margarini” doesn’t offer any explicit update on Sam’s parents. We know, of course, that since Mike Hagerty passed away, Ed will remain absent from the show. Yet, Season 2 didn’t kill his character off. Instead, he was on some kind of cruise or something while Mary Jo (Jane Brody) was in a nursing home.
In S3E1, some guy from Iceland (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) is renting the family home, and Tricia mentions a nursing home bill, so it doesn’t seem like much has changed on that front. I’m curious if Ed is still on that boat trip, but perhaps Somebody Somewhere will simply avoid addressing the question, and that’s fine. I agree with the decision to keep the character alive since his death would have overwhelmed the plot of the show.
I always enjoy how realistic everything feels in this series, and that includes the way it never spoonfeeds us information through clunky expository dialogue. Apparently Sam is working at a bar now, and I’m sure that will factor in later, but S3E1 just shows her there picking up her credit card tips.
It’s a solid start to the final season of Somebody Somewhere, and I look forward to seeing where this is all heading.
See you next week.