“I think it’s worrisome,” Aya Cash tells Refinery29 over the phone. The You’re The Worst star is talking about the increasingly alarming flash-forwards that have been popping up on season 5 of her FXX series, which is hurtling towards its April 2019 series finale. Last week, Cash’s force of nature character Gretchen Cutler was gifted a brand new shiny sports car by her fiancé Jimmy Shive-Overly (Chris Geere). The happy moment immediately faded into a scene in the mysterious future where the convertible is banged up and a serious-looking Jimmy is selling the home he is supposed to share with Gretchen. The future Mrs. Shive-Overly is nowhere to be found.
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Wednesday night’s episode, “A Very Good Boy,” reveals an even bleaker peek at what’s next for Jimmy and Gretchen. Gretch checks into a hotel solo. She is still going by the name “Ms. Cutler” and only needs a single room key. After settling into her room, she hops into bed alone. It is heavily suggested Jimmy won’t be joining her.
With this entire goodbye season of You’re The Worst dedicated to Jimmy and Gretchen planning their wedding, loyal fans are probably terrified these time jumps prove an unavoidable breakup is ahead for the comedy's beloved, messy central couple. After all, this is a show that zigs, proposes, and then leaves you abandoned in the Hollywood hills when you think it’s going to zag.
Thankfully, Cash is here to explain what it all means.
“Hopefully you get answers later on down the road, but it’s definitely worrisome — and meant to worry you,” the actress admits. The doom-suggesting time jumps certainly worried her during filming. As Cash reveals, production began in June 2018 with one of the very alarming flash-forward scenes we’ll see towards the end of the season (get ready for many more to be sprinkled throughout Worst's final episodes). “So obviously I was like, ‘Wh-wha-wha-what?’ We had to figure out what was going on,” she recalls, agreeing tensions are higher than ever since “we’ve come to fall in love with these dummies.”
“When you’ve invested five years into something … you care what happens and you want it to go out right,” she agrees. “[Creator Stephen Falk] was really worried about that ‘stick the landing’ thing.”
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However Falk ends up sticking the landing, the time jumps aren’t the only details in season 5 that hint Jimmy and Gretchen’s relationship might not be long for this world. “Good Boy” ends with Jimmy getting a surprise blowjob from the woman he hired as the florist for their wedding (Hannah Marks, who is suspiciously credited for at least two more episodes on IMDb, finale included). While such a betrayal would usually be the biggest deal breaker for a couple, Cash becomes most optimistic about her on-screen romance while talking about it.
“You’re The Worst people never react in the way that you think they will,” she reminds us. “So what might be a dealbreaker for other people is not a dealbreaker for them. Who knows how that will play out?”
If an unexpected case of bathroom oral sex might not break Jimmy and Gretchen apart, it’s difficult to imagine anything actually will. Especially since no one even batted an eye earlier this season when Gretchen made out with a random man in earlier episode “The One Thing.” As Cash admits, “Her flirting with some guy in a bar or maybe even hooking up with him, that doesn’t mean their relationship would be over.”
So if Jimmy and Gretchen really are as strong as it sounds, another sensible way to explain these time jumps is pregnancy. After all, a sweet sports car and a home basically built into a cliff doesn’t exactly sound baby-proof. Ditching both, as last week’s “What Money?” flash teases, would make sense. And, Gretchen does bypass all the hotel booze in favor of water before literally tossing away the (minibar) key. If Gretchen is expecting, she could be taking extreme measures to avoid temptation.
What does Cash have to say about any baby-on-board speculation? “I just ate a burrito.”
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