Recap: There’s Nowhere to Run in ‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’ Season 2, Episode 3 “Zoey’s Extraordinary Dreams”

Brianna
12 Min Read
Image Courtesy Sergei Bachlakov/NBC.

Titled “Zoey’s Extraordinary Dreams,” we naturally join Zoey in the middle of a music-filled nightmare. Zoey is trapped in her parents’ home singing “Nowhere to Run” by Martha Reeves and The Vandellas as she tries to leave. No matter what she does, she can’t make it to the front door, and she jerks awake from the nightmare. Max asks about the dreams, and Zoey reveals she’s been having the same one for weeks. They talk about what it could mean (Max thinks she feels trapped), and he convinces her to talk with Maggie about Zoey moving back to her own apartment.

Meanwhile, baby Miles has just fallen asleep. David and Emily have moved pillows into the nursery, too exhausted to make it back to their bed. Just then, Jenna, Emily’s sister, breezes into the room talking loudly about how dull Miles’ room is. Sleep deprivation has worn down poor David’s internal filter, and he says, “If you wake my sleeping baby, I will literally kill you.” Jenna continues that she plans to do a photoshoot of the family and make a gallery wall for Miles. She leaves, and Emily crawls over to join David on the floor.

Image Courtesy Sergei Bachlakov/NBC.

Maggie mentions she has a big project, her first one since Mitch has passed, and her good mood encourages Zoey to talk about her moving home. Just as she’s about to mention it, Maggie sings a heartbreaking rendition of Lewis Capaldi’s “Someone You Loved.” Afterward, Zoey tells Max there is no way she can leave yet with Maggie feeling this way.

At work, Zoey totes a huge cup of coffee and asks Simon about the importance of sleep (it’s important, Zoey!). He tells her he also had nightmares following his dad’s death and that they did eventually fade. He also reminds her of the joys of being in charge. She can delegate some of her workload to her team since she is feeling overwhelmed in her new position. Zoey takes that piece of advice and gives out several items, including handing the rotating snack bar to George and the company softball team to Tobin. Tobin jumps on it in a less than inclusive way, so Zoey reminds him this is a co-ed team. McKenzie checks to see if anyone else in the room played college-level softball (they didn’t, she’s amazing) and also double-checks with Yasmeen about her time throwing shot-put in the Junior Olympics. Hilariously, George looks a bit scared, and Tobin grudgingly agrees that they’ll be on the team.

Maggie arrives at the estate to pitch her landscape design. Roger likes her ideas, but it doesn’t wow him. He was hoping she’d bring “the Clarke magic” that he’s heard about from their company. He tells her it’s a little safe and wants her to try again. Maggie is crushed and leaves, promising to bring him something else. Zoey arrives home to find Maggie locked away in the office. Zoey offers herself as a sounding board, so they grab some dinner and sit down to eat and discuss ideas. It only takes a few minutes for Zoey to get lost in the various terms Maggie uses, and her note-taking doesn’t flow with Maggie’s artistic nature. Jenna listens in and breaks out into a song with “One Call Away” by Charlie Puth. She doesn’t make it very far before Zoey’s heard enough and shouts at her. She recovers by saying that Jenna is clearly the one who should help Maggie, and Jenna readily agrees.

Image Courtesy Sergei Bachlakov/NBC.

Back at SPRQ Point, Zoey totes an even larger cup of coffee as she tells Simon that she and Max are together, hoping that getting it out in the open will help ease her conscience. Apparently, Max had already told Simon, and he tells her he is happy as long as it makes her happy. Meanwhile, Max and Mo meet with a real estate agent at a rundown property that could be the site for their start-up restaurant. Mo hates the space, it’s rundown and soulless, but it has a current liquor license and a huge open floor plan that will give them tons of creative options. Ultimately they agree to rent it and put in the work it’ll take to fix everything up.

Jenna and Maggie meet in her greenhouse space to work on the project, and Maggie is a little flustered by Jenna’s methods. For starters, Jenna refuses to let them sit down. She forces Maggie up and into a few stretches to create movement and get her “into the right headspace.” They play a little word association, and though her methods are unusual, they work, and Maggie is drawing up ideas in no time.

Zoey has now downed her entire coffee (it must be at least 40 ounces) and promptly dozes off at her desk and into her recurring dream again. She fights to get to the door but just can’t make it. George snaps her awake and tells her the snack bar is now the egg bar where hard-boiled eggs will be served. It’s quirky, just like George, but very clever in its cost efficiency.

Back at Zoey’s parents, Max is cooking tagine while he and Zoey talk, but Max realizes Zoey isn’t listening very closely. He asks about her dreams, and she tells him about her conversation with Simon, which leads to a little jealousy on Max’s part. It causes Zoey to zone out, and she lies when he asks if he sang to her in the hopes it’ll make up for her spacing out. However, it only causes them to fight because Max again feels like Zoey has a window into his head, and he doesn’t know what she’s feeling. She says she’s not feeling anything, but Max thinks she’s just refusing to let him in, and he leaves.

The next morning at work, McKenzie brings in the very problematic jerseys Tobin had made for the company softball team. He charges in trying to defend them, but Zoey points out that the team name “Brogrammers” is not inclusive and the logo, a silhouette of a player holding a bad in a very suggestive way, needs to go immediately. George also informs them that the bar now smells like sulfur because boiled eggs don’t keep so that now has to go. Meanwhile, Maggie meets again with Roger at his estate to show her second design idea of a “modern enchanted forest” that he loves.

Image Courtesy Sergei Bachlakov/NBC.

Zoey sits working when suddenly a baseball comes crashing through her office window. Leif let the guys try on the jerseys and play for a minute, but this is the last straw for Zoey. She yells at Tobin for not simply sending back “the sexist, penis jerseys” as she asked, and her outburst earns her a group heart song from the male programmers to “It’s the Hard Knock Life.” The remainder of the glass wall shatters as she returns to her office. Later that night, Zoey is exhausted and finally has a heart to heart with Maggie. She doesn’t want her to feel abandoned but thinks she needs to move back to her apartment, and Maggie agrees that it’s time. The next morning, David and Emily discuss Jenna. Emily agrees it’s time for her to go, and she’ll start dropping hints. Of course, this gets ruined because Jenna walks in and informs them that she’ll be working with Maggie on her new project. The poor, tired duo agree that it’s great and paste on their very best fake smiles.

Image Courtesy Sergei Bachlakov/NBC.

Finally, back at her place, Max gives a still exhausted Zoey a slice of his piece offering cake and they settle down to watch some wrestling. As Max tries to explain it, Zoey falls asleep and has the same dream yet again, but now she’s in her own apartment. Even more terrifying, when she finally opens the front door, it’s herself standing in her way. She jolts awake, visibly shaken, and still on the couch with Max, who is really concerned, but she still won’t talk to Max about it. At work early, Simon finds her on the swings, and she explains everything. “So you literally could not get out of your own way,” he tells her, and she seems to feel a little better after their conversation.

Back home, Max realizes he’s talking about Mo and Eddy breaking up to Zoey who isn’t listening again. He asks her outright what is happening, but she clams up and walks away to do work. Max looks devastated as she won’t talk to him, and it leads us into one of the most emotional and heart-wrenching songs to date on this show. Max sings “Say Something” by A Great Big World to Zoey, following her from space to space as she tries to avoid him. He begs her to talk to him, and the raw emotion of the performance should win Skylar Astin all the awards. If ever a scene could drive literal daggers through your heart, it’s this one, so it’s no wonder Zoey finally does open up. She tells him she feels too many things all the time, and though she wants their relationship to work, they both agree to pause it for a little while. It’s clear the decision hurts them both deeply, and they share a heavy look before the scene ends and the credits roll.

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. C on NBC.

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By Brianna
Brianna works full time in the publishing industry, passionately building books to bring to the masses. Her first fandom was Harry Potter, which she joined at age 11. Her love for books took her abroad to earn her Masters Degree at University College London, after which she lived in New York City, and now resides in Austin. She loves all things fandom including Supernatural, Doctor Who, and more. Ever the introvert, she can usually be found reading, playing with her dog, listening to music and practicing yoga. Brianna joined the Nerds and Beyond staff in 2018 where she unites her love for all things "nerd" with her passion for writing. Find her on Twitter here: @bookbag09
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