Rutherford Falls latest shenanigans gains the attention of the press. In “Aunt Ida’s 90th Birthday,” Nathan (Ed Helms) attends a family gathering while Reagan (Jana Schmieding) tries to deflect the Press from Nathan’s issues with Big Larry.
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NPR reporter Josh Carter (Dustin Milligan) saw the YouTube video of Nathan’s outburst at the Founder’s Day celebration. He pitches his story idea to his colleagues, saying it’s a powder keg ready to blow up. Apparently he uses that phrase for all of his stories … and they don’t really care what he does. So Josh goes to Rutherford Falls to meet Nathan Rutherford. Unfortunately, Nathan is leaving town to celebrate his Aunt Ida’s 90th birthday at Duz’s (Benjamin Koldyke) house. He leaves Reagan in charge of the museum while he’s gone.
Reagan is getting coffee first and runs into her ex-fiancé Ray (Martin Sensmeier) and his wife Shannon (Aly Young Price). They both thank her for breaking Ray’s heart, pushing them together. Now they are expecting a baby. They ask Reagan if she’s dating anyone. Reagan reminds them that its slim pickings in Rutherford Falls. They encourage her to keep looking for the right one.
LOSING LEGACY
When Nathan gets to the Rutherford family gathering, Duz asks to speak to Nathan about something important. But Nathan has to sing the family newsletter first. He promises to listen to his big brother during BBB – Brandy, Brothers, and Badminton. During the song, a new member of the family, Steve, mentions that Duz is selling the house. Oops! That’s what Duz wanted to talk to Nathan about.
Duz explains that his family wants to move to a more adventurous town. Nathan assumes Duz plans to sell the house to a family member, but that’s not the plan. He asks Duz to give him the opportunity to change his mind. First, Nathan interviews the family to give his brother more reasons not to sell the home. Unfortunately, they don’t really care. Nathan truly is the only Rutherford who cares about his family legacy.
During BBB, Duz offers to let Nathan buy the house but he doesn’t want to leave Rutherford Falls. Duz says there’s more life to live outside of Rutherford Falls and encourages Nathan to leave. Besides, he doesn’t get what’s so special about being a Rutherford. Nathan names some good things about being a Rutherford, but Duz says there are a lot of bad things too. Nathan would prefer to believe that the Rutherfords are the closest thing to perfect there is. Duz tells him to forget about the family history and move on with his life somewhere else. Nathan ends BBB and goes to the basement. He finds a wall that he and Duz wrote on when they were kids.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE
Meanwhile, Josh shows up at the museum, sending Bobby (Jesse Leigh) into a frenzy. He calls Reagan for back up but warns her that this reporter is really hot. Reagan immediately humiliates herself in front of Josh by spilling coffee everywhere. She says Bobby didn’t properly prepare her for how hot the reporter is. There’s “hot” and then there’s “centaur hot.”
They spend the day telling Josh the history of Rutherford Falls. Reagan doesn’t make a big deal about Nathan’s outburst at the Founder’s Day celebration and tries to convince Josh that the town is over it. She takes Josh to look at Big Larry and he realizes there is no story. He prepares to leave, putting on his Northwestern hoodie. Reagan mentions that she went to school there too. What a small world.
Josh can’t leave yet because his train doesn’t leave for four hours. And Reagan says the train depot is too dangerous to just hang around. She invites him out for a drink. They talk about their time at Northwestern, the college bar scene and what kind of person they were at that age. Reagan mentions the cultural center, so Josh asks to see it, despite the fact that his train leaves in a few minutes.
Reagan takes Josh to the cultural center, describing the cultural significance of the items. Josh is impressed, especially when she talks about her wedding basket and the fact that she’s a runaway bride. Josh says he could spin a story about her cultural center. He starts talking about how he’d structure it while moving closer to her. Josh gets close enough to kiss Reagan in the middle of the cultural center.
MORNING AFTER
Duz apologizes for overstepping with Nathan. He just wants him to live a good life. Nathan understands and says he will consider leaving Rutherford Falls to move into the house if Duz watches a video he made. The video sends Duz on a scavenger hunt of memories that leads to the basement. Duz finds the wall they wrote on and Nathan updated it. In the video, Nathan says he supports Duz, even if the house has been in the family for over a hundred years.
Nathan returns to the museum a little sad. To make things worse, a man arrives at the museum to serve Nathan with papers. He is being sued by the Minishonka Tribe for breach of contract.
Reagan buys coffee for Josh and herself. Josh is heading home and mentions that the city is not that far away … if she ever wanted to visit. Nathan comes around the corner, about to lose his mind. He tells Reagan about the lawsuit and can barely contain himself.
Nathan stops ranting long enough to introduce himself to Josh. Josh mentions that he’s a reporter. Nathan hopes he likes a big story because he just landed on a big … powder keg. Then Nathan wonders why Josh is wearing his Aunt Ida’s birthday shirt. Hmmm …
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News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
GGA's resident Indigenerd, a little bit rez, a little bit classy...with a love for all things Star Wars, zombies, science fiction, and Indigenous. My ultimate goal is to start my own podcast.
