TV Review: Broad City S3 E09, “Getting There”

By Sachin Hingoo

“Jews! Jews! Jews! JEWS! JEWS! JEWS! JEWS! JEWS!!”—Jews

Last week was the heaviest episode yet in Broad City’s run, and it seems that Ilana and Abbi felt that we needed a break after all that sobbing and drama. Enter “Getting There,” a tried-and-true Broad City madcap adventure through New York City, this time to the airport as Abbi and Ilana are headed for a destination that’s kept under wraps for most of the episode. This is the first half of the two-part season finale and if it’s going where I think it’s going, next week’s episode should be a real banger.

Our pre-credits joke has Abbi and Ilana trying out a pay-what-you-can (free) yoga studio, which I didn’t know was a thing until now. Is it mostly a vehicle for an extended fart joke? Yes. Do I love this because I have the sense of humor of a 12 year old? Double yes.

Abbi is packing in her signature meticulous way, using a bag that she’s proud to tell anyone who will listen is “highly recommended” by Drew Barrymore. She calls Ilana to make sure she’s doing the same. Of course she isn’t, but she wouldn’t be our Ilana if she planned ahead or woke up before the exact moment Abbi calls. Do you have a friend like this? If not, you may be that friend.

“Getting There” is also an opportunity to give Ilana’s roommate Jaime and (to a lesser extent) Bevers a bit of a send-off for this season. Jaime’s love and angelic devotion to Ilana at her most scatterbrained almost makes up for Lincoln’s apparent departure from the show in the last episode as he helps her pack. They have a nice emotional moment as they frantically throw things into Ilana’s bag, and another one as she’s walking out the door, though this second one is in the form of Ilana catching him jerking off and commending him on his wrist technique. It’s their relationship in a nutshell, and it reminds me how much I’m going to miss their interactions.

For Bevers’s part, he’s mostly there to allow for Abbi to exposit that Trey’s changed all his shifts at Soulstice and is avoiding her. Unfortunately it sounds like Trey’s being shuffled off for the year, but since Broad City will be back for at least two more seasons, the tension with Abbi could be something to be revisited later. For now, it’s go time, and Abbi seems reluctantly sad to be leaving the creepy Bevers. Broad City has finally found a sweet spot with his character, because no one wants too much of him on the show, but in small doses he’s great.

After a few minor hiccups, Abbi and Ilana make it onto the same subway car as planned, but the car stops because of a jumper on the tracks. At the same time, Ilana realizes that she’s forgotten her passport. They’re not going anywhere, so they decide to play a game of “Fuck, Marry, Eat” in case they’re trapped in the subway forever. Ilana would fuck the dapper old man reading the newspaper because it’s “standard narrative bullshit, a crusty old dude and a hot young girl.” In case you were worried that she was going vanilla on us, Ilana clarifies that she’d peg him to “even it out.” Abbi would marry a woman reading The New Yorker (because she could teach her a few things, like “how to finish an article in The New Yorker”) while Ilana would fuck a Wiccan girl (they could dance to Wicked Wisdom  and “FISSST”), and both would totally eat an adorable baby. The game ends before Ilana rubs Abbi’s butt like a magic lamp and prays for the subway to move, as you do, and the train springs to life. I love this show.

The ladies end up in Queens, appropriately-named but far from their destination. When they realize that an Uber to get home to get the passport is prohibitively expensive, Abbi and Ilana happen upon an off-duty cab driver’s home. The driver himself shuts down any idea of driving them, but sends his 15-year-old son to do the job. They swing back to the apartment, only slowing down so Ilana can snag the passport from a rollerblading Jaime as they go past.

At the airport, their teenaged driver asks both ladies to prom, but they squash that because he’s “a literal child.” He’s not too broken up about it, though, since he’s got plenty of “fuck bracelets” (what?) Ilana says what we’re all thinking, that “kids are terrifying.”

I have never been in such awe of Ilana’s (the character) genius as I am in this moment. Cutting through the line for airport security, Abbi notices that Ilana’s got an enormous, red period stain on her jeans. This, however is Ilana’s “red herring” (because the stain is red and looks like a herring) to sneak her stash onto the plane. When a drug dog sniffs around her crotch and is pulled away for harassing Ilana and they make it through the check, Abbi rightly points out that they need to “Shark Tank period pants.”

Some physical comedy involving juggling bags during a run from gate to gate later and the ladies finally make it to the plane. Their destination is finally revealed as an enthusiastic tour leader (played by Seth Green) is there to greet them for their free educational tour of Israel that’s a not-so-subtle effort to pair off like-minded young people to repopulate the tribe. He welcomes them to “Birthmark” (a riff on the Birthright tour) and gives them their tickets after a creepily enthusiastic cheer, but the big cliffhanger for the episode is that, horror, Abbi and Ilana are seated separately.

Though “Getting There” is mostly a setup for next week’s conclusion, titled “Jews on a Plane,” it’s an enjoyable, light-hearted episode that brings us back around to what we love about Broad City in the first place. It’s also one of the only episodes this season that keeps Abbi and Ilana together for almost the whole time, and since it’s their relationship that really drives the show, it perfectly sets up what would be the lowest-stakes cliffhanger of all time. If even half of next season finds the BFFs gallivanting around and summarily ruining the Holy Land, It’ll be sababa as fuck. The journey to get there, however, will be almost as satisfying.

Animated GIFs courtesy of Binge Whale