God Friended Me Episode 2
The second episode started where the pilot left off; another friend suggestion by the name of Katie Brooks. Miles Finer (Brandon Micheal Hall), promptly ignored the request. He ignored it a few times in fact, despite a startling moment when he saw angel wings superimposed on his reflection due to a concert poster behind him.
Beating the drum of a godless world.
The episode branched off into several small storylines while orbiting around this week’s friend suggestion. Cara Bloom (Violett Beane) from the pilot struggled to establish a relationship with her mother. However, every attempt only reminded Cara of her mother’s absence in her life before.
Rakesh Singh (Suraj Sharma), Miles’s friend and sidekick in the mission to find the origin of the God account, struggled with the fact he liked Jaya and the possibility that Jaya unbelievably may like him back.
And Miles?
No more God account talk.
Miles was trying to start a career as a podcaster with a new station called Frequency. He’s also worried about the God account interfering with his chances, maybe hacking into his presentation again. He’s trying to reconnect with his reverend father Arthur Finer (Joe Morton) as well. And he’s trying to ignore the God account yet also curious about it.
Don’t tell her God sent you.
Inevitably, Miles decided to check on Katie Brooks. He recruited Cara to join him to investigate Katie at her place of work. Cara’s more than happy to join in even as she is distracted by the awkward beginnings between her and her recently reunited mother.
The person in question arrived late for work. Miles jumped in when Katie gets verbally reamed by her boss. And ended up getting her fired.
Whoops.
The worse do-gooder ever.
From here, Miles’s focus now turned to how to make things right for Katie Brooks. Rakesh found Katie Bloom’s address (we’ll ignore the creepiness of how easy it was to locate her for now) and Miles goes to apologize.
It turned out Katie was a single mother, struggling to raise her autistic six-year-old son Nate. Needing to find someone to stay with Nate as she interviews for another job at a diner, she asked Miles to sit with her son in the restaurant while she has the meeting.
God’s in Hell’s Kitchen.
Meanwhile, Rakesh thought he tracked down the source of the God account’s profile picture. In Hell’s Kitchen (pretty much accept these kind of jokes will be the norm now) He goes to track it down himself. Miles ignored his calls because he was watching Nate. Rakesh ended up calling Cara to find Miles. Rakesh continued on his own until he spotted Jaya on a date with another man. Stunned, Rakesh just stands there. The signal he tracked on his phone blinked out and very appropriately says ‘Signal lost.’
Eric from Frequency called, asking Mike to come by later for recording. Nate spied outside the diner’s window a passerby’s shopping bag. He abruptly walked out of the diner to follow. Miles stayed close, unsure how to handle the situation.
I’m done.
The two ended up in a music store. Miles played the piano in hopes of persuading the boy to go back after the song. Katie, after running into Cara, panicked when she discovered they were missing from the diner. She tracked them to the music store, just in time to see her son Nate smile at Miles.
Katie snapped at Miles for leaving with Nate and stormed off. Miles, stung and frustrated, tells Cara he was done with whatever games the God account was playing. He needed to refocus on being a podcaster for Frequency. Cara argued they should continue to try and help Katie. Miles accused her as using Katie as an excuse to avoid dealing with her mother. The scene ended with the two going off in their separate ways.
I don’t know if he can even hear me.
The two make up when Cara later called: Nate ran off after Katie got upset at home. Katie confessed her frustrations of taking care of her boy who never seemed to connect with her. Miles got a smile from her boy only after hours.
Miles realized Nate was attracted to the music. But while the music store owner confirmed the son came by, the boy was nowhere to be found. Miles spotted the angel wings poster again for a concert in Central Park. Miles thought Nate might be looking for another piano.
Just gotta find your own version of music.
Sure enough, Nate was on the stage, playing piano for the first time. He repeatedly played a song Katie sang to him ever since he was a baby. Miles suggested Katie had connected with her son after all. Amazed and hopeful, she joins her son by the piano. Miles apologized for his harsh words and Cara admitted she was using the God account to avoid seeing her mother. She didn’t know how to talk to her. Miles suggested Cara find her ‘version of music.’
What I’m hearing.
The episode’s spotlight on autism was commendable, but light on substance. Katie and her son felt more like a side story than the main topic. It was enough to drive the episode along, but that was it.
I would have preferred a more in-depth look into Katie and her son rather than about Rakesh’s insecurities about Jaya or Cara’s stuttering relationship with her mother. Even Miles’s struggles between being the kind of podcaster Frequency wanted and staying true to his own voice wasn’t as exciting.
It’s about finding a new language.
Don’t get me wrong. Miles Finer is utterly charming and fun to watch onscreen. The chemistry between Miles and Cara is still fantastic.
Unfortunately, the supporting characters were much less so. Rakesh was amusing enough as Miles’s best friend, but his constant ‘oh, there’s no way a girl like that could ever like me’ felt contrived and slowed down the pace of the episode. Even Miles’s sister Ali—a psych major who liked to play therapist without a license behind her bar—and her storyline of trying to reconcile Miles with their father was more disruptive than interesting.
Really listening.
Katie’s storyline wasn’t enough to sustain the entire episode which was a shame. By throwing in everyone’s personal storylines, it made it hard for me to decide who I should be watching. Was this an episode more about the ensemble cast or about Katie Brooks? The transitions to the next character’s storyline were jarring.
I’m ready to have a real conversation.
I wanted to love this episode. In a way, all these distracting side storylines give us a chance to know all the characters. I just wish I was interested enough in them to make their efforts worthwhile. Currently, I’m more invested in the ‘friend suggestion of the week.’
God Friended Me is an amusing hour of comedy-drama that could be so much more. I’m giving this freshman series the benefit of the doubt since it’s only the second episode. The episode was a collection of sweet heartwarming moments that weren’t threaded together well. It felt like everyone was trying to talk at once.
Hopefully, the later episodes will settle down and decide what kind of show it wants to be: about the characters’ lives or the person Miles tries to help. The series can’t be both. Like Eric from Frequency told Miles, the show needs to “pick a lane.”
Too many storylines, way too much noise to truly enjoy the feel-good message God Friended Me is trying to convey. If this keeps up, it’ll be hard to hear them and people might stop listening.
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