On a deeply bittersweet note, I welcome you all back to Manhattan, Kansas. Yes, it feels so good to dive into our loved one again Someone somewherebut knowing that this third season premiere is also our last, well, it makes me want to drink about a hundred margarinis and sink into a haze of denial on a cool bathroom floor somewhere. I know this all sounds dramatic and that’s the opposite of what we love about this quiet, beautiful show, but I am who I am – and isn’t that lesson, to embrace who you are, part of this show too? Either way, the end is near and I already know that I will miss Sam and Joel and their cohorts dearly. Listen, change is hard. If anyone understands what it feels like to look around and see the things you’ve counted on or loved suddenly gone or looking different, it’s Sam Miller.

Someone somewhere is from the beginning about a woman who feels stuck in taking small steps towards change. Throughout the first two seasons, Sam has been confronted with her deep-seated fears of letting other people in, of letting other people see her, and while it’s never been easy—her fears of abandonment and rejection are real—it’s ultimately always changed Sam’s life made richer. . Her friendship with Joel, mending fences with her sister Tricia, singing again and in public no less, have all been positives for Sam. And yet she still seems hesitant, actually afraid to fully embrace change or want more, for fear of failure or rejection. So it feels good that Someone somewhere‘s final season would be about giving Sam a final, major push to see the good that comes from living outside your comfort zone; of not just wishing things could be different or better, but actually making them so.

One of the best ways to come to that realization is to see how everyone in your life is experiencing and benefiting from the same kind of change – to look around and discover that everyone else around you has moved forward while you have stood still. This is exactly what starts to happen to Sam in “Margarini’s.” By the end of the season three premiere, Sam is literally all alone after watching all the important people in her life deal with the changes they’ve embraced.

First, there’s a newly divorced Tricia. Even though she knows she made the right choice by dumping her idiot husband Rick, she still fears she’s going backwards. Sam’s attempt to cheer her sister up with chili con queso (or CCQ) and magarinis doesn’t exactly have the desired effect: Tricia seems to grow desperate about not being anyone’s person when Sam tries to comfort her with a reminder that, hey, she is also no one’s person, and look at her. Tricia’s immediate fall of tears is endearingly offensive in a way that only Tricia can be. But Tricia’s tears don’t tell the whole story: she is a woman who, even if she doesn’t think so at the moment, is prospering in her divorce. She used money from her booming pussy kissing empire to buy herself an Escalade and she’s all over the dating apps. Tricia isn’t content to just sit around and not pursue the life she wants. Sam is happy and supportive – she wants the best for her sister – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t annoying when Tricia cancels their planned meeting at the last minute to go on another date. Sam stands open-mouthed as her sister rushes out the door with directions on how to reheat the enchiladas she made her for what will now be an evening alone.

Sam also hangs out with her friends. When she passes Brad and Joel’s church bake sale, she assumes people would like to go out afterwards, but newlyweds Fred and Susan are on their way to their couple’s fantasy football league (as if I were fantasy football couldn’t hate anymore), and Brad and Joel have to clean up and then take the leftovers from the bake sale to a nearby senior center. Joel invites her, of course, but you can see just from Sam’s face how much she feels like a third wheel. Plus, we already saw her take a hit from the news that Joel had sold his house. He’s worried she’ll be mad because she’s not going to make any money helping him with the little rental business he had, but besides, it means Joel will officially be living in Brad’s house, and we know that. that it’s just another example of someone wanting to help Sam move forward and make changes.

The signals couldn’t be clearer in this episode; Someone somewhere You might as well put up a neon sign for Chef’s with the text on it Sam is afraid of change. In addition to feeling abandoned by her friends, in this one episode alone, Sam experiences both what she has to lose if she continues to give in to her fear and what she has to gain if she embraces it.

Can we talk about Pepper? I’m still very sad about Pepper. Sam falls in love with a fluffy dog ​​named after the herb on a pet adoption website. She clearly wants this dog. She goes to the shelter to get some cuddles with old Pep and honestly, has Sam ever looked happier than in her selfie with this dog? You think she’ll just go for it and adopt her, but it’s a huge commitment and a big change, and Sam leaves with the adoption form in her hand, but without the dog. Later, at a low point after seeing all her people leave with other people, and a few Pinot Grigios in her, Sam heads back to the shelter, this time certain she won’t leave without Pepper. That’s her dog, right? Only it’s definitely not Sam’s dog. (It’s Bridget Everett’s dog, Lulu, who makes an adorable cameo, though.) By the time Sam gets there, Pepper has been adopted by someone else. She got scared, she waited too long and she missed it. Instead of taking the loss and remembering that there are other dogs out there to love, her immediate response is to declare Pepper better off anyway, and then retreat to her car to sob. If that doesn’t sum up how Sam handles all the relationships in her life, I don’t know what does.

And yet this episode also gives us – and Sam – a glimpse of what can happen when you face your fears. Sam is adamant that she will not return to her parents’ house and farm now that it is no longer theirs. They rent the house to a man she and Tricia call Iceland, because he is from Iceland and they don’t understand how to pronounce his name (recognizable!). She doesn’t want a stranger wandering through their house, she can’t bring herself to do it. But in the end, Tricia can’t collect Iceland’s rent check and they need the money – she forces Sam to do so.

And while, yes, the whole thing is a bit strange and clumsy – Iceland is a man who is, let’s call him rough, and has very little to say – something interesting happens. Could it be… is it possible… is Sam flirting with this guy? It’s clearly flirting in a very Sam way, which is adorably awkward and a bit rambunctious. If you ask an Icelander: “are those Northern Lights really a thing?” is certainly a choice. And yet you can see him smiling through Iceland’s rather unkempt beard. He finds her charming. It’s all so sweet I can barely stand it. Who knows if anything will come of it, but no matter how small the moment is, it feels like a huge step forward for Sam. And all it took was being forced out of her comfort zone. I don’t know about you, but I’m curious to see what else awaits Sam Miller as she reluctantly ventures into the unknown.

• Susan, we were all rooting for you! While I cherish Fred and Susan’s wedding, perhaps she is the worst? I mean, it’s good that she pushed Fred to go to the doctor – he actively avoids them – and taking care of yourself is important, but forbidding your husband from hanging out with his friends at their favorite restaurant? It’s a bridge too far, Susan, and I won’t stand for it!!

• Okay, fine, Fred’s big compromise to get some time for friends is to start a Catch Club and have the group play baseball on the mornings they normally go to Chef’s, and I’m curious to see what Sam and Joel do plays baseball, this is what it looks like.

• Someone somewhere‘s music choices remain (unsurprisingly) elite. Sam enthusiastically singing along to Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy” in the car is a delight. And her “fuck, I wish I could hit that note” made me feel seen.