Review: YOLO: Silver Destiny “High School Reunion”

Overview:

An innocent and informal high school reunion garden party turns into an existential crisis for Sarah when she’s forced to confront just how little she’s accomplished in her decade out of high school. Sarah’s bold and exciting plans for romance are equally spoiled when these doubts pick away at what’s left of her confidence. Meanwhile, Lucas’ confidence faces its own crisis as his relaxed party plans suddenly become a forced display of machismo to finally earn those “kissies.” However, a surprise revelation throws into question who’s the real villain here.

Our Take:

High school reunions can be pressure cookers of anxiety that are frequently sources of conflict in television that are designed to make characters reflect upon how much they’ve grown since their teenage years. This is appropriate territory for YOLO: Silver Destiny to dip its toe in, especially during a surprising moment of confidence and stability for Sarah and Rachel. In fact, Sarah summons her own unofficial high school reunion purely because she’s so proud of the literal fruits of her labor in her blossoming garden. However, in true YOLO fashion, not everything goes as planned and it’s not long until Sarah feels like the most out of place person at her own party. Old habits die hard, and in Sarah’s case, there’s no older habit than insecurity.

Most episodes of YOLO operate as an examination on Sarah and Rachel’s toxic friendship and it’s not hard to jump to the conclusion that the main reason that Sarah has been excised from her high school friends’ lives is because she continued to be tied to the hip of Rachel. There aren’t explicit flashbacks to Sarah and Rachel’s time together in high school, but the few examples of behavior that get brought up are truly ghastly and give these people more than enough of a reason to not want to associate with Rachel. What’s even more heartbreaking is that Sarah’s old bestie, Stacey, is now a monument of success and basically the polar opposite of Rachel. Sarah can’t help but wonder what her life might have been like if she chose to further orbit around Stacey instead of Rachel. YOLO: Silver Destiny effectively clutters Sarah’s minds with these types of thoughts that subconsciously fashion a wedge between her and Rachel.

“High School Reunion,” like most YOLO episodes, concludes with Sarah brushing most of this neglect off and falling a little deeper into venomous codependency with Rachel. That being said, it stings a little more this time around and it’s sad to consider that Sarah has potentially traded a handful of healthy, adult relationships for one compromised exercise in juvenility with Rachel. It should be interesting to see if the compounded weight of these possibilities eventually gets the better of Sarah by the end of the season.

Visually speaking, Sarah’s eclectic party guests allow YOLO: Silver Destiny to show off some creative animated flourishes and there are a handful of moments where ultra-detailed tableaus and facial expressions help add an extra layer to the episode’s comedy. There’s a particular moment where Sarah’s bat boy beau gets gussied up to look like Handsome Squidward and it works well, both as an aesthetic touch and a reflection of Sarah’s deluded love for this near-stranger.

“High School Reunion” operates like a standard installment of YOLO: Silver Destiny, but the final turns that it takes hit surprisingly hard and are a testament to what this weird show has been able to build in less than a dozen episodes. It’s so easy to get lost in the broad laughs and ridiculous characters that occupy this fantastical version of Wollongong, but episodes like “High School Reunion”–as silly as they get–are still important reminders that these are “real” people. It’s also the best use of Lucas to date and the character has never felt more natural to YOLO’s storytelling. It looks like Sarah may have some difficult decisions ahead of her in the second-half of YOLO: Silver Destiny, but she won’t be able to properly experience her maturity metamorphosis until she confronts the full spectrum of her relationship with Rachel.

And here’s hoping that YOLO explores the true horrors of a Muck-Up Day flashback episode if a season three happens!