TV Recap: “Fleishman is in Trouble” Episodes 1 & 2 – “Summon Your Witnesses” and “Welcome to Paniquil”

The wait is over for fans of Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s novel Fleishman is in Trouble with the premiere of the first two episodes of the FX series adaptation. The first two episodes are now streaming on Hulu, and I’ll be along for the ride with weekly episode recaps. To kick things off, we’ve got a twofer with the first two episodes launching today, titled “Summon Your Witnesses" and “Welcome to Paniquil."

Episode 1 – “Summon Your Witnesses"

New York City is upside down as the camera flies over (or under) skyscrapers, arriving at the apartment window of Toby Fleishman (Jesse Eisenberg), who has just woken up. We hear the voice of Libby Epstein (Lizzy Caplan), an old friend of Toby’s who is narrating this tale, starting with Toby’s surprise that as a newly single 41-year-old doctor, he is quite the catch to women on dating apps. Despite his new prospects, he awakes every morning in a panic caused by his new surroundings and the absence of his ex-wife and children. But those feelings of longing are interrupted when he notices he has a voice message from his ex-wife Rachel Fleishman (Claire Danes), which explains that she dropped their kids off at his apartment last night while Toby was sleeping. A spot opened up at the last minute at a wellness retreat, and although Toby wasn’t expecting his weekend custody until Saturday, he now has them this sunny Friday. Furious, he calls Rachel and whisper-yells at her. She doesn’t see what the big deal is, saying the kids have day camp while he works and that he can call their babysitter Mona if he needs someone to watch them at night. She accuses him of saying something particularly hurtful to her the night before. Toby has no memory of this. “It’s been a hard month, I just need some me time,” Rachel says.

Shaking things off, Toby goes to wake up his 11-year-old daughter Hannah (Meara Mahoney Gross) and 9-year-old son Solly (Maxim Swinton), telling them how excited he is to have them a day early. Things get off to a bad start with his daughter, who is upset that Rachel packed the wrong shorts for camp and that the cereal Toby has isn’t the kind she likes. Cut to Toby dropping the kids off at the 92nd Street Y where a barrage of housewives in punny workout tops ask why Toby is there instead of Rachel. One of them wears a shirt that says “Just the Wife,” a souvenir from the hit Broadway show “Presidentrix!”, created by a woman represented by Rachel’s theater agency Fleishman & Co. On his way out, a woman named Cyndi Leffer (Joy Suprano) tries to pry Toby for information about his divorce, reminding him that she and her husband are his friends, too, and asking him if he and the kids can come over for dinner sometime. “Because we had so much fun last time,” Toby sarcastically responds. In a flashback, we see Toby standing uncomfortably amongst the husbands of Rachel’s school mom friends. They’re all wealthy beyond reason, representative of a life Rachel craves and one that Toby’s salary as a doctor can’t afford, largely due to the fact that they live in one of the most expensive cities in the world. The men ask Toby what he would say to his kids if they expressed interest in becoming a doctor, implying that this would be a terrible thing. On the walk home, he shares this event with Rachel and says he felt insulted. “Well, would you?”, Rachel responds, seemingly hoping that Toby would encourage his kids to aspire to something greater than medicine.

Toby is, in fact, a hepatologist at one of the top hospitals in the country and is mentoring a group of fellows. In a flashback, we see that this young group of emerging specialists introduced Toby to the dating app he’s found popularity on, explaining the world of app-based dating and hookups to him. Poetically, Libby’s narration discusses Toby’s fascination with the liver because “It doesn’t just forgive you, it practically forgets.” A new patient has arrived in the ER, a jaundiced woman named Karen Cooper (Julie Tolivar). As his fellows watch, Toby talks with her husband David (John Patrick Hayden) and learns that she recently returned from a girl's trip to Las Vegas. Toby suspects alcohol cirrhosis, but after sending David to the waiting room, he inspects her eyes and discovers that she has a rare disorder, Wilson's disease, which causes the eye color to change. One of his fellows, Joanie (Ava Yaghmaie), shares Toby’s excitement and moves close to him to see Karen’s eyes for herself. Toby takes his team to his office and makes a phone call to Karen’s internist because he noticed that she was prescribed Zoloft last year. He’s angry about it because more diligence should’ve been done before giving her the antidepressant. Karen Cooper’s body can’t process copper.

On his lunch break, Toby visits a diner where he meets with Libby and their other friend Seth Morris (Adam Brody). The narration takes a pause from the present to reveal a little more about Libby, who was a journalist at a men’s magazine before she got married to a lawyer, quit smoking, had two kids, and moved to New Jersey, becoming a housewife. She and Toby drifted apart after college, particularly after he and Rachel were married, with Libby never feeling welcomed by the love of Toby’s life. Not long ago, Toby called Libby after 12 years of silence to tell her about his divorce and that his therapist suggested he reconnect with old friends. Similarly, Toby and Seth lost touch and reconnected the same way. Seth quickly introduced Toby to his favorite spot to pick up women, a yoga class. Seth was a real playboy in his youth, but is now in a relationship and told Toby he was taking him to this class simply as a favor. “You are primetime right now, you are golden,” Seth told Toby about his chances of success with women. Soon after reconnecting with Libby and Seth individually, Toby invited both of his old friends to his new apartment, reminiscing about the time they all spent together in Israel as young adults. The conversation quickly turns to the idea of marriage, and how what you like in your twenties may not be what you want in your thirties. Seth has never believed in marriage, bragging about how all of the married men at his work are miserable, despite looking overjoyed in framed photos from their wedding day in their offices. Both Libby and Seth agree that Toby seemed blissfully happy on his wedding day to Rachel. Libby asks Toby if he’s still seeing a therapist as he becomes consumed by his dating app, revealing that the app is now his therapy.

Back in the present at the diner, Toby tells Libby and Seth about how Rachel snuck into his apartment at 4:00 am, dropped the kids off, and left him a voice message. “I thought she’d at least be a good divorce partner,” he concludes as he eats the no-fat lunch he ordered. The conversation turns to some of Toby’s recent unique experiences, such as a zoologist into asphyxiation, which Toby refused to perform as it conflicted with the oath he took as a doctor. Toby has a date tonight with a 39-year-old and Seth starts to give Toby some tips as an expert in app-based hookups, saying 39 doesn’t exist and that if the age of women you’re targeting is around 35, you need to set your age preferences to “21 to 28″ because nobody is honest about their age. Toby shares that he doesn’t want to date younger women, but Seth tells him they hate men less than women their own age. Toby reveals that he had a few dates with a 25-year-old before changing his parameters. “I can’t be with someone right now who can’t understand the weight of consequences,” Toby shares. Seth blames Rachel for Toby’s dismal outlook, and the trio begin to toss around funny curses at Rachel in a Hebrew accent. Toby stands up, puts money on the table for his meal, and goes back to work.

Toby picks up his kids from the YMCA day camp after work and Solly reveals that he wants to enter a STEM contest with him, which Toby agrees to. Hannah is angry that Toby is making them take the city bus home instead of a cab. On the ride, he tells Hannah that she’s not better than the people around her and that if she doesn’t stop complaining he won’t let her go to her friend Lexie’s house tomorrow. Solly asks his dad if he can take golf lessons and Toby thinks about how his kids are becoming just like the wealthy New Yorkers he despises. Cut to later that evening, Toby finishes putting the dishes away as Solly asks if they can get a dog. Mona (Talia Castro-Pozo) arrives so that Toby can leave for his date, but after changing, he expresses his discontent that Mona and Hannah are watching a soap opera instead of something more wholesome. “You ruin everything,” Hannah snaps at him.

At the bar, Toby suddenly has a moment of panic. He is there to meet up with a woman who has sent him more pics of her body than her face, suddenly fearing that he won’t recognize her when Tess (Tara Summers) takes a seat next to him at the bar and alieves his anxiety. Several drinks later, the two are laughing and sharing their marital war stories. Tess had treated her husband to a retreat with a highly sought-after life coach, only to have him return and share that what he learned about himself is that he wants to have threesomes… and none of the other women would be her. Tess was not okay with this arrangement, so the two got a divorce. Toby asks how she met him. “In a threesome,” she laughs. Cut to them back at Tess’ place having a more traditional twosome. Returning to his building later that night, Toby receives a knowing high five from his doorman Albert (Todd Faulkner).

On Saturday morning, Toby and Solly work together on a jigsaw puzzle while exploring topics for the STEM project. Toby’s phone makes a “choo choo” sound from the table, and Hannah rushes to it. “Who’s Tess?”, she asks, annoyed that the message wasn’t for her. Toby lies and tells the kids that she’s a new patient, asking for his phone back and seeing that she sent him a picture of some new lingerie on her bed, accompanied by a request to meet up tomorrow night and asking if she can come to Toby’s apartment since she will have her kids. Toby responds with his address and tells Tess to stop by anytime after 5:00 pm when his kids will be back with their mother. Hannah complains about how she’s the only one of her friends without a cell phone and Toby reminds her of their deal, that she can have one when she turns 12, which is in 4 months.

Toby is anxious as he accompanies Hannah to the Leffers for her sleepover with Lexie. On the walk, Hannah asks to change her Bat Mitzvah venue, but Toby says they’ve already put down a nonrefundable deposit. The difference in elegance between the lobby of Toby’s apartment building and that of the Leffers is like the difference between a Best Western and a Four Seasons. Up at the door of the Leffer’s penthouse apartment, Cyndi answers the door and welcomes Hannah inside. Smug Todd Leffer (Eric William Morris) joins his wife at the door as she invites Toby and the kids to join them at the club next weekend. Todd mentions that Toby doesn’t play golf or tennis, seemingly looking down on Toby’s response that he plays basketball. Toby tells Cyndi that Rachel should be there to pick up Hannah and Lexi to take them to see Presidentrix! Cyndi tells Toby to call Hannah if he needs anything. “Actually, she doesn’t have a phone yet,” he replies. “Toby,” Cyndi gasps, “get that girl a phone!”

Toby takes Solly to a store to find some books for their STEM project, having selected Einstein’s theory of relativity as the topic. He fires off a text to Rachel updating her that Hannah is at the Leffers for their pickup tomorrow. He gets no indication that the text has been read, so he tries calling her phone. It goes straight to voicemail. Later that night, after helping Solly understand relativity, Toby texts two question marks to Rachel. He wakes up on Sunday to find that Rachel hasn’t responded to any of his messages and he tries to text her again. At 4:30 pm, he gets a call from Cyndi, telling him that Rachel has not arrived to pick up the girls and that she and Todd need to leave. With Solly in tow, Toby rushes to the Leffers to find Hannah furious. Since the Leffers were expecting their daughter Lexi (Abbey Hafer) to be with Rachel, Toby takes both girls back to his apartment to wait. Hannah is mortified that Lexi will see her father’s apartment. “This is where your dad lives?”, Lexi asks in astonishment as they arrive.

Toby sits in his bedroom with the door closed leaving Rachel an angry voice message when Hannah knocks on the door. She’s frantic that they are going to miss the show, having already missed the fancy dinner reservation Rachel promised the girls. The doorbell rings and Hannah bolts for the door, sure that it must be Rachel to pick her up. Instead, she is greeted by a woman with a trenchcoat opened wide to reveal the lingerie she wears. Hannah screams, Tess’ face turns red as she closes her trench coat in shock and asks “Toby?” Toby rushes out of the apartment to apologize, but the damage is done. Tess is humiliated and won’t be seeing him again. Back inside, Toby lies and tells the kids that the woman had the wrong apartment. “She knew your name,” Lexi states. Solly, who was on the couch, begins to sob uncontrollably. “I hate you,” Hannah yells at her father. “Where is mom?” Toby looks down at his phone, angry typing a text to Rachel. “Where are you?”

The camera backs out of Toby’s apartment window on Sunday night, the same one it took us through on Friday morning. The city inverts. Toby’s world is upside-down.

Episode 2 – “Welcome to Paniquil”

The episode begins with a flashback of Toby, Libby, and Seth in Jerusalem in the summer of 1994, dining at an outdoor pizza restaurant with a bar. A beggar woman (Tamir) approaches them for money and Set puts a couple of coins in her cup. She is insulted by the amount, cursing his unborn daughter. Libby makes an offering and the woman still finds the gift to be an insult, throwing out a curse at her, too. Toby offers a bill instead of coins and the woman returns with a blessing that he will heal the world with his kindness and that nothing bad will ever happen to him.

New York City is upside-down as we find Toby walking to work on Monday morning, talking to Hannah on the phone through Mona’s cellphone, telling her that Mona can’t take Hannah to the Hamptons because Mona is supposed to be on vacation. He asks to speak to the babysitter, asking what time her son will be arriving tonight and promising to be home before then. He fires off an angry text to Rachel, telling her that she’s being ridiculous.

At the hospital, Toby is called into the office of Dr. Bartuck (Michael Gaston), who was Toby’s mentor when he first started. Toby learned all of his bedside manners from Bartuck, reminiscing about how he cared for his colleague Dr. Loo (Clem Cheung) when he was dying and the way Mrs. Loo (Aki Ando) asked him to stay present during the doctor’s final moments, saying “You were as big a part of his life as I was.” Toby remembers telling Rachel about the event that night and how her response was less about the touching aspects of it than the fact that his closeness with Bartuck sets him up nicely for a promotion. She got upset when Toby responded that being a doctor is its own reward.

The memory of that night gives way to a more recent one from two years ago. Rachel’s friends the Rothbergs invited all of their friends and their families to their second home in Saratoga. Toby already had reasons to despise Sam Rothberg (Josh Stamberg), chief among them being that this home was named Paniquil after the antidepressant he funded that made him wealthy beyond all reason. That evening, Toby ended up alone by the fire with Sam, who offers him a job at his pharmaceutical company debunking myths about marijuana-related alternative therapies as they prepare to launch a new medication. When Toby defends it as being beneficial to cancer patients, Sam accuses Toby of believing in the medicinal value of acupuncture. “It’s not a cure, but it actually provides pain relief,” Toby defends himself. Sam cuts to the chase, that the job would pay 7 figures before bonuses and comes with easier hours. Toby turns down the offer, saying that he entered the medical field to treat patients. “Rachel said you’d resist,” Sam shakes his head as he brings up another benefit of the job, access to a vacation house in Vail.

In their multi-bedroom suite within Paniquil, Toby whisper fights with Rachel for colluding with Sam behind his back. “I did not become a doctor to get rich, I did it to have a meaningful life,” he snaps. Rachel defends herself, saying she’d like to own an apartment someday. Toby reminds her that he would be wealthy with his salary anywhere other than New York City, but Rachel disagrees. “If you had a job where people counted on you for their livelihood, maybe you would get it,” she snaps as she responds to one of her clients on her phone. “Are you serious?”, Toby blinks in disbelief. Their fight is interrupted by Hannah, who woke up from a bad dream and calls for her dad. Before leaving to comfort her, he tells Rachel that he didn’t misrepresent who he is or what he wanted out of life. “Neither did I,” Rachel replies.

Shortly after that fight, Rachel began looking for apartments and didn’t include Toby in the search. One day, she brought him to a building under construction called “The Golden,” which was financed by Sam Rothberg. Units haven’t yet gone on the market yet and she pressures Toby into putting an offer down, saying they will live there forever. Toby looks defeated, telling his wife that she’s already made her decision and doesn’t need his approval to buy it.

The reason Dr. Bartuck called Toby into his office is because Bartuck is being promoted to chief of medicine, Janice is taking his role, and he would like Toby to be her replacement as leader of the subdivision. The decision ultimately lies with Janice, but Bartuck is going to recommend Toby (the coffee mug on Bartuck’s desk is a Paniquil-branded cup). Cut to Toby walking around New York City with his head held high, shoulders back, feeling victorious that by sticking to his virtues, he ended up with a prospective promotion anyway. He gets back to his apartment later than planned to find Mona angry at him. Toby is a little flustered by her attitude, recalling that Rachel got home late often and never received this type of response from their longtime sitter. Hannah starts in on Toby immediately, demanding to know where her mother is because she was promised dinner in the Hamptons tonight. A heatwave has hit the city and Toby’s new apartment is not keeping it cool enough. Flustered, he sends Hannah to her room and sits at the computer in the living room. Moving the mouse, Toby is shocked to find adult content playing on the screen. Checking the history, a lot of mature sights were visited, but the pop-up journey began with a search for “Girls Bagina,” letting him know this wasn’t Mona. He calls Solly to the living room. “I didn’t do it,” the 9-year-old defends before Toby can even ask. Toby asks his son if he’s curious about girls, suggesting he find an age-appropriate book about anatomy for him. Solly begins to cry, clinging to his dad. “I don’t ever want to see it ever again,” he sobs. “I know, I know,” Toby comforts him, ironically sitting there with a phone buzzing not with much-needed messages from Rachel, but with thirsty sexts from women he’s yet to meet. “It’s the hospital,” Toby lies as Solly goes back to his room to watch The Karate Kid. Toby fires off a message to Mona firing her for not being attentive enough with the kids.

On Tuesday, Toby had no choice but to bring Hannah and Solly to the hospital with him, putting them in the conference room while he works. During his downtime, he searches for the yoga retreat Rachel said she was going to. He calls the phone number, but the receptionist refuses to give him any information about if his wife is or was previously staying there, with a refusal to pass along a message to a guest. Toby tries texting Rachel again, saying he’s not mad and just wants an ETA. Toby talks with Janice (Pearl Sun), the doctor currently in the role he is being considered for, who is excited to be stepping into a fundraising role and leaving direct contact with patients behind. After passing the conference room and seeing Hannah and Solly bored to tears, he decides to ask Dr. Bartuck if he can have two personal days. Bartuck reminds Toby that he’s treating Karen Cooper, the wife of wealthy donor David Cooper and that they were promised the best care. Toby promises that she’s in good hands with his fellows, adding that he will give David Cooper his cellphone number in case he needs anything. “Two days, but you check in,” Bartuck consents. Toby goes to the conference room and knocks on the glass to alert his kids. “Anyone here wanna go to the Hamptons?” The kids are ecstatic.

“Does mom even know you have her car?”, Hannah asks her dad as he drives them out of the parking garage at The Golden. During the drive, Solly reads one of the books Toby got him and asks his dad about the block universe, a theory that time is constant and that right now is happing concurrently with moments ago and moments from now. As Toby explains it, the camera pans around and we see the block universe come to life, memories of multiple drives to the Hamptons with Rachel and the kids at various ages. Solly is overwhelmed by the theory and Toby reminds him that all he needs to focus on is the here and now.

As Toby pulls up to the Fleishman’s home in the Hamptons, he tries to instill a sense of values in his children by reminding them how fortunate they are to have a vacation home, referring to their neighbors as a modern type of pirate. Libby’s narration reveals that Toby always hated this house, but hates it even more so now. The last time he was there was in the winter. They went to the Hamptons for the Leffer’s anniversary party. Toby had already asked Rachel for a divorce several times, a request she always rejected, but that night lying in bed, she finally said yes. They held each other and cried. Alone in that same bed, Toby has a cam session with a woman he met on the app.

The next day, Toby drops Hannah off at a restaurant where she is meeting some friends, handing her some money. “This will barely buy me water,” she complains, and he increases the amount he gives her to $20. He watches Hannah hug Lexi and then, at the entrance, approach a boy who shares his headphones with her. Toby asks Solly who the boy is and he doesn’t know. A woman suddenly knocks on Toby’s window, Roxanne Hertz (Ashley Austin Morris) from Rachel’s social circle. Toby rolls down his window and Roxanne leans in, asking Solly to go to her car to play with her son Max. Solly seems uninterested, but Toby encourages him to go. Alone, Roxanne tells Toby how well he looks and repeats what Cyndi told him at the Y, that he’s their friend too. She goes back to her car to take Max and Solly for a play date. It’s only after she left that Toby realizes that Roxanne didn’t seem to think twice about the fact that Toby had the kids instead of Rachel.

Toby calls Libby on his way back to the house and she says Roxanne probably just did the math after seeing Toby with the kids, explaining away her lack of questions about Rachel’s absence. Toby feels that Roxanne isn’t smart enough for that. “If this were a story, I would follow the money,” Libby says, applying her journalistic approach. Toby asks for more info and she suggests he look into their joint bank account to see where Rachel is spending money. When Toby gets back to the home, an SUV is parked outside. He goes in to find a caretaker (Pamela Jayne Morgan), who is equally surprised to find someone there, announcing that Ms. Fleishman didn’t tell her about any visitors. Toby tells her that he’ll be gone by the weekend and she looks suspicious as she leaves. On his laptop, Toby discovers that Rachel had all of the passwords changed on their bank accounts. Toby is overcome by an uncomfortable level of heat, walking to the backyard, stripping naked, and jumping in the pool. His eyes closed, relaxing in the cool water, he is awoken by a voice saying “That’s him.” The caretaker has returned with two police offers, who inform him that he is technically breaking and entering.

Hannah is beyond upset to be returning to the city so soon. Toby offers to take the kids to EJs for dinner, but only Solly is excited about having breakfast for dinner. He announces that they have to make another stop. Cut to Hannah hugging her dad, over the moon with excitement while holding her new iPhone. Back in Toby’s apartment, he and Solly work on planetary mobiles while Toby talks to his son about the possibility of going to summer camp. “I’m not a camp kid,” Solly reminds his dad. We see a flashback of a fight between Rachel and Toby, Rachel eager to send the kids to camp and Toby wanting to keep them home. During the argument, Hannah asks if she can get an Instagram account and Toby reminds her of their rule, no social media until she’s 13. Rachel, however, says they will talk about it. Toby, who was making dinner, gets so angry at Rachel for making him the bad guy in that moment that he flings a raw piece of chicken at her, which hits her laptop screen. “You’re an animal,” Rachel says through gritted teeth as she throws the chicken away, washes her hands, and goes to clean up her laptop. In the present, Toby now sees summer camp as a solution to his single parenting problems and tells Solly that camp is where he first discovered his love of astronomy and also where he met his childhood best friend. “The thing is, mom is away for a while and I have to work,” he concludes, telling Solly he can either spend his days at the Y and in aftercare or go to camp and have more opportunities for a fun summer. Solly says he will think about it and Toby promises that he will come and get him if he doesn’t like it, saying he would never put him anywhere bad or dangerous.

After the kids are asleep, Toby leaves his apartment for his first in-person date with Nahid (Mozhan Marnò), the woman he has already played with through FaceTime. Toby already knew about her wild role-play scenarios and he returns home later that night smiling and dazed. But when he gets into his apartment, he suddenly feels the unbearable heat again. And something is wrong, Hannah’s bedroom door is open and her light is on. He finds Hannah sitting on the bed hugging herself and crying. “Is mom dead?”, she sobs, saying she tried to text Rachel and she hasn’t gotten a response. “I spoke to her a little while ago, I think she’s really busy,” Toby lies. “Maybe she’s just asleep now.” He hugs Hannah and tries to comfort her. “You know, she’d be here right now if she didn’t hate you so much,” Hannah snaps, blaming Toby for Rachel’s absence. Toby goes to his room, lays down on his bed, inhales a deep breath, and holds it in.

It’s time for camp and Toby feels guilty sending his kids away, feeling like this is something Rachel would do, not him. He tells Solly that in the block universe, he’s already been at camp having an amazing summer and also already back home bragging about his adventures. “I love you, dad,” Solly hugs him. Solly gets on the bus and Toby pulls Hannah back. “I know you think you hate me, but I also know that you don’t,” he says. “I’m going to miss you so much, okay?” Hannah spins around and gets on the bus without saying a word. Toby’s eyes well up with tears, feeling suddenly alone until his phone buzzes.

Toby meets Seth and Libby in Central Park, finding Libby smoking a pack of cigarettes (Seth sent them to her after their lunch at the diner). Toby shares that he just sent the kids off to camp instead of telling them the truth, that their mother wants to do yoga more than she wants to see them. He mentions that Rachel’s total silence is unusual because she typically delights in sending him eye-rolling emojis. “I think when you stop having sex with somebody, all bets are off,” Seth says to defend Rachel’s change. Except Toby reveals that this isn’t true and Libby scoffs as Seth greets that with a fist bump. “It was like a hundred little goodbyes,” Toby sums up the post-marital coitus. Libby asks Toby if he’s worried about Rachel.“No she does this,” he says, recalling how she would routinely extend her business trips by a day or two. Libby did the same thing but always called her husband to communicate it. She asks Toby what if something happened to her and he brings up another memory of Rachel returning late from a work event and passing out on the couch. He realized that she had been roofied, a fact that made him feel relieved that she hadn’t simply forgotten to call him.

Toby gets a call from the hospital and leaves his friends to respond, but on the way there, he gets a call back saying the situation was resolved and he is no longer needed. The heat is really getting to Toby, and his vision gets hazy, and the world feels like it’s spinning. He stops at a market to cool down and scoffs that the heat wave has driven up the price of a wedge of watermelon to $14.99. He calls Rachel’s receptionist Simone, who won’t tell him anything about Rachel. A familiar voice appears behind him. “Look at that, two Fleishman sightings in one day,” Roxanne brags. Toby turns around to see Roxanne with Cyndi and Miriam Rothberg (Jenny Powers). “Wait, two Fleishman sightings?”, Toby asks. “The kids just went to camp.” The women look at each other before Cyndi says “We just saw Rachel.” Toby’s heartbeat quickens. “She was napping in the park,” Roxanne adds. Toby’s ears start ringing. His world flips upside-down.

Fleishman is in Trouble returns next Thursday, November 24th, with episode 3, titled “Free Pass.” The episode description simply says “Toby meets Rachel.” After catching the episode on Hulu, come back for our detailed recap.