‘Party Down’ Recap: ‘Jack Botty’s Delayed Post-Pandemic Surprise Party’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 302 of ‘Party Down’. To revisit the Season Three Premiere, click here.
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When we last left the Party Down crew in the season three premiere of Party Down on STARZ, ominous clouds were on the horizon. For Kyle was canceled thanks to a sneaky end around from former band members and well, Covid arrived in this story, putting the business in a tough place for Ron and leaving the fate of the crew unknown, and that left us worried about what would become of them after one rough pandemic. But thankfully, this week’s episode of the show wasted little time in informing us… that that the crew was okay, and the business did indeed survive after all, and that the same time period that gave us fits and stagnated aspects of our lives, did the same for the crew as well. 
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For we quickly came to learn in ‘Jack Botty’s Delayed Post-Pandemic Surprise Party’, the majority of the crew was reunited in the job some of them thought they left behind, for various pandemic reasons. For instance, Henry’s marriage did not survive the pandemic and he was in the midst of a nasty divorce, so he needed to return to Party Down to pay for the whole mess, and of course… with his career in shambles… Kyle was back with the team as well. Bringing forth a wonderful blend of old team and new team and as fate would have it, one of their biggest gigs in ages brought back an ironic blast from the past. For they were indeed at Jack Botty’s home to celebrate his birthday after meeting him in the premiere and well, that led to business as usual for the team.

The kind that involved surprises and shenanigans. Such as learning that Jack wasn’t a faithful guy in the slightest. Since he and his side piece showed up before the party started and well… that brought about a dilemma for the team, as to whether or not they should say something about this. A conundrum that resonated heavily with Henry. Because let’s be honest… there was chemistry between he and Evie in the premiere and it was still present here, and that chemistry/crush more or less prompted him to ponder upon taking matters into his own hands to tell Evie that her man wasn’t into exclusivity. Which he did, in the most awkward way imaginable, and oddly enough, the whole matter became public courtesy of Jack’s lady in a moment of awkwardness that was only topped in this tale by Ron’s journey.

Because he saw this… as his big break, and if the team handled this right… Party Down would be on the map again. But alas, he ended up embarrassing himself often here. Courtesy of his concerns about hygiene, because he caught Covid four times and completely lost his sense of smell, and when Roman hinted that he might be a little ripe (which Henry confirmed), that pushed him to break his own cardinal rule, and violate the personal areas of the clients to take a fancy shower. One that exposed the fact that he used Jack’s amazing conditioner, to Jack, and it also exposed him to Sackson, whom he then let break the rules for content. Not to mention, the poor guy even managed to embarrass himself by buying the worst business cards ever. Ones that were awkwardly large and also advertised the business as Party Dowm.

But in the end, the party was a success and while the business didn’t land a ton of new clients, Lydia’s desire to have a prom for her daughter to heal her soul, did land another huge gig for Party Dowm… er… Down, and that’s some good news at least. Plus, Henry managed to land Evie’s number, so that might be something worthwhile for him and all in all, this was just… a perfect Party Down episode. For it brought the team back together in a unique manner, let them know of wild days ahead with their saucy new chef Lucy and straight up entertained us to beginning to end as only this show can. Plus, it also reminded us how the pandemic set some folks back and, in some ways, locked them in terrible jobs. Making this as relatable as ever and it left us eager for more. Because it is just amazing to have this series back in our lives and we will now be counting down the minutes to next week’s catering event, to see if and how, the team can break free of their return to a world they thought they left behind. Until next time.

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