Previously on “Emma Approved” … Emma was in over her head.
Episode 62 (Baby Bump): The baby shower is in full swing and … Em is in her office, missing all of it. Because she’s putting out fires left and right for Boxx. Jane is trying to cut out of the shower early to avoid Mrs. Elton, who’s trying to find Jane a job, a man and the perfect purse. Emma self righteously tells her some people just can’t stay out of other people’s business. (Pot: “So. We meet again, Kettle.”) Emma sends Jane out to do recon on a club that’s trying to out-Boxx Boxx by opening on the same date. She’s so stressed out not even Alex can coax her out of crisis mode and back to the party. Annie is honing her mama skills by giving Emma a HUGE guilt trip about not being at the party. And it works: Emma realizes she’s a bad friend sometimes. Well … we all kind of knew that, Em.
Episode 63 (Mood Swings): Emma is still feeling bad about the shower but excited for the Boxx opening. Alex interrupts a very friendly Frank and Emma to give Emma a few of the jams that Maddy will hand out at the Boxx opening later. Frank asks Emma — officially — to find him a date for the opening. Emma knowingly looks at the camera (someone’s thinking of herself). She flirtily gets Frank to taste a bit of jam from her finger (uh, okay). Meanwhile, Alex sees the whole thing from the doorway and slinks away silently. AWWWW. Unrequited love. It’s not pretty.
Later, off camera, a party photographer catches Emma behaving … wait for it … badly at the Boxx opening. Check out Maddy’s face in the GIF below. [To see more photos, go here; click on “exclusive photos” and use the password “boxxhill”]
So. the day after...
Episode 64 (Boxx Hill): Emma is thrilled: The Boxx opening got rave reviews, but she can’t figure out why everyone was so “on edge” at the party. But she’s all whatever, let’s move on. But before she can, Jane stalks into Emma’s office, saying she ignored her better instincts when she came to work with Emma. Jane says Emma made her feel like a fool, that Emma isn’t serious about her causes. Ruh … roh. Emma has no clue what’s going on, but it doesn’t matter because Jane quits. abruptly putting a lid on her anger to keep things professional. And just when you think it can’t get more tense, it’s Alex’s turn to confront Emma, saying she dissed Maddy in a big way at the party. Turns out she said Maddy’s jams were disgusting in front of everyone. Awww, EMMA! Emma claims she was just trying to save Maddy’s company, but Alex calls BS. Like literally. You know things must serious if he’s cursing. Badly. Done. Emma. Which is also what he says. And then he walks out on Emma, too! In tears, she chases after him, as do I (come baaaaack, Alex!). Harriet comforts a the dejected mess that is Emma now.
Episode 65 (Big Girls Don’t Cry ): Today the part of Emma Woodhouse is played by Harriet Smith. Or at least Harriet’s trying to. She’s got her hands full manning the phone in an empty office while Emma is listening to sad music, eating ice cream and generally wallowing in self-pity. I bet it’s organic vegan ice cream. The Boxx event generated tons of interest from potential clients, but Emma doesn’t care. Even an motivating Austen quote from Harriet can’t get Emma out of her funk: She realizes she doesn’t want to be in this business without Alex. So Harriet tells Emma about a new client: Who’s sad. And sitting beside her in sweatpants. And wearing a scrunchie. That gets Emma moving. Aww, I love that Harriet is the one asking Emma for a “Hell yes” now and not the other way around. You go, Harriet. Rockin’ the good-friend look.
Episode 67 (Secret Lovers): Emma is ready for Step 2 of her comeback: apologizing to Annie. Annie says there are probably enough people mad at Emma right now. Which is true. Hugs, hugs, forgiven, forgiven. Then Annie tells Emma that Frank and Jane were dating. WERE. They met through the Dixons in London but later broke up. Jane kept it quite because she didn’t want to be known as “Frank Churchill’s girlfriend.” Turns out, he’s selling his company, and people were going to go digging as to why and so he spoke up about Jane to Ryan. That … was a vague reason to sell his company. Only Maddy knew about Frank and Jane. Annie apologizes for pushing Frank on Emma. But Emma is just fine, even though she was all flirty with Frank. Emma surmises that he sent Jane the computer and that Jane totally must’ve dumped him, not the other way around. Shoot, but then she realizes HARRIET was in love with Frank. I don’t see why they had to have Frank and Jane break up, but if his attitude is any indication, I can see why she left him.