‘Vida’ Season 3 Episode 5 Recap: Bird By Bird
It’s Emma’s birthday in episode 5 of Vida—but y’all know she’s not about to actually let anyone know, much less throw herself a party
Photo: Instagram/vida_starz
It’s Emma’s birthday in episode 5 of Vida—but y’all know she’s not about to actually let anyone know, much less throw herself a party. Instead, she’s facing a number of challenges. She’s trying to convince Eddy about taking Marcos on as a tenant in their building. She’s dealing with having to shut the bar down for 30 days while she brings it up to code (thanks to Nelson for meddling in her affairs and causing more issues). And she’s trying to raise money so they don’t have to shut down the bar (or have their building foreclosed on). It’s not exactly the kind of stuff anyone wants to be dealing with while they’re a. still grieving and b. growing older themselves.
Fortunately, Emma’s got Nico hanging around more and more now that she’s taken the offer to work at the bar. And Nico’s got some solid advice for young Emma: do it all “bird by bird.” It’s advice many writers receive (and it comes from Anne Lamott, a writer herself—though she’s definitely a “white lady with dreadlocks” as Nico puts it). In simple terms, it just means you have to do all the steps, every single one, until you get it all done. There’s no secret to successful writing, or successfully running a bar, for that matter. One simply has to commit to doing the thing and then they must do the thing. It’s not what most people want to hear, but in this case, it sticks.
The Problem With Eddy
That doesn’t mean Emma won’t be met with challenges, of course. While we all know that Eddy is still in the depths of both grief and recovery, she’s also making it clear that she’s not OK with being left out of bar and building business. We might love Eddy in some ways, but that’s not to say she isn’t problematic. When Emma brings up Marcus as tenant, Eddy doesn’t hold back.
“I know how those young gay boys can get,” she says, saying that “they” can be “mean girls.” She stirs the pot even more when she comes down to the estate sale the girls put together, harassing customers against buying certain items. She also steps in when someone tries to buy Emma’s abuelo’s pool table. But in the end, Emma ends up selling it in order to pay for all the unpaid fines Vidalia left her with. We see Eddy’s face as the pool table gets picked up and whisked away, and it’s likely only going to cause even more strife between her and Vida’s eldest daughter.
Lyn Learns To Use Her Feathers
Remember how last episode, Doña Tita tells Lyn to learn how to use her god-given gifts of sorts? This time around, it’s clear the advice is sticking. Lyn no longer appears to be feeling sorry for herself and instead heads to the gym to work out and flirt with none other than Rudy the Councilman. Now Rudy is clearly falling hard for Lyn (he even shows up unexpectedly at the estate sale where he ends up buying one of Lyn’s Beanie babies). But when they finally have sex, they have a bit of a disconnect. Lyn takes it personally (because Lyn is Lyn), but she ends up turning the situation into an opportunity.
In a previous scene, Emma mentioned needing someone who had an “in” with the local fire department in order to get the inspection done sooner—allowing her to re-open the bar faster. Lyn knew she had one via her councilman. And now that they were getting especially intimate, she knew it might further work in her favor. So, while things are a bit backed up in the bedroom for Lyn and Rudy, at least she’s able to work her plumage to ask him for the favor.
Final Notes
The episode ends beautifully, with Lyn finally remembering it’s her sister’s birthday and throwing her a make-shift, two-person birthday party. She pours shots and gets on stage to serenade her big sis with a ukulele version of Juanes’ “A Dios Le Pido.” It’s rare that we see the sisters get along this well, but maybe all they needed was a day when they finally got a break—and maybe a little tequila didn’t hurt, either.
