Review: The Comeback, “Valerie Faces Reality” | Season 3, Episode 3

In the lead-up to this season of The Comeback, Michael Patrick King mentioned that the new episodes would honor the late, great Robert Michael Morris. “People fell in love with Valerie because of Mickey,” he said. “They could see her through his eyes.” It’s an apt enough way to sum up the character’s importance to those first two seasons; Valerie’s relationship with her hairdresser always provided a shot of sweetness during a frequently bitter viewing experience. Even when Val was at her most self-centered and delusional, prioritizing her career over her own marriage, she made time for Mickey—most notably when she left the Emmys to visit him in the hospital during the season-two finale.

It was always difficult to imagine a version of the series without Mickey, not because he’s a huge part of every episode but because of the unique role he plays as a source of warmth and unconditional support. (To Mickey, Valerie will always be a star, no matter what happens in her career.) So I felt a little skeptical when the premiere introduced Tommy Tomlin, a very clear stand-in for Mickey. If the show wanted a new character to fill this role, I thought, why not introduce someone totally different? Doesn’t blatantly replacing the character only draw attention to his fundamental absence?

But I needn’t have worried. “Valerie Faces Reality” productively plays into both the similarities and differences between Mickey and Tommy to tackle Valerie’s grief—along with the real-life grief of the cast and crew who knew Morris—head-on. It first clicks when she accidentally calls Tommy by her late friend’s name; it makes sense that the lines start to blur for her after receiving a dose of Mickey-like loyalty during their podcast recording. (“Fuck her,” he insists, incensed by the crappy younger hairdresser Val just told him about.) Of course, Tommy is decidedly not Mickey, as quickly established by his refusal to eat in public and gossip with Val. She clearly brought 85-year-old Tommy out of retirement to fill a void, but it’s not going to work.