'Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens' Episode 10 Review: Nora finally shows some responsibility in a fair finale
So, the first season of 'Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens' has come to an end... not with a bang, and not quite a whimper either. The finale was one of the better episodes of the season and it followed Nora Lynn's adventures in China and back to the US.
As we last saw, Nora and Edmund's app Scrubbr gets acquired by a company overseas and Nora gleefully rushes off to China. Grandma (Lori Tan Chinn) feels rather lonely in her absence. She begins to take care of an injured pigeon, much to her son Wally's (BD Wong) disgust. This is actually the cutesy part of the episode as it is always a delight watching grandma do anything. Give grandma that spinoff, please.
Meanwhile, Nora is having a tough time in China. At first, she is rather lost without her daily supply of weed and family. However, where there is a will, there is a way and sure enough, Nora finds a solution.
Unfortunately, a series of mishaps causes her to be deported by the end of the episode and she returns home with a tail between her legs. That doesn't dampen her spirit though. The travails of growing up are far from over for the incorrigible adolescent-like Nora, but she is ready to take the next step eventually. The episode ends with her telling Wally that she plans to move out. He is rather scathing about it because she might not have given him much reason to believe that she can keep to her word. He is sure that she will come home this time, but she isn't.
The episode wasn't a complete letdown, as we finally see a glimpse of responsibility and accountability in Nora. Throughout the first season, Nora has been involved in crazy escapades and zany schemes that get her nowhere. It's only in the last two episodes that there seems to be an actual storyline, to show where she is heading. The storytelling has been rather disjointed, as the brainstorming for the app episode happened a while ago, among other things. There was a detour and then the plot came back to the app, two episodes ago. Perhaps Season 2 will not be as clunky and scrambled, and we will finally see some concrete storylines. The show has great potential.
'Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens' is a Comedy Central show.