10 Items or Less: 2.5 ‘The Bromance’ Recap
February 13, 2008 by Chandra
Original Air Date: February 12, 2008
LESLIE coins a new buzzword — “bromance” — when TODD, who recently won five cows from a mentally challenged player in a poker game, successfully pitches the idea of Greens & Grains selling fresh beef. Although Todd has reservations, Leslie is determined to march into the future with his take on the butcher’s idea, namely offering customers freshly slaughtered, “sushi” grade organic beef at the store.
Since he and Todd are now in a so-called business romance, Leslie combines the two words to create bromance, which is like a platonic friendship between guys, according to him. Leslie even applies the term to RICHARD and BUCK, who get into an argument over the white ice skates Richard intends to wear during his forthcoming audition for the part of Golum in the Lord of the Rings ice show. Buck and Leslie are convinced only women wear white ice skates, but Richard insists they match his costume, so big deal.
When Leslie and Todd attempt to slaughter a cow right in the Greens & Grains meat department, INGRID protests and informs them they can’t do that because the United States Department of Agriculture doesn’t allow that practice. Leslie decides he’ll meet with the USDA to get permission.
When he and Todd show up for their appointment with an official named Miriam McMannis, she appears instantly attracted to the manager while completely ignoring a perturbed Todd, who clearly likes what he sees. The meeting ends with Leslie persuading the woman to drop by the store for an in-person visit after they discover their mutual fondness for things like roller skating.
Back at Greens & Grains, a bothered Todd asks YOLANDA for advice on how the woman could have been interested in Leslie and not him. Yolanda explains that Leslie is sucking him dry just being around him. Sure enough, moments later, they bump into Leslie, who’s dressed in jeans and a t-shirt like Todd customarily sports, while Todd is wearing a business suit.
Meanwhile, in the checkout area, Richard jumps Buck for painting his skates black with a magic marker, which he discovered just as he was about to audition, when it was too late to do anything about it. The cashier is convinced Buck’s trespass is directly responsible for him losing out on the part of Golum and being cast in the minor role of an elf instead. Even worse, Richard’s also the understudy for his skating rival Francis Witherspoon, who got the coveted part.
Elsewhere, Miriam from the USDA arrives eventually, and she continues to act like she has eyes for Leslie alone. But, as the three sit on a couch to discuss slaughtering livestock in the store, she begins rubbing Todd on the leg. When she leaves to go to the bathroom, Todd tells Leslie, who jumps to the conclusion that Miriam wants a threesome, something that Todd definitely doesn’t want.
It turns out neither does Miriam. In the car later, she convinces Leslie to go back to the store for wine coolers and then informs Todd she was only ignoring him and leading on Leslie, whom she calls Barney Fife, to attract the butcher’s attention by playing hard to get. They drive off together, leaving a disappointed Leslie behind at the store.
The next day, Todd comes to work with Miriam’s signature on the document they need to go ahead with their in-store slaughtering. He promises Leslie, who’s busy unloading his problems on the cow, that he’ll never have sex with another woman without the manager.
At the skating rink, Buck pays Richard a visit as the cashier prepares to go on the ice in his role as an elf. After Buck gives Richard a gift of white skate coverings, Francis crawls into the room to report that someone just Tanya Harding-ed him in the parking lot, injuring his knees. The hurt skater throws his Golum costume at Richard, who now gets to play the part he desperately wanted.
When Buck and Richard return to Greens & Grains, they’re back on speaking terms, and they convince Leslie and Todd that they need to repair their bromance, too. The solution, Leslie decides, is for all four men to slaughter the cow together. Yet, just as they’re about to hack the animal with assorted sharp instruments until it’s dead, the cow moos. All of the men pull away quickly then, claiming they can’t kill the animal with the knives.
Who played Miriam McMannis, in the Bromance episode?
Allison Dunbar from The Sopranos. She was really good, too.