‘Master of None’ Season 2 Recap: Episode 9, ‘Amarsi un Po’

Plot: The show opens with chef Jeff (Bobby Cannavale) and Dev (Aziz Ansari) taking promo shots for what must be their new show. Jeff asks Dev about Francesca coming by, noting that he’s worried about Dev’s heart — but the conversation is derailed when the photographer asks Dev to get inside a giant party sub so Jeff can take a bite. Dev actually does this, because, as we’ve seen all season, he’s a good sport when it comes to jokes that play off of his stature. The photog also requests that they hang in a giant bowl of spaghetti and shows them a mock-up in which their heads are the meatballs. This is kind of like those weird baby portraits inside fruit baskets, only… weirder. Jeff and Dev refuse, and then Francesca shows up. Jeff waves them off with a very concerned look, warning him again: “Careful, little D.”

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Turns out Jeff and Dev are in fact working on a show; Dev tells Francesca about it as they’re walking down the street. She’s in town for a month (is Pino here too?), and as she and Dev are walking, she gets catcalled by a guy who tells her she’s fine and then adds, “Got you an Indian dude, I like it.” This — catcallers and/or interracial coupledom — is presumably Too American for her to understand, and Dev explains it by saying, “Well, he thinks we’re together, and he’s very excited that you’re dating someone of my ethnicity.” And then we learn that she is in fact here with Pino, but he’s going to be traveling for work the whole time. Interesting. Dev immediately capitalizes on this by inviting her to join him on a helicopter tour of NYC he randomly has tickets for.

They walk by a pharmacy and Francesca flips. In order, a list of things she obsesses over: an aisle full of toothpaste, tiny Vaseline (which apparently also comes in a creme brûlée flavor, prompting Francesca to make a French kiss joke — is this foreshadowing?), medicines in general, diarrhea medicine, chocolate diarrhea medicine. “Can I eat this chocolate even if I don’t have diarrhea?” she asks. Francesca, you’re in a drug store. Buy some discounted holiday candy. They leave the store and she has to go meet Pino but makes plans for dinner later in the week; Dev convinces her to get tapas rather than Italian food.

They go to Tertulia, chef Seamus Mullen’s much-loved West Village restaurant. It’s late and the wait is an hour, and the kitchen closes at 10 p.m., so they’re under a time constraint. They put their names down, wait adorably, and are seated in the knick of time. They drink red wine and Francesca teaches Dev to cheers properly — clink-and-tap while looking in the other person’s eyes — lest he experience seven years of bad sex. Is this foreshadowing?

The talk turns to where else Francesca should eat in New York. Dev suggests Indian food, and she says the thing all Indians are loathe to hear: “I don’t really like curry.” Because that’s all Indian food is, right? Dev thankfully calls her out, and she replies. “I said I don’t like curry food. I didn’t say I don’t like curry people.” Dev nails the response by telling her she’s racist. “I’m not a curry person! I’m not defined by the flavors of the food my people enjoy,” he says. “What do you call Chinese people? Soy sauce people?” Dev manages to gracefully move from this to telling her that he’s glad she’s back in town because he really missed hanging out. It’s a nice moment, and then she gets a text from Pino and sends him a sweet message back with a kissy-face emoji. What a roller coaster.

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Cut to a cute walking montage of NYC, ending in Washington Square Park, where they play a game pretending to be a couple in a fight. Francesca accuses Dev of doing something too inappropriate to write in this recap, Dev gets recognized for his work on Clash of the Cupcakes, and they run away and hide behind a big tree. Sadly, there is no kissing behind the tree.

Dev heads to Arnold’s home to debrief. They drink negronis and rehash the situation: Francesca and Dev have “a vibe” but she’s engaged. She texts Dev saying she had a great time and ends the text with a kissy emoji (!), but then invites him to Pino’s birthday party. The roller coaster continues. Dev and Arnold head to Jia, a lounge in the Hotel on Rivington, for the party, where Dev has a nice moment with Francesca bonding over how boring tiles are. But he then leaves when he sees her canoodling with Pino on the dance floor.

Then they go to Storm King. It’s stunning and romantic, but they still don’t kiss, and then Francesca kind of hints that she’s confused about what to do with her life, which is almost certainly foreshadowing. We also learn that she doesn’t know what cashews are? Let’s move on to a later night, when Francesca is at Dev’s apartment watching a movie after they ate pasta at home. It starts to snow, and Dev uses the word “cozyville.” The movie gets romantic but Dev and Francesca still do not, and then all of a sudden the snowstorm gets worse and all transit is shut down and Francesca has to spend the night. Whaaat?

Dev tries to sleep on the sofa, Francesca tries to sleep on the bed, neither of them can actually fall asleep, and all of a sudden they’re in the kitchen having an insanely cute pajama dance party. Eventually they fall asleep in the same bed and still nothing happens.

At Arnold’s DJ night, Dev is hoping to talk to Francesca about how he feels, but something is off. She seems checked out, and then says she’s just going to go home. They finally kind of have a talk about how they feel and how “it’s a tricky situation,” but before it really gets anywhere, she leaves.

Later that night she calls and asks to meet Dev at his apartment. They have a moment, he tries to kiss her, and she laughs menacingly and literally rips his heart out of his chest. This scene, which ends with Dev lying in a pool of his own blood and then actually ends with him waking up for a bad dream, is graphic and very strange. But it makes Dev realize he can’t be hanging around a woman he’s so into.

Meanwhile, in reality as we know it, Francesca and Pino get into an argument in their kitchen, because Francesca tells Pino she doesn’t know what she wants anymore. Later, she texts Dev asking to hang out. He says it’s not a good idea, she brings up the helicopter ride, and then away they go. The ride is awkward at first and when Francesca pushes Dev he finally tells her he loves her. They finally have what the pilot calls an “intimate conversation” and admit their feelings for each other, and then Francesca leaves alone to go home and think.

Food breakdown: Giant sandwiches as photo props and chocolate diarrhea medicine aside, there’s not a lot here. Francesca and Dev go to Tertulia for tapas and wine, but otherwise Arnold and Dev drink negronis at Arnold’s place, everyone drinks at that lounge Jia for Pino’s party, Francesca and Dev eat pasta and drink wine at his apartment, and Dev drinks alone at Good Room while Arnold DJs.

Best of None: The fraught-with-romance Storm King and dance party scenes between Dev and Francesca are perfectly done.

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