Felicity 3.16, It’s Raining Men: Noel Also Wishes He Had Jessie’s Girl, If “Jessie” Means “Ben”

March 6, 2021

Felicity 3.16, It’s Raining Men: Noel Also Wishes He Had Jessie’s Girl, If “Jessie” Means “Ben”

Javier wanted his lilac nightgown, but these PJs are just as good

Summary: Moments after their kiss, Noel follows Felicity out to the street to talk about it. Felicity says there’s nothing to talk about – she’s with Ben, and she doesn’t have any deep, dark secrets about her feelings for Noel to reveal to him. She invites him to express his own feelings, but he says they should drop it. Felicity tells him she doesn’t know how to be normal with him now, like they’re just friends. Noel admits that he hasn’t felt like that toward her for a while. Felicity replies that, in that case, the whole past year has been a lie.

She heads to Dean & DeLuca to make up with Ben, saying it doesn’t matter if Noel and Avery want to break them up. Ben agrees, and they make up. Javier (yay, Javier!) comes in and says he feels like he’s having a heart attack. They rush him to the hospital, where he tries to bargain with God (“are you there, God? It’s me, Javier”), saying he’ll be good if God lets him live. A doctor tells him he didn’t have a heart attack, but he might have an arrhythmia, so he needs to stay for observation.

Javier gives Felicity a key to his place and asks her to bring him some of his things, like a nightgown that will make him look thin. He also gives her a key to Dean & DeLuca and puts her in charge. Felicity is hesitant to accept, since she has to study for finals, but he tells her she’s the only person he trusts to run the place.

Sean is struggling to write his bar mitzvah speech, his “first public address for [him] as an actual man.” Meghan is preoccupied by thoughts of the couple’s therapy he said he wanted to try out. They’re kissing and talking and having sex, so everything’s fine. (They didn’t actually have sex. That was just a dream.) Sean points out that they fight all the time and keep breaking up. Meghan tells him this isn’t the weirdest relationship she’s had. Sean won’t give up, since she said she’d go, so she has to give in.

Richard vents to Molly that people don’t take responsibility for their actions anymore, so he has to clean up the mess. He’s arranged to meet with Noel to confront him for toilet-papering the library. Even though Richard has surveillance footage, Noel denies his participation. Richard tells him that the administration wants someone to pay, which means Noel might not be allowed to graduate. A partner in crime can be spotted on the footage, but not ID’d, so Felicity’s in the clear for now, though Richard has a guess about who the partner is. Noel asks Richard to talk to the administration about going easy on him.

Elena runs into DeForrest and tries to apologize for kissing him. She wants to spend time with him and see how things go. He suggests they go to karaoke together. At the loft, Ben and Noel are still prickly with each other. Felicity comes over and barely interacts with Noel. She tells Ben she’s having trouble getting Dean & DeLuca employees to pick up extra shifts, so she’ll have to work a lot while trying to study for finals. She’s decided Noel is the only person she can turn to. Ben says he’s fine with that, and he’ll totally be nice to Noel if he has to see him, since he’s definitely, absolutely always nice to Noel.

So Felicity asks Noel to take some shifts at Dean & DeLuca while they try to work out the weirdness between them. Noel tells her he can’t be the “loser guy friend” anymore. The next time Ben gets in trouble or goes off with another woman, Felicity can’t come to Noel for help or support. She’s on her own.

At karaoke (which DeForrest is hosting), Richard does a passionate performance of “Jessie’s Girl.” Elena admires him for at least trying. DeForrest warns her not to let him to “White Rabbit,” since it makes Richard freak out. He ends Richard’s performance and does “Play That Funky Music, White Boy.” He makes Elena join him, and though she’s not into it at first, DeForrest’s energy and the way the audience responds to him make her enjoy herself.

Afterward, DeForrest walks Elena home as she gushes about how much fun she had and how great DeForrest was as a host. She wants to keep listening to music, so she invites him in, but he thinks she’s just going to end up trying to prove again that she’s open-minded about liking a bigger guy. He’d rather end the evening now.

Sean and Meghan attend their first session with a therapist named Dr. Zwick. I’m not sure how good she is at this, since she thinks they’re married, like, wouldn’t Sean have called Meghan his girlfriend when he set up the session? They start out with some role-playing, pretending to be each other. It doesn’t go well. He teases her for her clothes and she calls him self-centered.

Something’s going wrong with some machinery at Dean & DeLuca, so there’s a bunch of steam. Felicity uses her “I’m in charge” voice to get someone to agree to come fix it. Then she goes to a shift at the clinic, leaving Ben behind to deal with the machinery. Molly strikes up a conversation with Noel at the library, praising him for protecting Felicity for her part in the toilet paper prank. She thinks Noel is a good friend. Elena told her all about Noel and Felicity’s relationship, breakup, and friendship, which Molly thinks is awesome. No matter what, the two of them always have each other.

Felicity takes Javier some of his things and assures him that everything is going great at Dean & DeLuca (yes, even with Ben in charge while she’s out). She gets a call that the broken machinery is working again, but there’s some other problem now, and there was a little fire, and now the sprinklers are going off. Noel arrives just in time to help Felicity and Ben turn off the water.

At the loft, Meghan confronts Sean over some things he said in their session – that she’s unhappy in her personal life and takes out her frustrations on him. She still think he’s self-involved, and he’s also shallow for blaming her for all their problems. Sean isn’t surprised, since she runs away every time things get hard. Meghan wonders why they’re even still together. I know, right? Sean dares her to go to their next session, a dare Meghan can’t resist.

Felicity finds a guy who says he can have Dean & DeLuca cleaned up and ready for customers by 4:00 that afternoon, as long as Felicity, Ben, and Noel help out. Elena confronts DeForrest at the library, accusing him of ignoring the chemistry between them. He keeps saying she’s obsessed with his weight, but he’s the only person who cares about it. Richard goes by Dean & DeLuca to tell Noel that he spoke to the dean and Noel will be allowed to graduate. In exchange, he has to restock all the bathrooms on campus – all 200 of them. Richard tells Felicity he knows she was involved in the prank, and she should know that Noel is protecting her.

In their next session, Meghan complains to Dr. Zwick that she feels like she’s on The Sean Show. It’s always all about him. Dr. Zwick has the two of them say sentences that begin with “I love my partner but…” Meghan continues ranting about how Sean is full of himself. He’s 27 and hangs out with college students, making dumb inventions and his dumb docuventary. Now he’s found God, which seems to be the only thing in his life that works. That seems to really sting Sean.

Back at Dean & DeLuca, Felicity thanks Noel for helping out, even though she knows it’s uncomfortable for him. Noel says that if it was that bad, he wouldn’t have come. She’s also grateful that he’s covering for her for the prank. Noel downplays the punishment, and it would be really nice if she’d offer to help, but she doesn’t. Felicity asks if they’re really not going to be friends anymore. Noel notes that he’s only in New York for three more weeks. His offer to hire Felicity is still open, but Felicity has made plans to go to Boulder with Ben.

It’s Sean’s turn for “I love my partner but…” He says Meghan sometimes makes it hard for him to tell the truth. He knows he’s too old for his friend group, and his inventions suck. Also, the film channel is no longer interested in the docuventary. They think it’s amateurish. Sean admits that the bar mitzvah is a ridiculous idea, so he’s going to call it off.

Ben gives Felicity the news that the summer job he was going to take has been pushed to the fall. Now Felicity has the chance to work with Noel in Seattle. Sometime later, Ben tells Noel that Felicity is considering the job with him, and if she takes it, Ben will go to Seattle with her. He just wants to make sure he and Noel are cool.

Noel tells Felicity he shouldn’t have brought up the job again. It’s not worth it if Ben is going to tag along. Felicity clarifies that she only gets the job if Ben doesn’t come with her. Ben sees them talking and gets in Noel’s face. They end up fighting, like the mature adults they are. Ben tells Noel that his presence doesn’t change a thing between him and Felicity.

Felicity talks over the situation with Javier, who tells her she wants both guys in her life when that’s not going to work. She chose Ben, but she can’t make him be friends with Noel. He notes that it’s hard to grow up. Just then, the doctor tells Javier he’s okay – he had a panic attack and could stand to lose some weight, but his health is fine, so he can leave. “It’s not my time!” Javier cheers.

Meghan feels bad for how harsh she was with Sean. She asks for another chance at role-playing so she can admit that she’s mean sometimes. She thinks Sean is brave for taking chances and trying out new things, no matter what other people think. That makes him more of a man than he believes he is. Dr. Zwick tells the couple they still have a lot of work to do, but they’re making out too hard to hear her.

At the loft, Felicity beats herself up for thinking she, Ben, and Noel could all go to Seattle together and everything would be great. She’s decided not to go. Ben wants to be clear that he doesn’t want her to end her friendship with Noel. DeForrest goes to the dorm apartment to apologize for making things difficult with Elena. He just finds it hard to believe that someone like her wants to be with someone like him. Usually women as pretty as her see him as a safe bet, and a partner who should just be grateful that someone like her would pay attention to him. Elena admits that she has baggage, but he does, too. They kiss, this time with real affection.

Felicity tracks down Noel while he’s doing his prank punishment (she had to check a couple dozen bathrooms before she found him) and tells him she can’t accept his job offer. She also doesn’t want to lose their friendship. Noel knows she’s going to friendzone him again, and he loves her too much to just be friends right now.

We wrap up with Sean’s bar mitzvah. All his friends are in attendance, looking either contemplative or supportive. Meghan may think he’s self-centered sometimes, but his friends are worse, since they can’t stop thinking about their own lives and problems to focus on him for just a few minutes.

Thoughts: Dr. Zwick is played by Teri Garr.

Don’t let his karaoke performance fool you – Robert Patrick Benedict (Richard) actually has a very nice voice.

Javier, stressed by his beeping heart monitor, when Felicity’s cell phone rings: “Am I flatlining??” I love him so much.

Noel: “Thank God.” Richard: “No, thank me.” Supernatural fans: “Ha!”

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