‘Single Drunk Female’ and Molly Ringwald Throw TV’s Most Memorable Shiva

The wonderful second season of Single Drunk Female balances the laughs and the poignancy to surprising success. It shifts between heart-breaking moments, like when Carol (Ally Sheedy) finally admits she needs help after hitting rock bottom, and hilarious ones—Sam (Sofia Black-D’Elia) trying to cheer herself up by tearfully singing OutKast’s “Ms. Jackson” in a closet—with ease, which is one of its greatest strengths. But in a centerpiece episode, “Shiva,” the show performs its most humorous-yet-moving juggling act yet, all at a not-so-funny event: yes, a Shiva.

In the seventh episode of the season, the show transports us back in time to after Sam’s father’s death. The Fink family is sitting Shiva, a monumental event that was much referenced in the first season of the show. Viewers already know that the Shiva served as a huge point of contention for mother and daughter duo Sam and Carol, mainly because, at this time, Sam was not sober.

“It was really, really brutal. It’s something that Ally and I obviously talked about a lot in the making of Season 1,” Black-D’Elia told The Daily Beast’s Obsessed about filming the episode, in an interview ahead of its Freeform premiere. “The elephant in the room always is this loss that they both suffered. Then suddenly, towards the end of the second season, being in that moment on that day was pretty wild.”

In the episodes prior, Sam and Carol have had a massive fallout, after Carol violates Sam’s privacy by reading her fourth step in the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) program; this is a list of resentments Sam wrote, mostly about her mother. When Carol confronts Sam about this list, Sam is devastated by the intrusion into her private thoughts and moves out, while Carol is still hurt by what her daughter had both written and done. This episode gives the audience a look into what some of Sam’s past actions were and why they have damaged Carol so greatly.

Single Drunk Female creator Simone Finch told Obsessed that this was her favorite episode of Season 3. “Seeing their past and seeing Samantha and how she drank with Carol and how Carol took care of her, [shows that] Carol has a right to be angry at Sam,” she said. “Just because you get sober, doesn’t mean the anger goes away overnight.”

The resentment that grief-stricken Carol harbors for Sam becomes quite clear early on, when she has to wake up a hungover Sam to help her prepare the house for Shiva. Things only become worse as the episode progresses, with Sam getting drunker and drunker among the houseguests. “It helps with both of their stories to show [that] Sam made her father’s Shiva all about her,” said Finch. “It gives a background that’s desperately needed.”

The Pain and the Hilarity of Being a ‘Single Drunk Female’

At one point, however, Sam and Carol find themselves on the same side of an argument. Carol’s overly critical sister-in-law Alice (played by Molly Ringwald for a fun Breakfast Club reunion) says some horribly snide comments about both Carol and Sam throughout the Shiva, setting up the pair to team up for the first time. This long-awaited reconciliation led to one of Black-D’Elia’s favorite moments of the season.

“There’s a moment when Molly[’s character] says, ‘Can you get a hold of your daughter?’” said Black-D’Elia. “And [Carol] finally has to take my side against this common enemy. That was so much fun.”

The memorable opportunity to act alongside The Breakfast Club co-stars Ally Sheedy and Molly Ringwald was also not lost on Black-D’Elia. “It was so special for me. I’ll never forget it,” said Black-D’Elia. “Molly just truly could not be kinder, she’s so funny and the two of them are so cute together.”

Sheedy also was delighted to reunite on screen with her longtime friend and former co-star. “I loved it. I love Molly. She’s a really dear friend. She’s in my life. I was so happy that she decided to do that part,” Sheedy said with a smile. Finding their chemistry and portraying characters that had a long history together was also an absolute breeze, she added.

“There was nothing where we were like, ‘We need to work on the history [of the characters.]’ Is it believable that we’ve been like this for decades?” said Sheedy. “With Molly, because there is a history, we just did our thing. It was just right there.”

For Finch, seeing Ringwald and Sheedy play opposite each other once again made the episode feel even more powerful. “That kind of chemistry you can’t manufacture, they just have it,” said Finch. “They felt lived in to me, which I think is the best part of her role and how she came on the show.”

Will Ringwald return? Finch hopes so. “I know she’s busy with Riverdale and everything, so we’ll see.”

For as excellent as all the performances and storytelling in it are, “Shiva” is a hard one for Finch to watch. Single Drunk Female is based on Finch’s journey to sobriety, so this episode also takes some aspects from her own father’s Shiva. “[The episode] is not all a carbon copy, but there are certain aspects of it that are definitely from true life,” Finch said—right down to the part about Sam’s dad being a cellist.

No Show Understands Mothers and Daughters Like ‘Single Drunk Female’

Finch was not on set for the filming of this episode, which she says did make the process a lot easier. “It’s one of the hardest episodes that I’ve had to watch,” she said, of seeing it later on. “When I saw the final cut, I didn’t cry, but I was pretty shaken up. It was hard.”

But with the show now in its second season, Finch finds that being vulnerable with her life story is getting a little less daunting. “As I pour more of myself out there, it gets a little easier, but it still affects me,” Finch said. “I’m human. And it can be a lot, but it’s worth it.”

Opening up and putting yourself out there is a huge theme on this season of Single Drunk Female, especially when it comes to Carol and Sam’s storyline. And much like Finch finds that vulnerability worth it in the end, eventually so, too, do Sam and Carol. They just have to wade back through their difficult past to get there first.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.