'Necessary Roughness' Season 2, Episode 2 Recap - 'To Swerve and Protect'

This week on “Necessary Roughness” it’s all about the lengths people will go to protect themselves and the people they love. Dani tries to protect Ray J from the dangers of teen sex, but with little success. TK is trying to protect himself after the fan convention freak-out last episode with multiple guns and nunchucks. Marshall Pitman is trying to protect himself by devaluing the Hawks so he’ll have to pay his wife less in the divorce.

 Trying to protect something or someone isn’t always positive. Sometimes clinging too hard hurts the thing we love, or keeps it from growing. Dani learned this lesson the hard way, but will Marshall Pittman before it’s too late for the Hawks?

Getting to finally see Marshall Pittman in action is pretty spectacular. Evan Handler is really living it up as the oily millionaire. He flirts with Dani, he spars with Nico and he randomly asks Matt if he’s Japanese. Pittman is certainly proving to be eccentric. His name was repeated over and over during the show’s first season run, to the point where it seemed it might be hard for the character to live up to his reputation. But Handler is really running with this guy and his scenes are full of energy. He was especially great sparring off with the tough-as-nails Dani.

 Plus, Pittman brings great backstory with him. Case in point: we’ve learned something about Nico! Well, we’ve learned that he likes to travel and that he loved Pittman’s wife before she became Mrs. Pittman. But considering the aura of mystery constantly surrounding Nico, I’ll take any little bit of information I can get.

The case of the week is Grace, a roller derby competitor on the New York Dolls team. Remember that Drew Barrymore movie “Whip It”? It’s just like that. Grace freaks out during a match after smelling something weird and she goes to Dr. Dani to get her head on straight. Basically, the ending to this storyline was pretty well telegraphed the entire time. As soon as Grace meets Dani she’s like “Oh my childhood? It was terrible and filled with trauma, so clearly it has nothing to do with this situation.” Unsurprising to everyone, she was suffering flashbacks to her traumatic childhood when her sister was hit by a car when Grace was supposed to be protecting her.

Meanwhile, Ray Jay is still knocking boots with his new tutor and Dani is still unhappy about it. Even after Ray Jay’s pretty sweet PowerPoint presentation about how he should be allowed to have sex in the house because of Romeo and Juliet, Dani isn’t buying it. This leads to Ray Jay lying, Matt missing out on some sex as Dani chases after him and the kind of mother-son heart to heart you’d expect from this show. Also condoms in a brown paper bag, for added classiness.

What is our shining star TK up to? Nothing as amazing as prancing around in light-up jerseys like last week. Instead he’s taken to living in his apartment like an episode of “Hoarders”, except the only thing he’s hoarding is guns. Also I’m not sure facial hair is the best look on TK.

If he can’t get himself into fighting shape by the end of the week, Pittman is threatening to cut him from the team. So obviously TK reacts to this by escaping his personality-free body guards to go hang out with his new best friend. I mean, she really gets him and his need to live in a pile of guns at all times.

Will TK return to the team? Will Pittman run the Hawks into the ground? Will Dani keep her job? Sound off in the comments with your thoughts!