'Raising Hope' Season 3, Episode 20: 'The Old Girl' Recap

‘Raising Hope’, season 3, episode 20, ‘The Old Girl’

Jimmy tells us how Hope got bit by a cow at a petting zoo, so to avoid a lawsuit, the petting zoo, which is run by the butcher shop, sent them home with 500 pounds of beef. So they have eaten nothing but meat.

Burt and Maw Maw complain that they haven’t pooped in a week. Sabrina runs in and says she met a new friend, Rachel (Hilary Duff), at the gym as she was trying to work off some of the meat. Rachel calls as she’s telling them, and Sabrina shows them a picture of her. Collectively, the Chance family screams and throws the phone out the window.

After Sabrina retrieves the phone from outside, she asks what’s wrong with them. Jimmy reveals that her new friend is actually his ex-girlfriend. He met her when he was visiting colleges when he was 18.

Flashback to when he was 18, and he meets Rachel, and they hit it off. He tells his parents about her, and Virginia and Burt aren’t so certain a long-distance relationship will work, especially if she’s in college. He says he’ll make it work, and visit her every chance he got.

He visited her every weekend, except the weekend when his Uncle Jonas died, and Jimmy had to stay home and babysit Maw Maw. Since he couldn’t visit her, he mailed her something special every day instead. But he couldn’t make it work, and she broke up with him.

It sent Jimmy into a “breakup funk”, and he sang “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bill Withers every chance he got.

Back to now, Virginia says Rachel’s a demon child from hell, and doesn’t want her back in their lives… and the doorbell rings. Sabrina says that it’s Rachel. The family hides, and Sabrina begs them to get up, because she’s never had a BFF before and wants this to work out.

She convinces Jimmy to get up and face Rachel. Rachel is surprised to see him, and Jimmy said he has to tell her something, and pulls out a letter he had written 7 years ago when she broke his heart. Rachel says she doesn’t know what to say, and notices a picture of the family on the mantle.

“Well, I see you’re still cozy with Lance and Sally.”

Maw Maw walks up, “I am so embarrassed, I have been calling them Burt and Virginia for, like, 30 years. Oh my…”

Jimmy is stunned. He asks if she knows them, and she says they’re the whole reason they broke up. Jimmy calls for his parents, and they sheepishly walk into the room.

“Oh look, Sally, it’s Rachel.”

Jimmy is in a state of shock, and Virginia says that’s not what he thinks.

When Jimmy was a little kid, he often aimed for girls out of his league, and was left heart broken when the girls realized there were smarter and richer guys out there. (Cue a little Jimmy singing “Ain’t No Sunshine” after a girl broke his heart.)

Younger Virginia and Burt vow to never let Jimmy’s broken heart make them sad again, so they won’t let Jimmy be with girls out of his league.

And that’s when he met Rachel. So they said that their Uncle Jonas died, and went to spy on Rachel. They dressed up as college students and hoped to catch Rachel in the act of cheating on Jimmy.

Virginia goes to Rachel’s room, and poses as Sally, and asks Rachel to show her where the laundry room is. She asks if Rachel is hooking up with that guy she saw her talking to, and she says they’re just friends, and that she has a boyfriend, Jimmy.

Burt tells Virginia what he found out about the Richard guy, and they both agree that he’s perfect for Rachel, so they had to spare Jimmy the pain. They posed as full-time college students, and joined the a cappella group that Rachel and Richard were part of. Virginia works on getting Rachel interested in Richard, and Burt urged Richard to make a move on Rachel (by slapping him).

They also made sure to intercept any of the mail that Jimmy sent her.

After a rehearsal, Burt tells Richard that someone was checking him out and for him to make his move, so Richard goes and kisses Virginia. They both freak out, and Rachel tells Virginia that she is always talking about how hot Richard is, and that she was checking him out during rehearsal. She tries to make it clear that Richard is perfect for Rachel, not her. Richard disagrees and goes to kiss her again, which causes her to hit him with her backpack, spilling the contents (all of Jimmy’s gifts) on the floor. Rachel asks what is going on, and Burt tries to cover.

Rachel connects the dots, and accuses Virginia of sleeping with Jimmy, and Burt urges her to play along. She does. She says they are dating, which causes Rachel to dump him, and Virginia forges a break-up letter and sends it to Jimmy.

Jimmy freaks out, and Rachel calls them all insane and storms out. Sabrina is upset because she lost a friend. Sabrina starts singing “Ain’t No Sunshine”, expressing her woes.