One of the biggest complaints people have about rom-coms is how the happy endings often don’t feel earned; the entire ordeal of meet-cute, fall in love, fight and get back together/get engaged/get married is always a bit contrived, with the storytellers asking viewers to suspend their disbelief that any relationship — especially one at its lowest point — can still be so neatly contained and free of messy contradictions.
No one can say that about You’re the Worst, though. Stephen Falk‘s FXX comedy, about a pair of narcissists who fall in love and are dragged resentfully into adulthood, revels in the chaos of falling in love and growing up, including all the missteps one might take along the way. And after four seasons, in which Jimmy (Chris Geere) and Gretchen (Aya Cash) have managed to overcome their own selfish behavior and struggled with grief and clinical depression, the pair is finally ready to make it down the aisle.
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The relationship hasn’t been easy, but no one can say Jimmy and Gretchen haven’t earned their happy ending. So ahead of You’re the Worst‘s fifth and final season, we decided to look back at the worst things Jimmy and Gretchen have done to each other so far and see just how much they’ve actually had to overcome. And maybe along the way we’ll answer the age old question: Who actually is the worst?
Gretchen steals Jimmy’s car
When: Season 1, Episode 1
After Gretchen returns to Jimmy’s house following their first hookup to pick up her forgotten purse, Jimmy chides her for sleeping over the night prior, calling it “amateur hour.” This sparks Gretchen to go off on him and steal his car… which she then uses to drive over to Ty’s (Stephen Schneider) house to have sex with him.
Worst Rating: 2/10
Jimmy and Gretchen sleep with other people
When: Season 1, Episode 6
When Gretchen notes that she and Jimmy aren’t a couple, Jimmy sleeps with Hollywood actress Megan Thomas (Ginger Gonzaga) — which Gretchen did challenge him to do, mind you. Gretchen then sleeps with an ex-hookup, the barista Venti (Adam Tsekhman), to get even with Jimmy. Seeing as an ex doesn’t equal a movie star, Gretchen goes on a mission to have sex with a stranger to even the score, sleeping with a bouncer in an alley. But since Gretchen is then “one-half up” on Jimmy, he sets out to sleep with an ex to even the score again, which he fails to do but lies and claims to have done. Of course, the only reason they are doing any of this is because they want to be exclusive but can’t bring themselves to admit it, which they finally do over pinball and beer. So at least something positive came out of this one.
Worst Rating: 1/10
Jimmy calls Gretchen’s lies out in front of her parents
When: Season 1, Episode 8
OK, well it’s not great that Gretchen pretended to pack and even had Jimmy drop her off at the airport to avoid him meeting her parents. It’s also not great that she has created a fake life for the benefit of her parents and allows her mother to bully her. But that still doesn’t excuse the fact that Jimmy takes things to the next level by calling out all of Gretchen’s lies and disrupting her family dynamic without her consent. Although he frames his speech around how great Gretchen is, his rant is really about controlling the situation and has nothing to do with what Gretchen does or doesn’t deserve at all.
Worst Rating: Gretchen lies: 3/10; Jimmy’s interference: 5/10
Jimmy refuses to make room for Gretchen in their house
When: Season 2, Episode 2
Even though Jimmy asked Gretchen to move in with him, he still refuses to think of the house as hers in any way, expecting her to continue to keep all of her stuff in trash bags stuffed in a corner. This leads Gretchen to have an exquisitely hilarious breakdown while shopping at a mall in which she expresses her fears that Jimmy never wanted her to move in. Ultimately, Jimmy does let Gretchen have a drawer in his dresser, but only after she gives him no choice.
Worst Rating: 3/10
Jimmy ignores the fact that Gretchen sneaks out of the house to cry in her car
When: Season 2, Episode 6
When Jimmy confronts Gretchen about how she’s been sneaking out of their house at night, she reveals she hasn’t been cheating; she’s been secretly driving away to cry alone in her car. And once he finds out that he isn’t the reason she’s crying, Jimmy walks away with a smile on his face, completely oblivious to the fact that Gretchen is struggling and simply happy that he isn’t at fault for whatever is paining her.
Worst Rating: 8/10
Jimmy has an emotional (and later physical) affair with Nina the bartender
When: Season 2, Episode 8-Episode 12
When Jimmy tries to “fix” Gretchen’s clinical depression with a spooky Sunday Funday, he winds up flirting with Nina (Tessa Ferrer) at the bar she works at. But when Gretchen shows up to reconcile, he pretends the drink he had bought for Nina was for Gretchen the whole time. However, Jimmy continues to lean on Nina moving forward, hiding the fact that he has a girlfriend from her until the last possible second. And when he tells Gretchen this, she doesn’t care at all, yelling at Jimmy about how she doesn’t care about anything — him, their relationship, cute dogs — and that he needs to leave. So, predictably, Jimmy gets drunk with Nina and hooks up with her. However, instead of leaving with her for the weekend to have sex, Jimmy hides in the bushes.
Worst Rating: 4/10
Gretchen puts off telling Jimmy his dad is dead
When: Season 3, Episode 3
When Gretchen finds out Jimmy’s dad has passed just as his book gets sold, she can’t bring herself to tell him the news. Instead, she tries to pass the responsibility off on others. Gretchen goes so far as to invite the whole gang over to the house with the intention of them telling Jimmy and having to deal with his grief so that she doesn’t have to (and so that she can go on the Famous Pets of Instagram Cruise). In the end, Gretchen eventually does tell Jimmy that his father has died… just before giving him a blowjob because she still can’t bring herself to offer real emotional support.
Worst Rating: 8/10
Jimmy and Gretchen’s pros and cons lists about each other
When: Season 3, Episode 11
Following the death of his father, Jimmy decides to reevaluate his life, making a pros and cons list of everything in his life — including Gretchen. Gretchen then decides to make a list of her own in retaliation. This inevitably blows up when they agree to each share one thing from their list, with Jimmy saying that he can’t see having kids with Gretchen. She snaps back that she’s afraid Jimmy will never be successful. Each of them cuts the other one exactly where it hurts the most, and we’re honestly surprised how quickly they were able to recover from those biting, cruel remarks.
Worst Rating: 6/10
Jimmy abandons Gretchen after proposing
When: Season 3, Episode 13
Jimmy’s proposal was absolutely perfect… that is until an ecstatic Gretchen says, “we’re a family now.” At this, Jimmy hops in the car and drives off without telling Gretchen, leaving her heartbroken and confused for three months. In a show about good people doing terrible things, this one easily takes home the top prize.
Worst Rating: 15/10
Jimmy issues the worst apology in the history of humankind
When: Season 4, Episode 2 and Episode 3
Three months after he disappeared without a word to anyone, Jimmy decides to reach back out to Gretchen in the worst way possible: with a “Hey…” text. He later chases her down at Lindsay’s apartment where he appears to apologize sincerely. Gretchen tacitly accepts the apology and this all seems like a small step in the right direction, but then Jimmy bungles it by adding, “but you did say family,” aka blaming his cowardice on Gretchen and proving he still doesn’t understand the gravity of his mistake. Yiiiiiiikes.
Worst Rating: 10/10
Gretchen sabotages Jimmy’s career
When: Season 4, Episode 5
When People comes to the house to interview Jimmy about his book, he asks Gretchen to stay out of the way. Instead, she throws their box spring through the bedroom window, convinces Jimmy — who’s supposed to be single as part of the book’s publicity strategy — that she still wants to be engaged and then invites Boone (Colin Ferguson) over to have sex in her and Jimmy’s bedroom. Oh, and this is all done in front of Jimmy’s agent and the People reporter. In Gretchen’s defense, Jimmy did accidentally reveal to Sam (Brandon Mychal Smith) and the boys that Gretchen hadn’t been in Europe the past three months, but she really kicked this vengeance up a notch. Mushroom cloud, bitch, indeed.
Worst Rating: 7/10
If you’ve been keeping track, Jimmy’s apparently done a lot more terrible things to Gretchen than the other way around. But the thing is, relationships really aren’t about keeping score and at the end of the day, we all know that Gretchen and Jimmy are MFEO (even though it may appear that Jimmy, technically, is the worst).
You’re the Worst‘s final season premieres Wednesday, Jan. 9 at 10/9c on FXX.
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