Hot in Cleveland: Outdoing Someone

I understand that not every television series plays in real-time, so holiday episodes don't happen because they won't line-up with airdates. But the Oscars coming up when it's Emmys Week in real life is pretty off and messes with my head a bit! Being able to predict what's going to happen also throws me off, as I historically fail at that in other shows and movies. In this instance, one could bet that Melanie and Joy were going to be limitless with how far they would go to one-up the other, and I enjoyed seeing just how intense it all became! I think this episode could have been a little more Elka-focused with the speech-writing task, but oh well. 

Hot in Cleveland "Mystery Date: Oscar Edition" (S05E21): The Oscars are three weeks away, and Victoria wants Elka to write her speech, while the other two girls are wondering who will get to be Victoria's "+1." They take to doing every little thing for their friend, from driving to Chicago for a necklace (Melanie) to going to New York for caviar (Joy). [this made me flash back to the holiday party I went to in 2012 that featured a caviar bar - delicious!] They both commit to volunteering 50 hours to help Victoria when she's sentenced for not maintaining her adopted stretch of highway, even if it sticks Melanie in the morgue and Joy cleaning porta-potties. [those are terrible service opportunities!] The kicker, however, is when Victoria has them undergo some new facial injections, and Joy develops an Adam's apple from the procedure. [that's disturbing!]

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When the LadyPants gown arrives, Victoria decides to leak it to the press so that she won't be able to wear it to the awards. [weird loophole!] Melanie wears it to the local radio awards, and even ruins it by using it to stop a broken water main. [SO. RANDOM.] When the clock is ticking, Melanie decides to sabotage Joy, only it doesn't work. [that robe was particularly unflattering on Melanie.] Then, Victoria decides to just blindly choose, but the girls say she should just take Elka to avoid further competition, which was Elka's plan all along. [saw it coming from the beginning.]