Buried Pleasure

"Buried Pleasure" is the thirteenth episode of the first season of The Cleveland Show it aired on February 14, 2010.^[1] It was the last episode to feature Nia Long as Roberta.

In this episode, Cleveland sets Holt up on a date.

Plot

Cleveland's neighbor, Holt Rickter (Jason Sudeikis), misses Stoolfest, a town festival, so he can go shopping with his overbearing mother. When Holt calls to express his frustration, Cleveland advises him to stand up to his mother and live his own life. Later, Donna jumps to conclusions when he sees Holt strangling what appears to be his mother, then stuff a body into his Chrysler Crossfire. Eventually, the authorities exhume the burial site and find Holt's sex doll, whom he has named "Kimi." Holt explains that he finally stood up to his mother and sent her on a vacation." During his mother's absence, Holt explains, he realized that he needs a human companion in his life and that the sex doll was no longer suitable.

Cleveland decides to set Holt up with a co-worker named Jane, a seemingly congenial cat-loving redhead. Her good-natured personality is a cover for her actual character: that of a violent sadist. She quickly controls the relationship, punching Holt whenever he does not satisfy her or says the wrong thing. Attempts by Cleveland and the rest of the gang to stand up to Jane are unsuccessful, in part because she is skilled at hand-to-hand combat, but mostly because the guys has a strong sense of chivalry that makes them to refuse to attack a woman even in self-defense, leaving them powerless to stop Jane while she mercilessly beats the men up. She does not count on Donna willing to stand up for the guys and both quickly get into a violent catfight, and as the guys cheer her on, Jane eventually gains the upper hand until Arianna and Kendra join in. As a result, Jane is quickly beaten up to submission and forced to leave the town.

Holt is ultimately reunited with Kimi; Lester explains that he had purchased the sex doll at police auction for $18 — far less than the $7,000 Holt originally paid. In a parody of the climatic scene in An Officer and a Gentleman, Holt carries Kimi away to go home as "Up Where We Belong" plays in the background.

Meanwhile, Rallo wins a fish from shoot three basketball hoops at Stoolfest. When he brings the fish home, he leaves it next to a pile of snacks and drinks, before going to fill its fishbowl. Unfortunately, Cleveland Jr. accidentally drinks it. Considering it to be similar to pregnancy, Junior and Rallo anticipate the "birth" of Rallo’s pet fish. Unfortunately, when Junior gives "birth", they find out that the fish was gruesomely mutilated by Junior's stomach acid.

Reception

The episode was viewed by 4.85 million viewers coming fourth on "Animation Domination" with a Nielsen rating of 2.3/6.^[2] The A.V. Club graded the episode a C+, stating "I did like Holt carrying around his booster seat on his back, and the final moments with all of the gang standing up for him were fine. But the main reason I liked this episode better than some of the others was because of the B-plot, where Cleveland, Jr., swallowed Rallo's new goldfish and ended up wandering into one of the weirder pregnancy plotlines I've ever seen. Seeing Rallo try to play the supportive father to Cleveland Jr.'s overly emotional mother was very funny, and even though the story took a while to get going, it renewed whatever small hopes I had for this show".^[3]

References

External links