The Most Fun We Ever Had

Liza and Ryan go to her parents’ house. Liza is pregnant. She asks Ryan if he will be able to handle the night, and he tells her that he will be okay. Liza cries after telling her parents she is pregnant but assures them that they are tears of joy. Privately, Liza yearns to tell her mother that everything is not okay.

David can sense that something is wrong with Liza. She asks about Grace, and David tells her that Grace seems adrift. Liza assures her father that she did not know about Jonah, because she is the last person in the family to learn about anything. When Liza and Ryan leave, David asks Marilyn if she wants to talk about things, but she says she is too tired and they can talk in the morning. Marilyn thinks Liza seemed well, but David thinks she seemed like Marilyn when she was pregnant.

Wendy and Jonah talk about education, and she tells Jonah not to dismiss the possibility of Princeton. She tells him that she will pay for his college, and he starts to get used to how often she talks about Miles. Jonah does not remember much about his adoptive parents because they died when he was very young. Jonah asks Wendy about his dad, and Wendy tells him basic information about the man she thinks may be his father.

Marilyn and David live in Iowa while he is in school, and she does not like the color of their kitchen. Some of her college credits do not transfer over. Married life is not exactly as Marilyn imagined because David is so busy with schoolwork. They have a fight. He is upset that she decided to paint the kitchen without telling him, while she is upset because she is stuck at home while he gets to live an interesting life. After this fight, they conceive Wendy.

The two go out to dinner, and she tells him that she is failing a class. The waitress comes by and acknowledges that David found the person he was looking for, a pregnant blonde woman, and this description makes Marilyn sad. He offers to do her work for her, but she says that he could get in trouble for that, then admits that she has already dropped all of her classes and will get a full refund. She tells him that she is exhausted and overwhelmed, and she apologizes for not telling him about dropping her classes. Eventually Wendy is born, and Violet is born less than a year later.

Jonah is amazed by all the large houses in the family. Wendy and Violet take Jonah to meet David and Marilyn. Violet leaves her husband and kids at home. Jonah is afraid of David and Marilyn’s dog, Loomis. Marilyn gets teary, and her husband offers Jonah soda, surprising Violet because her parents never bought them soda. They have dinner, and Jonah, overwhelmed by the chaotic family scene, takes a break in the bathroom. He leaves the bathroom and sees Liza kissing a man in a car; he assumes it’s Ryan. Liza enters the house, and Jonah wonders why Ryan does not come in as well.

Grace talks to her parents and thinks about how she should tell them the truth that she didn’t get accepted to law school. She is disturbed by her dismal life. David tells her about Jonah, and she gets jealous hearing him talk about someone younger than her, the baby of the family.

David is researching tree diseases to try to help the ailing gingko tree in their yard. He wonders if it is just too old to survive anymore; after all, it was already a very large tree when he and Marilyn first met. He has a lot of extra time now that he has retired, and it troubles him that instead of delivering babies, he now spends his time researching trees. He finds honey fungus on the tree. If the disease is in the roots, the tree may die.

Violet and Jonah meet for coffee. She tells him that her parents like him. He explains that Wendy has enrolled him in Israeli military training, called Krav Maga, at her gym. He really likes living with Wendy, and Violet does not know how to feel about this. She remembers talking to him in utero and telling him how unfair it is when people think you have everything together but you don’t.

Violet is born before Thanksgiving, and David wants to skip Thanksgiving with his father, but Wendy insists he go and take Wendy so his father will not be alone. David’s father tells him that his mother seemed to know how to do everything once David was born. His father recommends having a second Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks, once Marilyn has recovered.

In public with David’s colleagues, Marilyn presents herself as being confident, and she tells one of them that her current life is “the most fun I’ve ever had” (144). At home, she is not confident. Later, she is embarrassed by the comment, and they start to repeat this phrase throughout the years during times of trouble.

Matt instructs his kids not to tell anybody at school about Jonah. Jonah gets along well with Wyatt and Eli. Matt is upset that Violet told the boys Jonah is their brother. One day Jonah visits them, and when Wyatt screams from the playroom, Violet runs in, worried that Jonah did something to the kids. He is just doing a handstand for them.

Liza asks her mother if she ever considered life without their father. Her mother says no, and Liza realizes that her parents have always been very much in love. Her mother assures her, however, that she has at times gotten very angry at David. Liza tells her mom that things are fine at home, but Marilyn says that she is not good at lying. Liza does not admit that she worries about the genes Ryan could be passing on to their children.

Marilyn thinks that Wendy may be a sociopath. Wendy bites her mom, and Violet, scared, then climbs onto her mom’s lap and tells her that everything will be okay. Usually Wendy only misbehaves when David isn’t home. When Wendy is five years old, Marilyn tells her husband that she is afraid of Wendy. Wendy starts to act up more often, including when David is home, and he gives her some tough love. She comes back in a bit to hug him. At times, Marilyn hates both Wendy and David. David realizes that Marilyn is pregnant again, and when Liza is born she is an easy baby.

Liza wonders if living a normal life just requires acting. She wakes Ryan to try to get him to join her in purchasing baby items in order to help alleviate his depression, but he turns her down. He plans to play video games, and she recommends he play with Jonah.

Grace goes to get coffee and talks to the barista. He also works as a bike messenger and has made deliveries to her office. The two chat over her coffee. Grace believes that her sisters are relatively stable and that she struggles more than they do.

Meanwhile Gillian, Liza’s new obstetrician and her mother’s former obstetrician, tells Liza that her tests look great, but Liza does not want to know the gender because she believes she is already failing as a mother. Liza asks Gillian, who used to work with David, if she ever had an affair with her father. Gillian is angry and tells her that they did not have sex, and Liza apologizes for asking.

It is David and Marilyn’s 40th anniversary, and David does not believe anyone has ever loved anybody else as much as he loves Marilyn. He has known since Marilyn first got pregnant that he would die for his daughters but that he would always love their mother more.

Marilyn’s father dies. She tells her husband about a dead mouse and ants in their house and how she cannot get any exercise because their house is so small. She then tells him that they have inherited her father’s house. While he does not look forward to living in the upscale neighborhood, he agrees to move.

Jonah has begun to feel concerned about Wendy’s behavior, and he asks her if she wants him to bring her a bottle of wine. She gets offended by this question, and he says he just asked because sometimes she wants him to bring her one. She asks him what he thinks of her. He tells her that he thinks her life is sick, but when she looks upset, he reassures her that he means it in a good way, like she is not concerned about things the way other people are. Wendy later calls David and asks him if Jonah can live with David and Marilyn. Violet calls Wendy, upset about uprooting Jonah, and Wendy tells Violet that she played a role in all of this as well. Violet tells her she wants nothing to do with her, and Wendy says that Violet is somehow able to convince people that she is normal when she is really messed up.