‘Single Drunk Female’: Garrick Bernard Previews James’ Flashback Episode (VIDEO)
We’ve heard about how Sam (Sofia Black-D’Elia) met James (Garrick Bernard) initially, before they were part of the same AA group on Single Drunk Female. It’s time to see what exactly happened then in the March 3 episode.
The aptly-titled “James” is a flashback episode to the time before he was sober, as he was approaching rock bottom and, while inebriated, met a just-as-drunk “Katrina,” as Sam called herself, on Thanksgiving. When the two are kicked out of the bar, they head out for their own one-night holiday celebration, leading to James making a change.
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Bernard previews the James-centric episode below. Plus, watch an exclusive sneak peek of James and Sam meeting above.
Talk about the James we’re going to see in this flashback episode. Where is he in his life?
Garrick Bernard: He is approaching his lowest, for sure. He’s definitely living on a high. He just got a new job. Everybody’s super impressed with him, including his family, except for his older brother, who’s just like, “Yeah, you’re doing all of these things, but there’s a huge elephant in the room. You’re an alcoholic. You’re drunk right now. You’re drunk all of the time. You cannot stop drinking. And we need to talk about it.” And of course he dodges it as much as possible.
That family scene is so good.
Yeah, there was a moment when Simone Finch, the creator of the show, came in teary-eyed — she is also an alcoholic — and was like, “I’ve had this conversation with my family before, and this is something.” It was pretty important to get that tone down for her, if anything.
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We’ve heard about James and Sam’s first meeting. What can you preview about what we’ll see from them?
It is pretty much just a buffoon peacocking and seeing a pretty girl and wanting to get as much attention from her as possible and her wanting nothing to do with him, but also being like, “Oh, this could be a fun story, so I guess I’ll take this dude on a ride.” It’s just him following her lead through the night and realizing that this is a nice way to pretty much ignore all of the problems that he has about his family and his drinking and all that stuff. He feels like this is one of the few people that finally see him for the alcoholic he is, and then there’s a point where he feels like she doesn’t.
How does the time they spend together affect James?
At the end there, he definitely sees that he has a problem and walks into his first AA meeting, which is, I think, one of our strongest scenes in the season because it definitely shows and gives an example of someone’s rock bottom, of people saying to themselves, “I need to go and get help,” which is very important, I feel like, to be on television right now.
Present day, how is James’ sobriety at this point? Shaky?
I think that it is a tight rope where he knows what will happen if he does drink or anything like that, and he’s trying his hardest to stay on that rope. I feel like it’s a fake it ’til you make it type deal. It is fear-based rather than “I’ve been through these moments before, I can handle these moments.”
What’s coming up for James and Sam’s relationship in the present?
We saw in the last episode where he was like, “I don’t know if I can say no anymore,” that his feelings for her are starting to shine through and he’s starting to open up about his feelings, but we’ll have to see how those unfold.
Single Drunk Female, Thursdays, 10:30/9:30c, Freeform
