Love season 2 picks up exactly where it began, with Mickey (Gillian Jacobs) and Gus (Paul Rust) sharing an ill-advised kiss in a parking lot. While the moment should have been romantic, it was quite the opposite since Mickey had just given an entire speech on why she needs a year alone to deal with her various addictions.
Thankfully, the beginning of Love’s sophomore year shows one half of the couple understands as much. When Gus tries to kiss Mickey again she pulls back, saying, "No, I just told you that I wanted to be alone."
The now-exes' entire relationship should have hit pause right then and there, as Mickey asked for as much. Maybe the show could pick up in a year, after the recovering addict has had 365 days to herself. But, no, Nice Guy Gus doesn’t think that’s an acceptable plan.
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Instead he demands they "go somewhere" and "talk about this," although Mickey has said everything she needs to say, which the California girl explains minutes later. In the most presumptuous move of the year, Gus says he thought Mickey would have more to "unpack" since he graced her with a kiss.
While Gus apparently thinks this is normal, viewers might be startled by such an assessment. Mickey just revealed she’s battling an addiction to love. Shouldn’t Gus realize forcing Mickey to focus on their kiss with more conversation — despite literal pleas to be solo for a year — could directly feed into her biggest demons?
Apparently not, which leads to a series of very misfortunate events for the Witchita employee.
Mickey and Gus end up trapped in his sad apartment complex thanks to awkward factors like loud roommate sex, a full LAPD car chase, and the subsequent lockdown of Gus’s neighborhood to find a missing suspect. Mickey recognizes how awful this is for her recovery and tries to escape, knowing full and well how dangerous the decision is.
Gus tags along on this secret mission — because he’s a good guy, y’all — and urges Mickey to run away as police catch up to them. When LAPD find Gus wandering around the woods alone, they assume he’s their MIA criminal and surround him. Soon enough an officer is yelling at him, "Do you wanna get shot?!" and a police helicopter's lights are trained on him.
Mickey returns to save the day and prove her ex’s innocence, but a cop still tackles Gus to the ground, leaving him with a banged up shoulder and probably a few new bruises.
We can’t feel too bad for him though. If Gus had respected Mickey wishes and let her start her love detox when she asked, he wouldn’t need a single ice pack.