Spoilers

“I Got It”

“Home”

Win or Lose’s final two episodes were the Sunday Morning Sidewalk this week and these episodes wrapped up the season long storyline.

Episode seven featured Kai and her overbearing dad who pushes her hard. Kai and her dad James moved into the neighborhood a year before and the softball team helped Kai become part of the community. She was really great at baseball, but the atmosphere of the Pickles made Kai want to play softball. James jumped in with both feet.

We see the drive of her father show itself in Kai as she was pushing herself to get better and wound up hurting her ankle, though she never told anyone she was hurt.

The episode ended with the championship game, getting a little further than we did last week. We see Kai at the plate after Laurie got hit by the pitch and Kai hit a big shot into the outfield, only to see that injured ankle become a problem again.

The final episode had to bring everything together that has been happening all year long and it does so really well. We focus in on Coach Dan for this episode and his own problems. Living out of his car, he spent his time at the field, grooming it for game time. There was a lot here that I could relate to as a former coach myself. As Coach Dan was watering the field, I remembered days doing the exact same thing.

Kai’s big hit split the outfield and Kai ran the bases, behind Laurie, who clearly had not done that before. Laurie scores to tie the game but Kai ends up in a run down and gets called out at home by Frank.

This set off a massive chaotic event as the crowd went wild, Coach Dan loses his temper and gets accidentally knocked into Frank the umpire. Frank throws Dan out of the game, which only caused Dan to lose it more. Dan was feeling the pressure of the parents who want to replace Dan with James next season.

Then we get:

• Laurie trying to help calm her father down (with a remarkable imagery/metaphor)
• Ira stops the Bleacher Creatures from stealing the cash box from the concessions. He does that by grabbing it and running away.
• It was actually Ira’s calling for help that caused Taylor to leave the game, not the trouble with Yuwen
• Rochelle and Vanessa finally got to the game in the middle of the chaos and jumped in to help.
• Vanessa and Frank bond after Frank saved Vanessa’s baby from choking.
• Taylor prevents the Bleacher Creatures from getting Ira and they return the cash box.
• James found Kai, who was hiding after the play at home and they talk through their troubles.

After the baby was saved, this got back to reality and the chaos left the park. Dan had calmed down and apologized to Frank. Taylor, Kai and Yuwen all made up. The game moved on into extra innings.

After this we see a Pickles pizza party celebrating the end of the season. We do not know what the result of the championship game was and no one mentioned it again.

The show ended with Laurie telling her dad that she did not want to play softball any more.

This was such a wonderful show with so much heart. It gave us a ton of human emotion, wrapped within the concept of a softball game. The imagery of the show really spoke to me and the way certain emotions were displayed was remarkably creative.

This is truly some Pixar magic in a series where I did not expect that magic to be.

This ends Win or Lose for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. Next week, we start the two episode documentary series called Kisstory, about the band Kiss. It is two episodes, both about an hour and a half long. It can be found on Hulu or Disney +.