Not Dead Yet – Season 1 Episode 3 “Not Out of High School Yet” Recap & Review

Not Out of High School Yet

Episode 3 of Not Dead Yet starts with Nell and Sam getting in for work in the morning. They make plans to meet later for lunch and head to their respective offices. Since Nell gave Mason his office back, she now works in the open space in the office.

Her ghost of the week is Piper who she from High school. Piper is quick to look down on Nell. Piper was an influence who died taking a selfie off a cliff. Nell finds it funny and deserving that Piper died in such a tragic way.

Dennis starts to worry that Nell is becoming callous because of her job. Nell explains to him that Piper was basically a bitch, she was cruel, shallow and conceited. Nell tells him that she will be done with Piper’s obituary soon, she plans to write a cursive, superficial obituary with the bare minimum. She quickly writes it and Piper disappears.

At lunch, Sam notices that Nell seems down and asks what is wrong.  Nell tells her about Piper’s death and how it reminded her of the traumatic time she had in High School. Dennis and Sam can’t relate to her struggle, they had a great time in high school. Nell says she is glad high school is over and Dennis points out that life at the office is similar to high school.

Sam agrees that it is still relatively the same. In the office, they are all seeking approval and have cliques. Lexi interrupts their lunch and summons Nell to her office. She asks if Nell is willing to write her first front-page obituary. Nell is excited until she sees the assignment is about Piper.

Nell tells Lexi that she has already done the assignment but Lexi says it was,“ stanky garbage.”

Lexi wants Nell to rewrite the obituary because Piper had 4 million followers on Instagram. Lexi is hoping a warm and thoughtful obituary for piper will drive her followers to the newspaper.

On the other hand, Dennis is freaking out because someone hung a basketball hoop in the office.  It turns out he has a traumatic experience while trying out basketball. Sam tries to help him overcome his trauma and he manages to get past his fear of basketball.

After the meeting, Piper asks Nell to go to her memorial and write about it. Mason notifies Nell that Cricket is visiting her. Cricket stopped by to return Nell’s jacket which she left at the bar. Nell shares her frustration about having to do an obituary for her former high-school bully. Cricket tries to comfort her and tells her that bullies are bullies because they are jealous.

Ghost Piper insists that she wants an obituary that won’t suck and reminds Nell that she needs to figure it out before she fails like how she did in her freshman year speech. Nell doesn’t remember that and tries to assure herself that she is a successful journalist.  Piper tells her that she most likely won’t be able to pull off the assignment and that she is still insecure.

Nell angrily leaves and accidentally pours coffee on one of her coworkers leaving Piper and the rest of her colleagues laughing at her. Nell heads home and asks Edward to read her obituary on Piper and give her his opinion. Edward goes through it and says it is cold and dry, without any human emotion.

The next morning, Nell tells Sam and Dennis that she is having a hard time writing anything nice about Piper. Lexi calls Nell to her office to ask how the assignment is going. Lexi decides to make the obituary writing into a contest between Nell and Mason. Nell laments to Cricket that she is now in competition with Mason. She loses her temper when Ghost Piper calls her a loser.

She later attends Piper’s memorial service and is surprised to see Cricket who is there to give her emotional support. Cricket points out that Piper’s memorial is sad because she had no real friends. Nell realizes that Piper has always had followers but not friends. She decides to give a speech and admits that she is seeing a new side of Piper. In the end, Nell wins the contest and Mason doesn’t take it nicely.

The Episode Review

Not Dead Yet delivers an enjoyable episode, dealing with overcoming the negative voices in our heads that come from a hurt place. It can be from bullies or the people close to us, but this episode reminds us that words carry a lot of weight. We should be careful of the way we use our words and try not to hurt others.

It was also nice to see the reunion of Brittany Snow and Gina Rodriguez. They worked together on the movie, Someone Great, and their chemistry shines in this chapter too.