In my most favorite episode of Bar Rescue ever, Jon is his usual illustrious self when he fights on behalf of the love and interdependence three best friends have with one another. In this situation, Jason Reinke, the managing partner of Hogwash Saloon in Fountain Hills, Arizona, is mismanaging the investment of his silent partners and best friends Paul and Cathy Cook. By his own admission, Jason doesn’t know what he is doing, and things at Hogwash have gotten so bad that Paul and Cathy assumed some managerial duties at the bar in an effort to save it. Their deeper concern, though, is their friend Jason, who is buckling under the stress of his incompetence, the $150,000 owed his friends, and his drunken escapism.

Jon has Paul and Cathy do recon with him, and Cathy confesses that Jason is stressed and drinks excessively. She adds that he also becomes antagonistic and aggressive. Jon empathetically acknowledges to them how difficult the situation is and how it is made worse by the fact that Jason is a beloved friend.

As Jon reviews the bar with Cathy and Paul, it becomes woefully obvious that the bar is not up to par for the affluent area. The décor is borderline infantile, and the food program consists of snack-sized bags of chips. Jon poignantly asks, “Does this look like the kind of place someone who makes over $100,000 a year is going to come to?”

Paul is having a hard time because Jason is his friend, so Jon puts things in perspective for him. “This guy is running this business into the ground. You agree?” Paul thinks for a second and replies, “Pretty blunt terms, but yeah.” Then Jon gets to the heart of the matter, “If he wasn’t your friend, would you fire him?” and Paul again replies affirmatively. Jon continues gently moving Paul and Cathy into his perspective. He says, “That’s important to understand because I’m going to say something to you both now that you’re not going to like hearing. You’re both enablers. You’re paying for his beer. If you want him to fix his life, you’ve got to hold him accountable. He is the manager of your investment. So, no more excuses, okay?”

Paul and Cathy see Jon’s point and are on board with what we all know is coming next: Jon’s confrontation with Jason. I’m unsure how it’s going to go with Jason because Jon is being soft and kind with Paul and Cathy. Seriously, I’ve never heard him tell anyone, “You’re not going to like hearing what I have to say,” but I know Jon gives what he gets. I’ve seen it on the show, read it in his book, The Power of Conflict, and heard it from Jon in interviews like the one in Variety last year when Jon said, “If they’re nice, I’m nice. If they’re jerks, I’m not as nice.” Paul and Cathy are innocent victims, trying to step up and do the right thing by their business and their friend, and that’s as good as it ever gets on Bar Rescue as far as owners go, so Jon was sweet as pie to them. Jason, though, is a drunken wildcard, and I find myself hoping he’s an antagonistic jerk so Jon can go wildly ballistic on behalf of Paul and Cathy.

Alas, though, this is the different kind of Bar Rescue, the kind where Jon is fighting openly for love, so it has a different vibe, and Jon starts off reminding us of that. He tells Jason “I’m sitting with your partners and what’s clear is how much they love you.” Jason says he appreciates that, but Jon has zero tolerance for drunk owners and with that one sentence gave Jason all the grace he’s going to give. “Know what’s sad? If you were sober, you would appreciate it even more. How drunk are you right now?”

Jason takes a moment to calculate and answers with a final assessment of six beers but qualifies by telling Jon his first lie, “I never drink while I’m at work.”

 “You’re at work now,” Jon observes.

Jason explains his logic to Jon, “I’m not at work. I’m watching—but not work working.” Whatever the hell that means nobody knows.

Jon asks him who the manager is right now, and Jason tells him he’s the manager. Jon quizzes Jason with a word problem like I never had on any school exam, “So you’re the manager. This nice woman here has a heart attack. You’re drunk and because of that drunkenness, this woman died. You didn’t react quick enough. You didn’t make the right decisions. Do you understand you’re responsible for these people? You’re responsible for their safety and you’re DRUNK!”

The hairs on Jason’s neck stand up, and he gets defensive, “Yeah, I understand. I’m a pretty goddamn quick learner.”

“Not quick enough obviously.”

I chuckle at Jon’s retort because this exchange, like so many similar ones before it, has two grown men sounding like obstinate teenage siblings in a verbal tête-à-tête. Jason comes back with a smart-ass comment that isn’t actually smart-ass, “Maybe somebody needs to teach me?”

Jon continues the smart-assery with “Maybe somebody needs to be sober so you can be taught?”  Then he asks Jason the most important question of all, “Do you love them as much as they love you?” to which Jason responds with an enthusiastic, “Oh yeah!”

That’s Jason’s next lie in Jon’s book, because Jon doesn’t believe love is complete when it’s just gushy feelings; it must come with loving actions, too. Jon makes it clear Jason does not love Paul and Cathy by pointing out how terribly Jason has treated their investment, and, thus, them by extension. “You take $150,000 of their money. You have not done a good job of managing this business. Would you agree with that?”

Jason concedes a little and tells Jon he’ll give him 50% on that, but Jon’s nobody’s fool. He doesn’t go ballistic like I want, but he’s more than firm, “I’m going to give you 100%. When you’re shit-faced drunk every fucking day in your bar, burning their money, is that 100% failure or 50% failure?”

Faced with few options, Jason finally owns up to his complete failure, and admits, “One hundred percent,” which is all Jon needed from him to move forward to the next phase, the walk through. Before that, though, Jon asks Paul if friendship wasn’t an issue would he fire Jason today, and Paul says yes. It seems as though, at least for this moment, everything is sinking into Jason.

As Jon examines the rest of the bar, we see more mismanagement and failure on Jason’s part. Jason offers his reasons for the disarray, but Jon reminds us, “The other word for Hogwash is bullshit” and everyone knows Jason is full of it, even Cathy, who enthusiastically joins in to browbeat Jason about his stunning amount of business and interpersonal failures with them over the past year or so. Jon continues as well, “You’ve got an excuse for everything and it’s bullshit. If you were sober and worked harder, this wouldn’t be happening.”

No working kitchen is present at Hogwash Saloon. However, there is space for one and there once was a dream of having one. Jon pounces on this idea for two reasons. One is that bar science says customers stay longer, drink more, and spend more when there’s food. A kitchen and a food program are keys to making Hogwash Saloon profitable. The second reason is because he can use the promise of buying the kitchen equipment and turning the space into an operating kitchen as a reward for Jason’s sobriety, something that they are all excited about, especially Cathy.

Jon makes the kitchen-for-sobriety deal with Jason, and Jason promises he won’t drink in the bar again. Cathy tells us that the confrontation was needed, and she hopes Jon’s bluntness made all the difference. Jon tells us that to fix the bar, he needs to fix Jason, which, of course, we already knew and are still wondering if it’s going to work because Jon’s tough love wasn’t nearly as tough as it usually is. Jason, though, isn’t as belligerent as most drunk owners either, and it seems as though Jon has, not surprisingly, picked up on that as well.

At the staff meeting the next morning, Jon reinforces the love dynamic by telling everyone, “I’m here because you guys asked me to be, and I responded because of your love for Jason.” Then he explores how much Jason’s drinking has cost everyone money and points out that Jason is not the nice guy everyone thinks he is. Jon hammers this point home to Jason when he asks in his most booming and heartfelt voice, “Why did their friendship and their money not matter enough to you to even try?”

Jason, once again, gets defensive and gives a bullshit answer about hiring an inventory control company last year. Jon angrily points out that Jason did nothing with the results that showed they were losing $180,000. “One hundred and eighty thousand dollars! You knew it a year ago, and you did NOTHING!”

Jason is resistant, and Jon is fed up. He tells Paul and Cathy, “I can’t work with that. I need a man who’s going to be honest, who’s going to be respectful of you two. That’s not him.” Then he yells at Jason, “I’m walking out of here because of YOU.” As he leaves, he tells Paul and Cathy to talk some sense into Jason.

Now we enter the good cop/bad cop part of Bar Rescue. Cathy tries to reach Jason by embracing solutions. She tells him all the things they could have tried, but Jason gets defensive and embraces excuses. We don’t know it yet, but Jon is lurking and, as any fan can imagine, he’s not at all liking what he hears. Cathy doesn’t like it either and starts to step up to Jason’s bullshit, but Paul interrupts and offers his good cop attempt to break through Jason’s defensiveness, “Listen, we’re not trying to criticize you or find your faults. We’re trying to get through to you that we’d like to help if you’ll listen to us,” which is a touching and beautiful sentiment until Jon shows up and blows it all to hell.

Bad cop Jon is back, and he doesn’t mince words and the power behind them is exquisite. “I’ve been listening to you. He doesn’t remember what you say because he’s drunk. Every excuse you guys let him get away with, he lies to you because you let him off the hook. This is a small little bar. The books should be done. The payroll should be done. The products should be ordered. The employees should be trained. There’s not ONE excuse for that not to happen.”

Jason is sober and lets his defenses down. He extends a hand to Jon and tries to make a deal, “Okay. I tell you what, I’d appreciate your fucking help.”

Then we wait. Yep, just like last week’s episode, Jon uses silence to his advantage, at least as far as creating anticipation about his choice goes. His silence is chef’s kiss and serves as the most effective nonverbal way I’ve seen someone say that they are firmly and powerfully in control of what happens next. Paul and Cathy basically beg Jon to stay. Jason gets even more serious and pleads, “I need your goddamn help.” Jon just stares at him like he can see into his soul.

Jason tells Jon that he’s not stupid when it comes to business, but he is just lost about how to run a bar. Jon seems to soften a little, and I think it’s because Jason is starting to be honest and vulnerable instead of untruthful and defensive. Jon asks him sincerely, “Do you know how to run yourself?” and Jason provides the perfect answer, “I’m working on it now.” Jon shakes his hand and everyone feels relieved. Paul looks excited and tells us he thinks Jon got through to Jason.

Everything starts to move faster now that Jason has had an accountability breakthrough. Rob Floyd, who has been on the show since the first season, is the mixologist who teaches the bartenders the basics and how to make some simple cocktails. Tatiana Rosana is Jon’s chef. She is particularly adept at working with people who have little to no kitchen experience and is unusually encouraging for a Bar Rescue expert. She shows the new bartender-turned-cook, John, how to make a hearty meatball sub fit for a beginner’s kitchen while reassuring him that he’s in good hands for the upcoming stress test. The stress test reveals everyone has a good attitude but no skills. They don’t even collect money. The food is okay, but not enough to save the place from Jon shutting it down.

Even though he shut it down, Jon saw promising things with Jason. He was out of the corner and interacting with customers, which Jon sees as a huge and promising change. In his one-on-one with the owners, Jon tells them all the modifications and improvements he’s making and then asks Jason what he thinks. Jason tells Jon that he is gaining confidence, thanks to Jon, and admits that it was easy to drink when he didn’t know what was going on. Cathy and Paul both gush over Jason. They are proud and believe in him once again.

At the re-launch of what is now Skybox Ultra Sports Lounge, Jon addresses Paul and Cathy, then Jason, “There’s a lot of love here, and every moment that I spent with the two of you was never about the money; it was always about your friend. So, I knew there was something special about you and you were worth fighting for, buddy.” If you watch closely, you can see Jason choke up. While everyone else is excited about the reveal, Jason is hearing what Jon has said, and we get to see the truth in Jon’s earlier words, “If you were sober you would appreciate it more.”

Everyone loves the new, classier bar. Cathy is ecstatic. Paul is happy. Jason is blown away. Before he leaves, Jon gets a warm and meaningful group hug and tells Jason one last, powerful truth, “This was never about a bar. This was always about you because everybody loves you so much. It’s been my honor to help you, buddy.”

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I invite you to consider and share your answers in the Comments: What do you think the long-term outcome of this Bar Rescue will be? Will Jason be successful or fall back into his drunken ways?