In my most favorite episode of Bar Rescue ever, Jon goes back to his roots as a subdued consultant who tells it like it is when he struggles to prevent the loss of his voice as well as the imminent closing of Cathy Whaley’s High Five Grille in Tucson, Arizona. At the start of this episode, Cathy tells us, “I’m not making excuses, I’m just saying it doesn’t look that bad,” a signal to regular viewers that the opposite is true. A producer asks her, “What about the roach?” as we watch a giant roach scamper across the kitchen floor only to be stepped on by the cook. “It’s a sewer roach coming up from the sewers. It’s not a cockroach. They come but not very often,” she replies in such a low-key manner I wonder if she even has the energy to listen to what she is saying because it’s kind of cuckoo.

Cathy is a former IT project manager who sank her retirement fund into purchasing a bar that her ex-boyfriend told her he could run. Fast forward nine months, and they are broken up and Cathy now has a bar to manage on her own with no experience in the bar or restaurant business. She has so little enthusiasm for what she is doing, I cannot imagine her ever being successful no matter what magic Jon brings to the table.

Two things come to mind about Cathy. One is that she reminds me of Smiling Ed (“S5E15: Struck Out at the Dugout,” IYKYK). Both unwillingly inherited their bars and both absolutely had no idea how much work it was going to entail and didn’t want to do it. Both also had the energy of a sloth basking in the sun. Cathy isn’t a drunk like Ed, but she is as checked out and miserable.

The second thing that comes to mind is that something must have happened with Cathy that the producers aren’t telling us because Jon switches gears rather inexplicably and goes softer on her than expected after his initial tirade. Jon has two one-on-ones with Cathy and mentions how tough things have been for her several times without mentioning anything in particular to cause that assumption. He asks Cathy about her support system and family that she has around to help her, which seems odd. Plus, to say Cathy’s vibe is that of a demoralized, overwhelmed, and beat down spirit is kind of an understatement.

So, pretty much from the beginning something about this episode is off. During my first viewing, I didn’t like it at all, but upon rewatching it and taking notes, my opinion changed. I saw some very classic lines from Jon, wondered what the hell was going on with Cathy, and found myself thinking Jon isn’t going to be able to save this one, which made me sad.

Cathy’s defeated and hopeless demeanor is understandable once we hear her situation from Jon at the beginning of recon. The bar has no draft beers and no kegs because the cooler is broken. Food and beverages are eighty-sixed because there is no money and the broken cooler temperature is almost 90 degrees. The regulars are unhappy, the decor is boring, and Jon says every surface in there oozes filth.

Cathy is $350,000 in debt, has lost her retirement, and hasn’t paid the bar’s rent because if she does she won’t be able to pay her employees. She is out of money, living on credit cards, and won’t make it another month. She doesn’t know what to do and confesses to the camera that she “was successful at everything so I thought I’d be successful at this.”

Not only is Cathy in a sorry state but so is the bar. The decor is bright and cheap with a green shower curtain separating the kitchen from the bar. Things that are said about the place during recon include: filthy, gross, absolutely disgusting, coated with grease, enormous roach, and one of the dirtiest kitchens we’ve seen in a long, long time. The visuals are even more enticing if you are into that kind of thing. The gray hamburger meat is chef’s kiss.

Because I have the mind of a middle school boy, I zeroed in on a new line from Jon spurred on by the disgusting hamburger he saw on the screen during recon. He heads into the kitchen to confront the staff and yells with a raspier voice than usual, “I wanna see your meat, guys!” Heh heh heh.

As I’m laughing about the meat comment, Jon calls out screaming into the bar for Cathy. When she appears, they shake hands and Jon introduces himself, “Hello. I’m Jon. I’m here to save you,” and I just about fell out of my chair laughing, because, although it’s true, Jon usually has more tact than that. His cold medicine must be making him a little off kilter.

Then Jon points out the horrendous state of the kitchen with classic lines like, “You’re gonna kill somebody” and “Guys, this place is DISGUSTING!” He tells them the Health Department should shut them down and that they shouldn’t be serving food to anybody. He admonishes Cathy, “I need you to shut this place down. They need to throw everything away in this kitchen. Every fucking thing in here is a shameful embarrassment and it’s on you. How dare you do this to your customers, people who entrusted you. HOW DARE YOU?”

Jon asks Cathy if she is incredibly ignorant or incredibly lazy? She defends herself, saying she isn’t lazy. Then Jon really hits the jugular, “What the hell have you done in five years other than lose $300,000 because you don’t know anything?” Even I cringe, but that’s mostly because Cathy is pathetic and it’s obvious she isn’t going to own up to the fact that she is the one who chose to invest in this venture, let alone get excited about her new situation: She’s free as a bird and manages her own bar!

The next day, Cathy tries to defend herself but only provides more excuses. She tells the camera, “He made me look like an idiot, and I’m not that much of an idiot. My cooks are supposed to know when to throw the brown guacamole away. I just haven’t….” Then she thinks about how to word her lack of accountability to make it seem less like an excuse, “…been in the kitchen.” Again I’m cringing because I know Jon isn’t going to take lightly to Cathy’s passing of the buck.

Jon arrives for the morning staff meeting and asks to speak to Cathy alone. I’m confused but I roll with it. “Last night was pretty intense for you, I would imagine?”

“Yes, very.”

“I want to look you in the eyes and try to understand what happened here so I can help you.” Then Jon repeats back to her the situation he already knew from his own team’s report to him and that Cathy just told him in her own words. Somehow, though, when Jon does it, there is a gravity to it that lets us know that he thinks Cathy is royally fucked. She is “stuck with the bar,” in debt $350,000, and has no other money in reserve. Then he asks her if she has any family in the area for support. I don’t know about you, but if Jon Taffer ever shows up to rescue me, paraphrases my situation back to me very clearly, succinctly, and deliberately, and then asks me if I have family around to support me, I am 100% sure I am royally fucked and Jon knows it, too.

I give Jon credit, though. That man really fights for people. He cautions Cathy while he simultaneously inspires her, “I’m gonna come at you pretty aggressively the next few days to teach you everything I can. I want you to remember something: I’m not fighting with you; I’m fighting for you, okay? Let’s go to work!”

Just as Cathy is starting to perk up with a tiny bit of hope, mine totally fades away. I have a hard time getting into the rest of the episode because I truly believe Cathy is not going to make it. It seems to me like everyone else thinks the same thing except Jon’s experts. Mia Mastrioanni is impressed with the bartenders in a way I have never seen before. She steps up because Jon’s voice is on hiatus. She is motivating and supportive, and her encouraging demeanor makes me wonder if she’s practicing to be the next guest host.

Chef Jennifer Murphy doesn’t cut Kitchen Manager Cody one ounce of slack, and I am bothered by this. I understand the importance of sanitation, but so does Cody, even if he has a hard time remembering what to do. I think Cody is the most polite, welcoming, grateful, humble, and open-to-learning person I’ve seen on Bar Rescue. You could tell that he knew he shouldn’t be serving people bad food but he also had no power to shut down the kitchen except perhaps by quitting. He not only really needed help, he really wanted it, and Jen and Jon provide it for him.

The stress test goes fairly well. Thomas and the other bartenders are fantastic, and Mia creates more exotic cocktails for the bar because they have the skills to make them, although none of the new cocktails require using the crazy cocktail bubble smoke gun Jon has introduced to other, lesser bartenders. Cody takes to his kitchen training and while things aren’t great, he shows promise during the stress test and is in top shape by the relaunch.

Jon has another one-on-one with Cathy and asks her if she feels the pressure lifting. She confirms she does, but, frankly, I don’t see it. Even at the relaunch of the newly conceptualized and renamed Cinco Cantina, everyone is unenthusiastic.

The episode is so anticlimactic, Jon seems to be pulling teeth when he explains the improvements he made. He tells us Cathy knows how to run the bar now. She’s doing great even though she’s “been through a lot.” He then puts the nail in the coffin of this episode by telling us that the fire in Cathy’s belly will bring her success, but there is no fire in Cathy’s belly. As a matter of fact, Cathy is so blasé, I wonder if Jon helped her meet with a broker like he did Doreen in “S6:E42 Doreen’s Dilemma” (IYKYK) only they didn’t show it because it happened too late to make the main story.

No six-week update at the end of the episode leaves me feeling sad because, even though Jon is an illustrious human being, he still is only a human being, and Cathy was in such dire straits she needed something greater than Jon to rescue her, I mean, if such a thing even exists.

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I invite you to consider and share your answers in the Comments: What is your take on Cathy? Do you think she is defeated or just an introvert mismatched with the hospitality industry?