Spoilers ahead for Episode 5 of NBC’s Grosse Pointe Garden Society, called “Pollination” and available streaming now with a Peacock subscription.
The latest episode of Grosse Pointe Garden Society in the 2025 TV schedule was called “Pollination” for a good reason, with some steamy developments for the various couples and characters. While that could mean disaster for Birdie and Joel, high stakes for Doug and Alice in light of last week’s flash-forward, and complication for the love triangle involving Brett, the most drama came from Catherine attempting to relight sparks with Tucker. New Amsterdam alum Jocko Sims spoke with CinemaBlend ahead of “Pollination” to shed some extra light on what went down for his and Aja Naomi King’s characters.
“Pollination” proved that Tucker wasn’t quite as blasè about Catherine’s affair as he initially seemed, and I don’t just mean his light frustration over his wife’s attempt to set what Jocko Sims describes as a “love sex schedule.” His seemingly sweet gesture to put up smoke detectors throughout the house was actually for the purpose of planting cameras to make sure that Catherine didn’t start another affair in their home. To her credit, she found a way to make the most of Tucker watching her from afar.
When I spoke with Sims about Grosse Pointe Garden Society, he weighed in on Catherine attempting to relight some sparks with Tucker:
They try to figure it out. They get on a love sex schedule, which is ridiculous, right? And they listen to relationship podcasts, and they try to follow by the book. [laughs] Catherine tries to follow by the book. I actually just remembered that. For him, it’s a little annoying, but she feels this is the way to get back to where we were or where we should have been. Oh man, I can’t wait.
Jocko Sims is no stranger to unconventional TV romances after New Amsterdam and his character’s detour into polyamory, but Dr. Reynolds certainly never went through what Tucker is enduring on Grosse Pointe Garden Society. I noted to the actor that the first four episodes of NBC’s new Sunday night series were enough to establish that a “love sex schedule” was exactly what fans would expect from Catherine’s character, and he responded:
Exactly. I was saying earlier that I feel like the way that Aja approaches the character of Catherine is just going to go down in the history of television as an iconic character, because she does it so well and she sticks to it. There’s some scenes that I won’t discuss yet, that are coming up where she’s very Catherine, and it’s fantastic.
That’s high praise for Aja Naomi King from her on-screen husband! Just as we saw a darker side of Tucker in “Pollination” with the reveal that he was responsible for Gary’s kidnapping and attack, we got a closer look at Catherine’s initiative in burying the body in the flash-forwards. She unfortunately had to give up a bracelet that could tie her – and therefore the other three conspirators – to the murder, but it was certainly more proof that she’s proactive in trying to cover up their crime.
For Jocko Sims, though, one of the standout moments of the episode concerned a scene with Aja Naomi King that was a lot funnier on screen than it was during filming. He shared:
We have one particular scene where we’re literally laughing, or I’m laughing at some of her pain, and it’s a good, refreshing moment to see between the two of them, because everything has been so serious, except for the couple of moments that you mentioned, but it’s been some serious subject matter. Something happens that causes him to laugh hysterically. I’m a little afraid as an actor to see how that comes out, because fake laughing… There was a couple of times where I was just pushing out that laugh and I was like, ‘Oh, that wasn’t authentic,’ but then she would make me laugh and then that works. So I’m hoping they chose some takes where Aja actually made me laugh with her performance.
While the actor didn’t specifically name the scene when we spoke ahead of “Pollination,” I suspect that he was referring to the bedroom scene when Tucker was cracking up at how Catherine’s on-camera peep show was crashed by their housekeepers. It wasn’t quite a comedic scene, as he seemingly unintentionally took a shot at her affair, but Tucker got some solid laughs in before the conversation turned sour.
I for one didn’t see anything inauthentic about the scene, so hopefully Jocko Sims is happy with the takes between himself and Aja Naomi King that made it into the final cut. The show hasn’t yet finished filming the first season, as Sims confirmed he was still waiting on the script for the finale, but it’s not too soon to start hoping for renewal news from NBC. For now, check out the promo for the next episode:
A potential piece of bad news about the future of Grosse Pointe Garden Society is that NBC is moving it from its Sunday night time slot in April to airing on Friday nights, and Fridays are generally not where shows are sent because they’re big hits with long futures. Still, since it’s reportedly doing well streaming, perhaps it could get the Law & Order: Organized Crime treatment and leave NBC to be renewed for Peacock.
Only time will tell, and you can still catch one more episode in the 10 p.m. ET Sunday time slot on March 30 before the show moves to Fridays on April 4.
