Say Hello, Wave Goodbye: The Loneliness of Master of None

Master of None, Season 2, Episode 5, “The Dinner Party”

*Warning: containers spoilers for the second season of Master of None*

Master of None is certainly a product of it’s time. It only took the character Alan saying,“I’m going to go sit in the park and look at NBA trade rumors on my phone” early in Season 1 for me to know that was going to be a portrait of everything that encompasses the lives of people in their 20s and 30s in the 2010s. Hell, the series opens with an emergency Uber ride to a pharmacy after a broken condom is discovered.

I thought the first season of Master of None was quite good, but it’s with this season that Aziz Ansari brings forth an effort that’s the culmination of everything that’s made his career great: there’s the hilarity of his stand-up work, the zaniness of Tom Haverford from Parks and Recreation and the romantic drama of Modern Romance, Ansari’s 2015 non-fiction book on today’s dating culture.

It’s that last aspect that brings this seasonup to an elite level though. These ten episodes revitalize the romantic comedy, transforming the series beyond the archetypal program that covers the semi-autobiographical life of an actor/comedian/artist in a big city. For a genre that’s floundered this decade at the box office, Ansari and his creative team add just enough of their own personal touch to make something that seems familiar, yet wholly fresh. It’s episode five this season, “The Dinner Party” where the depths of the romantic comedy tale Ansari is weaving become clear.

This follows episode four, “The First Date,” a look at the banality of dating in the era of Tinder and Bumble that expertly splices together several unsuccessful romantic meet-ups for Dev Shah, played by Ansari. It’s ironic now though that Dev finally has a perfect date, his evening out with Francesa, who he grew close to during his three-month stint abroad at the beginning of this season. Nothing can ever be perfect for Dev’s romantic life though, as it’s not truly a date, as Francesa is in a 10-year relationship back home in Italy and things are platonic between the two on the surface.

Sexual tension bubbles under that surface for Dev throughout the episode. Ansari, in one of his first real dramatic performances, wears it on his face. It’s a cocktail of hope, despair and uneasiness. John Legend serenading the dinner party they attend while playing the piano certainly doesn’t help quell Dev’s mood. When the final scene, Dev and Francesca’s Uber ride home, comes, Dev realizes the magnitude of the mess he’s left himself in: he’s fallen for a woman he can’t have.

As the driver makes his way to Francesca’s hotel and pulls over, viewers are left with a callback to the numerous Uber rides home Dev shared with his circus of dates. When Francesca indicates that she won’t be able to see him before she’s going back to Italy, there’s a hesitation that comes over Dev. Ansari plays this scene so well. It’s reminiscent of him thinking about whether he should go for a goodbye kiss with his other dates. He surely wants this kiss more than all of those other ones combined, but he knows he won’t get it.

Francesca departs and another word of dialogue isn’t said for a good three minutes, yet the audience has to watch Dev’s journey home. There’s no one for him to come home to or come home with. He’s alone. This begins around the 30:30 mark of the episode. No words from Dev, just him squirming and looking into the ether while the haunting track “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” by Soft Cell plays over the scene.

Soft Cell are a British 80s new wave synthpop band best known for the hit “Tainted Love”. I had never heard “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” before watching this episode, but I’ll be damned if it hasn’t been the most played song on my Spotify since. It’s not haunting in the traditional sense. This isn’t Johnny Cash’s rendition of “Hurt” I’m talking about. The synth ballad creates an ethereal, dreamy state as Dev himself dreams of being with Francesca before crashing down with the heartbreaking reality of his situation. Check out part of the lyrics:

A nice little housewife
Who´ll give me a steady life
And won´t keep going off the rails
Take your hands off me

I don´t belong to you, you see
Take a look at my face
For the last time
I never knew you

You never knew me
Say hello goodbye
Say hello wave goodbye

Dev just said goodbye to the girl of his dreams with no clue of when, or even if, he’d see her again. This is an uncomfortable scene to view, only matched by the existential dread in Dev’s blank stare. I had to take a break before watching episode six. I felt like I was constantly adjusting my position on my couch while watching, just as Dev was doing in the backseat of that car, trying to escape the frustration and awkwardness of the scene, but trapped just as much Dev is. He finally exits the car upon reaching his apartment and the credits roll.

In an age where it feels impossible to be disconnected from at least one other person in the world, Dev increasingly finds himself still alone. No amount of Tinder matches or Italian dinners with friends or Snapchats across the globe seem to change that. That’s a frightening reality. It also doubles as evidence that despite those pleasant things in his life, his success on television, his friendships with Arnold and Denise, eating whatever he wants while living in the food capital of the world, his loneliness prevents him from truly finding meaning.

Dev ran away to a small town in Italy to escape the emptiness of his breakup with Rachael at the end of Season 1, throwing himself into an outlandish career, professional pasta-maker, to keep his mind at ease despite the turmoil in his romantic life. It’s due to his time in Italy that Francesca becomes his new desire. He finally sees Rachel walking down the streets of Manhattan towards this season’s end, but, in a twist of fate, is too overwhelmed with the thought of never being able to “be with” Francesca to interact with his ex-girlfriend and gain either closure or ignite an old flame.

His loneliness from Rachel led him to another continent and to Francesca, only for Dev to find himself back in New York and unable to reconnect with Rachael because of that unrequited love for Francesca. I would not want Dev Shah’s luck with women.

As Season 2 closes, viewers aren’t given a definitive answer as to whether Dev’s feelings for Francesca have been truly reciprocated, but they are left with the same uneasiness about whether Dev will be always be alone that first reared itself in that pivotal, season-changing Uber ride home.