Date of airing: April 21, 2004 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 10.13 million viewers, 6.6/10 in Households, 4.7/12 with Adults 18-49
written by: J.J. Philbin
directed by: Sandy Smolan
Ryan and Marissa were not even allowed to be happy for one second, and so the episode had to open with Theresa’s black eye, which meant there was trouble ahead for both Ryan and Theresa, and most likely even Ryan and Marissa’s new-found old luck. I appreciate the domestic abuse angle of the story, because it is an important one, in need of being watched repeatedly by anyone stuck in an abusive relationship, so that victims of domestic abuse can be told by fictional characters to stay away from that kind of relationship (in case the victims do not have friends who could tell them) and that help might be closer than they think, but the writers could have given Ryan and Marissa at least half an episode before the proverbial crap was hitting the fan again. Half an episode to depict them in a happy state before the obstacle course was built around the super couple of the show once more. And Theresa is a pretty huge obstacle course, considering Marissa tries really hard – and with some success – to be Theresa’s friend. It is not like Marissa is allowed to be jealous and mean to the victim in an abusive relationship here, because that would make her character horrendous at the least. I am however surprised by how friendly she is towards Theresa. Again, Theresa is in serious need of a girlfriend at this point and once more it is Marissa who takes the charge and gets into that role. It makes things easier to write around the trope of Ryan and Marissa being in trouble as a couple because of a third person adding themselves into this love triangle.
But I guess there was no time to give Ryan and Marissa half an episode of bliss. After all, the season finale is right around the corner, and storylines needed to be prepared for the eventual cliffhangers that were planned, so that the newly won audience for the show can guess over the summer what is about to happen to the characters, who will die, come back alive, break up with whom, is pregnant, is secretly someone’s sibling, gets kidnapped by extraterrestrials, goes off to work for the CIA, or whatever floats the boats of primetime soap opera writers.
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| They were about to undress for some naughty fun. |
Anyway, two episodes before the season finale and it was expected that Ryan would not find his way to Chino and instead listen to Sandy and deal with the problem “at home,” considering the only way the story would have been threatening for Ryan is when he would have beaten Eddie to the pulp in the season finale. Also, Ryan had already beaten someone to the pulp and nothing happened, so the threat of Ryan getting back into juvenile detention seemed a little exaggerated. One thing needs to be said about Eddie though: Of course he is the abusive-type guy. There he was, threatening Ryan multiple times over the course of his appearances, so of course Eddie would eventually swing his fists into Theresa, and of course it would not be the first time. No surprises there. Yet Theresa stayed with him. Talk about male dominance in relationships...
Meanwhile, there was an engagement shower happening, and I did not particularly care about it. Cindy could have been an amusing character for a second or two, but she did not add anything of value in this episode, not even Julie’s high school background. There was not much of a surprise that Julie was the cool chick-turned-slut in high school (if Cindy’s stories were true), and of course, it would lead to a conflict between the sisters because that is what she was written into the episode for, right? Instead of using Cindy responsibly and making her funny, maybe even making Julie shine in a different light, the writers used the tropes of the story and have them not have any consequences at all for the characters. It is almost like five minutes were wasted because the episode came in short after the first draft of the script was finished. Cindy truly was a cliched character. When her name was mentioned for the first time, I had an image of her in my mind, and when she finally showed up, that image was fully translated into a well-cast character on screen.
And then there was a secret revealed, with Hailey and Jimmy being an official couple now. I do not care about that either, because I am already expecting that couple to end its business by the season finale (I do not see Hailey in the second season, and I cannot remember if she was even in it). In addition, the secret revealed did not bring much conflict for Jimmy and Kirsten either. So, she is not jealous? This does not lead to a conflict between Kirsten and Hailey? By the way, Jimmy is not using the $2.5 million to pay off some of his debt? Did I forget something happened previously or has everyone who has been ripped off by Jimmy forgotten that they lost money? I would have expected someone in this episode to mention that Jimmy has to use some of that money to bring his dept with the Newport society down, but nada. Nothing. Zilch.
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| Brothers who are in the same room for the night. |
And finally, the failure of Seth Cohen to shut his goddamn mouth, and the weirdness that is the BFF-like relationship between a father and his daughter. Both elements of Seth’s character arc in this episode were weird, and I cannot believe it is about to lead to a break-up of the second-ranked power couple of the show. Summer is really defining her relationship with Seth through the eyes and opinions of her father? I almost do not want to believe it, because it makes things super weird for her as a person. Does that make Summer dependable on her father, without the ability to make her own choices? That seems to be a character trait for her coming out of nowhere, forcibly written into this episode to give Seth and Summer some form of conflict because, apparently, they needed it. And in the end, it is because Summer’s father does not like Seth is why she feels indifferent towards Seth. She made that decision not based on her own feelings, she made them because of what her father thought. Girl, you have a serious issue here and you need to deal with it.
