Onto the third week of this excellent new series and things are certainly coming around to a certain niche as we get to see how useless it is trying to keep secrets in this family. It also doesn't pay lying to people who are especially smarter than you are as well.
Take Nora who like any other mother can be an absolute volatile hurricane when crossed but at the same time, her children are desperate to shelter from the more unsavoury aspects of William's band of deceit, mainly because they love but mostly because not many of them want to take on the aftermath.
It's pretty honourable and natural that they are eager to spare her feelings but only three episodes into the series; I somehow doubt Nora is as nave as they would like to think she is. This episode certainly proves she isn't either.
When Saul decides to consolidate Ojai Foods and other aspects of William's assets, Nora is quick to spot that there's a house previously unaccounted for in Silver Lake and what is more she wants to have a look at it. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the very house in question has Holly as a tenant.
Kevin seems pretty oblivious about Nora's eagerness to look at the house but Saul goes into overdrive in the very hopes of putting her off but short of telling Nora the house is crawling with ants, Nora is determined to see the property and meet it's owner too.
If you were Holly, you'd probably be nervous of the wife of your dead lover coming over to visit, especially when that wife has the legal right to throw you out in the street, so it's not much of a surprise that the tension between Nora and Holly is ratcheted up that you could cut through it with a knife.
It also really doesn't help that during that little visit Nora was acting like she was trying to catch Holly and Saul out in a lie. I know some of her enquiries came across a little innocent but the way in which she conveyed them made me think that she knew more than she was letting on and Saul did very little to not draw attention to Nora's spidey sense either.
This more or less then became confirmed when Nora held a pool party for Paige and invited Holly so she could quiz her about her career and the woman's love life and during the slap up meal itself, Nora came out to everyone present that she's known all along that Holly was screwing around with William for a long time in a way that almost made me feel a bit bad for the name and shamed Holly who reacted by bolting out the door and not a minute too soon either.
Warren was the one who did make the fatal mistake of asking at dinner why only him and Nora were engaged in conversation while everyone else was visibly silent and Nora then launching at her annoyance of the way her family try to "deal" with her only highlighted how she isn't so stupid.
Episode wise this is a terrific week for the brilliant Sally Field who just continues to show how perfect she is for this role and there's a wonderful moment between her and Kitty in which she goes into details about how long she's known about William and Holly as well as expressing her anger for the fact that while William loved her, he couldn't give up Holly for her either.
She also offers some rather sage advice for Kitty on how to deal with Jonathan (sadly not Mafia style advice because I could see Jonathan gagged and bound in some cement boots) and there's something incredibly euphoric about the way she jumps into the pool at the end of the episode fully clothed.
As for Holly I'm still no big fan of the woman's and while and the naming and shaming wasn't especially nice, it's not Nora went for the jugular and threw the woman out of her house. Holly did spend the first two episodes acting like she was so entitled to William so her protestation to Saul at the end of not wanting to be invisible feels a little hollow.
Also Holly still has Saul in her corner and strangely enough, Nora is a lot more forgiving of Saul than you'd expect her to be at the time, even though Saul continues to make an ass out of himself by withholding information about Ojai Foods finances when Nora asks if there's anything else she should know. You kinda wish that Sarah or Tommy would do the honours there but they seem to busy squabbling among them to be honest with their mum.
This week in the business we had another case of Sarah and Tommy butting heads like rams when Sarah made the conscious decision to fire the Ruika brothers. In fairness, Sarah is trying to stop Ojai from going under and Tommy mouthing at her to keep two layabouts doesn't really help matters.
It's just a shame that the layabouts in question happen to be cousins of the very people who do all of Ojai's publishing and packaging at a cheaper price so Sarah has to face getting mind games thrown at her while Tommy doesn't hold back on the collective "I told you so" to his sister.
I like Tommy and Sarah; I really do but their constant fighting feels more like schoolyard stuff than differing business ethics and if they don't start working together, then their arguing over how to stop Ojai from going down the toilet is going to wear very thin. Luckily for me, both Sarah and Tommy are awarded better plots outside of the business too.
With Tommy the lack of an exploration of Julia and himself is a bit of a nuisance even though I get that they are pretty happy with one another so it's nice that it's Tommy who manages to get Paige to get past her fear of going into the family pool in a rather touching but slightly funny scene. Tommy as a whole could do with a bit more fleshing though.
Sarah on the other hand when she isn't trying to save the business she's attempting to get Paige to snap out of her pool fear but the forceful way in which she tries to do it is rather annoying. I mean the kid had to see her grandfather die in that pool, I say let her get over in her own time.
Although I don't find Joe particularly exciting, he had the better attitude in regards to dealing with Paige's issues. Sarah might like to be able to fix things but they are certain things that are off limit and trying to force someone to overcome a fear is one of them.
Then there's Sarah's whole stance on William and Holly. Out of everyone she seemed the quickest to want to tell Nora about it when she wasn't prying into Kitty's recent bad decisions and childishly getting her own back on Kevin when he had the sense to stay out of her and Tommy's latest bust up. Sometimes I think it's Rachel Griffiths who makes me like Sarah more than the writers do.
Speaking of Kevin, this week he was actually being openly flirtatious with Scotty during the pool party. He might have resented the way Sarah had invited Scotty but he certainly wasn't complaining when Scotty did show up bearing tasty gifts.
Compared to last week, Scotty comes across as a bit less annoying and I have to admit there is a bit of a chemistry between Matthew Rhys and Luke McFarlane so if the writers are hooking them up (and it does look like they are), they could potentially work and the conversation they had on the art of monogamy is something that can be addressed to anyone gay or straight, male or female.
Note I said female in that last sentence because at the end of the day we're all capable of cheating despite many sources trying to pinpoint it on mostly men. Kitty went out to dinner with Warren and had a **** session about her father being a cheater but then after a few drinks she cheated on her patronising dolt of a boyfriend with the guy that even Lila the makeup artist has realised she wants.
Then to add to the embarrassment, Warren showed up at the pool party before Jonathan's arrival had Kitty fall into the pool. I'm not sure if Kitty should be with Warren either but I'll gladly take him over Jonathan any day and a part of me was thrilled when Jonathan discovered what Kitty had done and he dumped her. Kitty really didn't do a lot to actually try and sway his opinion which really make me determined to believe that she doesn't really love him. If she did she might have fought harder to hold on to him. Anyway Jonathan did get to leave with his dignity intact so Matthew Seattle must've been pleased with that development if nothing else.
Then again Kitty and Kevin weren't the only people with problems this week. Justin having learned at least something from last week decided to do his best to stay away from getting wasted and high and thanks to his family in a way that effort got squashed pretty fast.
Not only did Kitty break his confidence and tell the rest of the siblings about Holly, but then he had to witness Nora get her revenge on Holly during the meal so the only way he could actually deal with anything was to have Fawn over so he could get off his face with her. I'm sure Fawn is a nice enough girl in her own right but she's clearly not a good influence on Justin either and it doesn't seem to take him much to actually spiral back into drugs, does it?
Also in "Affairs Of State"
Is it me or shouldn't this episode's title be the reverse? People tend to say State Of Affairs more often?
Kitty: "Just like a Democrat. Live by the polls, die by the polls"
Warren: "Ha, like you haven't changed your looks since the numbers came in".
Red, White And Blue seems to get 400 million viewers and while you can't really make politics sexy, Warren and Kitty could be considered eye candy for casual viewers.
Lila: "Man why don't you two just hump and get it over with"
Kitty: "Hump? Lila the last time somebody humped in America it was 1983 in a Porky's movie".
Sarah: "Thanks for backing me up there, girlfriend"
Kevin: "Sorry wasn't feeling it".
Warren seemed to generate a few nicknames here such as "Unibrow" from Joe, "Man Whore" from Kitty and "Cheese Fest" from Justin.
Warren: "And what did he say?"
Kitty: "It doesn't matter what he said. What matters is that I'm sitting here thinking the same things about my Dad".
Kevin: ****
Sarah: "No but payback is".
Sarah seems to have the makings of an excellent **** hag with Scotty. His email address was funny mollyjustmight@hotmail.com.
Sarah: "I'm just trying to save the company"
Tommy: "Yeah, 'I'm' just trying not 'we'".
Kevin: "No you may not, you're just a witness but it's what men do right? And speaking as a gay one I've never been able to master the art of being faithful"
Scotty: "Oh that. That's too bad but then you can't be faithful to anything until you know why you should".
Does anyone else think that not only do Jonathan and Warren look rather alike but Scotty looks similar to Emmett from Queer As Folk US?
Sarah: "There's Daddy's little girl"
Kitty: "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
This episode was co-written by Craig Wright, another former playwright who has also scripted episodes for Six Feet Under.
Nora (to Kitty): " The minute I saw that deed I knew it had never ended and I wanted her to feel as small and stupid as I did. I am so ashamed of myself but God, it felt good".
Standout music: Pete Yorn's "Ice Age" and Aqualung's "Easier To Lie" which was a nice way of ending the episode.
Kitty: "I just lost you forever"
Jonathan: "I think so yeah".
Chronology: A couple of weeks since "An Act Of Will".
If there's one thing that is apparent with the Walkers, it's the dead cert guarantee that everyone seems to know about each other's business and can't keep it to themselves and the addressing of William's cheating in "Affairs Of State" is something that wouldn't feel out of place on a soap but luckily the superior writing keeps the hysterics at bay.moreless
EDIT
Episode Summary
William Walker's indiscretions are made painfully public, and Nora shocks the family as she reveals that she's not as naive as they all think she is.
Justin decides to tell Kitty about their father's affair, and the Walker siblings all feel the burden of their very own secrets.moreless
Justin decides to tell Kitty about their father's affair, and the Walker siblings all feel the burden of their very own secrets.moreless
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Sarah Jane Morris
Julia Walker
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Sally Field
Nora Holden
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Ron Rifkin
Saul Holden
Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions
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Trivia
ADD TRIVIA- It's only after Holly has given Nora and Saul a full tour of the house that they tell her Nora is William's widow and that they are assessing his assets. Wouldn't they have to explain that before? It just seems weird that Holly would let them visit her house without knowing what's the goal (plus, she's not supposed to know Saul). Edit
- In this episode, Kitty states that Canada sent troops to Vietnam. The commentator then tells Kitty that she is mistaken. The moderator is then asked to resolve the argument because his parents live in Montreal, and he states that while Canadians served in the U.S. armed forces in Vietnam, Canada did not send any troops. Technically what the moderator said was incorrect because Canada did eventually send troops, but only after the U.S. had departed. In 1973, "Operation Gallant" had Canada sending peacemaking troops to Vietnam as part of the International Commission of Control and Supervision (ICCS) Vietnam. Edit
- Scotty Wandell's e-mail address is mollyjustmight@hotmail.com Edit
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Notes
ADD NOTES -
Quotes
ADD QUOTES- Sarah: I just hope when you look at me, you see someone that's more like my mother than my father. Joe: I don't see either. I see the woman I love. Edit
- Nora: (talking about Holly after she revealed the truth about her in front of everyone) I wanted her to feel as small and stupid as I did. I... I'm so ashamed of myself, but God, it felt good. Edit
- Sarah: I thought you hated the guy. Why did you sleep with him? Kitty: I didn't. The gin slept with him. Sarah: We had the gin talk five years ago. It's the... Both: Devil's drink! Edit
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Allusions
ADD ALLUSIONS- Kitty: What is this, Fiddler on the Roof? Fiddler on the Roof is a musical and movie about a Jewish man in progrom Russia trying to marry off his 5 daughters. Edit
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