Every Man Has An Agenda
Written by Lyn Greene And Richard Levine
Directed by Michael M. Robin
7.0
"Good"
Sean (re Anne): "If she asks questions, we'll get her a book"
Julia: "A book isn't going to tell her how to feel".
Paraphrasing Kimber a little bit here, if you repeat aloud what Julia said to Sean in regards to Annie's curiosity regarding her unborn brother, the overall message seems to be that either people or circumstances cannot dictate how a person should or shouldn't feel about things. Sadly neither Sean, Julia nor Christian pay any real heed to that way of thinking as evidenced by their behaviour in this episode.
Out of everyone Christian is especially guilty of this in two particularly important cases. The first being when an aging gay man named Arthur brings in his boy-toy Mitchell Skinner (played the cute but somewhat wooden Thad Luckinbill) into McNamara/Troy to have a few unnecessary procedures done in order to appease Arthur and the extravagant world he lives in. Christian feels bad for Mitchell, even though he's more or less done the same thing to many women that Arthur wants done to Mitchell in the way of plastic surgery.
Christian is also 100% convinced that Mitchell isn't gay than he is and given that Mitchell openly admits to Christian that he's unsure of his sexuality and primarily likes being a kept man to the extent that he can deal with giving oral sex to a man he clearly doesn't love (which in fairness is fine, given that Arthur obviously views Mitchell as some kind of property anyway), even I have to admit that I'm not sure whether Mitchell is gay, bisexual or straight who is happy to be "gay for pay".
Christian ever being the good Samaritan (yes I'm being sarcastic) decides to prove Mitchell really is straight by taking him to a strip club and getting him a lap dance from a vapid stripper named Blu Mondae, who had previously fornicated with Christian the night before and agrees to the deal when Christian offers her a breast reduction for free (the only thing about this girl that is vaguely interesting). Sadly for Mitchell, not only does he clearly not enjoy the experience with Blu but he also gets kicked out of his Sugar Daddy's place as a result.
Christian tries to do another good act by giving Mitchell money for a hotel but when Mitchell strips off and comes on to Christian, the latter reacts with a firm punch and a threat for Mitchell to leave or else. Quite the gentlemen there, Mr Troy! For some bizarre reason this episode portrays both straight and gay in a non flattering light without actually intending to. Why is Christian so determined to deny something that we both know he isn't anyway and more importantly, why has his taste in women devolved so much this season? His complete and total lack of respect for Blu Mondae followed by his patronising way of bribing her seduces Mitchell and his pathetic attempts of justifying his pro-bono on her breasts with both Michelle and Sean was just low. Christian stooped even lower when he paid Kimber a home visit with interesting results. If ever there was a scene of pure hypocrisy between two people, here it is. Yeah, Kimber wanted all those unnecessary plastic surgeries and her interest in Christian only peeked when she knew he was a plastic surgeon but between the two of them, Kimber generates a little more sympathy mainly because she was admitting to some of her problems and seemed to be making an effort to get past them in her own way. Christian's attack on the other hand seemed to stem more from jealousy than actual concern for Matt. He almost seemed to relish calling her weak (no doubt a part of Christian was more attracted to Kimber when she was "weak") and although Kimber can be a bit nuts at times, I wouldn't go as far as labelling her dangerous just yet.
As for Kimber's new religion scientology, well folks if Tom Cruise hasn't sent it up enough times, then Ryan Murphy may as well speed up the ridicule process. Like a few people, I don't have a whole of knowledge on Scientology and I don't particularly have a desire to brush up on my reading of it either as it seems to be more of a cult than a religion.
Give how likeable Kimber comes across in this episode; I'm worried that Nip/Tuck may actually be doing Scientology a favour instead. I mean, look how level headed and sympathetic Kimber comes across here. Not only does Kelly Carlsson actually look pretty without all the makeup and more normal clothing but Kimber managed to get Matt to open up about his feelings, which is something that everyone else has more or less failed to do and she also handled Christian's rage a lot better than the old Kimber would have.
This time last year Matt was turning against everyone and beating up transsexuals whereas this season he is kind and considerate, plays mediator between a quarrelling Julia and Annie and is willing to negotiate how he gets better, yet some people online are still pissed off that he asked Julia for the money when Sean and Christian said no. I'm not saying Matt should be a Scientologist but the guy did ask Julia and explained everything he knew about the religion and in my book that is not manipulative. Also he is at an age where he is entitled to make his own decisions and he behaved a lot better here than any of his parents did tonight.
Unlike Sean and Julia who both freak out over Annie's unusual method of trying to understand her unborn brother's condition. I don't doubt that taping your fingers together and mutilating your dolls is a tad bizarre or even be seen as someone making fun of another person but given that Annie explained that she was trying to understand the difficulties that Connor (nice name, isn't it?) would have to face, surely both Sean and Julia could've handled the situation much better than they did?
In fact they're not really handling the Connor thing that well at all are they? Not only did Annie later blame Julia for Connor having Ectrodactily but after Sean persuaded Alex Coffee a Treacher Colons sufferer to have surgery that ended up not making much of a difference to him, you'd think maybe Sean would leave things wouldn't you? No instead he decides that as soon as Connor is born he will operate on him, so the child doesn't have to fear pain or go through life being different. Julia does nothing but agree with Sean even though I'm pretty sure that it would be a little dangerous and silly to operate on a child that young.
Finally in order to give Liz something to do (I'm serious, Ryan give Liz something to do already), we have our favourite anaesthesiologist spot Madame Michelle in cohorts with a suspicious looking woman named James. Michelle is seen giving James a huge wad of cash which Marla doesn't bother counting because she trusts Michelle so much. James also then gropes Michelle and makes out with her giving us our first same sex snog of the season. Don't bother finding it erotic as poor Michelle looks horrified in the same way Christian does when he's screwing anyone so far this season.
Question now becomes who is James and what is the connection with her and Michelle? Is James a pimp and Michelle her top prostitute scamming the ageing tycoon known as Burt. I'm actually interested in finding out because not only are we gonna see Michelle more than Burt anyhow but this storyline is a lot more interesting than listening to Michelle blast Sean and Christian over their questionable ethics and clientele. Word of advice Michelle: get used to it!
Also in "Blu Mondae"
No other patients of the week aside from Blu Mondae/Ashley Wednesday and Alex Coffee. Christian managed to talk Mitchell out of having surgery.
Christian (re being gay): "I don't play for your team"
Arthur: "That's what they all say at first".
We learned that Mitchell was married at 16 but we didn't learn whether or not Arthur deliberately sabotage the marriage or whether something else did.
Kimber (re therapists): "Stay away from them, Matt"
Matt: "Too late"
Kimber: "Sorry".
Blu (re Mitchell): "I'm very big with the bi guys".
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Blu Mondae (spelt Blue Monday) the name of a New Order song?
Sean: "Are you ready?"
Alex: "Anything to improve my love life".
For those of you wondering why Kimber can afford Scientology and her pad, I suppose it comes to the money she made from her porn career. Not too sure about the auditing part though.
Matt (to Kimber): "I never had a choice, how could I not see that?"
With Mr Alderman in jail, I wonder if we'll get an update on Ariel or Cherry in the near future.
Kimber (to Christian): "How much pain do you think you need to cause me before I've had enough?"
Michelle (to Christian): "You're telling me you're doing this slut for free?"
Sean: "Come on, Christian. We said no more boob jobs for blowjobs".
The stripper in this episode played a stripper in Charmed with her client being Cole Turner, played by Julia McMahon. Coincide or what?
James (to Michelle): "I'm not even gonna count it, that's how much I trust you".
Chronology has been over a week since "Cindy Plumb".
Sean: "So we've decided on a name, I mean?"
Julia: "Connor McNamara, it's a good strong name, isn't it?"
Standout music: "Lunatico" by Gotan Project and "Shame" Evelyn Champagne.
Not quite as magnificent as the opening episode, mainly due to bad behaviour by some of our people and a banal title patient, "Blu Mondae" primarily works on developments regarding Matt, Kimber and Michelle. This season is in better shape than last year and I like the feeling that we're going somewhere too.moreless
