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Nip/Tuck Season 3 Episode 6

Frankenlaura

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7.9

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 10/25/05

Sean and Christian visit a mortuary where an employee created a woman from body parts of other women. They operate on a German woman. Sean is at a gathering of people over 65, trying to sell them some procedures. Gina and Julia are in business together.

Fan Episode Reviews (19)

Head-shaped box

9.0

By napen, Nov 12, 2008

Y qué si mi sueño es tan loco? Qué? No puede ser real por simplemente no ser considerado normal? Normal por esta sociedad horrorosa? Y a mí que m*** me importa? Me recontra c*** en esta sociedad del o***. Yo quiero estar con ella. Y en un mundo justo no tendría ningún problema en conseguirlo.

Que Dios no quiere que yo haga esto? No existe p****!!!! No existe!!!! Y un humano como vos y como yo no es quien para andar diciéndome que c*** debo hacer, si puedo amarla como yo quiero. Quién sos? Quién m*** te crees que sos? Morite.moreless
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De La Bleh!

5.5

By maxpower03, Feb 08, 2008

The surgery cases on Nip/Tuck usually work when there's an element of relativity to each scenario. For instance, Trudy Nye's domestic abuse, or Ellie Harkness' fight against her husband's Alzheimer's. The problem with Silas Prine in Frankenlaura was that (hopefully, hee!) nobody can relate to him. Outside of the fact that the Frankenstein story was both needlessly gross and nasty, Silas fails to gain any type of emotion from the audience. The parallels between him and Sean were also pretty non-existent. It's as if the writers needed to come up with some kind of purpose for him, and grasped at straws for this one.

Elsewhere, Julia's business venture seemed like a desperate attempt to give her something to do. Sean's verbal smackdown of her failings was low, but Julia's been such a pain in the ass recently that it was pretty welcome. Gina returned, nastier than ever. Gina's slowly becoming a caricature of her past self, which is disappointing to see. It would have been nice to see her as the confident, refreshed businesswoman glimpsed in her first scene this episode but, of course, then she went back to being a self-destructive ho. Shame.

Season three is definitely darker than anything Nip/Tuck has done before. The problem is that the writers seem to think "getting darker" means everything has to be depressing and bleak for the characters. It's not fun to watch Sean and Christian face a financial crisis, and it's certainly not entertaining to see Sean slicing up a corpse, and burning the severed head. What were they trying to say with this episode? Who knows? It just plain blew.

Director: Michael M Robin

Writer: Hank Chilton

Rating: Fmoreless
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A cheesy title like that should have given it away, but this is probably the worst episode of the entire series.

6.5

By Tim_Bronx, Sep 17, 2006

McNamara/Troy is low on money, so they decide to take on a job reconstructing dead bodies for cremation. This isn’t a normal job though, as they have to first deconstruct a body made out of different body pieces that a sick cremator put together, then stich on those body pieces to their rightful owners. The rest of the gory details are too much for me to type.

The highlight of this episode was Gina and Julia opening a business together. Like Christian and Sean they make an unlikely partnership, but somehow it just works. I thought their presentation to the doctors was well-structured and professional, and I was a bit disappointed that Sean and Christian dismissed the proposal so quickly.

I thought it was very admirable of Liz to quit the practice to help save money for Sean and Christian. Her witty repartee during the surgeries will be missed, but at least she’s not completely out of the picture as she has been hired to work for Gina and Julia’s spa De La Mer.

Sean, surprisingly, has decided to quit the practice. While he has done this a couple of times in past episodes, this time it felt much more permanent, as if Sean really has just grown exasperated with the shallow work he performs. Sean became a doctor to help people, and I hope he will be able to pursue that goal now.

Final Notes and Quotes

- Character Tidbits: Liz has been working at McNamara/Troy for nine years.

- Julia: “I’ve been very impressed by your negotiating skills, Gina."

And what negotiating skills those are. So much for Gina’s quest for dignity.

- Outstanding Performance of the Week: Ehh, well, that cremator was very creepy.

- Liz: “How about one last insult for old time’s sake?”

Christian: “I’ll call you when I come up with one.”

Liz: “I can’t wait.”

Final Rating: Coming off of such an excellent episode last week, I was very disappointed. 1 out of 4 stars.

- Tim Bronx

Find this and many other reviews at: www.motionpicturereviews.commoreless
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The worst episode ever of Nip/Tuck. But it isn't that awful.

6.5

By MistaC87, May 18, 2006

I want to enjoy this episode, but I can't. This episode was really a brand new low for "Nip/Tuck", the most redefining series on television. I love this show with all my heart, but everything has to have a low point somehow. This is it. Granted that the season does get better, the storyline in this episode deals with nicrophelia, which is absolutely disgusting and downright wrong, and even if it's potrayed that way, the basketball has gone out of bounds for this episode.

But you got to hand it to Gina, the HIV-Infected Sex Addict, gives hilarious comic relief and saves the episode from being an absolute disaster. I love the seqeunce with everyone coming out of the port-a-pottys, and soon Gina steps out and she has been giving sexual favors to EVERYONE. I also enjoyed the song selected for the scene. It's one of my favorite songs. We also got to hear Radiohead in this episode. One of their best songs, too.moreless
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Dead Things

7.2

By queerlybeloved, Mar 24, 2006

Sometimes it's amazing how far a show can go off-track. An amazing first five episodes give way to this confused jumble of a script which tries to be shocking but is perhaps too extreme even for Nip/Tuck fans. After the initial broadcast of Frankenlaura, there were repeated cries of 'jumped the shark' by critics and fans alike who were just put off by the whole thing. I in no way believe this, as there are some interesting ideas contained within; I do however believe this is one of the most bizarre and unappealing episodes of a TV programme I've ever seen.

The episode begins in a mortuary, where Sean and Christian are asked to reassemble the bodies of four women who have had limbs cut off by the mortuary assistant- a man called Silas Prine- who has then created a woman a la Frankenstein. They initially refuse, Sean in particular uncomfortable about doing this work because the reputation of the business would be further tarnished (as if it's not suffering already from the accusations of Christian being the Carver). But after some very altruistic behaviour by Liz, who resigns her post knowing the financial hardship the business is going through, Sean compromises his high standards and they accept the job. The scene where Liz resigns is the best thing in the episode; a nice character moment that goes to show that, despite their antagonism, Liz and Christian really do care about each other. Whilst they are disassembling the woman, the mortuary owner announces that Prine is willing to talk to one of the doctors and possibly disclose who the head of the body belongs to. Sean goes to talk to Prine (in what can only be described as a rip-off and pale imitation of The Silence Of The Lambs) and it is revealed that the head of the body is that of Prine's sister, Laura, with whom he was having an incestuous relationship. The price of this knowledge is that Sean must agree to keep Laura's head for Prine so they can be together when he's released from prison. Sickened by this, as well as despondent about the state of the business (being reduced to touting for business at an old folks home) and smacked down by Julia who tells him all he is to her now is a parent to her children, he decides enough is enough. In mid-surgery (a facelift on an old woman, eighty if she's a day in my eyes), Sean downs tools and quits, leaving Christian to deal with the business with Quentin (who incidentally only gets one piss-poor scene in the whole episode). In an impressive if disturbing final sequence, nicely edited and again with good use of music, we see Prine assembling Frankenlaura whilst Sean removes Laura's head and cremates it.

The other storyline in the episode is the reintroduction of Gina. Last seen ill in a hospital bed after being diagnosed HIV positive, she now looks better but hasn't lost any of her sass (another strong and witty performance by Jessalyn Gilsig, doing the best with the lame material given to her). She is unnecessarily vicious to Christian who has to withdraw financial support from her, then proceeds to wheedle her way into Julia's confidence and gets Julia to agree to going into business with her. Together, they concoct an idea for a surgical recovery spa called De La Mer. When a suggestion to link business with McNamara/Troy falls flat, the sisters decide to do it for themselves and proceed anyway. Building work goes ahead as planned, with Gina providing sexual favours to the labourers in exchange for discounts initially unbeknownst to Julia (A montage of this happening is amusing but slightly tasteless at the same time). When a concrete supplier tries it on with Julia instead, she gets the idea and tells Gina that they need to get to the top by hard work rather than getting by on blowjobs- one of the rare occasions in the series that Julia makes sense. The initial pairing of Gina and Julia is an odd one, to be certain; a situation made even odder by Liz's uncharacteristic decision to leave McNamara/Troy to go and work for De La Mer.

So with the parting of the ways, a lot of questions are left open at the end of the episode. What will Sean do next? How will the spa fare? Why exactly should we care and who the hell agreed this terrible script? Clunky, moralistic in places and just not that good, it's a bad effort by credited writer Hank Chilton (He does go on to redeem himself later in the season, though). Generally uninspiring direction and an air of this being a filler after the excitement of the first five episodes marks this as unquestioningly the worst episode of the series for me. But hey, here's the silver lining... it can only get better from here. Right?moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Dylan Walsh	Dr. Sean McNamara
Julian McMahon	Dr. Christian Troy
John Hensley	Matt McNamara
Roma Maffia	Dr. Liz Cruz (Season 2+)
Bruno Campos	Dr. Quentin Costa (Season 3)
Kelly Carlson	Kimber Henry (Season 3+)

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Rosemarie Belden	Dagmar Hansen-Tagen	Guest Star
Alejandro Furth	Concrete Delivery Man	Guest Star
Lois Hall	Mrs. Ogulvie	Guest Star
Linda Klein	Nurse Linda	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (0)
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QUOTES (7)
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- Christian: I just don't see what you bring to the business, Gina. Happy endings for anyone who jumps on a massage table?
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- Silas Prine: (to Sean) Isn't plastic surgery just giving people the opportunity to put off their decay?
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- Liz: (to Christian, after she resigns) How about one last insult for old times' sake, huh?
  Christian: (hugs her) I'll call you when I come up with one.
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- Christian: I haven't struck out like this since there was a rumour I had genital warts.
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- (as they reattach limbs to the dead bodies)
  Sean: Why doesn't this haunt you?
  Christian: Because they're dead. They don't feel anything. Look, its a terrible, horrible thing that this sicko did but this is just rotting flesh. They're not people anymore. And if they ever had a soul or a spirit or whatever that is, it's not here. They're gone.
  Sean: I'm sorry but I see people here. They lived their lives and they died too young and they deserve respect and dignity.
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- Sean: Christian, I keep trying to put the pieces of my life together, repair what's broken. Julia, Matt, this business. I can't. Everything I cared about at one time is dead. It's time I just stopped fighting the inevitable and let it all rot.
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- Sean: Look at her. She's practically a corpse. We can't perform on her. She needs a feeding tube, not a facelift!
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NOTES (4)
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- International Air Dates:
  Czech Republic: September 10, 2008 on TV Nova
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- Music featured in the episode:
  "Season of the Witch" by Donovan (Sean and Christian perform neck surgery)
  Instrumental (Gina and Julia talk about investing in an abandoned hotel and decide to open a post surgery spa)
  "Everything in its right place" by Radiohead (Sean and Christian perform disassembling surgery)
  "How we do this" by The Brand New Heavies (De La Mer gets renewed by Julia and Gina)
  Instrumental (Sean discusses with Prine about Laura)
  "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." by Sufjan Stevens (Prine has a dream sequence in which he is with Laura; Sean cremates Laura's head)
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- Jessalyn Gilsig has been added to the opening credits and during this season is a full cast member.
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- Although listed in the opening credits, John Hensley and Kelly Carlson do not appear in this episode.
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- The title of this episode is a reference to the movie "Frankenstein". In this 1931 film an obsessed scientist creates a living being from parts of exhumed corpses.
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