Nip/Tuck

Monica Wilder

Season 4, Episode 3, Aired 9/19/06

Episode Summary

Sean and Julia are looking for a nanny. Sean wants to turn to Christian for support after his hidden desires are revealed. But, Chistian is pre-occupied with his own worries about being too fat.

8.9

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Cast & Crew

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Dylan Walsh

Dr. Sean McNamara
Julian McMahon

Dr. Christian Troy
John Hensley

Matt McNamara

Fan Episode Reviews (14)

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We\'ve seen all this before...

6.5

"Fair"

By goddessandra, Dec 07, 2006 Report Abuse

Christian having sex 24/7? Sean cheating on Julia and lying about it? Christian being overly superficial? Liz being let go? Haven\'t we seen all this before?
I do like the handicapped baby storyline, and the best bit in the whole episode was when Conor was born (Joely Richardson is a great actress). Other than that though, nothing interesting happened. Too much time was spent on Christian being obsessed with his body and Sean woodenly worrying about the baby. Instead I wish they would concentrate on the character relationships more and give us something new. Surely by Season 4 the two main characters should have changed and individual episodes should be going to different, new places? No matter what happens to Christian and Sean--murder, heartbreak, loss-- they revert back to the people they were in the first episode. Matt is the only character who has changed since we first met him, but his changes aren\'t explored enough. What happened with Ariel and her Dad? Why is Kimber suddenly acting like she had a lobotomy? The new owner storyline is also something that annoys me....I ain\'t happy with season 4 so far.moreless

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This episode shows That there are a lot of trust issues between the characters.

8.0

"Great"

By XxXDestinyXxX, Oct 24, 2006 Report Abuse

This episode was a very special one because it showed us all the underlying trust issues between the characters. There was Sean who slept with the potentail night nurse when he was on thin thin thin ice with Julia as it was, he cheated on her when he promised that he never would again. That was very selfish thing to do. Then with Christian, he went to get lipo while baby connor was being born, granted Christain had no idea when Connor was going to be born, but he woluldnt even take the pager to find out. This episode showed that all is definetly not well in the Macnamara/Troy officemoreless

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Sleeping With The Enemy *SPOILERS*

8.3

"Great"

By queerlybeloved, Oct 06, 2006 Report Abuse

'Monica Wilder' seems to be a very important episode in terms of season story arcs; there's a lot going on in a very short space of time. Just a shame it doesn't feel like an important episode.

Reeling from seeing a sex tape leaked on YouTube (way to ride the zeitgeist, guys), Christian asks Sean to give him lipo. Sean refuses, his head too far away with Conor's birth imminent and trying to find a night nurse for him. At the gym, Christian meets a young plastic surgeon called Dr. Mike Hamoui (Mario Lopez of Saved By The Bell fame) who is in tip-top physical condition but is even more narcissistic and self-absorbed than Christian- if you can imagine such a thing! Their scene together in the shower plays like a soft-core porn film initially but has a deeper vein of humour and satire attached. Meanwhile, Julia and Sean are interviewing nurses that have been referred to them by Nurse Linda (finally having more to do in this episode than just hand out surgical implements). Monica Wilder is a young girl from Akron who's moved to Miami, looking for work. The interview goes well and Julia asks Sean to drop Monica back as it has started to rain. The two of them bond quite well on the journey over and they end up checking into a motel and having sex (all to the rather bizarre soundtrack of 'Wonderwall' by Oasis).

Since when did Sean start acting like Christian? This seems to be completely out of character for Sean and I do question the writer's motives with this. But afterwards, Sean is wracked with guilt, suggests that they can't hire Monica but offers to sort out her nose for free. This really jarred with what we know from before. Monica isn't Megan O'Hara, nowhere near her and the connection she and Sean have is not a patch on what he had with Megan. Plus she seems like a bit of a psycho. In the scene in the motel afterwards, I definitely got a bunny-boiler vibe from Ms Wilder. Maybe this'll come back to bite Sean in the ass? Would be interesting.

If this isn't enough, there's the whole confrontation between Liz and Michelle. Liz tells Michelle she saw her with the woman in the parking lot (at the end of 'Blu Mondae') and offers a sympathetic ear in case Michelle's having issues with her sexuality. Michelle freaks out and, to try and cover her own ass, decides to try and fire Liz on the grounds of sexual harassment. The scene in the office following this is extremely well-written and perfectly performed by both Sanaa Lathan and Roma Maffia. Realising that sacking Liz may well start an insurrection at the office, Michelle is persuaded to keep her on. At this point, Christian nips off to Dr Hamoui's for some lunchtime lipo, and Sean heads home to help Julia interview another potential night nurse.

This one's a little different: Mr. Sawyer (The Station Agent's Peter Dinklage) is not only male, but has a form of dwarfism too. Whilst he seems to unnerve Sean by asking why he wants to change Conor's appearance before he's even in the world, Julia finds some kind of connection there and, after Conor is born via caesarian, offers him the job. It's a nice moment between the two and Peter Dinklage's scene is a joy. It'll be good to see him more and his relationship with Julia grow. After the birth of the baby, the family gathers round but Annie sees Conor's deformed hands and freaks out. Christian turns up late, having missed the birth, and has to admit to Sean that he's had lipo elsewhere. Is this the thin end of the wedge between the two guys? Perhaps. It's a good episode, not great though, but I think it will prove to be very important as the season goes on.moreless

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A glaring error, and refuting the first trivia entry about the Youtube video of Christian.

8.8

"Great"

By tperambo, Oct 01, 2006 Report Abuse

I have one small question. Dr Mike Hamoui, played by Mario Lopez, says he drives a Ferrari Diablo........ What the hell is that? I think the directors, or scriptwriters, or whoever, meant to have him say Lamborghini Diablo, which I believe is what Christian was driving at the beginning of the episode, or a Ferrari of some model. From a show that is one of my new favorite shows, this is a sloppy error. I also think that the awe Christian shows is not due to the fact that he didn\'t know the video had been made, but over the fact that it was on the internet.moreless

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Births, Lipo And YouTube Written by Brad Falchuk Directed by Elodie Keene

8.0

"Great"

By shawnlunn2002, Sep 28, 2006 Report Abuse

Third episode into the fourth season of Nip/Tuck and things are beginning to get quite intense as this latest edition in Miami goes to prove.

Dealing with a first WTF moment of the week, Christian finds himself the butt of Liz and Nurse Linda's laughter when the gals are found laughing hysterically at a sexual tryst Christian had with a random, who was considerate enough to post their encounter on YouTube.

In what will go down as one of the laugh out loud until you hurt something moments on this show, Christian finds himself a lot more annoyed of the way his body is revealed rather than the fact some chick has breeched his privacy online, which doesn't earn him a crust of sympathy with viewers or Sean, who rightly tells him that it would be far more sensible to call a trainer rather than seek unnecessary surgery in the form of liposuction. Then again when in recent times has Christian taken sensible advice?

Well so far not anywhere this season and after a shower scene with a sexy younger plastic surgeon named Mike, played by former Saved By The Bell actor Mario Lopez. You can your slash minds at bay as the encounter has more to do with Christian admiring and wondering how Mike maintains his physique rather than a sudden sexual interest in men. Mike is a hot surgery talent with s big business but he's also every bit as vain and self-obsessed as Christian, if not dramatically more. This is a guy who openly gloats about the sacrifices he has made to keep his body the way it is and most of it isn't sensible as he then bangs on about how he isn't short of female admirers and the fact he believes obesity is a lifestyle. Granted some people are heavy and choose to do nothing to keep a sensible and healthy diet but there are plenty of people who do have trouble losing weight no matter what they try. In other words, it's not exactly a cut and dry situation but sadly Christian actually is a little too interested in what Mike has to say to the extent where he becomes a victim of his own bad ethics.

Christian's insecurity of his looks and how he is presented to the world isn't exactly a new issue, is it? Even Matt calls Christian out on his vanity and his atrocious treatment of women when Christian puts Kimber down in order to dissuade Matt from Scientology to which Matt further responses by asking Christian to stay away from him for the time being. Christian also incurs Sean's wrath by not attending Connor's birth and his lack of an apology, coupled with the reveal of Christian getting lipo from Mike only has Sean walk out of the hospital.

Sean is definitely on bad ground tonight as this episode still has him dealing with Connor having Ectrodactily quite badly. In the interviews for the position of the night nurse for the McNamara household, Sean deliberately took a backseat like stance, which Candidate Number One Monica Wilder easily picked up and used to her advantage when Sean had to drive her home in the storm.

Our title patient of the week, Monica had the potential to be a night nurse for Connor (the fact she made an effort to research Ectrodactily shows some kind of assertion), but that got squandered as soon as Sean had sex with her in a motel in one of the most unconvincing and contrived hook ups in the series' history. Basically this was the second WTF moment of the episode and I really have to ask is Sean cheating on Julie again really that necessary? I understood the thing with Megan in Season One (God, I miss that character) but this was too lame and you'd think that by having a friend like Christian you would've realised that having random sex won't make your problems won't go away and to be frank, Monica worries me.

Listening to her reactions over Sean deciding not to hire her as the night nurse and her conversation with Sean about a past sexual affair with an employer from Akron, I really get the feeling that Monica will become a stalker like problem for Sean and I mean in the Glenn Close kind of way too. Her entire mannerisms and body language gave me the vibe that she's a pretty unbalanced woman and Sean's attempt of a good deed by giving her a nose job did make him look like a hypocrite, which Christian picked up on and blatantly told to Sean's face as well. Even Nurse Linda was pissed off that Sean both didn't hire and screwed Monica.

Thankfully with Monica not hired as a night nurse, we got someone ten times much better for the job with the most wonderful piece of casting as Peter Dinklage plays a shrewd, no-nonsense night nurse called Mr Sawyer. He's the kind of man that most employees who love as his attitude is the kind needed for the job at hand. Note how he told both Sean and Julia that "handi-capable" was only a tip-toe approach to dealing with Connor's condition and that it's much better to face his Ectrodactily face to face.

Sean who is still having the biggest problem with Ectrodactily didn't like Sawyer's comment one bit but it was the kind of slap in the face he needed. Sawyer is like Ava and Kit in that way, except his advice is actually good and unlike Monica, having a disability himself, he knows what he's talking about. Also, although Julia remained non-vocal during the interview, it looked like she actually agreed with Sawyer more than Sean and I 100% agreed with Sawyer when he criticised Sean for wanting to perform surgery on Connor after he was born, the guy raised a good point about him. Thank God Julia actually had the sense to hire Sawyer a few minutes after she had given birth to Connor. Peter Dinklage is the kind of actor who deserves more than one episode on a show like this.

As for Connor's arrival, while the birth scene itself lacked a certain "oomph" as Julia's water broke and Sean assisted on delivering their son by a C-Section, in which Julia moved around quite a bit. Baby wise though, Connor is a cute little bundle joy even with the hands, which unfortunately was Sean fecking concentrated on. I felt like screaming "your child's got a disability, big deal it's not the end of the world" and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in that sentiment either. And Sean's woeful mishandling of the Annie situation last week had the now middle child of Julia's running when she saw her baby brother, to which Matt (yes, he's still likeable so far this season) went after her because unlike the adults in his life, he is now the mature one. The last scene with Sean and Christian looking at Connor had all the complicated strains that this show has excellently portrayed with these two men's friendship since day one and the last shot of Connor is a wonderful way of closing the episode as well.

However it doesn't close this review as when Liz isn't using Christian's weight issues as a source of amusement, which is fairness we needed tonight no matter how politically incorrect, childish or crude it was, we had Liz getting the wrong end of the stick and assuming that Michelle is secretly gay and offers her a shoulder to talk on. Tactless and unprofessional as that little confrontation may have been, I do think Liz had the best intentions when broaching the subject of Michelle's sexuality. Sadly for Liz though, Michelle views this as an affront and attempts to fire her, only for Sean to save Liz's bacon at the last minute. Christian despite his feelings for Liz really should've spoken up for her as well. As much I like Michelle and Sanaa Lathan whose performances are pretty good, trying to get Liz sacked is a major no-no in my book and if Michelle is so desperate to keep her secrets intact, then maybe trying to find a member of staff that the others love to bits isn't the best way of going about it. Neither Sean or even Christian were really convinced by Michelle's "sexual harassment" defence and Michelle did exceptionally behave suspicious that even an outsider would've deduced that she wasn't being totally honest with the lads.

Also in "Monica Wilder"

Patients of the week: Monica Wilder aside, we had another patient with two gastric bypasses, three surgeries to remove excess skin and now a panel removal. Yes, the issue of weight really did take priority in this episode.

Liz (to Christian): "This was posted on YouTube yesterday. It's gone viral in the last 24 hours. Your fat ass has been downloaded 6,000 times".

Contrary to popular belief, YouTube doesn't actually advocate porn, but it may take a month before Christian's "Naughty Doctor" is removed.

Christian (to Sean): "Now I have a very strong ego but when the whole city starts looking at you as if you're flawed, it's hard not to start believing".

Sean (to Christian): "I saw the video too, I think it's your ass you should start marking up".

Facts about Mike: He's 33, owns a successful plastic surgery that is on the verge of hiring a third associate and he also wears white and has a family with the nickname that translates into "the fats".

Mike: "Are you looking at my dick?"
Christian: "No, I'm looking at your ass".

Christian: "Sacrifices, you're a physical terrorist"
Mike: "But at least I don't have to wait to get to heaven to screw forty virgins". Matt called Christian an SP, which means a Suppressive Personality, Sean bought an electric car, Monica was told that she made love like an ugly girl and Sawyer has a degree in Restorative Art.

Liz: "You know I thought that having a woman run this place was gonna make a big difference but with you it's all espresso machines and fresh carpeting, Michelle. I am still working for a dick".

Michelle made point of Sean and Christian being a couple to win her argument and we learned that Liz was living with a man before she came out.

Mr Sawyer (to Julia): "Native Americans believe that if you look a child in their eyes the moment after it's born, you can see it's soul. When they hand your son to you, can you do that for me?"

Chronology another week since "Blu Mondae".

Sean (re Connor): "He didn't need you, I did"
Christian: "I know".

Standout Music: Oasis' "Wonderwall" for some odd reason.

"Monica Wilder" is certainly an interesting hour, in what is becoming a very interesting and intense season of Nip/Tuck. We're seeing new crises with both Sean and Christian with neither of them connecting with each other when they need. Hopefully this trend will change will as the season progresses.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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Trivia
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- Liz says that Christian's sex tape was on Youtube. This is almost impossible seeing as Yotube doesn't allow porn to be upload. It's possible that it may have been temporarely on Youtube, but the video would have been flagged and taken down before it reached 6,000 views or downloads, as Liz stated. Edit
- There is no way Christian could be unaware that he was being filmed. The video, as uploaded, was cut together from several different angles -- a few directly from the woman's point of view and one seemingly from his own. In the show, of course, he was more worried about how he looked in the video rather than the fact of its existence, but he did seem more or less thrown by it. Edit
- While viewing Christian's YouTube porn video, Liz mentions that the video has been downloaded 6000 times. Videos on YouTube cannot be downloaded and are available for online streaming only, so she probably meant "has been viewed 6000 times". Edit
Notes
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- Original International Air Dates: Norway: August 25, 2008 on TV3 Australia: October 27, 2008 on NineHD Czech Republic: December 3, 2008 on TV Nova Edit
- Peter Dinklage (Mr. Sawyer) and Sanaa Lathan (Michelle) were credited as "Special Guest Stars". At the same time, Lathan received the "And" credit. Edit
- Music featured in the episode: "He's the greates dancer" by The Sister Sledge (Sean and Christian talk about their new cars) "Le freak" by Chic (Christian and Matt meet at the gym) "Wonderwall" by Oasis (Sean is driving Monica back to her hotel) Edit
Quotes
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- (Sean and Julia interview Mr. Sawyer, a man with dwarfism, for the night nurse job) Julia: Have you worked with handicapable children before? Mr. Sawyer: Ooh. 'Handicapable'. That's like calling me 'height-challenged'. The worse thing you can do for your son is tiptoe around his condition. I speak from personal experience. Sean: Luckily, it looks like we're going to be able to reconstruct his hands with a series of surgeries. Mr. Sawyer: Can I ask why you've decided to operate before you've even met him? Sean: We feel it's his best chance to live a normal life Mr. Sawyer: OK, but don't you think it's important to hold his hand before you change it? Edit
- Michelle: (after trying to fire Liz) I won't stand for an employee feeling pressured sexually and that includes me. Liz: Since when is offering a kind ear to a co-worker considered sexual harassment? Michelle: You turned an innocent encounter I had with an old friend into a lurid sexual tryst. I won't work in an environment where I have to worry that every contact I have with a woman encourages your sexual fantasies. Liz: I am sorry if I offended you, and maybe I went too far, but I know what I saw Michelle: You saw what you wanted to see Liz: What is that supposed to mean? Michelle: It means that not everyone is gay, Liz. Edit
- Liz: You can't hide behind those slimming scrubs anymore, Superchub. I saw the tape. Christian: I don't think it's appropriate to discuss your new jerk-off material over surgery. Liz: Oh, I didn't masturbate to your sex tape, Christian. I am not a chubby-chaser. Edit
Allusions
ADD ALLUSIONS
- Liz: Looks like you screwed over one A/V nerd too many, hotpants. This was posted on YouTube yesterday. Info from the YouTube site: Founded in February 2005, YouTube is a consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience. YouTube has grown into an entertainment destination with people watching more than 70 million videos on the site daily. Edit