Grid Effect

This episode, like so many others trudged out the same plot points and hammered them home again and again because of the series’ unwillingness to bring in and keep new characters.

In case you weren’t aware, Sean is up to his neck in mid-life crisis and is now actively trying to sleep with girls not yet legal to drink alcohol and, in some instances other age based activities. He ends up sustaining a small heart attack having sex (or some variation thereof) with Eden at one of the actors parties. No word yet as to whether or not he loses his practice.

Christian, meanwhile has morphed into the responsible one. Forcing Kimber to leave Matt for porno-industry demanded elective surgery. Thus rendering the young methhead a sobbing stump of uselessness. Christian, for better or worse, throws his coffee at Matt and tells him to get his shit together. This is the type of development we needed to see, if not for our sake then for the sake of the actors who have to be tired of working the same angles with all of the same characters. Instead of coddling Matt, Christian gets rid of his soul-sucking wife tries to veer him down the right path.

Of course, this is counter-intuitive because Matt’s emotionally unstable at the moment. And while trying to cook up his own stash, he lights himself on fire and runs out of his motel ala Richard Pryor only to jump in the pool from his second floor room. The episode ends with the camera on him floating in the water, presumably unconscious. Considering he’s in the previews for next week, it seems reasonable to assume that Matt makes it out alive.

Julia confronts Eden about her inappropriate behavior with her ex-husband that she always treated like shit. I guess if anyone is always going to use and manipulate Sean to their advantage, its going to be Julia. They have a heated little confrontation while Eden is in a two-piece (naturally) and things are left open-ended.

No word yet as to whether or not they’re making a cameo.

And finally, this weeks patient was presumably an old senile man who claimed to have been abducted by aliens. He’s wheeled in by a rail thin woman claiming to be his daughter, and their for exploratory surgery to have a tracking device removed from his back. He claims his daughter is heavy-set…And to no one’s surprise, when a woman comes in a couple days later after they release him in the custody of his “daughter”, a heavy set woman comes in claiming to be Dr. Lee’s actual daughter and wondering what anyone would want with her poor, penniless father. Out of options, they’re delving into X-Files territory now.

Really, we can’t conclude what’s more out of place the alien abduction plot on Nip Tuck or the murder plot on Friday Night Lights (to give you some impression of how ill-advised the FNL’s decision was). The episode opened up a decent story with Matt being without his kid and his beloved, drug-addicted whore wife by his side. We know from the “future” episode that he turns out to be a doctor, so we’re not all that concerned about him. It’s the journey that matters, or at least in this case, it has to.

Back with a recap review of the phenomenal Extras series finale today or tomorrow, depending on how the rest of the day goes.