Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT "I'm Sorry That You Suck So Much."
By Jacob Clifton | Season 4 | Episode 12 | Aired on 09.01.2008
Celia asks Iz to leave her alone with Dean for the next set of apologies; it's like pulling teeth. Awesomely, Celia gives Isabelle a curtsey as she's leaving, physically hilarious and very Edina/Saffron in a way. That's probably my favorite bit in the entire episode, that little curtsey, because it so nails the character and the moment. Celia sits down on the ottoman and breathes deeply. "I'm sorry for being married to you without ever once -- I mean, not even for a moment -- being sexually attracted to you. I'm sorry every time we had sex I fantasized about other men. I'm sorry the sight of your naked body repulsed me to the point that I was forced to stray..." Dean points out that his ex-wife is being an asshole, but she keeps going. "I'm sorry I had children with you, sorry I made a life with you, that my hatred of you..." He finally stands up: "Enough!" She protests that she's just getting started, but here's the entire point: "Fuck your apologies."
She's so lost she doesn't even see the game she's playing, using her own fake journey to inflict even more damage than usual. He tells her to go to Quinn, whom she hasn't even seen in two years: she's the one that needs the apology. But Celia doesn't even know where her daughter is. I mean to say that the saddest thing in the world is being so fucked up you don't know where your child lives. I could miscarry right here. "Quinn is in Oaxaca, with a guy named Rudolfo," Dean says to Celia's hilarious disgust, "Find Quinn and make things right. Vaya con dios." The idea of Celia doing an Ugly American bitch take on Romancing The Stone is intoxicating, although I'm still obsessing on the idea of Celia becoming a self-help lesbian and running around instructing people on their use of "pussy" as a pejorative and constantly smudging them with sage and sweetgrass. I am so into that possibility.
Drugs on the table, as they say on The Wire: a press conference with a table full of guns and contraband, surrounded by the DEA team and feds, Esteban, and his Municipal Police. The speech is short and to the point: this is a story about how we all worked together, internationally cooperating to bring gun-runners and drug smugglers to justice; there's a Bushy kind of tag about how we will find you, we will get you, we will prosecute and punish you, and then it's over. He heads out through the crowd, smiling brilliantly and waving, but the second he sits down in the limo with Cesar, his face changes one hundred percent to scary mob boss. He is totally frightening! Cesar hands him something, pages, and Esteban asks what it is. They have an associate in the Police who knows somebody with the feds, who knows somebody in the DEA, who got an interview transcript with the informant. So in a way, the speech was true: all three agencies did work together to prosecute a rulebreaker. It's just that the rules they broke were dark-hearted. "You have my permission to read me that very carefully," Esteban says, "Then do what you need to do." Cesar almost smiles, and they drive.