Episode Report Card Daniel: C | 646 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT It's Time To Switch To Whisky, We've Been Drinking Beer All Night
By Daniel | Season 3 | Episode 8 | Aired on 2007.02.14
Desmond and Penny get into place, with Penny telling Des to take his coat off, what with all the palm trees at the marina. The photographer snaps the picture, and Penny hands over five quid while Desmond walks away, fixated on the photo, which took all of about two seconds to develop. "I couldn't go through with this," he says to himself. "What was that?" asks Penelope, joining him. He looks at her: "I can't do this." Can't do what, Penelope wants to know. "Us. This. This relationship," says Desmond. Penny has no idea what he's on about, and Desmond starts yammering about how he can't look after her: "I haven't got a job. I don't have any -- I can't even afford five quid for a bloody photograph. You deserve someone better," he says. God, please stop whining, Desmond. You turned down a job. Penny has a job (I think?). She certainly has money. She doesn't need to be taken care of. I can't figure out if this is Desmond being actually unable to stop what happens, or if this is him just giving in to the idea that he can't stop it from happening. Penny says she knows what she deserves, and that she chooses to be with Desmond. "I love you," she says. "Love's not enough. Being a good man is not enough," says Desmond. Penny just wants to know where this is coming from. "It's all happening too soon -- you moving in. You're painting rooms; you're changing things. I don't even like red," he says. Maybe it's just Desmond's fate to be a commitmentphobe? He asks why she'd leave her expensive flat, and fortunately she finally slaps him, because she thinks he's pretending not to care: "Don't you dare rewrite history," she snaps, reminding out that she left her flat because he was too proud to live there. I keep waiting for the photographer to tiptoe up and ask them to move their lover's spat further down the river because they're killing his couples business.
Penny's fighting back tears: "If you want me to go -- if you want me to leave -- then don't make this about what I do or don't deserve. And have the decency to admit that you're doing this because you're a coward." But Desmond can't even do that; he just stares at her for about five hours before he says, "I'm sorry, Pen, but this -- we're not supposed to be together." Oh, and there are the tears. I'm sorry, I just can't get into this. I hate television shows in which bad things happen to people simply because they're too busy pissing and moaning and not doing things they need to do to be happy. Jim and Pam, are you listening? Penny walks away, wiping her face. Desmond stares at the ring he should have given her, instead of throwing it into the Thames, as he does here. I realize he didn't pay for it or anything, but that's just a waste! Nice underwater perspective of the ring hitting the river and sinking, though. I guess if he needs to find the ring later, Charlie'll be some help.