Episode Report Card Alex Richmond: F | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Double Indemnity, Dammit
By Alex Richmond | Season 5 | Episode 20 | Aired on 05.12.2002
Court. Helen is on the stand, speaking softly and with trepidation. She admits that she "needed Helena," since she was "borderline agoraphobic." She says she could never even have made it out the door, or met her husband Beard, without Helena. She "was Helena by day, and Helen by night. It seemed a healthy balance, in a strange sort of way." Wow, DEK is a master of subtlety, no? He's never written a character as complex as this before: all his characters are one-note blunders; neurotic, messy, all one thing and unable to change or commit to any other way of being. It's why Ally dumped Victor. It's why Fish can't find anyone to love him. It's why John left. DEK can't write characters any more complex than those in a Cathy cartoon. It's not in him. But a Jekyll and Hyde thing, he can pull off. With the help of Kyra Sedgwick. Anyway, Helen says her dualities used to be more integrated, but then she got blackouts and memory losses. She realized Helena was taking over. And though she loves her husband, and "loves being in love with him," she's "happier and healthier as Helena." Ally stammers, "Wh-wh-what?" John stands up, asks to approach, and asks Helen to read something off a piece of paper. She can't. John says that it's Helena masquerading as Helen, since Helena is farsighted and needs reading glasses. Oy. John asks that the record reflect that Helena is lying under oath, and asks rhetorically whether this is a person we want the court to protect. Liza and Fish object. Helena becomes obvious to the eye, as she adopts a steely gaze and tight lips. She starts hissing at John, that "this has never been easy" and that she isn't "having fun," being unaware where she was the night before and unsure of how she got from the law office to court: "Helen has no social skills. She is dysfunctional!" The music holds an ominous chord. Helena goes on: "I have a life here! Why won't you let me live it? There's a reason I've become what I am, for god's sake!" Woo! And, what is that reason? I'd really like to hear it. But, we don't get a chance to, as the scary scary music fades, and Helen asks for a chance to be heard. Oh, by all means. This hearing is not at all a sham or a joke. Go right ahead, timid lady. Helen admits, "I'm not prolific professionally or socially, but, I have my poetry and painting and my husband, and I won't apologize for it. She has no right to take me away from it. No right." So, only women can "take away" their own "right" to work, or choose not to work? Women are doing it to themselves, without any input from the other gender? Because the CHOICE NOT TO WORK is a self-determined thing? Fuck you, DEK. The piano is sad. Me? Furious.