Episode Report Card Mr. Sobell: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Shaun Gone? Yawn.
By Mr. Sobell | Season 1 | Episode 8 | Aired on 07.28.2007
John and Cass have completed their little adventure as well. "You will find our tape in your room," says John. "I will see you at Barry's motel, Cass. We do not remember my Father's words." Judging by the zombified expression on Cass's face, I doubt she'd have much luck remember her Social Security Number right about now. When she turns to face him, John is gone. So: was he really there, or just a figment of Cass's addled imagination? Is he live or is this Memorex? Will I stop with the questions any time soon? Possibly?
Cissy walks into the room where Mitch goes to hide when he hasn't gone to hide somewhere else for three episodes now -- please do not take that observation as a complaint. Anyhow, the only person irritated by Mitch's continued absence is Cissy, who, after taking a drag of her morning cigarette and a sip of her morning beverage, starts trashing the place like she's a drummer for The Who. Down come the mystic knick-knacks! Crash go the wind chimes! Thump go Mitch's doubtlessly patchouli-scented garments! Then, to add cancer-causing insult to injury, Cissy walks up and blows smoke into a tiki-looking wood carving. Similarities between this and the "My Weird Buddy" montage where John trash-talks the tiki-looking carving are purely unintentional, I'm sure. Meanwhile, Cissy takes time out of her busy schedule of smashing her husband's prized possessions into pieces to call up Dickstein and announce that she wants a divorce. And then it's back to smashing -- that dog-eared copy of Levitation For The Illuminated gets an especially fierce going-over, I'm afraid.
You know who else isn't having a really good morning? Freddy, whom we find muttering in his sleep, and then tossing and turning, before finally bolting awake with a start. The clamor brings in a BVD-clad Palaka, which is not the first thing anyone should have to clap eyes on when they wake up, ever. Palaka wants to know if Freddy had a bad dream. "Breakfast," Freddy snarls, amid gasps for breath. "I'm all over that," says Palaka. "I'll convey that much right now." A simple "Good idea" will suffice, my man.
We may not remember our Father's words, but Cass certainly seems to remember that bit John told her about finding the tape back at the hotel room, because she rushes in, flips on her camera, wakens her MacBook, and finds footage of a smiling John sitting in front of a black background with that circle/stick figure symbol that's been popping up lately. (Attentive viewers will recognize it most recently as the stick figure Dickstein drew in the cement at the end of the last episode.) Cass gasps, puts on her headphones, and watches the video with mounting horror and dismay -- emotions I'm sure we'd all share if we were shown the video too. Excuse me, Mr. Milch? Over here, please! We were wondering, sir, if you might clue as in as to what's got Cass so upset. No dice? Okay, we'll just sit here quietly then until you get around with it. I'm sure it will keep until later.
Back at that café where we are spending far too much time lately, Dwayne sits at his ever-present computer. Through no fault of the actor playing Dwayne, I have come to despise this character because I view him as taking valuable screen time away from characters I'm actually interested in and who've had the good fortune to be on this show from the beginning. Characters like Linc, who's having coffee with Tina, who has not been here since the beginning and yet is more interesting and more critical to the storyline than Dwayne is. Sorry, Dwayne, buddy. In another show, perhaps we could be friends. Anyhow, Linc and Tina are having themselves a heart-to-heart. Linc starts: "I realize...um...that bullshit yesterday with Stinkweed...I was making them take me out. Which is connected to the greater mystery of why in the hell I'd be hanging around without trying to close Shaun's deal." Tina speaks for all us when she asks what the solution to the mystery is. After some self-conscious stammering, Linc fesses up -- he couldn't close the deal because he was trying to protect Shaun. "From myself. And then this morning, I wake up...you're just laying there beside me. Like an angel." Tina appears suitably flattered, so Linc continues: "If someone is watching, and they're letting me keep operating, even with the inkling that I'm not the...greatest...guy in the world, maybe they want me to sign him." As far as theories go, the well-I-haven't-been-struck-dead-by-a-vengeful-God-or-gods-yet thesis that Linc seems to be formulating isn't the worst I've heard; it certainly beats the hell out of any ones-and-zeroes-based philosophies I've heard espoused lately. And Tina seems intrigued by it, too: "Would that go for me? I mean...that they'd let me be operating too. Seeing Shaun. Sticking around." "In my opinion," Linc says, "definitely." "You win one free fuck," Tina purrs. Dwayne, who has been sort of eavesdropping on all this, looks vaguely stricken, but it's not because the suddenly intimate turn of the conversation has embarrassed him or because he's worried about what these two have planned for Shaun; rather, it appears to be a message that arrived mid-conversation. "I'm afraid," he says to Jerri the waitress. Well, by all means, do not show us what it is that has Dwayne so afraid. That might be too much excitement for me to bear.