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As Michael promised last episode, he's already keeping a close eye on David through a mysterious man he has tailing him. The mystery man doesn't ever actually do anything. He just sits back in his car, staking out David's make-out session with a hot brunette. Makes me think the guy might just be a voyeur. This whole thing also makes me wonder if it's not just a diversion from the huge coincidence that Michael's ex-wife, Sydney's sister Jane, shows up this episode as well. She takes over as landlord of The Complex and starts trying to manipulate the tenants right away.
Ella gets blackmailed by Jane into making one of her clients, a well-known actress named Abby Douglas, wear a dress designed by Jane's boutique for a red carpet film premiere. Supposedly, Sydney had been forwarding e-mails from Ella to Jane, and those e-mails could establish motive for Ella to have murdered Sydney, so Ella complies where normally she would tell Jane to go die. She grins and bears it until Abby throws a fit at the premiere over the dress and demands Ella fix the situation. It takes her a moment, but Ella snaps back to her defiant self and basically tells Jane to take her dress and insert it in her anus. Jane vows vengeance.
David sees that Auggie is dealing with an understaffed kitchen while trying to get a promotion at Coal and asks to help out. He gets hired. Everything seems to be going fine until he spies his father-appointed stalker reporting back to Michael via cell phone. David flips and starts a fight in the restaurant with the guy, causing a huge and unnecessary scene. Auggie's boss, Marcello, doesn't appreciate it, fires David and throws him out. This costs Auggie his promotion. With friends like this...
Lauren falls deeper into the world of prostitution. She gets a call from her first customer, Toby, and agrees to meet him when he flies into town. At the agreed meeting place, she's met by another man, and thinking she's been given the bait and switch, she agrees to sleep with him. After the deed is done, she asks for her money and the guy plays dumb about the arrangement. He throws her into a wall before he leaves without paying and then has security approach her on her way out. It looks like Lauren is about to have her first brush with the law, but then a madam whose turf Lauren has encroached upon steps in to save her. She offers Lauren work, but what little pride is left in Lauren's whoring body leads her to deny being a hooker. After taking stock of what happened to her and the danger she puts herself in, Lauren decides to accept the offer of the woman.
Jonah and Riley attend the film premiere Ella was working on, too, and meet up with some important people. It turns out the director of the film is an old friend of Jonah's who Jonah regards as not being as talented as he is. He thinks the guy only caught his break from his connection to a certain agent. Riley manages to catch the attention of said agent and put Jonah's name in his ear. Everything's going fine until Riley gets a phone call from Violet. She's in jail and needs help. Riley excuses herself from the premiere to go help her -- much to Jonah's disbelief -- but it doesn't hurt their impression on the agent. He agrees to view Jonah's film anyway.
Violet lands in prison when she makes a dash from detectives who show up at her apartment to question her. She initially turns to Jane, hoping that her supposed blood relation will appeal to her, but Jane coldly opts to turn her in. Nobody answers their phone when Violet calls from jail. Riley answers and bails her out. Violet is now telling everyone -- including police -- that Sydney and her got to spend a joyful week together before Syd's murder, and that Sydney was delighted to learn she had a daughter. When Riley and Jonah take Violet in, she tells a sob story of how she was badly treated by her foster parents before she stole some of their money and ran away to Los Angeles. She cites this as her reason for initially running from police when they showed up just to question her. Yeah. Right. And I'm the queen of Melrose Place. Actually, now that I think of it...
David comes to find out that Jane is making Ella's life a living hell. He sees this as an opportunity to get his rebellion in for this episode. The files he has swiped from his father's computer contain info on Jane, because she's his ex-wife. Keeping tabs on your ex-wives is a must, I'm told. David's aware of incriminating evidence that supports Jane committed arson on her own boutique so she could collect insurance money. He uses this as leverage to get her off Ella's back. Ella's impressed and sleeps with David. I'm so disappointed in you, Ell. That's all it takes? Jane vows to do everything in her power as landlord to make their lives suck. Expect lots of ice-cold showers, guys.
Discuss this episode in our forums, then see why vloggers Val and Beth think the cast members look like Wii avatars in TV is the Answer!
Pablo G. is some guy who lives in San Antonio, Texas. Check him out at Space Monkeys!, Obscure Sports Reference, and follow him @PendejoJoe on Twitter.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We open on a couple making out in a car. It takes a short while before we see that it's David with a hot brunette in his Porsche parked in an alley. We see from a point-of-view angle the inside of a parked car staked out behind David's Porsche. A man is inside watching the make-out fest. The couple is oblivious, as the brunette claims she's never done this before. Psh. Whatever. A girl who looks like you probably makes out in your sleep. Drop the charges, Michelle! Anyway, David tells her she's good for her first time. They get ready to leave, and as David checks his mirrors, he notices the car. As they drive off, the stalker guy pics up his cell phone in a very stalkerish way. This guy's good.
At The Complex Pool, Lauren, Jonah and Riley are having themselves a little relaxation thing -- just shooting the shit, drinking and trying to look good doing it. A text comes in for Lauren from Toby, her first-ever customer, asking if she'd be interested in meeting up when he comes into town. She looks at the text while wrestling with the moral dilemma that comes with being a vagina rental place. David walks in on the pool party in time to see Lauren get the text and asks if it's a hospital emergency. Lauren jokes about having a drink in her hand, meaning she's not on call. Funny stuff there, Lauren. Violet shows up bragging about her new phone. She gloats like this is a commercial. It has a full slide-out keyboard! Jonah thinks Violet is crazy. I know! What do you need a slide-out keyboard for? Touch screen all the way, kids. But yeah, Jonah thinks Violet is a psycho wacko and tries to deter Riley from giving Violet her phone number. Riley ignores him and gives Violet the digits. Oh, Riley. Stupid, stupid Riley. Ella enters the scene and brings some information that actually sets shit in motion. It's like these characters have nothing to do until Ella shows up. She starts to talk shop with Jonah about an upcoming film premiere starring an actress named Abby Douglas. She offers passes to Jonah, but he's apparently already going because he used to be roommates with the director, Zach McGalvan. Riley perks up at the sight of her fiancée talking business with the woman who is so much better for him than she is. Riley tries to derail Ella's connection with Jonah, but Ella cats up on Riley, again pulling out the schoolteacher card. SCORECARD: Ella 2,437 - Riley 0. Riles is the Detroit Lions of The Complex. When she finally bests Ell, we're going to celebrate it like it still matters after years of futility. A woman walks up on the tenants' nautical good times. She introduces herself as Jane Andrews -- Sydney's sister. And she's inherited the building, making her their new landlord. Weak.
Watered down title card.
Jane walks around Sydney's apartment, looking around and taking in her dead sister's lingering aura. At least I think that's what's going on. I don't know what the hell she's doing. Ella comes in and gives condolences then segues immediately to inquiring about moving into Sydney's apartment. Even for Ella that's pretty cutthroat. Jane immediately knows she must be talking to Ella, based on Sydney's mention of her and her ways. Ella seems surprised that Sydney would've mentioned her to her sister and asks why she would have reason to talk about her. Syd forwarded Ella's hostile emails to Jane. Jane is implying Ella appears to have had motive to kill Sydney, but she does it in a way where it is so obviously a blackmail tactic instead of something she really believes. There's not the slightest hint of anger that she could be speaking to her sister's potential murderer. Her blackmail request is that she wants Abby Douglas to walk the red carpet at the film premiere in one of her personally designed dresses.
At Coal, Marcello walks into the kitchen and proceeds to argue with Auggie over a little food experiment of his. He says Auggie needs to stay focused on running the kitchen if he means to get a promotion. Enter David. He notices Auggie seems busy because a lot of servers have recently quit and offers to help out. He apologizes for being a bad friend when he started hanging out with Sydney. David catches Marcello's attention and tells him that he'd like to help out and that him and Auggie go way back. Marcello asks Auggie if he vouches for him. Auggie affirms. It's cool with Marcello, which is strange, since he had a problem with Auggie's recommendation of Violet two episodes back.
Speaking of Violet, back at her apartment some detectives show up at her door for questioning. She's all wet from a swim, so she excuses herself to put on some dry clothes. While the detectives wait around they start wondering her occupation. They guess future stripper, singer, actress or all three. Maybe the first one, guys. Violet is no singer/actress, that's for sure. As the two detectives joke around, they hear a noise coming from Violet's restroom. They go to make sure she's OK and find an empty room and an open window. Violet runs through the night.
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Lauren's sitting in her bedroom looking at a graduation picture of her with her mom while she talks on the phone with Toby. She's finalizing arrangements for their meeting when Ella walks in. Ella thinks she hears a date, but Lauren lies, saying it's just drinks with an intern. Still sounds like a date. Lauren says it's a female. This doesn't stop the bi-sexually bionic Ella's interest in the matter. Ella asks if the intern is hot. Lauren brushes her off and changes the subject to Ella being a great roommate who she'll miss if she decides to move out. Guilt trips don't work when they come from prostitutes, Lauren.
At the Love Nest, Jonah's editing some mundane footage. Riley walks up to him and he starts venting his frustration that he's stuck doing this while Zach is getting ready for his big premiere when he needed Jonah's help with his projects freshman year. He only made it big because he had a connection with Charlie Kitsus, a powerful agent, that he made by caddying for him at a golf course. It's not always what you know, Jonah, it's who you know, but in this case you suck on both counts.
At Ella's WPK office, her and Caleb are looking at the movie poster featuring Abby Douglas. I guess now's as good a time as any to tell you the movie is entitled Kensington Squared. I know... I know. They're going over the logistics of her upcoming premiere. When Caleb asks about what dress Abby will be wearing on the red carpet, Ella tries to sneak Jane's name by him. He's like, "Say who?" Ella starts to put some spin on it when Caleb cuts her off to ask if this is another one of her "undiscovered superstar[s]." Ella admits it is, but cites Jonah's success the last time she recommended someone. Caleb gives her the green light, but makes sure she's aware of the consequence of failure. *Throat slit*
Abby is in front of a mirror trying on Jane's dress as Jane helps with slight alterations and Ella mans her phone. Ella reassures Abby, who is being difficult, that she looks fine and that she's managed to secure her a one-page spread in W Magazine in that dress. It works and they leave Jane to clean up. She's cleaning, cleaning, cleaning when she's startled by Violet's reflection in a mirror. Violet tells her she's Syd's daughter, and the police are after her. She's the only family Violet has. They hug. Jane seems to immediately warm up to her, but after excusing herself she gets on the phone with the police and reports Violet as a fugitive. Cue Sister Sledge, please.
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Movie premiere at CINERAMA! Forget the celebs and paparazzi. How exciting is it to be at Cinerama!? Very. That's how exciting. Jonah and Riley walk up on the red carpet, obviously caught up in the excitement of their first time doing so. Riley says she'll stay by Jonah's side as long as it takes for him to make it to this point himself. An usher/security guy gruffly tells them to move along. Good watchin' out, gruff guy. We need you writing for this show.
Inside at Coal, Ella switches Jane's seating arrangement with Reese Witherspoon's at Abby's table. Abby just dodged a huge bullet. I wouldn't want to sit to Reese. David's there working and he begins to pry. He's noticed Ella bending over backwards for this Jane woman and wants to know what's going on. Ella talks about Jane having private files and emails on her. David flinches at the mention of private files now. MS Office encrypted files are a nightmare landscape for him after what he found on his dad's computer. Ella gets a phone call beckoning her to the premiere and excuses herself.
Lauren is off in some swanky hotel bar hookering or hooking or whatever you call it. She gets a call from Violet and ignores it. A guy who is definitely not Toby shows up at the bar and starts hitting on Lauren. She acts offended at his implying she can be bought, probably more as a reflex to the bait and switch she suspects is happening than anything else. The guy walks off while Lauren tries to figure out what just happened.
Back at the premiere Jonah and Riley are waiting around, trying to spot Zach. They finally see him and call him over. He looks thrilled to see Jonah and they hug. Zach asks what Jonah has been up to and Jonah sorta freezes until Riley jumps in and talks about the six-figure offer from Gary Sarling Jonah rejected. Zach seems impressed. He says Jonah will be directing Oscar flicks while he's stuck doing rom-coms. Jonah doesn't look so sure.
At Coal, Auggie is managing in the busy kitchen. His phone rings and it's Violet calling. He ignores the phone call. Even in the digital world, people disregard Violet. David's helping in the kitchen, though he's not supposed to. Marcello comes in and gives David crap for being in there, but Auggie steps in to protect him. Marcello lets it slide and leaves. From the kitchen, David notices his skilled stalker from earlier enter the restaurant.
Back at the red carpet, Ella gets a call from Jane and pretends her call is breaking up. Jane says Abby's been calling her non-stop, complaining about the dress. She decides she's going to head down to the premiere. Ell tries to talk her out of it, but Jane has made up her mind. Then, she tells Ella she hopes Abby isn't always so difficult. Ella's like, "...Why?" Jane says this won't be the last time Abby wears one of her dresses. They're partners now. Ella hangs up and stares off into the 5th dimension of disbelief dubbed by scientists as "Hell to the Naw."
Elsewhere on the carpet, Jonah spots Riley talking to Charlie Kitsus. Apparently, Riley has been talking golf with him. She seems to have made quite the impression, much to Jonah's surprise. Riley gets a call from Violet and excuses herself to actually answer it. Didn't see that coming. After Charlie gives a little advice to Jonah and starts to talk about Jonah's movie, Riley comes back and says she has to go. Jonah does a double-take and turns into his cartoony self. Charlie invites them to an afterparty but Riley insists she can't go. Jonah is in disbelief. "Jonah, Violet's in jail," she says in front of Charlie. Riley, when you finally gain some ground with me, you go and Riley it all up.
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Riley's leaving the premiere, and Jonah's following after her. He still doesn't understand why Riley has to go help Violet, whom he suspects probably belongs in prison anyway. Riley tries to calm him down. She assures him Charlie likes him and everything will work out if he just goes back in and lets her go help Violet. She drives off, and Jonah goes back in alone.
In an interrogation room, Violet sits at a table with our two familiar detectives. They start off with the obvious question: Why run if you're not guilty? Violet's reason is she's just afraid of cops. Slick. They present to her evidence of her fingerprints on the lanyard which she tried to give Sydney as a gift when she revealed she was her daughter. Why was she giving a gift to her new landlord, they ask Violet. She reveals to them she is Sydney's daughter, and lies about Sydney being happy about the whole thing. Detective Rodriguez asks Violet if she's ever been arrested. Negative. Then why is she afraid of the police? No answer.
Lauren is sitting by herself still trying to figure out what the hell just happened to her. She stares at her phone long enough to conjure a text from Toby, saying he missed a connecting flight. The guy from earlier returns to apologize for being so presumptuous, but then he turns right around and asks Lauren if she's "working tonight." She thinks for a second and tells him she is.
At Coal, Skilled Stalker is on the phone with Dr. Mancini, giving a report on David. The report is that David is surprisingly actually working the event. He hangs up and David suddenly appears from behind a pillar. He asks the guy to ask Dr. Mancini if he wants a lawsuit for his birthday. Stalker guy tries to leave, but David grabs him by the lapels and throws him across a table, causing a huge scene. David threatens to come after him and Michael if he has someone follow him again. Auggie and Marcello rush over to get in David's face about making a scene. Marcello fires him and kicks him out before David can say anything.
A limo arrives outside of the film premiere. Out steps Abby, looking none too happy with her dress as Ella and Jane meet her. Abby complains about a torn seam and demands another dress. Ella stands silent and blank for a few moments while the two women look at her and wait for her to do something. She's definitely staring into the 5th dimension again. She snaps out of it and tells Abby to get out of the dress. She has another in the trunk of her car. Jane flips, but Ella fights back. Her clients come first, she says. Jane says she hopes standing up to her was worth it. Ominous.
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In a nice hotel room, Lauren is getting her stuff together to leave after having slept with the guy she met in the bar. As she's making her exit, she casually asks for her money. The guy plays dumb. Lauren gets impatient and demands her money. He shoves her into the wall and tells her he doesn't owe her anything before leaving her there on the floor.
Auggie leaves Coal out the back door. David is waiting for him by his motorcycle in the alley. David apologizes immediately and thinks surely Marcello can't be holding Auggie responsible for David's actions. Marcello is holding Auggie responsible. Sucks to be David. David makes up a story about why the guy pissed him off, which is stupid because Auggie would probably be way more understanding if he told the truth about the situation. Instead, Auggie says David has never had to live with consequences. David answers back by saying he's just trying to help. Auggie asks if David wasn't trying to help Sydney the night she died. Ouch. Auggie speeds off on his motorcycle.
We're at the Love Nest. Jonah enters with obvious excitement. Riley asks about what happened with Charlie. Jonah says Charlie wants to see his movie, thanks to Riley winning him over. He hears a noise and asks if Violet is there. Jonah freaks out when Riley confirms Violet is indeed in their shower. "Aren't there scissors in there?" Jonah asks. Riley tries to calm Jonah down, but then it occurs to him that if Violet is there, she must've been bailed out. To curb the nag fest, Riley tells Jonah Violet is Syd's daughter. Double-take. Riley repeats Violet's fabricated story about a joyous reunion between her and Sydney leading up to Sydney's murder. Jonah's goofy ass is still stuck on the part about Violet being Syd's daughter. He puts himself in the audience of his and Riley's personal slasher flick and yells, "Hello, she's the killer!" as Violet walks up behind him. Violet doesn't react to Jonah and instead launches into her story about her adopted parents hurting her and making her want to run away. She stole some money from them when she left, which is why she ran from police. Jonah seems unconvinced after Violet's sob story.
Lauren is leaving the hotel bar when she gets stopped by security. It really looks like we've seen the end of Lauren's whoring days when a mysterious woman named Ms. Madison steps up and vouches for her. She gives off the impression of the hotel's resident madam. Ms. Madison pegs Lauren as a Craigslist or chat room misadventure, but Lauren denies the inference. The woman isn't exactly buying it and tells Lauren she only helped because she was once in the same predicament. When Lauren continues to play innocent, Madison threatens that hotel security will be the least of her worries if she comes back to solicit at the hotel.
Ella is standing by The Complex Pool in deep thought, staring at her reflection in the water. David arrives in the courtyard and asks why Ella isn't at the afterparty. She canceled the red carpet close-ups of the dress, she says. Her plan is to spread word about Abby hating the dress to make sure Jane never works in design again. David says that might not be enough to stop Jane and offers to take care of it for Ella. Conveniently, Jane was married to David's dad. He says he'll bury her with what he knows. Ella gets turned on over the delicious diabolicalness of it. They kiss. Ella invites him to go upstairs to work on that alibi of theirs. How romantic.
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Jane is packing up Sydney's stuff in her apartment. David walks in and immediately accuses her of blackmailing Ella. Jane plays dumb and says Ella was just being nice and helping her out. David accuses her of arson and cites information he gathered from his dad's files. He threatens to call her insurance company or the FBI. Jane says he's making a mistake. She still owns The Complex and will see to it that they all suffer. David says they'll take their chances against her landlord brand of evil.
At Coal, Marcello tells Auggie he's not getting a promotion. Auggie tries to apologize when Marcello tells him to save it. He doubts Auggie will ever be ready to run a kitchen. That sucks, I guess.
Lauren stands in her underwear in her bedroom, barely able to look at herself in the mirror. Giant bruises cover one of her arms from the spill she took when the guy shoved her. She's really becoming a hooker, guys. Wow. She picks up her phone and calls Ms. Madison to seek employment/guidance.
By the pool, Ella, David, Riley and Jonah are gossiping about Violet being Syd's daughter. Violet shows up and gives Riley a tray of peanut butter Rice Krispie treats as thanks. Ella jokes about them being poisoned right in front of Violet, which just adds another $2,000 to how much I'm willing to spend on her engagement ring. They're all hesitant to be the first one to try the potentially poisoned treats. David takes the plunge and everyone follows suit except for Ella. David and Ella scoot off together as Violet subtly sneers at Ella. Ella tells David she got an email from Jane saying all's forgiven. Whatever he did was amazing, she says, but last night was just a one-time thing. He asks if she didn't have a good time. "I always have a good time."
Detective Rodriguez gets a call from Jane incriminating Ella in Sydney's murder. She says she can send them proof she had every reason to kill Sydney. The proof is in the pudding-like storyline.
Discuss this episode in our forums, then see why vloggers Val and Beth think the cast members look like Wii avatars in TV is the Answer!
Pablo G. is some guy who lives in San Antonio, Texas. Check him out at Space Monkeys!, Obscure Sports Reference, and follow him @PendejoJoe on Twitter.