Nip/Tuck“Candy Richards” – Season Finale
Original Air Date: February 19, 2008
Tom R – TwoCents Staff Writer
Slight disappointment as season five comes to a close. The series has always walked the line between cutting edge drama (no pun intended) and pure soap opera. The season has been pretty reliable, all in all, and episodes like Rachel Ben Natan have been so innovative, so creative, that when they resort to a soap opera plotline, it’s twice as frustrating.
Case in point: Julia’s amnesia (yes, amnesia) following being shot by Eden. The bullet did not cause much damage, but the after effects put her in a coma. When Olivia gets the news that Julia is awake, Eden tells her that she has to tell her something. We never know what that is, so maybe there is a twist to this whole plotline waiting for next season. We can only hope.
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Nip/Tuck
ReplyDelete“Candy Richards” – Season Finale
Original Air Date: February 19, 2008
Tom R – TwoCents Staff Writer
Slight disappointment as season five comes to a close. The series has always walked the line between cutting edge drama (no pun intended) and pure soap opera. The season has been pretty reliable, all in all, and episodes like Rachel Ben Natan have been so innovative, so creative, that when they resort to a soap opera plotline, it’s twice as frustrating.
Case in point: Julia’s amnesia (yes, amnesia) following being shot by Eden. The bullet did not cause much damage, but the after effects put her in a coma. When Olivia gets the news that Julia is awake, Eden tells her that she has to tell her something. We never know what that is, so maybe there is a twist to this whole plotline waiting for next season. We can only hope.
But then there is the dead, stuffed agent Bob planted in Sean’s closet by Colleen Rose. So apparently, she was able to drag that body out of her apartment, put in into her car, break into Sean’s apartment and carry Bob in. I don’t mind credibility stretches, but this is a little much. Colleen turns into a stalker as she asks Sean to fix the scars from her attempted suicide, invades the Hearts ‘n Scalpels set, and in the shocking last minutes, plunges a knife into Sean’s back as he operates on Annie.
As Sean lies there and the screen goes black, it’s not a stretch for any fan of the show to flash back to Christian’s “murder” by The Carver at the end of Season Two, his “funeral” to kick off Season Three, and the “It Was All A Dream” resolution. Hopefully, that’s not a well they will be going back to. But is that the cliffhanger you want?
Still, the suspense is built well throughout, and a unique thread is added when Christian meets Emmie’s mother, who is in a wheelchair after losing both legs to diabetes. After Emmie and Matt agree to separate, Christian and the mother get drunk, and he takes her to bed, in a graphic scene that should give hope to amputees everywhere. It’s a scene that could have been more than a little creepy, but like most of the sex scenes on the show, it manages to keep all the emotional threads intact and avoids seeming gratuitous or gimmicky.
The Candy Richards storyline also holds the episode together. Candy (Jennifer Coolidge, American Pie) was a guest star on Hearts ‘n Scalpels back in Episode 1. Since then, she went to Thailand for plastic surgery that was horribly botched. She asks Sean and Christian to fix those mistakes. While in recovery, she lands a new gig that will get her back on the airwaves. She calls a press conference as she is about to leave the facility, but her moment of triumph is shot down when all the reporters descend on Sean, asking about Julia’s shooting. The swarm follows him and leaves Candy alone and ignored in front of the office. Probably the best moment of the episode.
Annie, by the way, is injured after Christian tries to flee a sea of paparazzi who are trying to get her photo in the wake of Julia’s shooting. As Sean’s daughter, she is considered fair game. Christian speeds away, only to be hit by an oncoming car. He suffers a broken clavicle, which leads Sean to operate alone. After Annie is under the anesthesia, Liz leaves the room, making way for Colleen’s entrance with the knife.
I have always been a champion of this show as a whole, even with the uneven episodes or unrealistic moments that have been included in past seasons. So all in all, I will not complain about the season as a whole. The good definitely outweighs the bad, or the mediocre, or the frustrating. Just wish that they closed the season with a solid episode.
Oh well…see you next October…
Nip/Tuck is created for mature audiences.
The show airs Tuesday nights at 10 PM on the F/X Network.
Repeats air immediately and over the following weekend.