CalifornicationThe Raw and the Cooked
Original Air Date: Oct 19, 2008
Susannah Buzard - TwoCents Reviewer
susannah@thetwocentscorp.com
This episode opens with Karen returning home from Whole Foods to find Hank playing Guitar Hero instead of cleaning the apartment in preparing for their dinner party. The viewer immediately senses the tension between Hank and Karen when she turns off the television (interrupting Hank’s well established game of Guitar Hero) and tells him he should be preparing for the dinner party. She sounds like a responsible mom telling her irresponsible kid to get his act together, a dynamic which seems to have plagued the couple since they reunited.
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[photo: Showtime.com]
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Californication
ReplyDeleteThe Raw and the Cooked
Original Air Date: Oct 19, 2008
Susannah Buzard - TwoCents Reviewer
susannah@thetwocentscorp.com
This episode opens with Karen returning home from Whole Foods to find Hank playing Guitar Hero instead of cleaning the apartment in preparing for their dinner party. The viewer immediately senses the tension between Hank and Karen when she turns off the television (interrupting Hank’s well established game of Guitar Hero) and tells him he should be preparing for the dinner party. She sounds like a responsible mom telling her irresponsible kid to get his act together, a dynamic which seems to have plagued the couple since they reunited.
Hank asks Karen to go to the patio, where she finds a trail of rose petals and a futon with a bottle of wine. She stands there, holding two bunches of carrots, and says, “Hank, what’s all this?” Hank produces the ring that we thought he gave to a homeless woman, and tells Karen “I’m tired of arguing about the past.” Though the scene (complete with rose petals and champagne) is ostensibly romantic, the proposal is lacking. In Hank’s attempt to disavow the past, his mention of it reminds us that his relationship with Karen is troubled precisely because of his past, and as we learn throughout this episode, no ring or proposal will magically fix it. Karen seems to already know this on some level; she doesn’t say “yes” to Hank but expresses enthusiasm before engaging in some pre-dinner party sexy time. .
After their late afternoon delight, Hank and Karen prepare the dinner party in the kitchen. Becca emerges from her room wearing a tee shirt with a skull on it, and Karen asks her to once again change her shirt. Mia is the first guest to arrive; Karen seems to be concerned that she is “lonely” which is why she gets to remain a part of the cast even though Karen is through with Mia’s father, Bill. I think Mia’s character adds a lot to the show, actually, and her snot-nosed character is quite convincing. “You’re a good little sociopath,” Hank once said. It is a little hard to believe that Mia would continue to hang out with Hank and Karen after Karen devastated Bill, but there are aspects of Californication that are too good (though unlikely and unrealistic) so we allow ourselves a willing suspension of disbelief).
After Mia arrives, Karen tells Hank that Becca expects a male guest. The exchange between Hank and Damien (the boy) is probably the funniest in this entire episode. After Hank mutters, “Where is my shotgun?” he opens the door and greets Becca’s guy by saying, “What do you want? Do you like that rap music? How do you feel about Roe v. Wade? Why should I let you in?” The boy rolls with it and answers Hank matter of factly, but finally pleads that Hank let him inside when he states, “These people behind me are creeping me out.” Incidentally, Charlie Runkle and his wife are practically swallowing each other throughout Hank’s conversation with the boy.
Additional guests include the girl who Hank accidentally went down on (who affectionately refers to Hank as the “mouth rapist”), Ashby the music producer (for whom Hank is writing the bio), the weird self-help artist guru, and the self-help artist guru’s pregnant scientologist girlfriend. All this dinner party needed to complete the cast of characters from Hank’s dysfunctional past (who continue to influence his relationship with Karen) would be Trixie the stripper.
Coincidentally, Hank initially met the Scientologist at a dinner party in Season 1, at Karen and Bill’s house. Karen wanted the Scientologist and Hank to hook up, and they did – just before throwing up consecutively on Karen and Bill’s bed (and on Bill’s expensive painting). At the season 2 dinner party the Hank and scientologist tryst comes full circle, as we learn (with the help of Mia’s dating math) that the scientologist is actually pregnant with Hank’s baby, not the cheesy long haired “artist within” guru’s.
So by the end of the episode, Karen’s view of her reunion with Hank is more deeply tainted. Since Karen and Hank have reunited, Karen has been struck with the following romance-crushing Hank pranks:
- Hank performs cunnilingus on a woman he thinks is Karen
- Hank does jail time after assaulting a cop
- Karen converses with the stripper Hank had sex with last season, who refers to Hank as “great in the sack”
- and now: Hank impregnated Karen’s friend and coworker, the Scientologist
Even those less prone to jealousy can see that Hank Moody would be quite the handful for anyone to date. From the perspective of someone who has dated a player or two, it’s no fun in the midst of trying to repair a relationship, to face continual reminders of the person’s history with other women (who conveniently seem to be spread all over town). It’s like each time you go on a date, you have a previous lover as a chaperone.
To Hank’s credit, everything but mistaking a random girl for Karen before he went down on her, as well as serving jail time after he assaulted the cop, are acts which occurred when Karen and Hank were apart. The latter is Hank’s point in the last episode (when they fight about Hank’s glib attitude over sleeping with the stripper), and it is a point made abundantly clear in this episode when they learn Hank is the father of the scientologist’s baby. The pregnancy is an ultimate example of how Hank really cannot escape his past – and no matter how much Karen wants them to start over as a couple, they can’t really go back. What is even scarier is this: what if they never were that great to begin with?
After seeing the end of the last episode (with Karen shouting “I hate you!”) at Hank, and Hank standing on his patio looking in through the glass door of his apartment like an outside, I felt well prepared for the Hank and Karen breakup conversation as it was presented in this episode. Yet after spending all last season wishing Karen and Hank would get back together, then experiencing the catharsis of Karen jumping into Hank’s car on her wedding day, only to have them break up four episodes into season 2, was nevertheless a painful scenario to watch. It is the conversation that happens when two people know the relationship is not going to work, no matter how much they love each other.
Karen is more ready to admit this reality than Hank, who wants love to cure all of the relationship’s ails and erase the events of his ubiquitous past. Karen takes responsibility for her disappointment and states that it is her fault she jumped in the car with him and expected everything to be great. She tells him that marrying Bill wasn’t the answer, but neither is marrying Hank. Karen says the idea of them getting back together and thinking it would work out is “crazy” and “dysfunctional.” In response, Hank shows the romantic and vulnerable side of himself that makes him tragic and identifiable to viewers. He says, “And here I am thinking this is a dream come true.” When Hank says goodbye to Becca, she already knows her parents have broken up once again. She says, “Well, you tried. It was fun while it lasted.” Somehow trying and realizing you’re not compatible may be sadder than having never tried and always wondering how it could have been, but at least by trying, one may feel more resolved about the situation. We shall see if Hank continues to carry the torch. I noticed in the next episode’s trailer, a woman asks Hank, “Wanna fuck?” To which he responds, “Yes,” and she claps her hands merrily, suggesting that Hank does not die of despair after Karen dumps him.