It's the mid-season finale for
Nip/Tuck and the number one question on my mind is: What will it take for McNamara/Troy to finally get a security system? Seriously, throughout this season -- and really, throughout
Nip/Tuck's existence -- folks have been breaking into both the offices and the home of the suddenly famous plastic surgeons, while Christian and Sean seemingly treat it as part of the job. Same goes for the set of
Hearts & Scalpels -- even a restraining order for Colleen doesn't seem to inspire an increase in security. Ok, enough on that, and we'll table Colleen for later.
The theme of this episode was all about the price of fame, which is appropriate given McNamara/Troy's move to Hollywood.
N/T's take here of course pales in comparison to what
Ricky Gervaise did with the finale for Extras, an episode which did a better job on all fronts, but we'll try to look past that. Jennifer Coolidge reprises her Candy Richards role here, as an actress who's caught up in believing she's famous, when she's really just this week's dead girl on
Law & Order SVU. Coolidge is great at the over-the-top performance, and it's a clue to the outrageousness of all that that follows. Her Candy character also threw out a reference to 'the locusts,' which, whether intentional or not, had me thinking of
Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust, which tells the tale of Hollywood dreams gone sour - an appropriate reference to be sure.
Speaking of dreams gone sour, Julia's still alive after being shot in the head, but has still fallen victim to tired plot device #32: she's lost her memory. Sean,
like Edie last season on Desperate Housewives, sees this as an opportunity to start fresh with Julia. We can already see how this ends -- even without the benefit of last season's flash-forward. Back to tightening security, why does anyone still trust Eden, exactly?
I can't help but think the 'Matt sleeps with his sister' story arc was put into play purely so we could hear Christian say: 'I can't believe I'm saying this, but you can't sleep with your sister again!'' That and to set up the above shot of Christian riding Emmy's amputee mother -- his bare ass splitting the uprights. Perhaps Emmy herself is a representation of the award, with the metaphor being winning the award is like making love to your half-sister - it may feel good on a certain level, but it's just not worth it. To be honest, I think
N/T's days of trying to sleep with it's half-sister Emmy are now in the past -- let's hope it's the same for Matt.
Finally, let's get to the music, and, in turn, back to Colleen. At the end, when Sean begins to perform surgery on his daughter, we hear
David Bowie's "Fame," which on the surface seems like a benign choice, given the theme, and the prior use of
Irene Cara's similarly titled song. But let's not forget who else sings on Bowie's song. It's none other than
John Lennon, who you'll remember was killed by a stalker/fan in
Mark David Chapman. So even though there was no
"Tubular Bells" to signal Colleen's entrance, like in the past, hearing Lennon's voice was a good clue that she was lurking with psychotic intentions. We'll have to wait until this summer now to find out Sean's fate -- and whether Colleen had
Catcher in the Rye on her at the scene of the crime.
Other favorite lines this week:
"And people... let's try and save that camera, it's a damn good Leica!" - Sean acting in
Heart & Scalpels, prepping his team to remove a camera from a paparazzi's anal cavity.
"If a tree falls in the forest, and there aren't a bunch of nerds with cameras there to record it, does it make a sound?" - Candy, on why she called the paparazzi.
Playlist:
Nip/Tuck - Episode 5.141.
"Fame" - Irene Cara - Candy's surgery
2.
"Take A Picture" - Swizz Beatz - Candy sets up her exit for the paparazzi
3.
"Fame" - God Lives Underwater - Sean and Christian are mobbed by paparazzi
3.
"Fame" - David Bowie - Annie's surgery / Colleen stabs Sean
Compiled by Avalon at Niptuckforum.comMore: While the song title is the key reference here, you could really just substitute
Bill Wither's "Lovely Day" in place of "Take a Picture" as they just used the sampled intro, minus
Swizz Beatz' vocals. And really, any excuse to listen to
Withers is reason enough in my book.
Previously:
Always a Critic (Episode 5.13)
We'd been warned ahead of time that a touching use of John Lennon's "Imagine" was going to be coming our way tonight, involving the school of the deaf, but I was too distracted by the ridiculousness leading up to it to notice whether or not it was indeed touching.
Besides "Imagine," the song choices reverted back to performance-based delivery, making last week's more musical turn seem even more like an aberration. Even "Papa Don't Preach," a song which should mean so much more to Quinn than it does here, is treated as a (forgive the word) distraction instead of as an exploration of her relationship with her father and her unborn child. The song also serves as a prelude of more Madonna songs to come in the somewhat distant future (when Glee comes back in April after taking a break two eps from now). Three of the songs (aforementioned "Imagine," plus "True Colors" and the buried-in-the-background "Don't Make Me Over") are in Glee: The Music, Volume 2, which comes out December 8, 2009.
