Writer: Christopher Fife
Director: Janice Cooke-Leonard
Originally Aired: 10/21/2008
Grade: A
Marco was awesome, as usual. I love that he's very concerned and helpful with people he likes, but it's also very clear that he's not just a bleeding heart who will let himself be taken advantage of, nor is he so generous with everyone. Him bringing Megan that yummy snack really showed how much he cares for her—I highly doubt he would've done the same for Laurel or the twins. The same goes for him giving Charlie a talking to. He did it partly because he cares for Megan, but he also likes Charlie enough to point out to him how badly he's fucking up.
The Jacob thing came completely out of left field. And for some reason, I almost wanted to applaud his ex when she came out all mussed up and said, "What? She said it was over." It was just so unexpected, and now Megan will never wonder whether she overreacted.
As for Megan and Charlie… For starters, he wasn’t actually that mean to her when she visited him the first time at the Crab Shack. He’s no more harsh with her than Marco is, and he actually gave her good advice to “stop sabotaging” her relationship with Jacob and tell Laurel and the twins about it. He’s always been a little snarky with her, it was just warmer in the past.
Also, Megan's relationship with Charlie thus far has been very needy and selfish and one-sided, with lots of him bending over backwards to listen to her problems and even help her with them, and him not getting much in return. And by "much in return," I don't mean romance, I mean exactly what he said to her: she never asks about him. And not only does she not ask about him, she takes advantage of him and generally treats him like a convenience rather than a friend. We saw in the last episode that she's been there for three months—that's a pretty long time to be yammering about yourself constantly and never asking what's going on in your friend's life. We also saw her start babbling about herself to pretty much every other character on the show in this episode, and hell, she got the job in the first place because she babbled about her personal life to her boss in the Pilot. It's definitely one of her character flaws, and it's sad that she does a better job of trying to overcome it with the people she works for than she does with her best friend.
I’m not exaggerating about her being a crappy friend, either. Let’s take a look at Megan’s treatment of Charlie over the season thus far:
-She asked him not to tell Lily and her dad that she’s back in town, even though he sees them all over the place.
-She asked Charlie to get Lily to leave the party.
-She not only bailed on their surfing date, she essentially told him that there would never be another one because she hates the ocean.
-Charlie came over to watch the game, and Megan insisted that she’d told him she had a date and blew him off without an apology.
-Megan blew off Charlie about the White Stripes tickets, forgot he was on hold, and forgot to call him back. And at this point, Charlie actually came over to the house to ask Megan face-to-face if he’d done something to make her angry.
So yeah, I’m kind of siding with Charlie in general, although it would've come off much better if they'd had this “You only care about yourself” argument before he had his big epiphany about her never seeing him as more than a friend. It's one thing to be pissed because your friend is self-absorbed, but it's another thing entirely to be pissed because she doesn't have romantic feelings for you.
I don't think that's actually why he's pissed, I just think it's coming off that way right now because it's all very recent. I don't think he regrets being her friend because he'll never be with her romantically. I think he's irritated with her for being self-centered, and he's probably even more angry with himself for not standing up to her because he has feelings for her. He feels like a pathetic moron who let himself get pushed around by a very pushy person. Everything that Marco said to him was right, though. Megan deserves better—it's incredibly unfair to stomp around being mean to someone and not even be willing to tell them why. I can understand his desire to get a little distance from her so he can calm down and get some perspective, though. She's the last person he wants to see right now, and she's suddenly all over him. And while Megan deserves an explanation, their friendship is more likely to survive if he can get a little breathing room, rather than confess all of this to her while his feelings are still in turmoil.
I actually laughed at the end when he started to ask what happened with Jacob and caught himself. It was humorous to see him thinking "Dammit, my timing SUCKS!" But him holding back also says a lot about his character, and about the fact that he's upset with himself and is trying to get it together emotionally and regain some of his self-respect.
I actually do like Megan a lot, I just think self-absorbed babbling is one of her character flaws. I think she also just assumes that if there's something important going on in other people's lives that they want to talk about, then they will. Because that's what she does. But not everyone works like that, as she's learning.
Laurel, by the way, barely even registers with me. I hate her character, and I doubt that's going to change any time soon.
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