Writer: Jenny Lynn
Director: David Paymer
Grade: B+
I’ll start with the Rose and Sage storylines, since the rest of my thoughts are related to the atrocious Charlie/Megan/Will love triangle.
The actor who plays Zach really isn't doing much for me. I don't hate him, but their chemistry as anything other than friends is so lacking it's almost distracting. The thing is, Rose is written and acted as such a goofy innocent that I almost feel like she's not allowed to have chemistry with actual heat with anyone.
Also, minor nitpick, but I have no idea where Sage was getting that Zach’s ex, Polly, was fat. All you could see of her on her online profile pic was her face, and she looked cute, not fat. I know Sage wanted to make Rose feel better, but that comment didn’t even make sense.
However, I have to hand it to Ashley Newbrough for the scene in the church. At first I thought, "Um, please tell me that's not the rapture of conversion on her face..." But she did such a great job with her expression that it became very clear that she was just deeply, horribly sad about something. I assumed that she was having a memory of going to church with her parents when they were alive, though, rather than remembering the funeral, but I guess I was still close...
As for the twist about her being responsible for their deaths, I'm not buying it. The girl was six years old, it's not even possible for her to have truly been responsible, no matter what she did. I know that ultimately, what’s going to matter is that Sage herself believes she was responsible, but they ended the episode on a big dun dun DUN, like we were supposed to believe it really was all her fault. I can see right through what they're trying to do. In any case, hopefully it will at least be an interesting storyline for Sage.
Now on to my screeching at the top of my proverbial lungs about the deeply irritating love triangle. First of all, the drama just felt cheap and overwrought, and furthermore, it’s designed for causing viewers to take sides. I mean, really, it’s quite difficult to actually step back and decide what was really “right” and what was really “wrong,” because interpretation rests almost entirely on whether you prefer Charlie or Will.
I admit I'm pretty biased in favor of Charlie. He's had his own dickish moments, to be sure, but I can't blame him for the kiss. He was drunk, he was in love, and he knew he was moving all the way across the country and might never have another chance. I can't be terribly angry at him for being caught up in the moment or for needing to get his feelings off his chest. And at least Charlie did one good thing before he left by talking Lily into shouldering some of the Smith family burden herself.
I do think it makes him look like a bit of a tool for having pre-breakup sex with Mandy just a day or two before confessing his feelings to Megan, though. Granted he didn't know at the time that he was going to do that to Megan, and I suppose it's not that different from trying to have a relationship with Mandy in the first place while knowing that he's in love with Megan, but I can understand why Mandy would feel so hurt by it all. I'd feel pretty shitty if I'd tried so hard to be an awesome, non-burdensome soon-to-be-ex, and then found out that the guy I'd bent over backwards for kissed someone else.
I felt like part of Mandy’s criticism of Megan was spot-on, particularly, “You’re so wrapped up in your own neuroses that you don’t even notice what’s going on around you.” It’s not just that Megan is wrapped up in her own family drama, it’s that she tends to ramble on about herself and her issues to anyone that will listen and very rarely bothers to ask the people around her how they feel or what’s going on in their lives. The comment about being "the worst kind of bad person because you think you’re good" had some truth to it, as well. I don’t think Megan is a completely bad person—she absolutely cares about her family, about Charlie, about the twins, even if she’s bad at acting on it sometimes—but she does seem to have an over-inflated option of her own “goodness.” Still, though some of what Mandy said was true, Mandy’s own little "martyr for love" routine is no more admirable than Megan's self-absorption, and as others pointed out, it was Charlie who kissed Megan.
For Megan’s part, she actually didn’t do much wrong here. She probably should have skipped the party and said goodbye to Charlie privately the next day, but in the end, she did say what really needed to be said. She apologized to him both for selfishly living in denial and for being such a self-absorbed twit. I’d like to see some more growth in that direction.
As for Will, this episode pretty much closed the door on the possibility of me liking him. I disagreed with just about everything that came out of his mouth. He was right that Megan shouldn't go to the party, though I think the way he expressed it was arrogant and rude. And he may have been right that he'll always come in second to Charlie, given the fact that Megan told Charlie he was "the most important thing" in her life just a few minutes later. Other than that, I couldn't condone a single thing he said or did in this episode.
“How could you possibly not know that?! Everybody knows!” Right. Then why did Will suggest that Megan and Charlie do something together? If he knew how Charlie felt about Megan, and he knew Charlie was preparing to move all the way across the country, then he had to also know that Charlie confessing his feelings to Megan before leaving was a possibility. So, again, why suggest it in the first place? It makes his “I never thought that this would happen!” look completely moronic. Will essentially set the whole thing up himself and then laid all the blame on Megan! It comes off like some sort of bizarre, passive-aggressive attempt to use Charlie to create conflict in their relationship, but maybe I’m just seeing the writing rather than Will’s own fucked up psychology.
Will’s scorn at the idea of throwing a beer pong game for Charlie makes him look like even more of a jerk. Really, why couldn’t he throw a game of beer pong for his girlfriend’s best friend, considering that Charlie was about to move all the way across the country? He’s that incapable of swallowing his pride to avoid conflict, especially considering that the source of said conflict was soon to be out of his hair? And Charlie’s “Winner as always” really wasn’t such a horrible thing to say. Sure he thinks Will is a dick, but he was admitting defeat, and as Megan said, he was ready to walk away. It was Will who pushed the issue, made a scene, and goaded Charlie into punching him.
Will has butted into Megan’s relationship with Charlie at every turn. Hell, a great deal of Will’s insecurity and agonizing over Charlie could’ve been avoided if he’d butted out from the start and accepted that a) Megan’s childhood best friend is a guy, b) said guy may have feelings for her, but c) that doesn’t mean Megan would reciprocate Charlie’s feelings, and d) if she did, she’s clearly not the right girl for Will. If Will had any true confidence in himself and/or faith in Megan’s feelings for him, he should have been able to step back and butt out from the beginning. Instead, he repeatedly told Megan how she should behave about Charlie (and anyone else in her life) and basically poked Charlie with a sharp stick about his feelings for Megan every chance he got.
I was pretty much yelling at the TV by the time Will’s “How much more of this do you expect me to take, Megan?” rolled around. Um, Will, Charlie is moving away, so there’s not much more for you to have to take. It doesn’t come across like Will was just standing up for himself. He was needlessly creating conflict when all of it would have blown over within a day or two if he’d just butted out and let Megan and Charlie say their goodbyes in peace.
By the end of this episode, all I saw was a controlling, jealous, insecure asshole who is completely incapable of being the "bigger person." In fact, his behavior here—the aggression, the jealousy, the insecurity, the need to control Megan’s relationships with others (he’s done the same thing about her relationship with her sister, her father, and her mother), and the constant guilt-tripping of Megan—made me so uncomfortable that I felt like I was seeing the birth of an abusive boyfriend. I'm sure the writers won't take it in that direction, but it’s actually disturbing if they gave Will all of these warning sign behaviors and actually don’t see how creepy it is.
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