Awkward
Nothing forces the feelings issue more than Valentine’s Day. Matty is finally moving on, or at least working at moving on. Jake’s at a more stable place with how he feels, but he is still trying to impress Jenna who is so determined to move beyond the damage Matty has caused that she fails to see the damage she’s causing to her relationship with Jake.
Though determined to keep her focus solely on Jake on this romantic day, feelings of jealousy simmer when she sees Matty hanging out with a new girl. First loves are the hardest ones to get over and Matty and Jenna’s complicated secret lives meant their feelings never went away, but the circumstances changed the status of their relationship. Jake’s a more stable presence, more open, which has made Jenna more secure, but it’s allowed Jenna to ignore Jake a bit too. All through, her thoughts are focused on Matty and the hold he has on her will always be greater.
It gets messier when both Matty, his date; and Jenna&Jake end up seated right next to each other for their romantic dinners. Part of Matty wants to change all those things he did wrong with Jenna (like keeping them a secret), but he couldn’t have known they too would be at the restaurant so the change wasn’t for Jenna to see. But once she is there, he uses the opportunity to make her jealous too (probably assuming Jenna’s trying to do the same). The public handholding, the feeding each other; that was as much for her benefit as it was for their own.
Jenna’s insecurities with Matty means she fails to see all that Jake’s done for the evening. While she believes that the beautifully (almost perfect) planned evening is because of all the tips she gave Matty, Jake’s done it all on his own, making him the kind of attentive boyfriend every girl wants. But Jenna is oblivious to all this.
With Jake’s proclamation of love, Jenna realises how deeply involved he is in the relationship. Jenna’s not exactly reciprocating those feelings, but instead she feels triumphant at having managed to find someone who loves her and isn’t hiding it (and her). This reaction isn’t entirely about her inability to say those words back, it’s about the selfishness with which she percieves this as a victory after her failed secret relationship with Matty.
- Ming has found an Asian man. Since she’s “white”, I’m guessing this isn’t stereotyping (it probably is).
- Jenna’s father is still mad at her mom, but he’s still wearing his wedding ring so that’s a good sign right?
- Ricky Schwatrz and Sadie have been secretly hooking up. Breaking Tamara’s heart and her bladder too. Sadie’s increased aggravation towards Tamara has more perspective now.
- Team Matty – First with the ice pack.
- Team Jake – First with the “I love you” while being in the relationship.
Alphas
Settling pains plague all alphas this week. Dr. Rosen is out of the institute, but still requires heavy surveillance, because, well he is known to go rogue at times. FBI agents swarm the offices and everybody’s feeling cramped. The Alpahs work better with some space and all these people are beginning to bring out the worst in them. Rachel’s OCD is aggravated and she’s cleaning her office space excessively. Gary’s disturbed because his personal space is being violated all around (the shelf in the fridge, people touching him). Bill is pissed at Dr. Rosen, rightly so because all this is his fault. Not just the fact that he took that step without consulting the team, but also leaving them to deal with the consequences, shell-shocked at his revelation to the world. Since Dr. Rosen left, Bill’s had to take over the leadership responsibilities, something he does not enjoy, but he feels more protective of the gang after Dr. Rosen’s abandonment.
The best way for Dr. Rosen to get back in the team’s good graces is to help them capture the newest alpha (causing havoc) and show them that his fate wont be the same as the others before (who were sent to Building 7). Eli is an alpha who displays super speed as an ability brought on by his exceptionally fast metabolism rate. The adverse effects of which mean accelerated aging. At 22 Eli looks like a man who is 40-something, and is trying to find answers from the doctors who experimented on him when he was a kid. They’re unable to remember him, unwilling to help him and hence face the wrath of a very confused and disturbed young man. Dr. Rosen is the only one who is able to empathise with him and to help him relax a bit, but an unfortunate walk-in by Dr. Rosen’s daughter Danielle makes him lose his composure again and he kidnaps Rosen to take him to the hospital where he was experimented upon. Clayton, his team and the Alphas follow them into a church. Danielle tries to help him achieve some calmness, to ease his restlessness, before much more can happen though he is gunned down by an unknown assailant.
Hicks and Danielle have been secrelty hooking up, but now that Dr. Rosen is back things seem like they will get complicated. Gary reads Hicks’ texts and figures out his secret and lets Bill and Rachel in on it too (very tactless, very Gary, very funny). Nina’s grand gesture of apology is stone-walled by Hicks admitting he is seeing someone and subsequently being pushed by Nina to reveal who. Stanton Parish does not initially approve of the match, but then concedes they deserve to be happy.
By the end of the episode, Rosen’s making amends by having the FBI team relocate to another floor and letting the team in on his theory about Stanton Parish; creating a circle of trust, honestly and no secrets between them any more.
- Stanton Parish ran shady hospitals to experiment on children showing alpha abilities. He also mercy kills his progeny and kinda dictates the love life of his followers. The man is old-school and at least 200 years old.
- This was a brilliant, brilliant Gary episode. Highlights.
- Rachel calls Hicks out on his hypocrisy for hating it when Nina used her powers on him, but loving it when Danielle does. She is right, but there is a difference between the two.
- Nina is voted “Most Likely to Join Stanton Parish”. She is very conflicted by Building 7, the detention of alphas and Dr. Rosen’s role in all of it. She also pushed Dr. Rosen pretty hard, considering he had, over the years, mastered how to avoid the situation.
White Collar
It’s nice that Neal and Peter are finally here. At a point in their relationship where Neal’s doing everything to repay Peter for all that he’s done for him, for giving him a life he surely doesn’t deserve as yet. For bearing the brunt of the consequences of his latest escape which Neal comes back from with barely a slap on his wrist.
But since Neal works for free and has negative influence within the Bureau, the only thing he can do to help is to catch a criminal Peter’s been after for almost 20 years. The thief works on the fringes of the statue of limitations, leaves behind no evidence except for traces of Turkish tobbaco. Unable to actively work the case, as he has been relegated to the evidence dungeon, Peter works on the fringe with Neal, even going undercover to draw out Cook. In the process even learns the power of suggestion from Neal and utilizes it well undercover.
And although Peter does catch Cook, he slips out before he can be credited for the arrest. For now Peter is ok not ruffling the Bureau’s feathers by going against their directives, by quietly towing the line and paying his dues. He has the internal satisfaction of successfully closing the case, french lunches with Neal in the yard, a wife and a team that stands by him.
Neal’s no longer keeping secrets from him, telling him about growing up in Witness Protection with his mother and his father’s partner and taking on his mother’s name.
Neal feels he is his father’s son, a criminal doomed by his genes. He needs to know exactly what his father’s crime was. Turns out he murdered another cop, but the pieces don’t exactly fit, there’s a scent of cover up that Peter and he will probably be looking into.
- That whole Mozzie bit reminded me of the fairy tale about the shoe cobbler and his elves.
Because I Love y’all
Suits
Suits slows down the momentum it’s been building up to this week to focus on Harvey after Donna’s firing. He’s deflecting the issue, losing focus and acting reckless.
He’s also got the perfect client to distract him. A gambling addict and a recovering alcoholic, but a brilliant engineer who owns an energy company. Harvey suits up Mike to go watch over him while he gives a paper in Atlantic City, but they’re a little too late and he’s gambled away his company on the famous lawyer story tropes “Poker and Napkin Contracts”. They try and have the contract declared inadmissible, but sadly it fulfills all the necessary requirements of being a legal contract and Harvey’s got to fix it another way.
Rachel gets to be useful this episode as she works with Lewis as his associate for a ballet company. Bound by their mutual love of the art form and their immense knowledge of its workings, Lewis assigns Rachel to find how the company and its performers have been mistreated by the theatre by not releasing the maintenance funds. This is a good step forward for Rachel, allowing her to gain confidence as an associate and possibly want it more. Lewis’ dud of an associate is worse for wear as comedic relief, it’s best if we let him haunt the shadows for a while now.
Jessica’s past comes up as an old classmate of hers has been assigned as a judge to the case. Law school Jessica was a horrible horrible person, who humiliated her classmate, played an awful prank on her (drunk, passed out and naked in front of a prospective interviewer) and isn’t even remotely remorseful about it. The worst kind of manipulation of one women by another and I wish it hadn’t been as demeaning as it had or maybe there had been actual remorse shown by Jessica instead of more blackmail. Kinda rooted for the judge on this one.
With Donna gone, Harvey has apparently gone rogue; I say “apparently” because that’s what Jessica keeps saying. But all he’s done so far, I wouldn’t consider it really out of character for Harvey any other day either. He’s always been reckless, he always plays fast and loose with the law. I’m not quite buying what the writers are selling. But for the sake of argment, we’ll say he’s missing Donna and isn’t taking it so well.
- Harvey isn’t able to sell his recklessness, but MAN does he sell intimidation well! Quite like that Lewis owes him. This will end well.
- Coming up blank on what Mike did this week. Nothing significant? Is it bad that I’m forgetting his contribution? Counting cards perhaps? Wears a tux, that’s it!
Pretty Little Liars
In return of the “Awful Fathers of Rosewood”, this week Allison’s father makes an appearance. It may be hard for some to point out exactly why he belongs in the Awful Father’s Club, but may I remind you he raised both Allison and Jason, so clearly he’s had the most lasting impact of awfulness amongst all the other contenders.
Officer Creepy is once again making house-calls to the Marin household, to threaten Hanna some and then have her mom sleep with him and make it all go away. Except she’s away on some conference and he has to make do with threatening Hanna with eye witnesses and the possibility of the blood on the bracelet matching hers. And then he has to slink away all frustrated and what not (bet he thought, “what a waste, should’ve called in first.”). Now that Garett’s case has been dismissed, Spencer’s mom can defend the girls again and her first order of business is to get the court order for Hanna’s blood dismissed. Until that happens though, “A” flexes his/her muscles to show Hanna how easy it is for “A” to get her blood if she wanted it.
Don’t we know it
Toby’s getting suspicious again about being stuck with baby-sitting duties with Hanna last week, but the only answer Spencer is able to give him is that she was out with Jason looking for the bracelet which was submitted as evidence. Clearly Toby knows how incest works, so he’s just a tab bit suspicious about why that needed to be a secret from him (We feel ya Toby, they gots some weird vibes). I’m not too sure why Spencer hiding information from Toby, pretty sure the liars don’t remember for sure any more either (except for the threat of violence against their loved ones), but it’s a tough hole for them to dig themselves out of.
With Garett out and the parents back home, Jason has a relapse; gets wasted and gets behind the wheels like the good ol’ days. Spencer is thankfully there to help him out of his trashed car and drive him back home, our current expert on perjury, she enlists Toby to do the same (begrudgingly though).
I’m beginning to feel as if Emily’s being left behind in this race to be crowned Queen of Badassery by the other liars. Spencer was in the lead, but Hanna and Aria are catching up with their sneaking into hospitals, photo studios and now the insane assylum. As we know, nothing is random in the Rosewood universe, hence the tweezer Mona siphoned off Hanna a few weeks ago helps her escape into the now defunct children’s ward. If Mona wasn’t as young as she is, I would’ve guessed this wasn’t her first time in that ward; but maybe she’s been sneaking off to meet with the Red-Coat there. She can’t speak openly since Aria’s hovering, but she does manage to pass on messages to Hanna in code, and give me goosebumps that lasted a week.
Back to Emily, stuck helping Nate buy gifts for Jenna and warding off his not-so-subtle flirtation attempts at her. Her attempt at telling him about Garett and Jenna backfire as he becomes even more protective of Jenna. She doesn’t even make the threatening phone call to Jenna, telling her to back off from her man (UGH), that honor goes to Cece. An older version of Allison, whom she was also friends with and perhaps the person she modelled herself after. Jason’s ex too, but for now that’s all we know. Probably more to see in the weeks to come.
So Maya’s got a website and Mona knew about it. Pretty clearly a damn good reason for all of us to reconsider our digital footprint you guys. People are watching, NEVER FORGET!
- Aria’s mom: She Lies Under Trees (heh)
- Aria left an earring, Hanna: the top of an Ouija board. What did the other two bury?
- Even the nurse knew Aria’s earrings were weapons.
- Mr. Pastor gets around doesn’t he? Ms. Marin and Ms. Montgomery within a week. Didn’t last though, they’re both too good for him.
Shazia is part bionic, part crazy (parts not mutually exclusive), and would be happy conversing solely in TV quotes, forever hopeful she’ll be one-upped in her obscure TV references. She blogs here and microblogs here.
