'Army Wives': Sustainable developments

As big and as successful as the season premiere of Army Wives was, you can't manufacture an entire season's worth of plotlines simply from the fallout of the previous season's finale. The bombing of the Hump Bar is a memory that's never going to fade in the minds of any of these characters, and the post-traumatic fallout of that event is going to keep on registering all season. Nonetheless, episode two of this sophomore season had to not just look back on the past, but also look forward and give us some indication of what the rest of the season might look like. How will the show deal with Trevor being in Iraq? What'll happen with Joan, Roland, and their unborn child who may never be born? And will the events of the bombing and Amanda's death not just be a catastrophe to grieve and move beyond, but rather something that illustrates some previously-unseen fissures in several of the marriages on the show?

Moving forward isn't going to be easy for anyone, least of all Claudia Joy. Although she'll end the episode in what appears to be a relatively good place, a place where she believes that everything is going to be OK, she's not about to get over her grief in just one episode. But as the episode opens, she isn't in a position to even consider the extent of what's happening to her. She's just ... stuck. "I can't move forward. I can't turn back," she laments.

Actually, that might be OK, if she was literally just parked in the house for a while. People would expect that, and they would give her the time to grieve that she needs. It's only when Claudia Joy tries to go out and interact with the world as if there's nothing wrong that she runs into bigger trouble. Her friends and family are trying to help her, but she keeps trying to act like she doesn't need the help. She's always been strong, the one everybody else turns to for help, and being in a position of needing help from others is just not something she is comfortable admitting to. So she tries to go on with her everyday duties of shopping at the PX, and presenting the typical strong face of the general's wife, but it's a recipe for disaster. She suffers a panic attack. For the record, I don't know what possessed director John Kretchmer to depict the panic attack via shaky-cam, but I would just ask that he never do it again. I hate shaky-cam. It's a bad TV cliché.

After the panic attack, Claudia Joy can't really fight off the help any longer. The ladies devise a rotation to basically stay and babysit her. Claudia Joy is a little too headstrong to like this development, but rather than argue with her friends, she seems to save up her frustration and then lay it all out on Michael. She lashes out at her poor husband about the fact that she can't look like she's in pain because it's unbecoming of the general's wife. For the first time in the episode, but not the last, Michael tries to reason that he fully understands how family and real life sometimes get in the way of expectations, and Michael says that Claudia Joy should take all the time she needs and not worry about what people expect of her. It only leads to Claudia Joy yelling at him some more.

Michael may not necessarily need Claudia Joy to act strong, and neither do her friends, but there is actually one person who really does need her to stay strong, and that's Emmalin. It's a completely different dynamic for her; with the way her sense of security was just shattered, she needs her mom and dad to provide some semblance of a feeling that they can protect her. And falling to pieces just won't cut it. "It is bad enough as it is, and you're just making everything worse," she cries to interrupt her parents' argument. She ends up asking to stay with Denise for a few days, to get out of the house. "It is too hard for me to be here right now, OK?"

Claudia Joy agrees to let Emmalin stay with Denise for a few days, and Denise offers some additional comforting words for Claudia Joy. "You're not very good at lettin' other people be there for you," Denise acknowledges, but she says that doesn't mean any of her friends are going to stop trying to provide that assistance. "So, if you can, just let us help you now? OK?" Denise concludes. And whether it's Denise's advice, or Michael's patience, or the realization that Emmalin doesn't feel safe in this environment, or simply the passage of time, by the end of the episode, Claudia Joy is at least starting to emerge out of her grief. The episode ends with Claudia Joy reconnecting with her friends and family, and narrating a message for Amanda, in which she assures Amanda that everything is going to be OK. "I have to take one small step forward. I have to appreciate the new life I have here," she says. It's going to be a lengthy process. The aftermath of what happened isn't going to fade away with one episode. But it is, as she says, one small step forward.

Speaking of little baby steps, Roland and Joan haven't really figured out what they're going to do about the baby on the way. Roland, of course, has never been more excited. He can't stop smiling for the whole episode. He's staying in town, he's told the people at Northwestern that he is declining their job offer, and he feels as if he finally may have everything he ever wanted. But Joan hasn't yet decided if she actually wants to keep the baby or not. Roland knows that, and he does say that he will accept Joan's decision, whatever the decision is. But Joan knows full well how much it'll absolutely destroy Roland if she doesn't actually have the baby, even if Roland is putting on a brave face now. Roland is like Claudia Joy; they're both pretending to be strong because that's what they think others need from them, whether or not it's actually healthy.

Joan breaks the news to Michael, and Michael's reaction is nothing but effusive happiness. There is nothing better than parenthood, Michael says. Even in light of what just happened with Amanda, Michael says that it only makes him cherish being a father even more, knowing that you have to make the most of it. He also clears up Joan's fears of what'll happen to her career by assuring her that her job will remain open for her when she returns from maternity leave. It's the second time in this episode that Michael has made it clear that family can sidetrack expectations, but he understands that, and Michael says that Joan should take whatever time she needs.

Beyond her career, Joan has another fear when it comes to the pregnancy, and it's the question of whether Roland really still loves her or he just loves the idea of being a father. Despite the fact that Roland has been really supportive and accommodating and said all the right things, Joan believes that if she doesn't keep the baby, Roland may leave her. Roland has completely recommitted to the marriage, though. He does admit that he would be devastated to not have the baby, but he assures Joan that it wouldn't change anything about the fact that he wants to be with her. He says that whatever Joan decides, he's going to be there beside her.

Joan ultimately goes alone to terminate the pregnancy. Although Roland has said he would support any decision Joan made, Joan knew how he really felt, and knew that if she was going to terminate the pregnancy, she would have to do it alone. But Joan then explains to Roland later on that she changed her mind in the end. "But then I remembered you," she admits. When she thought about Roland and the baby, there was no way she was going to be able to go through with the abortion. She's going to have the baby after all. "One thing I do know, is you will be a wonderful father," she announces.

Meanwhile, Chase shows up out of the blue, as he is given to doing. But things are a little different now than they have been every other time he's vanished and reappeared. This time around, Pamela really, really needed him after the bombing, and she couldn't contact him. For the first time, Pamela is legitimately annoyed at how Chase just walks in and out of her life. She actually says, in a moment of vindictive pique, that Chase comes and goes "when he feels like it." It's not necessarily an accurate depiction of reality. Pamela knows that, of course; she's just really frustrated and prone to hyperbole.

Chase immediately realizes that Pamela is in a foul mood, and they talk about it. Pamela explains how freaked out she was not being able to contact Chase after the explosion, but Chase stops her and says that Pamela has no idea what he went through. Chase explains that he did receive news of the bombing, and he also initially got news that Pamela's car was there, but there was no news about specific identities of casualties. So, he realized, for the first time the usual relationship between him and Pamela was flipped. "Is this what you go through all the time, this not knowing? I am used to you not being able to call me ... But I am not at all comfortable with not being able to call you," he admits. "So you are not alone in this, Pamela. As much as you think you are."

So that storyline is largely settled for now. The situation of having Trevor in Iraq, though, that's very unsettling. It's unsettling for Roxy, but it's also unsettling for me, because man, do I hate having a lot of voiceovers. The solution for now of how to keep Drew Fuller actually appearing in each episode is by having him do a voiceover of a letter he's writing to Roxy. Having Trevor just do a voiceover the whole episode is not sustainable. Narrations are annoying in general; while I approved of Pamela's in the season premiere because the radio show felt organic to the situation, this was not so organic. I really hope things aren't going to continue like that for too long. In the end, when Trevor actually does send a letter to Roxy, it's a positive, upbeat one. He leaves out all the bad news, all the awful sights he's seen in Iraq, from soldiers killed in battle to the debilitating desert heat.

Trevor admits -- in a narration, not the letter itself -- that he wonders if Roxy might be better off had she never met him, and had she never had to face what she's facing now with the constant fear and worrying. But worrying appears to be Roxy's natural condition anyway. Beyond worrying about Trevor, Roxy is now also preoccupied with worrying about Betty, who remains in the hospital. The problem is that Betty isn't going to remain in the hospital for too long. It's an Army hospital, and she's a civilian. She was brought there for emergency care after the bombing, but she can't stay forever as a civilian. Roxy decides she's not going to stand for that. So it's up to Roxy to put on her protocol-smashing, authority-ignoring hat and demand of the senior hospital administrators that Betty be allowed to stay. It's notable that this might be the very first issue where things transpire differently from if Roxy thought she could trouble Claudia Joy with it. Despite the fact that Claudia Joy does seem better by the end of the episode, you have to wonder if there will be more situations to come like this, where Roxy and others won't want to bother her with a situation they ordinarily would have come to her about otherwise. As for the situation itself, Roxy does actually buy Betty a few more days, but once Betty is out of the hospital, she's going to be moving in with Roxy for a while.

So, what did we think?

• What do you think you would you prefer if you were Roxy: an upbeat, positive letter from Trevor, or the honest, unvarnished truth about what he's dealing with?
• What should the show do about Trevor? Keep him narrating letters? Give him Frank or a new buddy to talk to so that he can remain tied to the show outside the narration? Or just let him disappear for a few episodes like Frank and Chase?
• How did you like the inside joke of New Emmalin explaining that her old ID picture doesn't look like her because it was a "bad hair day"?
• Do you buy Roland's promises that he would have remained with Joan no matter what, or do you think he would have left Joan if Joan didn't have the baby?
• Is there actual merit to Claudia Joy's belief that she needs to stay strong in the public eye? In this episode, we're clearly being instructed to think that Claudia Joy needs to slow down and take some time for herself. But if you were another wife on post, wouldn't it be valuable to have somebody like Claudia Joy as a strong role model?
• Why does everybody initially fear opening up to Michael Holden, who after all appears to be the nicest, most sensitive guy ever?
• What exactly does one do with a "sand of the world" collection?

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