It's been so long since last we met. But that's OK. Vacations are good. Vacations are healthy. They allow us to try some new things out, maybe explore some possibilities we wouldn't otherwise have the time to do. It just so happens that in the case of Army Wives, while the show itself has been on a little break, a couple of the show's actors have popped up on TV anyway, in trailers for movies they presumably filmed during last year's hiatus between seasons. Sterling K. Brown got himself a role in a movie with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. That's pretty great. And Sally Pressman apparently got a role in a Dane Cook movie. That's ... uh ... let's move on.

It's actually only been a couple of weeks since the last episode of the show aired, but a whole lot can happen in such a short period of time. When the last episode of Army Wives aired, pretty much nobody in the country knew who Sarah Palin was; now she's the most prominent military mother in the nation. From a TV standpoint, no network benefits from that development as much as Lifetime. That's not in a vague female empowerment sense, but in the very specific sense that Lifetime already happened to have a drama pilot in the works (The Amazing Mrs. Novak) about a regular-gal mother who rises to become governor of her state. It's safe to say that series is far more likely to be fast-tracked to air now that there's guaranteed buzz for it. And that, in turn benefits us all - because if Lifetime had more original drama series on the air, they wouldn't have to artificially elongate the season of the one hit drama they currently have.

I'm going to talk about this particular issue in more depth next week, but wow, AW churns through a lot of plot. There are so, so many different things going on in each episode, where you can have half a dozen subplots, that I fear the show may run out of plotlines at some point because they've burned through so many, so quickly. That's not just a problem for the future; occasionally it turns into a problem in the present. The uncertainty of what's going to happen with Frank and Denise's marriage is the biggest and most immediate question looming over the show when this episode begins, but it turns out that there's only a single scene with Denise or Frank in the first half of the episode, because so many other things are going on.

Denise wants to talk about attending marriage counseling. Frank isn't into that kind of thing - where he comes from, people don't do that. In Frank World, people handle their own problems. But Frank is overruled on that one. Denise and Frank eventually do head to a counseling session. Denise details her sins to an Army chaplain, and Frank in turn compares her to Judas. Frank describes his anger, and lays out the solution that Denise needs to quit her job. Frank believes that the job led to Denise's new behavior, and her new attitude, and eventually to the new doctor in town. Frank thinks he's cutting right to the heart of the matter. Denise cuts right back. "So your solution is to lock me in the house?" she asks.

Frank says that this is what Denise signed up for, the life they signed onto, where Frank would take care of her. Frank feels like Denise has decided to change the rules of the game midway through the game, and you can't do that. "There is no trajectory to a marriage," he declares. Geometry was the last recap, Frank. Denise says she has changed, and Frank sees that as a condemnation of him for not changing.

"I cannot go backwards," Denise states. And if Frank can't accept that, Denise suggests that maybe they need a separation. Frank responds with the obvious, that he's going back to Iraq in just a few days, and isn't that separation enough? Furthermore, he notes that "separation" is basically a fancy word for step one of a divorce.

But this decision thus reached, Frank and Denise call Jeremy over to the house, intending to break the news. Jeremy, though, ends up surprising them with news of his own. He's being deployed to Iraq in a few days, his first combat tour. Upon hearing that, there's no way Frank and Denise can pop their news, leaving them officially in limbo.

As for the other separated couple on the show, Claudia Joy's father Randall shows up in town on a recon mission to get his wife back. In a great bit of guest casting, Randall is played by the esteemed actor Len Cariou. Originally a beloved stage actor, Cariou is more familiar to me of late from his stately role on Brotherhood - for my money, the best show on TV.

Claudia Joy's mother has no particular desire to talk to Randall. And not only does she tell Claudia Joy that she's not taking her father back, but she says that if Claudia Joy tries to push her, it'll be as if she's choosing sides.

Randall's money trouble is assuredly not over. He makes a big show of treating the family to dinner, but then actually puts the bill on Michael's tab. And then, in the most brazen move imaginable, he tries to persuade Emmalin to loan him some money out of her college fund. To be fair, Emmalin had just told everyone that she wanted to backpack through Europe after school; maybe taking away her college fund is just a way to speed up the timetable on that.

Claudia Joy holds an intervention. "You asked the child for money?" Mrs. Meade says when she learns what Mr. M did. "The child"? Claudia Joy tells her father that he needs to get help with his gambling. Mom isn't going back to him until he does. "This is a tough one. I don't know what to do," Randall admits. Uh, start with getting help for the gambling addiction?

Meanwhile, the whole matter of Trevor's drug addiction, which has been simmering for a while now, is finally starting to come to a boil. Roxy finds him passed out on the bathroom floor - nope, wait, that's a dream sequence. Then Roxy tries to confront Trevor, but Trevor plays the trump card that Roxy is overreacting to everything because of her messed up home life when she was a kid - and we get a weird flashback to Young Roxy in the middle of a messy domestic situation. So that's a dream sequence and a flashback sequence in the same episode. Ordinarily, I hate storytelling cheats like that. But the reason we'll give this episode a pass is because the episode was written by Barbara Hall, who created the series Joan of Arcadia - a show whose very premise was built on getting inside the head of a character. So this is obviously where Hall's strengths are, and we'll have to allow it.

Trevor gets the news that a friend of his, a fellow member of his unit who was still over in Iraq, has been killed. Trevor's I-should-be-over-there angst gets ratcheted up another several levels. He admits to Roxy that he just knew something like this was bound to happen, that something bad might happen to his unit and there would be nothing he could do about it. Trevor believes that his late friend, Dalton, was a better soldier than him. "So why him and not me?" he sighs to Roxy. And now that he's got some tangible emotional pain added on top of everything, it's right back to the bottle of pills. At the end of the episode, Roxy tries to take the drugs away from him, and Trevor has a hissyfit and storms out.

When she's not fretting over her husband turning into a druggie, Roxy tries to turn her mind to simpler matters. She tells Roland that they're throwing a baby shower for Joan. Roland in turn breaks the news to Joan, and Joan is not thrilled. "Roland. This is me you're talking to," Joan reminds him. Joan agrees to have a shower, under one condition: no party games. She proceeds to find Roxy and make that one clear. I've never liked Joan more. I hate party games. Nothing is more hellish than a roomful of people trying to shout things at each other.

When the party starts, Joan not having any real friends of her own has never been more obvious, since the usual circle is definitely what we'd consider Roland's friends. Poor Joan. The party gets interrupted midway through when Joan takes an emergency phone call that she has to report to work. For a second I wondered if this was one of those staged phone calls where you get somebody to rescue you from a place you don't want to be by calling with a fake "emergency" - but then, of course, that would necessitate Joan having a friend who could perform that task, and again, Joan obviously doesn't have that.

Elsewhere, Pamela has a new friend, but it's one she really doesn't want. A guy named Tim calls into her radio show to tell Pamela how beautiful she is, based on her picture from the newspaper. That newspaper story is causing all sorts of unwanted sexual advances. Pamela is instinctively worried, with her police training kicking in and telling her that Tim could turn into something much more dangerous than a secret admirer.

Then later, Pamela hears somebody outside her house, and there are flowers waiting at the door. "You're just as beautiful in person," reads the note. Oooh, creepy. Roxy thinks it's cute when Pamela explains. "No, it is not cute. It's creepy," Pamela asserts. Roxy suggests that maybe this is Pamela's old police instincts kicking in, assuming that everybody is a possible deviant criminal, but Pamela insists that this is Stalker 101.

Tim calls the radio show again the next day, announcing himself as president of the Pamela Moran Fan Club. Pamela takes the phone call off the air to tell Tim to lay off. If Tim doesn't stop with the unsolicited attention, she'll go to the police. Tim doesn't lay off. At night, Pamela hears somebody in the house. She grabs the nearest available blunt object as a weapon, but the guy is already out the door before Pamela can confront him. Pamela calls the military police, but they don't really take her seriously. "I am not paranoid. This is really happening," she insists, while a pair of soldiers don't really care.

God bless Pamela. She gets the seediest low-rent plotlines, and I mean that in the best possible way. Pamela grounds things in a working class sensibility. If I were to list some of the other indiscretions going on with the characters, and you didn't know anything about them, they could pass for high-end rich people problems. Addiction to prescription drugs? Having an affair with a surgeon? An upper-crust family falling apart because the patriarch squandered their money? These are rich folks' problems, characters demonstrating affectations of a higher status. Those issues would fit in just as well on, like, Dirty Sexy Money or something. But something like a dude in a pickup truck covertly buying margaritas? That seems more in line with the economic status of the characters. There's a certain white trash-ness to Pamela's plotlines, and again, that has a very negative connotation, but I mean it in the best way possible. I'd lay 2-to-1 odds that if Tim shows up, he'll be sporting a mullet. Any takers? Randall, put your hand down.

What did you think? Is Roxy bound to find Trevor passed out on the bathroom floor for real? Doesn't Joan need some people in her life beyond Roland's friends? Do you get a sense of dread that the show might do something bad to Jeremy in order to keep Denise and Frank together? Shouldn't ex-cop Pamela have a better weapon handy than 'nearest available blunt object'? And how much would you pay not to see a Dane Cook movie?

Comments

Great summary...except for where you described Trevor's reaction as a 'hissyfit'. He threw a glass against the wall and shattered it! That's a bit more than a hissyfit in my book.

If Roxy follows things she's done in the past, I'm guessing she'll go talk to one of Trevor's superiors, saying she's worried about his possible addiction.

Honestly, when he threw the glass, I wanted Roxy to either kick him out or to take the kids and escape to Pamela's. Granted, Pamela has her own issues to deal with...but oh well.

Joan *does* need more friends. Maybe bring in a friend for her through the Mommy PT class.

I really hope they don't do anything bad to Jeremy. I like his character. I want him to stay on the show. And I don't want to go through half a season of all the characters mourning a death again like they did for Amanda. I'm still annoyed that they killed her off the show.

I actually don't mind Dane Cook movies. I liked Dan in Real Life...and he was in that.

Ashley | Sep 8, 2008 8:43:07 AM | #

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ARMY WIVES IS ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS I HAVE SEEN IN MANY YEARS. THANK YOU.

Bill from Texas | Sep 8, 2008 11:54:37 AM | #

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Pam's predicament was chilling. I wanted to throttle those MP's, who basically poo-pooed her assurances that she wasn't just imagining things. Since she's got those kids in the house, no, I don't find it strange that she doesn't have a weapon close at hand.
I, too, hope that they don't do something to Jeremy. Boy, did Frank ever get on my last nerve!
I rather liked Roxy's flashback; it made her immediately realize that her boys could be affected by her arguing with Trevor. I hope this drug addiction s/l isn't carried too far. I hate to sound silly, but I'd like at least one family unit to have things going "okay."

Jan | Sep 8, 2008 12:11:09 PM | #

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Hah. I was right there with you and Joan when she mentioned party games. My one dreaded reservation about baby showers. Woman does need friends but she seemed to have them in previous eps- just all male which really doesn't help her now. I've always been surprised that she and Roland and the Holdens weren't better friends in general though I guess maybe that's a rules thing? Roland and Claudia Joy always seemed like natural friends and Michael and Joan are obviously closer than just boss/subordinate. Given base hierarchy and their ranks and the characters themselves they just seem like they should be best couple friends. Random drift. I loved Joan tonight. I've actually loved her all season.

You hit exactly what I love about Pamela's storylines and have hated about Roxy's this season. Why is Roxy throwing a Lt. Col. she barely knows a baby shower? That seems like something that should have already been on Claudia Joy's to-do checklist along with this month's tea. I think I really would have prefered if Roxy's health problem was something like dealing with the doctors/insurance fight for the boys when Finn needs new glasses for the first time on base. Or them having trouble making ends meet these first few months with a new business (instead, am I crazy or has their house been redecorated?). Something about their addiction storyline feels so manufactured for them. I can't think of a nice way to put this, but it seems like they're changing the order of the wives and replacing Roxy with Pamela as the low rung one of the group with no reasoning (actually they seem to be removing a lot of the differences, rank and class, between the wives period which is one of the things I loved about season one just because it seemed so true to life and my perception of military culture).

I love Claudia Joy and I love both the actors for her parents but she has awful parents. It's no wonder she was a wild teen. I do get now how she was so blindsided considering how they go around her but the passive aggressiveness would drive me up the wall. I was amazed when her mother said that she expected Claudia to put up with everything but she wasn't allowed to interfere after they brought their problems into her house. What? That's not even reasonable and pushing emotional blackmail though from what Charlotte said in the last episode she's good at that.

I realize I'm supposed to be on Denise's side and fully sympathetic to all of her problems, but I wish her problems would just go away. This storyline has been boring and annoying me for a while and of course, it is the only one that won't end. All the other stories on this show last two episodes tops. She's just so drastic. After 20 years she keeps changing Frank's life, someone who by nature likes stability and habit, when he's in his highest stress moments like away at war and then after one counseling session, she wants a separation. He's farther from right than she is but she just makes me want to scream at her.

Michelle | Sep 9, 2008 3:10:42 AM | #

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I have been busy an unable to watch. This weekend will be the first time since earlier this summer I will finally get to see another episode.

I am really looking forward to it.

I am soon going to be an army wife. I like the friendships that these women have. I think often that if my boyfriend and I were married prior to him leaving for Iraq that I would have had the opportunity to live on a base and have other wives to help support me as I would do for them, during the difficult time of my fiances deployment.

Donna | Sep 12, 2008 5:41:28 PM | #

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