'Dirty Sexy Money': Nick's mother issues

Tonight on Dirty Sexy Money, it seems as though everyone's wrestling with the truth and dealing with some kind of abandonment issues, or some kind of insecurity brought on by family (i.e., parental) trouble. Except Tripp, whose main problem always seems to be controlling his Machiavelli complex. Which, incidentally, he does incredibly well. He's like Don Corleone, only better dressed.

The good news: Spoilers ahead...

We begin with a look at how Patrick's issues with his family, and how the twin Achilles' heels of Ellen's death and his relationship with Carmelita are affecting his Senate campaign. Namely, he's faltering under the strain of living a lie and publicly mourning Ellen while yearning for the disappeared Carmelita. He tells Nick he wants to come clean about what happened to Ellen -- to go to the police and explain what happened, and let the chips fall where they may. Nick replies that he's already dealing with one Darling family felony and he doesn't have time for another. Then he calls Tripp to let him know Patrick's off the reservation.

Jeremy keeps trying to get close to Nola (Lucy Liu), but she keeps pushing him away, for both professional and personal reasons. But where Nick's concerned, she's pushing in a whole different way. "Keeping your busted little office doesn't mean you haven't sold out, you know," she tells him while dropping off her witness list. Her star witness: Nick's mother, to whom he hasn't spoken in 30 years. She was the last person to speak to Dutch, and it turns out that Letitia's been paying her off since she left New York. In this role, Lucy Liu's playing the same character she always plays, and while I'm not normally a fan, in the context of this show, she's letter perfect: cute as a button (is it sexist if I say that?) and hard as nails. She also seems to be having a great deal of fun.

Nick calls his mother in an attempt to find out if Nola's story is true, but she hangs up on him. So he confronts Letitia, who admits to paying Nick's mother all these years -- having offered her a place to live and a tiny little stipend (later we find out it's $350,000 a year, plus the house -- nice payoff). She was depressed, Letitia says, and she wanted to leave. Nick heads to France over the protests of Lisa, whose head nearly flies off as she watches Nick talk to Kiki about not reconnecting with his mother. She tried to get them talking, she says, but this is just one more thing Nick will do for the Darlings that he won't do for her.

Into the midst of this tense situation walks Karen, fresh from a conversation with Simon in which he, exasperated (or pretending to be) by her ongoing Nick monologue, challenges her to wake up and see that Nick doesn't respect her. What starts out to be a nasty confrontation between Karen and Lisa ultimately relaxes into something a little poignant, as Lisa, from her high horse (though she has a right to be there), admits that she misses Nick. And while she always worried she'd lose him to Karen, they've both lost him to Tripp.

Nick finds his mother, Clare (Caroline Lagerfelt, whom I recognize as David Silver's bipolar mother on the original Beverly Hills, 90210), in France and is determined to get to the bottom of her relationship with the Darlings, the money, and her last conversation with Dutch. When her husband comes in, she introduces Nick as a lawyer from the American firm that distributes her grandfather's trust -- presumably her story for the Darling stipend. Over dinner, she learns that Nick has a 10-year-old daughter, and then they retire to the living room where he interrogates her. She tells him the story of her relationship with Dutch, and how in New York she began to withdraw from everything, including her marriage and Nick. "Why didn't you take me with you?" Nick asks, blinking back barely formed tears. His anger and sadness are palpable as he demands to know why she thought abandoning him was a better idea than being a mother to him. Their altercation is tense and beautifully played.

As Nick prepares to go home, Clare finds him and tells him about that last conversation with Dutch. He was despondent after finding out that Letitia lied to him and that Brian was his son. He was going to leave the Darlings and wanted a fresh start with her. Panicked, Clare called Letitia, who said not to worry, she'd take care of everything -- which Clare now interprets as Letitia killing Dutch. And she doesn't understand why Nick's not proud of her for wanting to tell that story on the witness stand. But he persuades her not to testify, saying that her story could land Letitia in jail forever for a murder she didn't commit. She's innocent -- don't testify, take the money, stay here, and live in peace, Nick says. Trust me. Do this for me.

Unsurprisingly, this doesn't fly well with Nola, who promises that this isn't over yet. Back at the Darling manse, Nick and Letitia talk, and  she explains how she's loved him like a son all these years.

As for Patrick, Tripp tries to persuade him not to go public with his story during his debate against a woman candidate obviously modeled after Geraldine Ferraro (at least in looks; she doesn't utter a syllable), which is moderated by Dan Rather, who must get some pretty good leave from HDNet, since this is his second appearance on the show. Patrick begins to spill the beans on stage when Tripp walks in with Carmelita -- and Patrick backpedals with some dumb story about a rumor about Ellen being a heavy smoker. Backstage, Tripp tells Patrick he did well, and looked presidential. And proceeds to bribe Patrick into keeping his mouth shut by letting him see her. If Patrick came clean, Tripp would keep her in hiding. Tripp plays hardball, and Patrick knuckles.

In the B storylines:

• Simon's gambit with Karen continues, and he tells someone on the phone that the plan is working, and that he's got Karen so busy chasing her own tail she'd never suspect a thing. It's going to pay off soon, he says. Karen comes to him to discuss her bittersweet realization that part of what she was hanging onto with Nick was an idea that he'd take over the company when they were married. But the Nick she fell in love with isn't there anymore, she realizes from her conversation with Lisa, and Simon is. "Maybe when you finally let go of the past, it'll give you the chance to open yourself up to even greater possibilities," he says. "Like marrying me." I like to think that Karen's a sharp enough cookie to see that something's up and play dumb, but we'll see.
• Brian's missing his son, who commiserates with him over webcam about being passed over as the heir to the Darling throne. When Brian finds out that the boy is alone at night while his mother's out, he flies down to Rio, intent on taking him back to New York. In the end, it turns out that Brian Jr.'s mother is waiting tables in the evenings, and she hasn't cashed any of Brian's support checks because she wants to make it on her own. Brian's miserable without his son, and briefly morphs into Tripp to browbeat the boy's mother into living off the money he sends. Then we see that Brian Jr. has stowed away on his father's plane home. Brian's storyline is incidental at best this week, but the stowaway sets up yet another family drama for Brian in the future.

In the end, Nick arrives at his apartment to see his sleeping family. He's -- literally -- made it home.

What did you think? Is Tripp's giant reserve of manipulation endless and unlimited? Was Nola right that Letitia's case isn't over, even though her star witness is no longer testifying? And who do you think Simon was talking to?

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