USOT Recap: Be My Problem

 "Go put the fun back in funeral."   —Bryce

Whose funeral, you ask? Lionel's! And, as it happens, this show's. (The fact that Tara got sacked in favor of the ever-stagnant Nurse Jackie is just salt on the wound.) I literally don't know which piece of news to focus my sadness on. Like Kate says in this week's episode, "I wish we were the sort of people who could just get upset about . . . one terrible, horrible thing a day." A rational person would point out that only one of these events is really real, but damn it, I liked Lionel, and my growing affection for him was the kind that developed from initial feelings of discomfort and straight-up horror at his behavior; that kind of drastic shift doesn't generally happen to me. So yes, while I will likely spend more cumulative minutes mourning the loss of what, in my opinion, has been a layered, compelling and consistently dynamic show, my grief over Lionel takes center stage for the moment.

"Train Wreck" was heartbreaking in so many ways, I don't even know where to begin. It kicked off innocuously enough, with Tara having seemingly found a Bryce-proof way to keep her crazy pills down (she snorts them) and her inner teen terror at bay. It is only about a third of the way into the episode that the bomb of Lionel's fatal car accident is dropped, and not until the day of the funeral that Bryce shows up to wreak havoc on the family. Chronologically speaking, the heartbreak starts with witnessing Marshall's stoicism as he first tries to cope with Lionel's death and his bitter acceptance of his mother's inability to be there for him—while effective, Tara's medication apparently turns her into a loopy, vegetative mess. The real tragedy of Tara, however, is that when she is on, she is on; she was the only one who was able to pull it together long enough to truly and beautifully comfort Marshall through his loss. The following scene where Bryce hijacks the day of the funeral is all the more hard to stomach in light of that moment. As for the final heartbreak of the episode, two words: the basement. Just... damn.

On  the plus side, Tara's most recent "rock bottom" does lead Marshall and Kate to come to an important realization: their mother is not their burden to bear. "Be my problem," Kate says to Evan in a gesture symbolic of her decision to move forward and leave the [dysfunctional] nest, at least figuratively. Marshall instead takes the literal approach, deciding to move, it seems, to New York in tribute to Lionel's memory as much as out of a personal sense of duty to himself.

The final basement scene/goodbye between Max and Marshall was nothing short of spectacular, with Max absolving Marshall of his family responsibility and Marshall expressing love and concern for his parents but realizing he needs to leave them all the same. (There's a great moment there where Max urges his grieving son not to lose his childlike wonder and innocence, yet Marshall's expression (and all of us at home) practically screams, "Who are you kidding?") This need to put distance between oneself and one's childhood is as real and relentless for Marshall as it once was for Claire Fisher of that other dark family dramedy, Six Feet Under—fitting, seeing as how both characters underwent personal tragedies and eventually became the symbols of change/audience surrogates for their respective families/shows.

Arguably the most introspective Gregson, Marshall's recent change of heart regarding his mother's condition (or really, his growing ability to see it clearly) is more significant than anyone else's in that his character arc illustrates the evolution of the show itself from quirky comedy to complex meditation on mental illness, family, and identity. Season-one Moosh, who reassures Tara that her DID is the reason their family "gets to be interesting" is a million miles removed from present-day Marshall who is on the cusp of a real and bittersweet coming of age. I mean, really: How do you cancel this show?! On the other hand, if Marshall is indeed preparing to follow in Claire's footsteps all the way to Manhattan, perhaps it's somewhat appropriate that the Gregson saga will also end on a note similar to the Fishers'.

USOT Recap: Transitions

"I liked you." —Lionel

...And the Lionel/Marshall union is as past as the tense of that verb, folks. I have to admit that even though I never thought the two were right for each other, it was a little bit sad that Lionel, the threesome-orchestrator and general boundary-pusher of the group, ended up being more invested in his relationship with and subsequent breakup from Marshall than viceversa. It's the first true glimpse of complexity I've seen from Lionel, and I sure hope this isn't the last we'll be seeing from him, because I definitely appreciate what his character brings to the show and to television in general. I don't think we've had much in the way of complete, unapologetic, even self-destructive gay characters on TV since Six Feet Under and certainly none that were so young.

I actually don't know what surprised me more about this week's episode: that Marshall initiated the secret fooling around with Noah or that Dr. Hattaras listens to death metal in his adorable, tiny car. The good professor still purports not to believe in DID, but he is definitely showing some avid interest in Tara, pursuing her through different channels when she initially refuses to allow him to write a paper on her condition. (Apparently Hattaras is some sort of genius therapist in addition to skeptical academic.) It turns out that last week's big treatise among the Taras resulted in a surprisingly detailed and coherent written contract agreed upon and signed by the alters, a direct result of which was an almost too-easy interaction where Alice relinquishes the body to Tara upon immediate request. Of course, that was Alice. Jury's still out on the integrity of the loose-cannon alters T and Buck, not to mention the mystery alter that I still believe exists somewhere in Tara's subconscious in spite of his/her absence from the imaginary conference room.

Meanwhile, Charmaine and Neil are in over their heads with baby Cassie, but Charmaine still stubbornly refuses Tara's involvement and help (at least initially; the damn "sister scene" at the end made me get all teary-eyed again). Max is not having an awesome professional experience at his new job with Orgalawn. Turns out, having to answer to someone else might not be worth the financial security. I'm actually pretty disappointed with the Max storylines so far. More often than not, he seems to be treated as a passive character by the writers, reactive rather than proactive, which would be fine if the factors he were reacting to were less lame. Basically, I would like to see him be more than a foil for Tara, but at the very least he could be given some marginally more interesting conflicts.

In fact, this whole episode was merely OK—more of a transitional chapter than anything else, dealing primarily with the gradual shifts into events we all knew would take place sooner or later: the Marshall/Lionel breakup, the Tara/Charmaine reunion, the Tara/Dr. Hattaras partnership. The only truly entertaining scenes this week were Kate's, who was also stuck in her own transitioning phase from aimless teen to spunky flight attendant but who at least had some hilarious interactions in the process.

Rumor has it Dr. Hattaras will make an important discovery in one of Tara's therapy tapes next week. It better be good.

USOT Recap: Back to School

Favorite line: "Ah, Ms. Gregson. Quite a tour de force yesterday. I was dragged kicking and screaming to rehab for behavior less strange." —Dr. Hattaras

"Crackerjack" kicks off with some "raw" footage of the Gregsons through Marshall's new camera. He really seems to be hitting this documentary filmmaking thing hard, capturing some casual-yet-telling reactions from his family members in the first scene of the episode. In one fell swoop we are treated to Tara's back-to-school jitters as well as Max's increasing frustration with his landscaping business (or lack thereof).

From there, it doesn't take Tara long to realize university campuses are not kind to students of a certain age, and her anxiety reaches new heights upon stepping into the classroom—a sprawling, auditorium-style affair—causing her to transition into Shoshanna and pretend to be the substitute psychology professor. Naturally, Dr. Hattaras (Eddie Izzard, who is staying sardonically English in this role, thank the Queen) is none too happy and proceeds to use Tara's condition as a humiliating topic of discourse in the class. This wouldn't be quite so bad if he weren't so utterly disdainful of the validity of her disorder. His skepticism does, however, catalyze an appearance by T, which is always a joyous occasion, speaking strictly as a viewer.

The rest of the men this week saw varying degrees of personal success, the highest being Max's somewhat-forced decision to sell his business to the big dog Orgalawn. Unfortunately, this sale is leaving Neil in quite the lurch, job-wise, but I am excited to see what his next move will be. Hopefully something that will make him significantly more attractive to Charmaine. Or as she put it, "you weren't planning on being a gardener your whole life, were you?" Ouch.

Marshall and Lionel are excited about their film class but disappointed to be thrust into an almost entirely gay group, under their teacher's misguided hope that they will create "something deeper, more emotional... a little more razzmatazz." Still, I appreciated seeing Lionel's more vulnerable side as he asked Marshall if they were together out of love or sheer proximity. Blondie cares, y'all!

As for Kate, after an unfortunate run-in with a particularly coital Neil and Charmaine, her goal du jour has become the quick and thorough escape from her family. The solution? Move to Japan to teach English. I love it when shows incorporate real trends into their stories. And it will be interesting to see Kate completely out of her element, and I really hope the writers are able to pull off sequestering one of the main characters from their main Kansas setting. That is, if Kate ends up going at all, which is still unclear at this point. My guess is that it will happen, because not only is Kate behaving much more responsibly, but it also seems like the show is actively trying to make her seem that way with older-looking makeup and hair. Though Brie Larson was 20 when the show debuted, she's always been very convincing as a 15/16-year-old in demeanor and facial expression, but this season I am getting a marked sense of maturity from her, and that has to be deliberate, because Larson is a terrific actress.

It appears I totally called it last week insofar as the Charmaine/Neil dynamic, as Sweet Moment #1 made itself known almost immediately during the course of this episode, with Charmy declaring that the father of her child is a better man than her dream guy. And the "Awww" moments didn't stop there. I'm referring, of course, to the Marshall/Kate interaction in the empty lot... thing. Brother/sister scenes on comedies, especially those involving teenagers, tend to have an undertone of cattiness and competition, so I find it nice to be able to count on the Gregson siblings to always have each other's backs, no matter what. But even that moment was nothing compared to the touching scene at the end of the episode, involving Tara and Kate and a poignant mother-daughter role reversal that gave Tara a new understanding of her eldest child.

And speaking of mothers, it looks like next week will usher in Max's own (Frances Conroy of Six Feet Under!), and she appears to be a pretty severe hoarder, in light of which it really seems like Max was somewhat predisposed to falling for a psychologically disturbed woman. Thoughts?