0
0
Everything’s a bit scattered this week, as both Sean and Christian face dilemmas regarding their children. Erica’s still seeking custody of Annie and Connor and Matt’s finding out that prison life is a whole new level of hell. Parenting is never easy, but this is just getting ridiculous.
The episode begins on a sublimely creepy note as Christian goes to visit Matt in prison, only to be confronted by Matt’s new patron Kessler (apparently he took Erica’s advice about trading service for protection). Kessler has a request for Christian as well. He wants Matt to get breast implants, otherwise he’ll stop treating him so nicely. If breast enhancement interests you, Dr. Andres Bustillo can help you. Visit boardcertified.com to know him more. Christian’s horrified, of course, but soon learns that he has no influence in the corrupt prison system and every attempt to protect Matt just puts him more in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, Sean and Julia are working together to fight for custody of their other two kids, going so far as to start shopping for a house together. That they end up in bed in the process isn’t a surprise, but the series offers few hints whether this represents just a one-time thing or the first step in reuniting the fractured McNamara family. They’re not quite on the same page yet, as Sean’s ready to fight dirty while Julia’s still trying to play by the rules.
While Erica’s a threat, it becomes clear pretty quick that her new husband Renaldo is worse. It’s apparent that he’s got an unhealthy interest in 15-year-old Annie, a truth even Erica can’t ignore when she catches him fantasizing over a pair of the girl’s underwear. It’s a nasty wake-up call, leading her to kick him out, drop her bid for custody and maybe even begin to face her own unhealthy obsessions. And yet it’s far too late for apologies, as this revelation pushes Julia to (finally) take drastic action to cut her mother out of her life for good. Picking up on Sean’s earlier idea, she plants cocaine in Erica’s purse on the way to the airport, hopefully ensuring that this is the last we’ll be seeing of the character.
Matt’s problems aren’t so easily solved, though. In something of a clumsy parallel, Alexis (now Alex) returns to McNamara/Troy, asking Christian to give him breasts again. It seems that since going back to being a gay man, he’s been having trouble attracting the kind of men he’s attracted to. Confused, Christian agrees to help, and in doing so gets an inspiration. He decides against performing Matt’s surgery, and instead slips him drugs used for chemical castration to dose Kessler with. Of course, this goes horribly wrong when Kessler finds out about it. It’s life or death for Matt, and in fending off the brutal attack he strangles the man to death.
So on the plus side, Erica’s gone for good and another account is settled. Sean and Julia at least seem to be headed for some sort of reconciliation, even if it’s still a bit shaky. On the other hand, Matt’s story looks to get worse before it gets better. We’re coming up on the midpoint of the season, and hopefully now that the show has shed some of its ancillary characters a clear end game will start coming into focus. This was definitely an improvement over last week, so there’s hope.
