photo: fx

Original Air Date: Jan 13, 2010

Tom R. – Sr. Staff Writer
tom@thetwocents.com

Christian and Sean take on separate clients, each with different beauty goals. By the end of this episode, the rift between them grows deeper.

Willow Banks is a former model who is tired of being beautiful. She has quit modeling and wants operations to give her less flattering features to command less attention. Since this is the opposite of everything plastic surgery strives for, Christian tells her that no doctor would touch her. As a backup plan, he shows up at her apartment with a bottle of wine and a bucket of KFC, hoping to pack on pounds. As he raids her fridge, she disappears into the bathroom, returning with her head shaved. When the bald, sloppy Willow gets just as much attention, she plows her can into a wall, with Christian in the passenger’s seat. Returning to McNamara/Troy, she compares her fascination with ugliness to “slumming” and wants to return to being beautiful. In a nicely chosen comeback, Christian repeats that no doctor would touch her.

Sean operates on a 38 year old man who has just emerged from a coma. Since he feels 18 and has the naïveté of a teenager, he wants to look closer to his age. Sean takes him out on the town to show him what he’s been missing, but leaves early when one of the club girls calls him a narc. The patient returns to the office the next day to finance implants for a girl he met the previous night. Sean tries to explain the concept of golddigging to him, but it does not sink in. As Sean tries to talk to her, a thump is heard in the office. They find he has slipped back into his coma.

Christian, meanwhile, has become a complete slob since the marriage. This is shown in a unique montage intercutting Kimber’s beauty regimen and the sandwich he is preparing for game time. As Kimber heads out to a networking opportunity to promote her new interior design career, he refuses to be arm candy for her, and prefers to sit at home stuffing his face.

Sean’s aging concerns are highlighted by Kimber, who Christian refers to him to get her off his back. Sean gives her free reign, and the result is “old fashioned”…”old world”…or, in Sean’s eyes, just “old”. Kimber tries to make associations to help him, but they all turn out to be film stars from the black and white era. Sean sulks, Kimber vents about Christian, and the two end up in bed together. The affair continues at the office, where Christian almost catches them. In the closing moments, their affair is intercut with Christian on a treadmill, pushing the rate higher and higher. The self-destructive streak that has been mentioned seems to be building.

Given the choice…would you want to less good looking? More? Post your comments below, or drop me a line at: tom@thetwocents.com.