DIRTY SEXY MONEY: The Silence

Get Your Vote On

Despite the tumultuous state of his personal life, Patrick Darling is elected Senator in this week’s appropriately timed election-centric episode. Unfortunately for Tripp, he’s not able to celebrate Patrick’s success because he suffers a heart attack shortly before the results are announced (which you probably had already guessed if you saw any of the promos for this episode). Patrick’s heart is suffering too, since he wins the election just as he loses at love.

Mum’s the Word

This episode is entitled “The Silence”. It most obviously refers to the silence that is bought by the Darling family when Ellen’s brother, Chase Alexander, rolls angrily into town. Chase is threatening to go to the press with his suspicions that Patrick murdered Ellen because she knew of his affair with Carmelita and was going to take the kids and leave him. Tripp sends Nick to offer Chase a deal that he just can’t resist and the crisis is averted. Likewise, silence and secrecy plays a role in most of the other subplots of the episode:

Patrick was ready to break his silence and make his relationship with Carmelita public after the votes were in, a plan that both Tripp and Nick found to be unacceptable. Tripp handles this crisis himself, by going directly to Carmelita. He tells her the truth about Ellen’s death and Patrick’s involvement in the cover up. Carmelita decides to leave Patrick because she is devastated over the lie and cannot be with a man who could be involved in something like that. Can this be the end of Paddy and Carmelita? Say it isn’t so.

Jeremy and Nola continue their secret relationship, but not so quietly as before. At Jeremy’s request, Nola takes a risk and secures Leticia a house arrest “hall pass” so that she can leave the penthouse to attend Patrick’s election celebration. It turns out to be unnecessary since the party location is changed to The Imperial at the last minute, but it is enough to arouse Nick’s suspicions over Jeremy’s “friend of a friend” in the DA’s office. Tricking Jeremy into loaning him his cell phone, Nick redials Jeremy’s most recent call, only to hear Nola Lyons answering in a most telling way.

When Nick was holding Jeremy’s phone, I thought for sure that Lisa was going to call or that it was going to be Lisa’s number that Nick saw in the call list. Lisa and Jeremy are sure to be exchanging plenty of calls now that he is the silent partner at her new art gallery. When Lisa couldn’t secure the space that she wanted for her gallery because her client list was not impressive enough, she went against Nick’s wishes and allowed Jeremy to put the Darling weight behind her gallery. Why Lisa didn’t just use her own husband, almost as much a Darling as Jeremy, is beyond me. Now she’s keeping a secret that “Nick can never find out about”. Yeah…like that’s realistic.

Finally, it is Karen’s week long silence following Simon’s marriage proposal that causes him to dump her…in front of a conference room full of business associates, no less. In typical Karen fashion, she runs to Nick for help with her relationship woes. Nick talks to Simon who tells him point blank that he only wants to marry Karen for her shares in Darling Enterprises which, combined with the ones he has been silently acquiring, will enable him to take control of the company from Tripp. Nick shares this news with Karen who thinks he is only telling her it as a ploy to keep her away from Simon and waiting in the wings for Nick. Disregarding Nick’s desire to help her “dodge a bullet”, Karen goes to Simon, apologizes for her silence and agrees to marry him if the offer still stands, which it does.

Couples Therapy

Nick and Lisa are going for marriage counseling. The main issue on the table is clearly Lisa’s displeasure with the amount of her husband’s time that the Darlings consume, as evidenced by the three phone calls he receives in rapid succession from members of the family during the therapy session. The therapist suggests that Nick and Lisa set aside some “special time” for each other and stresses the importance of honesty and communication in their relationship. Lisa uses their special time as an opportunity to approach Nick about accepting Jeremy’s offer to be her partner. Although Nick comes off as a bit of a controlling jerk in the way he responds to Lisa, he is right. Not only is she being hypocritical given her feelings for the Darlings, it is a slap in the face to him that she would go to Jeremy in particular, who himself is one of the very reasons that their marriage is in trouble. Later, throwing honesty and open communication to the wind, it is Lisa who is getting a call from a Darling during their therapy session. Things do not look good for Nick and Lisa. Not good at all.

Although he claims to be, is Jeremy really over Lisa? He seemed awfully pleased to see her at the polls and he was quick to run to her rescue. It is obvious that he is definitely digging Nola (as evidenced by the, in my personal opinion, way too long shower scene), but my guess is that he and Lisa will grow closer as Nick and Lisa grow apart. As for Nola, it seems that she is developing true feelings for Jeremy and no longer just using him for a thrill. Their relationship is about to blow wide open and it’s not going to be pretty.

At long last, it seems we have learned the truth about Simon and Karen. At first they were both using each other, but now Karen has developed true feelings while Simon continues to be just an evil mastermind. I know that Karen plays the role of the ditz perfectly, but I really thought it was mostly just an act and that she was actually a very bright woman underneath it all. If she follows through with her marriage to Simon, completely disregarding the facts that Nick spelled out for her so clearly, she is going to be more than just unlucky in love.

Remember last week how I was praising Patrick and Carmelita’s loving and caring relationship? Well, it looks like that’s over. Carmelita didn’t even give Patrick a chance to explain his side of the story. I’m not saying that I condone the cover up, but the real issue is not so much with that particular incident as it is with Patrick’s inability to defy Tripp’s wishes, something that Carmelita should have been well aware of before now. Is Carmelita gone for good? Now that she doesn’t present a danger to either Patrick’s marriage or his campaign have the writers decided that it’s time to let her go? Between the loss of Carmelita and everything that went down with Tripp, I think we might be seeing a very different Patrick in the upcoming weeks.

In Other Plotlines

Brian Jr. goes missing and Brian and Andrea work with the police to find him. It turns out that he was not kidnapped, but that he took off on his own because he was tired of listening to Brian and Andrea fighting. He turns up later unharmed and the three leave together, Brian and Andrea resigning to find a better way to work out their issues. I enjoy any scene with a feisty Brian in it, but this story line didn’t work so well for me. Maybe it is because I find it particularly disturbing that it could be that easy for a seven year old to hop on a subway and head for Coney Island by himself.

No new news in Dutch’s murder mystery. On the trial front, Leticia is granted a brief reprieve from house arrest, thanks to Jeremy. It was nice that she was able to be at Tripp’s side in the hospital but it is too bad that she was not able to take advantage of the temporary freedom in a more enjoyable way.

Nick is starting to be a mini-Tripp. Whereas once he served as Tripp’s moral compass, he now seems to spend more time doing whatever Tripp bids than he does serving in any type of advising capacity. It seems that each time Tripp gives him a task to do, Nick balks at it but then gives in and does just as Tripp wishes. Lisa and Karen are missing the Nick they used to love and so am I.

Just as Patrick has won, so it seems, have Karen’s bangs. It looks like they are here to stay.

Favorite Quotes:

“The Darlings are helpless babies living in a golden playpen and Nick is their nanny.”

“Nice work. You’ve created a situation in which our son has had to hire a lawyer.”

“Look at him – like Freddy Kreuger just waiting for the chance to kill again.”

– Posted by Gretchen

Gretchen is a stay-at-home mom of two awesome little girls who has the good fortune of being married to a husband who is completely cool with her slightly out of control television addiction. During her precious few sleeping hours, Gretchen frequently finds herself ridding the world of pesky vampires and demons, as well as taking down fake secret branches of the CIA.