PRIVILEGED: All About Tough Love

Yay! What a delightful episode! Aside from the return of my nemesis Lilly, this was a wonderful hour, showcasing what are becoming trademarks of this great new series: heart, charm, sharp dialogue and several laugh-out-loud moments. I’ve long thought that Privileged somewhat fills the void left on The CW by Gilmore Girls and while the shows are very different, they both make me happy in similar ways.

Megan is dealing with family drama now that Lilly is in jail and Will….oh Will. If you hadn’t done something so stupid I’d feel really badly for you right now. The girls meanwhile are busy trying to figure out their respective boyfriends. Sage wants to get Luis a present to show him how she feels (you could see that disaster coming a mile away) and Rose is trying to puzzle out the meaning of a poem given to her by her beau.

A couple of things right off the bat: first of all, Dave Franco needs to join the cast of Privileged permanently. As Rose’s smart and sweet bf Zach (with a “ch”, not a “ck”) he is charming and funny as an outsider suddenly a part of the “in” crowd. Plus, he knows how to use the word “t’were” in a sentence (well, he knows how to plagiarize John Donne’s use of it anyway). Second of all, I’ve had a slow-building love for Sage’s fuchsia and green bedspread for a while, but I am suddenly obsessed with it and need to own it immediately. I actually spent a good half hour trying to search it out online to no avail, and you know what happens when you can’t get something that you want…you want it even more. Grrr.

Lilly is back, but she’s being held in the Mischa Barton Prison For Distractingly Bad Actors – oops! I mean she’s being held in prison for a Brokedown Palace-type situation involving a backpack full of drugs in her honeymoon suite, a missing groom and…oh you know what? I don’t care. Do whatever you must to get rid of this character once and for all and I will not question it. Alien abduction? No problem. Quicksand? It’s Florida – why not? Colonel Mustard in the parlor with a candlestick? Fabulous. Do it. Do it soon.

Will wakes to see Megan leaving for jail to visit Lilly and break the news that the family has discussed things and decided that they won’t be bailing her out. It’s time for a little tough love and as much as Megan and her mother may question the idea, they’ve agreed to it. Will gets up and proceeds to slowly dress himself while enquiring, “can I ask you a question?”. You can ask anything you want Will, but I can’t guarantee I’ll be listening until your shirt is completely on. He’s not down with the family’s decision, but as he is not a member of the family, he doesn’t really get a vote.

Zach gave Rose a “crazy hard” poem about their sublunary and refined love that Rose had to use a dictionary to try to interpret. She was panicked at the notion that Zach was too smart for her, but Sage gave it to her straight: “So, you’re dating a nerd. So what. It’s not like you didn’t know that going into it”. Luckily for Rose, Zach didn’t write the poem but was too chicken to admit it to her when she assumed wrong. Turns out he had written a different poem, with rhyming and short words and everything, so all it right with the world.

Sage was upset over her fight with Luis, stemming from her purchase of a well-intentioned but over-the-top extravagant gift (that knife set goes for about a grand – yeah, I looked it up). Apparently she ruined his knife dream by swooping in and buying the very thing he’d been saving for over two years to buy for himself. After some reflection and a charming and funny chat with Megan (I love when they’re friends!), Sage realized that she too had a knife dream once. Only hers involved the completion and framing of 5,000 piece puzzle of kittens in a basket that an assistant of Laurel’s finished after Sage had spent the better part of a summer working on it. That would have pissed me off too; I still remember the sense of accomplishment I felt when I finished my giant New Kids on the Block puzzle back in the day. Sage and Luis fully have my stamp of approval because I really felt that spark of chemistry between them last night, and they’re hilarious together (“you’d better not make a dirty kitten joke”).

Charlie appeared briefly for what seemed like no apparent reason, caught in the middle of the minor Sage/Luis situation. However, there was a telling moment between Charlie and his cuz, when Luis said “you’ve got to follow your heart” and Charlie got all wistful-looking. Hmmmmm….does that mean a big moment of revelation with a certain tutor might be happening soon? As most of you likely know by now, Michael Cassidy is going to be leaving the show soon for the remainder of the season, but might that be after a declaration of love? Only the writers know for sure… (FYI – Rina Mimoun, the creator and writer of the show has said that he may come back if the show is picked up for a second season so us Charlie fans don’t have to freak out too much just yet). Besides, if it is any consolation, this guy is going to be joining the cast later in the season:

His name is Robert Buckley and some of you may know him from Lipstick Jungle. He’ll be playing the editor of a magazine where apparently both Will and Megan will be trying to get hired.

So…I think that about sums up the entire episode…oh wait! Did I forget to mention that Mama Smith arranged a private meeting with Will to get him to spot her the money to bail Lilly out of jail? And he agreed? Even though Megan was not in on the plan? And then Lilly got out without the bail because they found her deadbeat husband? And then Mama Smith disappeared, taking all of her belongings with her? Oh snap! Megan was rightfully pissed, but Will has no idea yet that he was hosed. Was anyone else as shocked as I was that Mrs. Smith would pull something so diabolical just when she was settling in with the family again?

So, please share your thoughts below – how much are you loving this show? How sad/happy/indifferent are you to the thought that Charlie will be gone soon, and what would you like to see happen before he leaves? The best part of watching this show and writing reviews is getting to discuss it all with you guys, so don’t be shy!

— posted by Nicole

Nicole is a lawyer with an unhealthy t.v. obsession and many t.v. boyfriends. If she had a locker at her office it would be covered in photos of Zachary Levi, Jensen Ackles, Lee Pace and John Krasinski. She lives near Toronto and is spending the winter cursing that fact while trying to convince her friends to do a group move to a warmer climate. So far it’s not working.