Two strong and two weak; this season of Army Wives is shaking out into a formula: Roxy and Pamela get the hijinxs and the nonsense, while Denise gets the emotion and Claudia Joy the heartache. Well, Claudia Joy’s kind of disappearing, but let’s pretend. Oh, and Roland gets the headaches. So, wait … what’s the count at?
Whatever. When did Roxy turn into such a weak player on the show? From dogs to “famous” un-famous singers, scams to remodeling, Roxy’s spent most of season three playing a bit of a dope. The only reaction I had to her plot this week was that she seriously needs to butt out of other people’s lives. Yes, it’s nice that she wants to help, but mind your own business for once, okay?
Pamela lost her wallet, so her life fell apart? Conceptually, I understand why it was significant, but to be her entire focus this episode? Maybe we were meant to learn something from her experience, but I just can’t get over how underutilized such a great character has been in recent weeks.
And her story required a continuation of one of the most improbable things that this season has been repeatedly trying to sell us: Claudia Joy has become a huge name-dropper. So far she’s used Michael’s name to hook Pamela up with better housing (failure), get an orphan Iraqi girl surgery and money for physical therapy (success? Depends on how you look at it), and here she was assuring a gate guard that he would be doing General Holden a personal favor by letting an ID-less Pamela back onto base. I doubt it would ever happen, but the mere fact that I can imagine her playing that card one too many times….
Roland’s life sucks. Joan totally flew off the handle at him, when all he was trying to do was something incredibly sweet: give her the opportunity to “not miss” special events in Sarah Elizabeth’s life. She may be upset, but he’s 100% right in reminding her that re-deployment was completely her decision, and that she couldn’t have not realized what that meant. It’ll be impossibly hard, but she made an adult decision to go to Iraq with her men, instead of staying behind and working for Michael. Her call, and her consequences. He can, and should, be there for her, but don’t take it out on Roland.
Congrats to Frank on the big promotion! Lieutenant Colonel, G3, and a spot on Michael’s team; now no more deployments…. Yay? I know he wanted to stay with Denise, but Frank’s a field officer, and I don’t think he’ll be happy behind a desk. Yes, he’s been injured twice in two deployments now, but that doesn’t mean he’s bad at what he does. He was afraid Denise would resent him for making her sell her bike, but this could be a lot worse. Only time will tell.
And, go Big Mike! I’m one of those people who has a hard time either forgiving or forgetting, and even support holding a grudge for the sake of a friend who’s already let it go. Frank can make the (stupid) decision to welcome Denise back into his life, but good for Michael for not being able to forgive Denise for what she did to his friend, Frank. Michael’s right in labeling it as going against everything he believes in, and Claudia Joy should understand that Michael has the right to be majorly pissed. She should be apologizing to him for forcing him into a situation that she knew he absolutely did not want to be in.
But then, she might no longer be the sympathetic one. And then she’ll have lost her role in season three … decisions, decisions.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Aug 11, 2009 @ 17:00 EST5EDT
