Things were kind of drama-light for the penultimate episode of Army Wive’s third season, don’t you think? Viola (Tonya Pinkins) can sing! A charity golf tournament! Rah, rah! By the way … is Denise a snob? That was definitely an ugly side of her, which must be hard work for Catherine Bell.
And, at the risk of sounding totally stereotypical, is Denise a middle-aged man? A major life-crisis, a new (okay, in her case just “a”) career, a motorcycle, an obsession with golf … did the writers want another boy, and decide to force Denise to be their surrogate?
But just as things settled into ho-hum, we got slammed over the head from our left flank (military jargon!).
First, Roland and Terrence Price (Clifton Powell) get arrested as they attempt to help one of Roland’s patients (at the time, I was disappointed with the choice of police action taken by the writers). Then, all of a sudden, Price is packing up and on the run. Now that the police have his prints, it’s only a matter of time until what? I’d say I was surprised that this guy has major secrets, but…. Even so, I did not see that coming. Big stuff for the finale, as in Roland’s final scene of the season will likely involve his being confronted by federal agents about who Price really is.
And then from the right: Fort Marshall may or may not be in line for closure, what with base consolidations and budget cuts aplenty. The plot, one that could potentially (I don’t give it much chance of happening, though) scatter our characters across the country, or the globe, wasn’t really unfolded with much intrigue or suspense, nor was it made into that big of an issue … of course, it will be one on the finale, and the fate of Fort Marshall will hang in the balance over the hiatus, but it didn’t really land as a bomb. And season four? I’m betting it opens with Michael on-base, but we won’t be able to tell which base, and we’ll see most or all of our cast in familiar, but not familiar, places, until finally, like ten minutes in, we’ll be in the Hump Bar and finally know that Fort Marshall was spared.
After getting hit from the right and the left, we were groggy; we were on the ground. And Army Wives took that opportunity to try and force-feed us a Jeremy sob-story of woefulness. My vindication will come if he punches Denise again in a drunken stupor — Frank will tear his arms off and beat him with them. Hopefully, though, he’ll do us all a favor before then and get himself killed.
All in all, definitely a sneak attack of an episode. I really felt numbed watching Denise grit her teeth on the golf course as Roxy performed yet another ridiculously non-person act out there (I’m sorry, but she’s not just missing class, she’s missing basic human interaction understanding). And then the set-up for the finale jumped out of the bushes and cut me down.
My one complaint — because who would I be without that? — is how tangential all of this drama is to our core five. Yes, the base closing affects them, but it’s more something for Michael to sweat over, while Claudia Joy waits out the commission’s findings. Price’s running affects Roland, but his troubles are his own. And I suppose Jeremy’s swirling down the drain affects Denise, but, first of all for the better if he disappears, and second, even if it hits her hard, it’s still him struggling to come to terms with something, not her.
All drama, to be sure, just not first-person stuff for the Army Wives five. Then again, we still have yet to see what bomb/disease/affair/canker sore is to come next week.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Oct 06, 2009 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
