Frank (love the hair!) and Denise returned home from a night out to hear a gunshot coming from their house, where only Jeremy was home. With two people in life-threatening danger, there is a real chance that one of the two will die. The question is, will the writers kill off another kid (too much?) or let Joan — who is one-of-a-kind in many ways — die. My wife tends to think it will be Joan, if they do kill anyone, in short to avoid the redundancy. But, she believes that the writers won’t leave us with a motherless baby. I tend to agree, more because Joan is the only female soldier on the show, the only new mother, and Roland will be forced to move off-post if she’s gone.
I actually think there’s a good chance it will be Jeremy. First of all, he doesn’t deserve to be on the show; I will never forget that he punched his mother, nor let him off the hook for that. Second, while he’s gotten a bigger role of late, I think it’s for this story line. This will also give Frank and Denise something bigger to do, providing them with some good drama and us with some great acting.
Actually, what really should have happened is the following: a live missile misfired during a training exercise should have hit the Sherwood residence while Jeremy and Emmalin were inside talking. Two birds….
And last, but in my mind the biggie: Pamela and the kids are gone, leaving Chase all alone. Yeah, chances are they just went to Myrtle Beach, but this story is the one that my wife and I disagree the most over. While I do not defend how little interest Chase shows in his family, we have no idea what happened to him this time, or any time, he’s been deployed. And even if we had the details, would we know what it “means” that he was tortured for a month, or whatever? I think he’s struggling, and I don’t think that what he needs right now is for Pamela to grill him for the details.
What he needs, believe it or not, is to get back in theater as quickly as possible. Chase is a Delta soldier, likely something that he can only do for X number of years. He’s a capital investment of the Army’s, similar to any fancy weapon that they add to their arsenal, and he has a job to do — one not many can do — that he needs to do while he still can.
Yes, that doesn’t excuse him from not savoring whatever time he might get at home with his family, but it does mean that he deserves to be judged based on a somewhat different set of criteria. Should he lie to Pamela, or miss his kids’ special events? No. Should he have accepted the new training assignment? That’s hard to say, but he certainly shouldn’t assume that the kids would understand. But, should he be doing all that he can to get back to the war as soon as is humanly possible? Absolutely. That’s who he is.
Even so, I’m curious to see who else he is when he fights to win Pamela back. For me, the “how” of that scenario is the big cliffhanger of the season.
Alright, so a slow start to season three following a lot of nonsense in season two has finally evolved into some good, old-fashioned drama. Not Army Wives of season one, but I believe that’s because the show is going down a different path. I hope you’ll all be here with me come season four, to find out just where it’s going.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Oct 12, 2009 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
