Pan Am – Cashing in on the Jujubes

Is it just me or are the stakes slowly being raised on Pan Am? While they are certainly not in life-or-death territory (except in the case of our not so professional CIA operative), things are getting more serious for each of the characters. Dean is flirting with trouble with the brass, Ted is flirting with Laura, and Maggie is flirting with, well, most everyone. Pan Am still hasn’t leveled off ratings-wise, seeing continued drops week after week. I am hoping now that the show is able to move away from establishing the character’s backstories, that some of these viewers will return.

The best part of Dean’s relationship with Ginny the secretary was the subtle reminders that there is a connection between he and Colette. I have a funny feeling that we’ll never see Bridget again, so the seeds that were planted in “We’ll Always Have Paris” will have a more significant meaning as time goes on. In the mean time, however, it seems that Ginny will be in the forefront of Dean’s life, for better or worse. Until he knows exactly how close she and Senior Vice President Hanson are, he should be much more cautious than he is being.

I like the idea of Laura and Ted together considerably more than is reasonable; they’re just too cute. On paper, they are just not a couple that you’d expect to end up together. They are in that weird, in-between zone of not enough in common, but not enough of opposites to be obvious compliments for each other. Despite that, they just work. Ted is a much better guy than he lets on, and I don’t think that Laura is really looking for the easy, unattached life that she says she wants. I look forward to seeing how their relationship develops.

I’m a little dumbfounded that Kate doesn’t get paid to do whatever it is the CIA has her doing. It started out with simply being a courier, but has seemingly become more and more involved as time goes on. I’m all for doing one’s civic duty, but I think at this point it has gone well beyond that. Plus, I always just assumed she’d gone through some sort of training. Her not being on the payroll leads me to believe that whatever training she received was cursory at best. If the training had been more thorough, she probably would have been smart enough to end her relationship with Nico when the assignment was over.

Maggie still remains the biggest mystery on the crew, but I think we saw a side of her this week that is pretty telling. I’m all for pulling a pranks on your co-workers, but they way that she played Kate was just a little too smooth for my tastes. Considering what was alluded to in the previews for next week, Maggie will finally be truly focused on story-wise, but now I am more than a little nervous about what kind of person she really is.

Notes & Quotes

• “[Kate takes the manifest from Colette] Yugoslavian I think.” – Colette
  “Who?” – Kate
  “4C … Are you blind?” – Colette
• “Jujubes?” – Dean
  “That’s your first thought? Pathetic. Yes I stocked up, and yes, that’s pathetic. But this woman, this vivacious, voluptuous woman barely out the door and your mind goes to jujubes.” – Ted
• “That woman looks like she’s about to fall. Should we wake her up?” – Laura
  “Oh, God no. Second rule of the subway: never wake anyone up.” – Ted
  “What’s the first rule?” – Laura
  “Take a cab.” – Ted

Clacked by Ivey West
on Oct 23, 2011 @ 23:44 EST5EDT