Today is our 15th wedding anniversary. Online research tells me that it is our crystal anniversary, which is appropriate enough for a crystallographer. Just a few days after the anniversary of the discovery of X-ray, too. Appropriate enough for an X-ray crystallographer. And, yes, I’m a geek.
I guess NCIS decided it was time to revisit the team’s families. This week it was Tony’s father. Always good to see Robert Wagner. Next week it looks like Ziva’s father is back in town. Can Ralph Waite be far behind? We know (as of last night) that Abby’s father is dead. Have we ever seen McGee’s father? I know his sister was involved in one case a while back. Last night’s storyline was kind of meh, though. Muddled.
The Event has been canceled. Well, no, not really, but I’m done with it. Not even the scary aged children at the end could stir any interest. Nothing’s getting resolved and they keep trotting out new mysteries. I know, I know—people are going to say that sounds like Lost, but in this case we already know what “the island” is, and it’s simply not that interesting.
I received my contributor copy of Encyclopedia of the Vampire: The Living Dead in Myth, Legend, and Popular Culture last night. A nice looking volume, to which I contributed essays on Dan Simmons, Carrion Comfort, Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula : The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count and R. Chetwynd-Hayes.
It was an explosive episode of Sons of Anarchy. Very helpful of Liam to pick a solvent warehouse to hide out in, I thought. He was in a bad spot, with both SAMCRO and Jimmy O after him, but it was Jax who brought him down from his ride with a flying tackle. What followed was hard to watch. As Bobby said, “This is some medieval shit.” No waterboarding for Liam. Instead he got a little open gut surgery. Ugh. Of course Jimmy O managed to escape once again, that dastardly villain. And McGee got the Godfather kiss from Clay, and a warm send-off to the sidewalk below. Forty years of friendship, down the tubes.
When the going gets tough, everyone reacts differently. “I need a smoke,” Gemma says. “I need whiskey,” Maureen says (though in truth she’d already had a nose full). “I need a new life,” says Cherry, who’s had a bad run of boyfriends lately, starting with Halfsack, who I could swear Gemma called “Half Stack.” Gemma’s nicotine craving came just in the nick of time to ward off a little consensual incest. It was inevitable that Jax would put the moves on Trinity (both mothers called their offspring sluts), leading to Gemma’s delivery of the quote of the night. “Unless we want a three-headed grandchild, looks like we’re going to have to share some family history.” Trinity’s reaction to the news: “I almost shagged my brother, ma.” Jax’s reaction: “Two minutes later and I’d’ve been dancing in Tig territory.” I didn’t get the reference, but it was funny anyway.
Meanwhile, back in Charming, Tig, his punch buddy Kozlik, and the latest prospect, along with Piney, have to figure out how to rescue Tara and her boss (“That’s a serious amount of ink,” Tara says of Margaret’s tattoo, which she got back in another lifetime: 1989), which involves trespassing on Alvarez’s property and convincing him to play dead for 24 hours. That’s the easy part. They also have to come up with $¼ million when the club has been scrimping for chump change. I was struck by a reversal: Tara, tied up and duct taped in an attic not so long after she discovered the Guatemalan hottie tied up and duct taped in a basement. That didn’t work out so well for Amelia.
Damn Father Ashby for making sense. Sure, he’s got wheels within wheels and you can’t believe a tenth of what he says, but his rationale for what he’s doing with Abel has a twisted kind of logic. There’s not really any other reason for him to continue to keep the boy away from Jax. He’s gotten everything he wanted out of SAMCRO. However, I’m going to be seriously pissed if Jax gives in and just walks away. Everything about this season will have been for nothing if he does.
