[smoothaise]

from thewb.com

Episode #305 - "Sacrifice" fresh | monday | 9/8c Andy (Treat Williams) puts his foot in his mouth by picking a fight with Everwood's patron saint, Amanda Hayes (Anne Heche), who, unbeknownst to Andy, has been caring for her profoundly disabled husband (guest star Jason Beghe) for the past five years. Meanwhile, Jake (Scott Wolf) surprises Nina (Stephanie Niznik) by asking her out on a date; Ephram (Gregory Smith) and Bright (Chris Pratt) realize their friendship may have grown too far apart to salvage; and neurotic-as-ever Dr. Abbott (Tom Amandes) struggles to come up with a medical invention after learning that Dr. Brown and Dr. Hartman have successful inventions of their own. Emily VanCamp, Debra Mooney, John Beasley, Vivien Cardone and Merrilyn Gann also star. Anna Fricke wrote the episode directed by Michael Schultz.

Im kinda glad that there finally going to touch on the Bright/Ephram friendship. And I am looking forward to seeing Anne Heche's character. And poor Doc Abbott getting jealous. Oh well. LOL.

[The Maria]

thanks for starting this!
-maria

[smoothaise]

no prob, maria.

are you excited for tonight's episode?

[MissCongeniality]

The folks over at tvguide.com seem to be excited. Tonight's episode is on their hot list of shows to watch.
I'm definitely looking forward to it.

[Cruel Irony]

Finally! Nina is in love with Andy! Yes, yes, yes!

[fan1bsb97]

She is right!? At first I thought so, but then she said someone she went to high school with, so I though she was talking about her ex, but now I think it's Andy! I'm so happy! SQUEEE!

[~AnastasiaGrey~]

I missed this episode, but how was it?

[jess13]

Although I loved the fact that Nina finally came to terms witht he fact sheis in love with Andy..It is ticking me off that a majority of the past two episodes focused on the older generation. Part of what I love about this show is the way they can evenly intertwine stories and I feel like they have failed to do that the past two eppies. I also didn't like that next years promo was basicallt a publicity stunt for Anne Heche.

[hshapir2]

one of my favorite writers ever wrote this. Hee. I also didn't like them promoting Anne Heche next week

I didn't like that Ephram and Bright are losing their friendship

I liked that Nina realized that she loves Andy

I think Anne Heche got too much screen time

I like that Scott Wolf toned it down this week. He wasn't as perky.

[jediwands]

I loved the E/A scenes. I love how Amy wanted to set up a tent and her and Ephram could stay in it all weekend. Awwwwww. And I loved whenever Amy found that thong. Or hooker thong as she called it. That was so funny. She gave Ephram ten seconds for an explanation. Greg/Emily were wonderful in this scene, like always. Good stuff. Hee. I just love how Berlanti is showing this relationship. Strong, healthy, and most importantly, the real deal. You can just tell how comfortable and happy both of them are that they are romantically together. It is a joy to watch this wonderful relationship.

I am not too worried about Ephram and Bright. They will work things out. I like that they both exchanged some words that they didn't mean because at least this is a starting base. They will get through this. And I don't think either of them is in the wrong or right. In other words, I can see both of their point of views. For instance, I can see why Ephram would think going to some party would be the last thing he would want to do when he much rather chill out with Bright somewhere else or for that matter, be with his girlfriend. I mean, I can see why chilling out in front of a tv with chinese food with Amy all weekend would sound so good to Ephram. And I can see why he wanted to do this over going to some wild party. On the other hand, I can see why Bright would find it difficult being around Ephram right now because Ephram is so together in that he is with Amy, the love of his life, and his career goals are set with piano, and he is so at peace and happy with things. But, I know they will work things out. They are just at really different places right now but they will work it out.

I also loved how Nina realized she loves Andy. So cute.

[smoothaise]

I thought tonites episode was great. I loved it. I like the addition of Anne Heche. I think she pulled it off well. And I'm glad Nina finally recognized her feelings for Andy. Let's see how long they string this in the air, lol. I can sympathize with Bright and understand where he's coming from. And, I felt bad for Jake. Poor guy. All in all a great episode.

[Jerry D]

I found this episode to be a bit of a disappointment, as the theme of what we all must sometimes sacrifice for the things and people we love resonated throughout this episode.

One of the sad parts about growing up is that you can grow apart from your friends, and we really got to see that happen with Bright and Ephram tonight. Now that Bright has graduated, and Ephram has been concentrating on his piano practicing, school work, and spending whatever free time he has with Amy, they’ve drifted apart, and things really came to a head between them due to their lack of communication and the lack of any real effort on both their parts to keep their friendship going, and although this development was sad to see, I also think it’s very realistic. Still though, I hope that Ephram will be able to find a balance between his ambition to make a solid future for himself and his need to spend time with the people he cares about, and I think that’s a lesson that all of us sometimes still need to learn.

I was disappointed that we haven’t seen Edna in the last few episodes, and we haven’t seen Irv at all this season, because I really like both their characters. I really didn’t like seeing Harold reduced to being nothing more than comic relief in this episode, as he neurotically tried to invent something because he was jealous that Andy and Jake had invented something that had distinguished them in their field, but as always, I had to really give Rose credit for the loving support she showed her husband.

Speaking of loving support, I’ve never been a fan of Anne Heche, but she absolutely blew me away with her acting performance in tonight’s episode, as she depicted Amanda Hays, a woman who had basically sacrificed everything for the love of her husband, and what really struck me was her honesty with Andy as she talked about everything she had given up while the town thought of her as being some type of saint for sticking by her invalid husband. Andy’s overreaction to finding Delia playing “7 Minutes in Heaven” with Charlie was funny, as he once again demonstrated his knack of inserting his foot in his mouth when he confronted Amanda about what had happened, but his later talk with her after he found out about her husband’s condition was really heartfelt.

I was disappointed by the lack of Ephram and Amy scenes in this episode, but still, they did have some sweet scenes together, especially when she told Ephram that they could build a tent in the living room and never come out. I loved watching Ephram calm Amy down as she fretted about her S.A.T. scores, and once again, she really showed that she was Harold’s daughter in that scene, and her freaking out when she found the “hooker thong” was hilarious, and it was equally hilarious when Ephram said that “and for the record, that’s a long time to hold any stranger’s thong.” Still though, I think she was right when she told Ephram that he needed to talk to Bright if he wanted to salvage their friendship, and I really do enjoy watching any scene where Ephram and Amy are together.

I was glad that we got to see a different side of Jake tonight as he asked Nina out for a date, but her revelation during that date that she was in love with someone else was both exciting and disappointing, as that “someone else” seemed to remain indifferent to the obvious charms of this beautiful kind, and wonderful woman, and just like I wanted to slap another main character *cough* Dawson *cough* in the head when he ignored the fact that his best friend obviously loved him, I wanted to slap Andy in the head as he also ignored that fact that the woman who had become his best friend obviously loved him. Sometimes it’s really mind boggling how Andy can be incredibly sensitive and caring in one instance, like he was with Amanda tonight, and how he can be incredibly insensitive and thoughtless in another instance, like when he didn’t notice (or didn’t want to notice) how beautiful Nina looked in her dress, and how she would have loved for him to compliment her on how nice she looked, but he instead made a comment about her “shedding all over the place.” I just hope that eventually Andy gets to see just what he has in Nina, but then again, considering what happened when Dawson finally got to see just what he had in Joey, maybe I don’t want that to happen, as I don’t want them to start dating and then have Nina realize that she needs to “find her something, alone,” and then start dating every guy in town!

Overall, although I found this episode to be a bit of a letdown compared to some of the other episodes that I’ve watched this season, I still really enjoyed watching it.

[~*Nikki*~]

I definatly felt that the Bright/Ephram storyline was very true. My high school years were great because I had three friends who were a year younger than me and we all hung out all the time, well once I graduated and they still had one more year to go, we lost touch and eventually just stopped talking all together. We never hated each other, we just lost touch and that happens once you're not in a position where you see each other. Thankfully, we've all reconnected in college and our friendships are in tact, but it's not always like that.

Finally Nina realized that she's in love with Andy, it's about time girl. I don't see anything coming of this for awhile, maybe in May sweeps, but they might drag it out ala Lorelai/Luke. I think it could work between them cause they're not in high school, they are adults with children, I'm not worried. Now it's Andy's turn and I already think he was a bit jealous over Jake asking her out. I hated how assy he acted towards her when he saw her before the date. Way to go Dr. Brown!

I didn't much care of Anne Heche because I can see her story coming a mile away. She's sooo wonderful, but I betcha she's going to hook up with Andy or something cause it's been so long since she's been with a man or something like that. Then I'm going to hate both her and Andy for it.

[hshapir2]

Jerry, I love reading your posts. They are always insightful. I don't think Andy is oblivious to Nina. I think it is just nervous with her, like last week when he ended up saying the wrong thing when he didn't mean it that way. I think he did want to say she looked pretty, but he chickened out.

It was great seeing Anna Fricke as the writer. She wrote some good DC episodes.

I also thought Anne Heche was really good.

[Jerry D]

Aww, thanks hshapir2, I really appreciate it! I always enjoy reading your comments too. I agree that it seemed like Andy wanted to tell Nina she looked pretty, but then he chickened out, and he definitely did seem nervous in that scene. I think that deep down, Andy does love Nina, but it’s almost like he’s afraid to admit it.

~*Nikki*~, I agree that it seems like Andy and Amanda might hook up, because I definitely got that “vibe” in this episode, and I won’t be happy at all if that happens, but since I don’t have a pipeline into Greg Berlanti’s office, what I feel doesn’t really matter!