jediwands

I agree with you. Betty will return shortly after this date. I think we should go with the 8th too.

jediwands

Okay, guys, I will officially put up 2.5 on the 8th then.

If anyone wants to watch and/or give thoughts on 2.4 before then, please do!

Looking forward to being back on track!

Alexa

I did watch, will save my thoughts for tomorrow.

jediwands

Sounds good!

Jerry D

I just got done watching this episode and I'm going to post my comments shortly.

I admit that I was reluctant to watch it because I didn't want to see Madison on my screen again, but it is what it is.

jediwands

I was waiting for you to post your thoughts but too Empathic and sensitive to ask you directly if you were going to watch since I know you weren't looking forward to the introduction of Madison.

Glad you watched (we're in this together, we both can be miserable ) and looking forward to your thoughts.

Saranoh

On my recent watch of the whole series, I realized that a big part of Andy’s journey was learning to be a good friend. And IMO he became a really great one by the end. It was very well-done.

Jerry D

This episode resonated with a theme that’s a truism in so many of our lives: The inability for people to change. Some people want to change, but they continue to fall into the same patterns that they’ve fallen into all their lives, and some people simply don’t want to change even if they’re on a self-destructive path.

The theme of change through conflict was introduced in this episode in the person of Madison Keller, who Andy had hired as Delia’s babysitter, and I took an instant dislike to her as she talked down to Ephram and she treated him like a child, and she made judgements about Andy and Ephram that she had no right to make. I also didn’t like how Madison threw away the pizza that Ephram had saved, and I didn’t like how she talked down to Ephram and assumed he was a Freshman in High School when he really was a Junior and she demeaned his interests as childish. I especially didn’t like how Madison told off Andy and Ephram while they were arguing, because although a lot of what she said was right, she had no right to speak to either one of them so harshly, especially since Andy was her employer and she barely knew him and Ephram. I loved it that both Ephram and Andy wanted to fire Madison but unfortunately for them and us, Delia stepped in and demanded that she stay, so we were all stuck with her. It was so ironic when Andy said that he was a good judge of people because he couldn’t have been more wrong about Madison.

I liked how initially Andy was there for Nina as a concerned friend as she wrestled with filing for a divorce from Carl, but in keeping with the theme of people not being able to change, he dispensed advice to her without listening to her as he became focused on assisting Mr. Hart, whose alcoholism had worsened exponentially since Colin’s death. We saw Nina’s frustration when she tried to talk to Andy but he was making phone calls to enroll Mr. Hart in a treatment program, and she walked away because he didn’t do the one thing she wanted him to do: be there for her as a friend and listen to her. He also violated Nina’s trust by telling Ephram about her impending divorce, and she really let him have it as she called him out on his proclivity to hand out advice to people and not follow through with them, and tell people to move on with their lives when he himself hadn’t moved on with his life, as Nina pointed out that he was still wearing his wedding ring even though Julia had died two years ago.

It was nice to see Andy show concern for Mr. Hart, but we saw that Jim refused Andy’s attempts to get him into a program to stop drinking, because he didn’t want to stop drinking, because Colin’s death had pushed him to a point of no return, as he told Andy he (Andy) was mourning what was, but he was mourning what would never be.

Harold really brought the comic relief in this episode as he saw that Linda was bringing a totally different approach to medicine that was completely opposite of his traditional approach, as she advocated Eastern Medicine and acupuncture, as he derisively and hilariously referred to her as Dr. Fu Man Chu, and Louise wore an outfit that Linda recommended, and when he told her that he didn’t like her outfit, and when he argued with Linda, Louise said “I’m afraid I can't get involved in your sibling issues, Dr. Abbott. I feel it might be bad for my chi.”

I loved it how Harold was so proud of being named as his Lodge’s Man of the Year, (High Rutbuck ) and he told Rose that he wanted his acceptance speech to follow a theme like Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech and John F. Kennedy’s Berlin Wall speech! Harold’s pomposity and his inflated opinion of himself are always amusing to watch, and his speech ended up having him show a side of himself that he rarely showed as he talked about how much he missed his father thanks to the treatment that he underwent at Linda’s hands to alleviate his neck pain. I liked seeing his banter with Andy at the end of the episode as Andy teased him about his speech and Linda announced to him that she had won.

I liked seeing Bright’s concern for Amy as he didn’t like his friend asking her out, but it backfired as she agreed to go out with him to defy Bright. It was sad to see Amy so sad and listless in this episode, and the only bright spot in it was when Ephram gave her his paper and she embraced him, and he wrote a new a poignant theme about his “fatal flaw”, his inability to change, and it was so moving when he talked about how people are afraid of change and taking a leap of faith because it might bring them more pain, so they maintain the status quo because the pain that they’re living with is familiar. Ephram also said that when change does come, people won’t notice unless they look really close, which they never do, but we know when that change has come, and it can come in very small increments, which we saw as Andy put away his wedding ring.

Overall, while I enjoyed this episode, I consider it to be one of the weaker episodes of the season, mainly because of one change that none of us realized would impact the rest of the show: Madison.

Jerry D

Thanks Michelle! Yes, I kept hesitating because I didn't want to see Madison again, but I really do want to rewatch all these episodes and have a complete set of commentaries for them.

Jerry D

That's a really good point. Andy really did grow throughout this show and he really did learn to be a good friend to not only Nina, but other people in his life as well.

Saranoh

I don’t remember the exact words, but in the finale(at Julia’s grave), he even said something like “ I’ve learned that being a good friend and being a good father are the only things that help you sleep at night.”

jediwands

Brilliant thoughts, Jerry.

jediwands

I feel the same. S2 has very high quality, but it's challenging at times to get though due to the emotional involvement... Madison practically never goes away, Amy's circling the drain with incapacitating depression, Linda has HIV, drug storyline, there's some heavy material. Plus, until the very last handful of episodes we have a severe lack of Ephram/Amy, too. Big payoff at the end of the season though.

jediwands

That's so true. It seems like Andy had zero good friends who weren't colleagues back in NYC. His friendships basically connected to work, not much else. So the friendships he developed in Everwood with Nina (and eventually romance) and Harold are very precious. Big steps for Andy Brown.

Saranoh

Exactly. I think he even says at the end of this episode that he’s not used to having friends.