photo: showtime
The Ecstasy and the Agony
Original Air Date: Oct 18, 2010
Katie – TwoCents Reviewer
katie@thetwocentscorp.com
Paul pulls up while Cathy is teaching Adam how to drive. He points out that Adam is only 14 and can’t even get his permit for another year, but she says she wanted to get it over with since she doesn’t want Paul to teach him. They argue about how she ran off to the Bahamas, and Adam storms off. Paul tells her he got promoted at work, and Cathy offers to join him at the party for him, but he tells her she’d just suck the fun out of that too.
At Dr. Todd’s office, her insurance is giving her some problems about her scans. He has a picture of an engagement ring on his computer, and Cathy asks when he’s proposing. She tells him he should go to the Bahamas, which is where she went for a birthday treat. He asks when she and Paul went, and she says Paul didn’t go, since their separated. Dr. Todd says that’s typical, the man leaving his wife when she’s going through such a horrible time with cancer. She says it’s complicated. Even more secrets for Cathy to keep, I guess.
At school, Cathy questions her class about a bottle of pills she found on the floor. No one will claim them, so she keeps them. Lenny comes and asks why she has ecstasy on her desk, and she asks what it’s like. He says it’s freeing and invigorating, but she’s never tried it.
She comes home to find Adam cutting Shawn’s hair in the kitchen. He says he’s going to a party, and when she says she doesn’t want him to go, he says he’s made one of the desserts that she made a list of for him to make before the summer was out, and after trying his chocolate mousse, she says he can go.
Marlene comes over to borrow some ice, and Shawn asks if he can fix her up. She says yes when he offers to go with them.
Dr. Todd calls to tell Cathy she didn’t get into the clinical trial they were hoping would help with her insurance problem. She is obviously upset, and calls Lenny and says she needs an escape. He comes over and they take some of the ecstasy. They discuss where people go when they die, and Lenny says they go everywhere, and become part of everything. She gets hot, and undoes her shirt. Naturally as they start kissing, Paul comes by to get his tie. He sees them through the window out the back door, and walks out dumbfounded without Cathy seeing him. They continue talking about life, including how to raise Adam.
Adam ends up going to a party without parents, and Andrea is there. Adam and Andrea are talking, when some guys come up and taunt him for being a virgin. Andrea tries to cover for him, saying she would know that he’s not. They boys then taunt him for sleeping with “that cow”, and when Adam denies it, Andrea gets mad and walks off.
On Marlene’s blind date, Shawn’s friend Earl offers Marlene sexual favors. Shawn tries to slow down their date, but he continues to blatantly hit on Marlene, including taking off his pants at the table! Shawn takes Marlene in the bathroom and apologizes for Earl’s behavior, and she says to stop getting in the way.
At Paul’s celebration dinner, he says Cathy had a previous engagement, and gets wasted. Paul’s co-workers who have also been promoted, are also celebrating their recent same-sex marriage. Paul says he doesn’t understand same-sex marriage for several reasons, one of which being why deal with the heartache and pain. His boss says he’s obviously drunk, and he says of course he is, and that he won’t understand until he finds his wife having sex with a black man in their backyard.
Adam is having a horrible time at the party, and calls Cathy to come pick him up. When she doesn’t answer, he calls Paul to come get him. He comes to pick him up, but Paul makes him drive them both home since he’s drunk, too. She wakes up from his drugged up nap to find that Adam has called 11 times. When she calls back to find Adam, Paul tells her they’re at the hospital, and explains that Adam ran the car into a tree. When she gets to the waiting room, Paul confronts Cathy about seeing her with Lenny. Dr. Todd also shows up, and finds Paul. He tells Paul that he’s disappointed in him as a man for leaving her when she needs him the most, and Paul blows up at him, saying he doesn’t understand anything what’s going on with her. Dr. Todd tells her he knows she hasn’t told Paul, and when she goes to tell him, Paul says she wants a divorce.
This episode ended with a bombshell, though I suppose it was an expected one after what Paul witnessed. Do you think the family is really splitting up, or do you think Cathy and Paul will get back together? What do you think would be better for her right now? Leave your two cents below.
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