Poor George Senior. He's lost his money, his company, the respect of his family, his plan to make money over a ridiculous wall, and the friends he worked so hard to get. And worse: though it was his episode, a large portion of it was devoted to Gob and Michael.
He's also lost one of the things he's the proudest of: his masculinity. I have no idea of what caused his inversion of testosterone and estrogen levels yet, but it has substantially changed his behavior and, at the end, his appearance. It couldn't have been the macca, because everybody at that "retreat" was eating it, too. Whatever it was, I laughed at his outbursts of stereotypical feminine reactions, and even more when he answered the door in drag.
His lost manhood is affecting his business. The aggressive CEO model that worked for him in the past (and put him in jail, but he loved it) is gone, and his plans have consistently failed. Of course, having an incompetent lawyer didn't help, but even the plan to film the wall (which I thought was rather clever) was a flop because he couldn't sell it.
The vision in the desert was right. Not only is Oscar into passionate, censored love-making with his brother's wife, he's taken his place in the sweat-and-squeeze extortion scheme. George has also, for once, been a victim of his brother's naughty actions while passing for him. Lucille was surely mad.
I'm sure we'll learn why Gob has bees on his limo, and why Cinco de Quatro was ransacked, but this episode was felt a lot more like an episode in itself, and this feeling is growing every episode of the season.
Bits and pieces
- The sentimental music when Oscar talks about Buster has come back.
- Dr. Norman's list of supernatural causes was priceless.
- Ron Howard's daughters are named after the place where they were conceived. Bad news for Rebel Alley.
- The cries of "Put up the wall" were a clever parody of "Tear down the wall".
- George Senior on a wig could pass for a very ugly old lady.
A few funny lines
George Sr: "Oh, no, I-I'm a man. I was just wearing, uh, this blouse because I was, uh, driving and I hate my arms."
Barry: "You can't expect me to read every page of that deal. Besides, that one was particularly difficult because it was all in Spanish. It says very clearly, on my business card, 'Se habla español.' - 'I do not speak Spanish.'"
The best line in the episode.
Herbert Love: "It's a 40 for the flip and a 40 for the flop, and since it's going to cause a flap, I'd say another 40. So it's a flat 40-40-40 flip-flop and a flap fee."
It was longer than Bob Lolblaw Law Blog.
George Sr: "Is this about Love?"
Michael: "No, it's about money, but I-I'm — I will pay her back, uh, one way or the other."
George Sr: "Who?"
Michael: "Lucille 2 — I'm gonna get her — against the wall."
George Sr: "No, no, no, no, no, she cannot know about this wall."
Brilliantly written dialogue using different meanings for the words. This specific exchange would be very hard to do in a linearly told season.
Three out of four anti-shoplifting PSAs.
Herbert Lowe's 40-40-40 thing reminded me of Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan. What a striking coincidence.
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud at George Sr. opening the door at the end of the episode.