DeNile Runs Through Egypt...
Just sitting here, chewing my hair and pretending to try and do something useful as I wait to get to see "Being Erica."
Several Hours Later...
Squee!! It just took me 1.5 hours to watch a 45 minute episode. Because I kept having to pause to flail, and pause to cringe. This is where I wish I was watching on old school television: no breaks, no pause, no rewinding. Because I did lose the flow a little, but OMG! So many points where I couldn't watch what happened next in anticipation of what was going to happen, or not going to happen, be said or not be said. Not without steeling myself, or getting some coffee, or fiddling with a game for a couple minutes. The relative abundance of violence (as little as there was...) is very fitting: this episode was like a tension-filled action movie.
Kai called her "Dr. Erica" ! Lovely foreshadowing, especially as Dr. T STILL hasn't told Erica 'what comes next.' Just yelled at her, abandoned her, and this week it's back to normal. Almost. (And I keep thinking of "Doctor Donna Noble" which just makes me think of the awesomeness of the Ood.)
Sexuality and this season. Dr T and denial - last week he was in denial about keeping Erica naive. Daughter? This week, notions of infidelity. What is his personal experience, and how personally related to Erica is it for him?
Kai/Sam: I really thing he likes her and feels like they have things in common. And she likes him and the sex was good and he's a really nice guy. But Sam isn't going to fall in love overnight, especially with her relationship with Josh in the state it's in. Which is good because she might not even be that upset when it turns out Kai is really into Erica - especially since his affection is real, at the physical level she's looking for. If she wasn't aware how much or for how long Josh really liked Erica... that's a different story.
Re: Kai, it's telling that he -doesn't-, actually, ask Erica about Sam. Moreover, he's making it all about Erica. He was almost eager to discuss it when he thought Erica knew. After she tells him off, he brings her coffee and tries to have a grown-up discussion about how she thinks he's juvenile. I'm almost-convinced that he called in to be a subject simply because of Erica. He might have gone out with Sam again anyway, but how much was his decision based on the knowledge that Erica would be there? He hits Josh just after he insults Erica. As Josh leaves, he's looking at Erica, not Sam. And then, when Erica tries to make up, he seems offended by the 'therapist' nature of her dialogue. Which puts a mark against interpreting the prior outreachings as therapy-related - he wasn't trying to talk with her for insight, but because he feels close to her, and once that wall has been breached he's willing to put himself out there to make it up. (Anyone else get the impression he might have had a conversation with Dr. Fred in here somewhere, and got some insight?) And then, when she finally approaches him in a 'friend-ly' manner, he's taking on all the charges she's laid on him, like he's letting her mould him into the man he knows he should be.
Their relationships begs questions on the nature of therapy and friendship. One of the first things Dr. T said (while still wearing those awesome glasses) is that he 'doesn't have a lot of fancy letters after [his] name.' There's a strict patient/doctor morality in real world psychology that I don't believe applies, or is meant to apply, to our time traveling therapy. This is a closed world: you're meant to go through therapy and become a therapist. The journey makes you an equal. This implies eventual reciprocation, like when Dr. Fred gives Dr. T insight about his relationship with Erica, even though Dr. T clearly feels that Dr. Fred is much more inexperienced, and possibly feels he's incompetent.
Thus we ponder Erica's relationship with Dr. T. And with Tom. Because the distinction seems to be important.
This week we see a strange juxtaposition. Dr. T is looking at Erica oddly during her explanation of 'dad's car.' I wanted this to be sympathy for her, but is much more likely bringing up memories of his own daughter, since it's hitting on the father/child relationship, anger, not speaking for weeks on end... Yet later he walks into the sex interviews, and I can't see that being a fatherly tact. There's just too much sexuality in their relationship for me to see it as father/daughter.
It's odd that Erica doesn't see the connection - wanting to fix the relationship between Leo and her father before it was too late is EXACTLY the situation Dr. Tom has with his daughter. But he's completely Dr. Tom in her mind by this point, not Tom anymore. When did she lose that? I think when she started to get more and more distracted by Kai. Hence she keeps pushing the Kai issue, and doesn't seem to notice that Dr. T is NOT happy about it.
Could this be about Erica's therapy? Dr. Fred intended for Erica to help Kai, and that's what she was starting to do - as well as follow Dr. Fred's intention for her. Where Dr. T wanted her to say as she was, merely a patient, and only puppet to the strings HE pulls.
So did Sarah find out something about Tom that last day? Such that the fact that Erica has actually forgiven Leo, still tries to understand why he did what he did, even as her memories have now been tarnished. It looks like he hasn't really visited that big regret of Sarah leaving. Just watches, sometimes. Torturing himself really and it's awesome that it's Erica who sort of sparks him finally going back there and ripping the bandaid off. He was always still going to be stuck in the past until he did that, no matter how far he's come.
Erica's postulated lesson, that people aren't black and white, is a good one and seems to relate to a lesson Dr. T has to learn. Ish. Did it surprise him? Small probability it was his original plan but denial came up better? Is he in denial. Ish. Still? And we get the 4th scene when he decides to face up to his own? Precipitating Erica to face up to Kai in a rather unfortunate non-reciprocal effect.
Dr. T just used Erica's list as a coaster. o.0
Several Hours Later...
Squee!! It just took me 1.5 hours to watch a 45 minute episode. Because I kept having to pause to flail, and pause to cringe. This is where I wish I was watching on old school television: no breaks, no pause, no rewinding. Because I did lose the flow a little, but OMG! So many points where I couldn't watch what happened next in anticipation of what was going to happen, or not going to happen, be said or not be said. Not without steeling myself, or getting some coffee, or fiddling with a game for a couple minutes. The relative abundance of violence (as little as there was...) is very fitting: this episode was like a tension-filled action movie.
Kai called her "Dr. Erica" ! Lovely foreshadowing, especially as Dr. T STILL hasn't told Erica 'what comes next.' Just yelled at her, abandoned her, and this week it's back to normal. Almost. (And I keep thinking of "Doctor Donna Noble" which just makes me think of the awesomeness of the Ood.)
Sexuality and this season. Dr T and denial - last week he was in denial about keeping Erica naive. Daughter? This week, notions of infidelity. What is his personal experience, and how personally related to Erica is it for him?
Kai/Sam: I really thing he likes her and feels like they have things in common. And she likes him and the sex was good and he's a really nice guy. But Sam isn't going to fall in love overnight, especially with her relationship with Josh in the state it's in. Which is good because she might not even be that upset when it turns out Kai is really into Erica - especially since his affection is real, at the physical level she's looking for. If she wasn't aware how much or for how long Josh really liked Erica... that's a different story.
Re: Kai, it's telling that he -doesn't-, actually, ask Erica about Sam. Moreover, he's making it all about Erica. He was almost eager to discuss it when he thought Erica knew. After she tells him off, he brings her coffee and tries to have a grown-up discussion about how she thinks he's juvenile. I'm almost-convinced that he called in to be a subject simply because of Erica. He might have gone out with Sam again anyway, but how much was his decision based on the knowledge that Erica would be there? He hits Josh just after he insults Erica. As Josh leaves, he's looking at Erica, not Sam. And then, when Erica tries to make up, he seems offended by the 'therapist' nature of her dialogue. Which puts a mark against interpreting the prior outreachings as therapy-related - he wasn't trying to talk with her for insight, but because he feels close to her, and once that wall has been breached he's willing to put himself out there to make it up. (Anyone else get the impression he might have had a conversation with Dr. Fred in here somewhere, and got some insight?) And then, when she finally approaches him in a 'friend-ly' manner, he's taking on all the charges she's laid on him, like he's letting her mould him into the man he knows he should be.
Their relationships begs questions on the nature of therapy and friendship. One of the first things Dr. T said (while still wearing those awesome glasses) is that he 'doesn't have a lot of fancy letters after [his] name.' There's a strict patient/doctor morality in real world psychology that I don't believe applies, or is meant to apply, to our time traveling therapy. This is a closed world: you're meant to go through therapy and become a therapist. The journey makes you an equal. This implies eventual reciprocation, like when Dr. Fred gives Dr. T insight about his relationship with Erica, even though Dr. T clearly feels that Dr. Fred is much more inexperienced, and possibly feels he's incompetent.
Thus we ponder Erica's relationship with Dr. T. And with Tom. Because the distinction seems to be important.
This week we see a strange juxtaposition. Dr. T is looking at Erica oddly during her explanation of 'dad's car.' I wanted this to be sympathy for her, but is much more likely bringing up memories of his own daughter, since it's hitting on the father/child relationship, anger, not speaking for weeks on end... Yet later he walks into the sex interviews, and I can't see that being a fatherly tact. There's just too much sexuality in their relationship for me to see it as father/daughter.
It's odd that Erica doesn't see the connection - wanting to fix the relationship between Leo and her father before it was too late is EXACTLY the situation Dr. Tom has with his daughter. But he's completely Dr. Tom in her mind by this point, not Tom anymore. When did she lose that? I think when she started to get more and more distracted by Kai. Hence she keeps pushing the Kai issue, and doesn't seem to notice that Dr. T is NOT happy about it.
Could this be about Erica's therapy? Dr. Fred intended for Erica to help Kai, and that's what she was starting to do - as well as follow Dr. Fred's intention for her. Where Dr. T wanted her to say as she was, merely a patient, and only puppet to the strings HE pulls.
So did Sarah find out something about Tom that last day? Such that the fact that Erica has actually forgiven Leo, still tries to understand why he did what he did, even as her memories have now been tarnished. It looks like he hasn't really visited that big regret of Sarah leaving. Just watches, sometimes. Torturing himself really and it's awesome that it's Erica who sort of sparks him finally going back there and ripping the bandaid off. He was always still going to be stuck in the past until he did that, no matter how far he's come.
Erica's postulated lesson, that people aren't black and white, is a good one and seems to relate to a lesson Dr. T has to learn. Ish. Did it surprise him? Small probability it was his original plan but denial came up better? Is he in denial. Ish. Still? And we get the 4th scene when he decides to face up to his own? Precipitating Erica to face up to Kai in a rather unfortunate non-reciprocal effect.
Dr. T just used Erica's list as a coaster. o.0