IPS - 1x04 - Trojan Horst
Trojan Horst blew me away. I thought I was on a high last week, but this week's was even better. Wow! So many beautiful Mary/Marshall moments, and I love where the show is taking us. Their friendship is such a beautiful thing, and Marshall's quiet love for Mary will always kill me in the greatest way possible.
Let's just get straight to the Mary/Marshall.
- It starts off with Marshall reading a letter, and right away we know it's something important since he hides it from Mary, which also means that Mary won't like whatever it is he's hiding. Their exchange about the coffee was extremely adorable, particularly the bit where he was disappointed in her for not tipping the coffee people. And this exchange was yet another instance where we are shown how well Marshall knows Mary. Plus, Mary knows what kind of coffee Marshall likes. (She knows what Stan likes too, but... it's still important)
- So, Marshall did a crappy job of hiding his job offer letter, because Mary sees it right away. And he leaves her alone at his desk, with the letter just sitting there and doing a bad job of hiding. Did he want her to find it? I'm thinking yes. I know he says later that he wanted to make the decision on his own, but I think a part of him wanted her to kick up a fuss and tell him not to leave her. It was a very, very half-hearted attempt to move on. But we'll get back to this later. For now, let's focus on Mary's reaction to the letter.
Shocked, hurt, confused, DEVASTATED!
So she lashes out at Marshall...
Huh?
What did I do?
You didn't do a good job of hiding your letter, that's what! Honestly though, I truly think he wanted her to find it. Anyway, Marshall thinks she's mad at him because he didn't get the $4.00 from Stan, so Stan gives him $5.00 because, "She likes when she comes out ahead." Oh, Stan, I love you.
- Mary gives him the cold shoulder by listening to her ipod.
- I love Marshall's line: "Okay, obviously you want me to go on a fishing expedition to figure out what the hell's bothering you, but I'm not going to play that. So when you decide to tell me what's wrong you'll tell me, fair enough?" Why do I love this line? Because it shows that Marshall doesn't put up with Mary's games when it's serious. Many times Marshall appears to be Mary's... bitch, for lack of a better term, and this shows that he'll stand up to Mary when it's necessary, and that he really does have an equal pull in their relationship. Plus, he manages to get to the issue that's bothering Mary by being blunt, and he knew it would work.
And then we get to the juicy part. Their first real fight (that we've seen). They are still trading quick barbs like they usually do, but this time it's laced with quite a bit of venom, and their body language and facial expressions really give away their feelings, and for the first time we see them say things to each other with the intent to hurt. These little bubbles of annoyances that have been festering away inside of them finally pop. Mary feels betrayed that he couldn't trust her enough to confide in her, and she wants him to respect her feelings, but then Marshall lets out his resentment when he says
"Respect? When have you ever shown me respect? Or anyone, for that matter?"
"Maybe you'd actually get respect if you ever did something to earn it."
Oh! Harsh. Marshall is both flabbergasted and heartbroken over the fact that she doesn't realize everything that he does for her. And it confirms to him that she doesn't really see him, not the way that he sees her, and it freaking KILLS him. Then he basically tells her that her comment is why he didn't confide in her, and she pretty much implies that she regrets their entire relationship. This kills him even more. He doesn't say another word, just keeps staring at her with that heartbroken look, even as they're walking, and you can really see the distance that is now between them:
Oh, my heart. :'(
- The Brandi/Jinx B-story was ridiculously boring and terribly useless, and very disjointed from the rest of the episode. Now, I'm not saying that the characters are useless, just the plots that they get stuck with. They need more than the flimsy stuff that they've been given. Last week Brandi was wonderful and she was worked into the episode perfectly, but whenever Jinx is on, the writers feel the need to give her and Brandi their own storyline that has nothing to do with the rest of the episode, and it really messes up the pacing of the show. I'm really starting to warm up to Brandi, but Jinx annoys me to no end, mostly because she hasn't been given anything significant to do (nothing until the end of this episode, that is, but we'll get to that later).
- I love Mary's line to the witness when he asks to go to bathroom, "Hey, either hold it in or hang it out the window." Hee. That's the Mary that I love. And of course Dave Foley's line to Marshall about understanding the job transfer gave us this wonderful shared look between Mary and Marshall:
Told you so.
Oh, shut up. I hate you.
- The gas station. I love the bit where Foley's character says he doesn't know how Marshall puts up with Mary, and he gets pretty defensive. Even when he's mad at her, he still wants to protect her. And of course the shipper in me is saying, "Ooo, it's because he looooooves her, that's how he puts up with her. And he wouldn't have her any other way. And that's why he's getting all defensive." Oh, and we get this lovely look when Foley's character says that Mary is worse than the contract killer that he works for:
And then this lady very obviously throws a water bottle under Marshall's car and acts like she dropped it and the "husband" picks it up for her, and Marshall suspects that they did something to the car, but then he just shrugged it off. Probably because he was distracted with all the angst that he was having with Mary.
Aaaaah, the look of confusion that was poor Marshall's downfall. :(
- Marshall tries to tell Mary why he didn't tell her about the job offer, but she shuts him out. And then the car breaks down.
Oh Marshall. So adorable, trying to be Mr. FixIt.
- BADASS GUNFIGHT, OMG OMG OMG!!!!! MARSHALL GOT SHOT!
And now Mary's about to get shot too, but wait...
MARSHALL!!!!!!!!!!! HE SAVED HER! HE GOT SHOT IN THE CHEST AND STILL MANAGED TO SAVE HER ASS! WITH DOUBLE GUNS!!! OMG OMG OMG!
Mary wanted in on the double guns action too.
Oh yeah. They are definitely badass. I loved that scene. As if you couldn't tell.
- Marshall collapses, and we get this beautiful shot:
Squeeeeeeeee!!!! But do you know what I love even more than that? There's no huge drama here. They both naturally fall into their banter, despite the fact that Marshall might die. Neither one panics, and Marshall, with his "sucking chest wound," continues to make jokes for Mary's benefit (and probably a little bit for himself, too). Also, we get some awesome lines here, particularly:
"You're mad, aren't you?"
"Not as mad as I'd be if I was the one that got shot."
"I respect your honesty."
I also love that Mary uses her shirt to put to his chest wound. I don't know why, but I do. It just seemed so intimate.
- Okay, the sweaty, "Stick the tube into the hole" scene. Hot. And for once Mary actually appreciates the fact that he's like a walking encyclopedia. In fact, she was pretty damn impressed. And this was one time where he wasn't trying to impress her. Oh, sweet irony, how wonderful you are. I think I'll just let the pics do the talking for me here:
- Next we get the scene where Marshall puts Mary and the witness first, because he really is a badass lawman, and an awesome marshal. Mary doesn't want to leave him, but in the end she knows he's right, and this was an instance where she was actually putting someone before her job. Marshall matters more to her than protecting her witness.
OMG SO SEXY SO SEXY SO SEXY!!!!!!! *fans self*
"I'll try not to die... for you." *dreamy sigh*
- And now we get to THE scene. The one that's probably the closest we'll ever get (for now) to Marshall "confessing" his feelings. It was ALL there, written in his eyes, the pauses in his voice, but Mary is still clueless. *weary sigh* I love that she's the one who initiates the conversation. Previously in the episode she would initiate it only to shut him out. This time she didn't play around, and we saw that she was terrified that she was the reason he wanted to leave, and when she found out she was, it really hurt her. But the way Marshall is looking at her through this whole bit:
There is so much love there, and I like how Mary almost seems like a little girl there. It's so rare that we see her so unsure of herself in front of people, but with Marshall, she's never been afraid to show him her vulnerabilities. She is so completely open to him here, and her admission to him about him being her only friend was beautiful, and then his admission back to her was so full of wonderful and we see how much these two people really need each other in order to survive in the world. They'd be lost without each other.
And then we get to the real root of why Marshall wants to leave. You can see on his face how much he wants to tell her it's because he's in love with her, but the explanation that he gives is so beautiful and poetic and absolutely perfect:
"I feel like I'm the keeper of this exotic animal, and I spend my time either protecting you from the world, or the world from you. And it's just... it's just a lot of responsibility."
"I'm sorry... but that's your job."
"And you cannot quit."
"Okay."
OMG OMG OMG!!!!!! I adore this scene with every fiber of my being. Like I said before, the job transfer letter was his half-hearted attempt to move on. Mary is like this sweet torture that he can't pull himself away from. He loves it and hates it all at the same time. Dude, I could actually feel his blissful torture as I watched his face when she kissed his cheek. He wants her so badly. She's just right there in front of him every single day, smelling good and being kickass awesome, and he can't have her, not the way that he wants to, and yet he lives for the moments that he does get with her. He loves just being a part of her world, and he loves being the one that gets to truly know her, the one that gets to be her keeper, but at the same time, it kills him because he can't have all of her. GAAAAAAAH!!!! OMG, THEY KILL ME!
Oh, also, I'd just like to note, I think Mary is aware of Marshall's feelings, but she refuses to acknowledge them because it scares her, and Marshall knows this (which is why he didn't even say anything when there was a possibility of him dying).
- Marshall starts bleeding into his bottle, so Mary decides to go after the killers, but then she figures out that the killers are there to rescue Dave Foley's character, not kill him, which means that there is no Lola. So Mary puts a gun to his throat and gets herself and Marshall out of there (she took the killers' truck). I love it when she kicks the girl and says, "You shouldn't have shot my friend. I've only got one friend."
- Mary gets Marshall to the ambulance, but she goes after Dave Foley's character instead of riding in the ambulance with Marshall. Now, the shipper in me was all SADFACE at that, but I knew that was the Mary thing to do. She knew Marshall was strong and didn't need her, so she went after the bad guy, which, for her, is much easier than the sentimental stuff.
- THE HOSPITAL SCENE! OMG!
"He'll be okay. Marshall is tough."
"You have no idea."
GAH! The way she says that. There is so much awe in her voice, so much appreciation and respect. And right here she looks like she's on the verge of a breakdown. And then she sees her mom, and for once, for once Jinx actually has a purpose, and we finally get to see her be a mother, and we see how much Mary really needs her family, despite the fact that they cause so much chaos in her life:
And to see Mary break down like this is a beautiful thing. It's so foreign to Stan that he gets ridiculously uncomfortable. But to see Mary care SO MUCH about someone, and that someone being Marshall, was so incredibly moving. All the events of the day came crashing down on her and the thought of losing Marshall tears her apart. I can't see her reacting like this had it been anyone else.
Man, this episode was intense. I LOVED IT!!!!! Definitely the best episode so far.
Let's just get straight to the Mary/Marshall.
- It starts off with Marshall reading a letter, and right away we know it's something important since he hides it from Mary, which also means that Mary won't like whatever it is he's hiding. Their exchange about the coffee was extremely adorable, particularly the bit where he was disappointed in her for not tipping the coffee people. And this exchange was yet another instance where we are shown how well Marshall knows Mary. Plus, Mary knows what kind of coffee Marshall likes. (She knows what Stan likes too, but... it's still important)
- So, Marshall did a crappy job of hiding his job offer letter, because Mary sees it right away. And he leaves her alone at his desk, with the letter just sitting there and doing a bad job of hiding. Did he want her to find it? I'm thinking yes. I know he says later that he wanted to make the decision on his own, but I think a part of him wanted her to kick up a fuss and tell him not to leave her. It was a very, very half-hearted attempt to move on. But we'll get back to this later. For now, let's focus on Mary's reaction to the letter.
Shocked, hurt, confused, DEVASTATED!
So she lashes out at Marshall...
Huh?
What did I do?
You didn't do a good job of hiding your letter, that's what! Honestly though, I truly think he wanted her to find it. Anyway, Marshall thinks she's mad at him because he didn't get the $4.00 from Stan, so Stan gives him $5.00 because, "She likes when she comes out ahead." Oh, Stan, I love you.
- Mary gives him the cold shoulder by listening to her ipod.
- I love Marshall's line: "Okay, obviously you want me to go on a fishing expedition to figure out what the hell's bothering you, but I'm not going to play that. So when you decide to tell me what's wrong you'll tell me, fair enough?" Why do I love this line? Because it shows that Marshall doesn't put up with Mary's games when it's serious. Many times Marshall appears to be Mary's... bitch, for lack of a better term, and this shows that he'll stand up to Mary when it's necessary, and that he really does have an equal pull in their relationship. Plus, he manages to get to the issue that's bothering Mary by being blunt, and he knew it would work.
And then we get to the juicy part. Their first real fight (that we've seen). They are still trading quick barbs like they usually do, but this time it's laced with quite a bit of venom, and their body language and facial expressions really give away their feelings, and for the first time we see them say things to each other with the intent to hurt. These little bubbles of annoyances that have been festering away inside of them finally pop. Mary feels betrayed that he couldn't trust her enough to confide in her, and she wants him to respect her feelings, but then Marshall lets out his resentment when he says
"Respect? When have you ever shown me respect? Or anyone, for that matter?"
"Maybe you'd actually get respect if you ever did something to earn it."
Oh! Harsh. Marshall is both flabbergasted and heartbroken over the fact that she doesn't realize everything that he does for her. And it confirms to him that she doesn't really see him, not the way that he sees her, and it freaking KILLS him. Then he basically tells her that her comment is why he didn't confide in her, and she pretty much implies that she regrets their entire relationship. This kills him even more. He doesn't say another word, just keeps staring at her with that heartbroken look, even as they're walking, and you can really see the distance that is now between them:
Oh, my heart. :'(
- The Brandi/Jinx B-story was ridiculously boring and terribly useless, and very disjointed from the rest of the episode. Now, I'm not saying that the characters are useless, just the plots that they get stuck with. They need more than the flimsy stuff that they've been given. Last week Brandi was wonderful and she was worked into the episode perfectly, but whenever Jinx is on, the writers feel the need to give her and Brandi their own storyline that has nothing to do with the rest of the episode, and it really messes up the pacing of the show. I'm really starting to warm up to Brandi, but Jinx annoys me to no end, mostly because she hasn't been given anything significant to do (nothing until the end of this episode, that is, but we'll get to that later).
- I love Mary's line to the witness when he asks to go to bathroom, "Hey, either hold it in or hang it out the window." Hee. That's the Mary that I love. And of course Dave Foley's line to Marshall about understanding the job transfer gave us this wonderful shared look between Mary and Marshall:
Told you so.
Oh, shut up. I hate you.
- The gas station. I love the bit where Foley's character says he doesn't know how Marshall puts up with Mary, and he gets pretty defensive. Even when he's mad at her, he still wants to protect her. And of course the shipper in me is saying, "Ooo, it's because he looooooves her, that's how he puts up with her. And he wouldn't have her any other way. And that's why he's getting all defensive." Oh, and we get this lovely look when Foley's character says that Mary is worse than the contract killer that he works for:
And then this lady very obviously throws a water bottle under Marshall's car and acts like she dropped it and the "husband" picks it up for her, and Marshall suspects that they did something to the car, but then he just shrugged it off. Probably because he was distracted with all the angst that he was having with Mary.
Aaaaah, the look of confusion that was poor Marshall's downfall. :(
- Marshall tries to tell Mary why he didn't tell her about the job offer, but she shuts him out. And then the car breaks down.
Oh Marshall. So adorable, trying to be Mr. FixIt.
- BADASS GUNFIGHT, OMG OMG OMG!!!!! MARSHALL GOT SHOT!
And now Mary's about to get shot too, but wait...
MARSHALL!!!!!!!!!!! HE SAVED HER! HE GOT SHOT IN THE CHEST AND STILL MANAGED TO SAVE HER ASS! WITH DOUBLE GUNS!!! OMG OMG OMG!
Mary wanted in on the double guns action too.
Oh yeah. They are definitely badass. I loved that scene. As if you couldn't tell.
- Marshall collapses, and we get this beautiful shot:
Squeeeeeeeee!!!! But do you know what I love even more than that? There's no huge drama here. They both naturally fall into their banter, despite the fact that Marshall might die. Neither one panics, and Marshall, with his "sucking chest wound," continues to make jokes for Mary's benefit (and probably a little bit for himself, too). Also, we get some awesome lines here, particularly:
"You're mad, aren't you?"
"Not as mad as I'd be if I was the one that got shot."
"I respect your honesty."
I also love that Mary uses her shirt to put to his chest wound. I don't know why, but I do. It just seemed so intimate.
- Okay, the sweaty, "Stick the tube into the hole" scene. Hot. And for once Mary actually appreciates the fact that he's like a walking encyclopedia. In fact, she was pretty damn impressed. And this was one time where he wasn't trying to impress her. Oh, sweet irony, how wonderful you are. I think I'll just let the pics do the talking for me here:
- Next we get the scene where Marshall puts Mary and the witness first, because he really is a badass lawman, and an awesome marshal. Mary doesn't want to leave him, but in the end she knows he's right, and this was an instance where she was actually putting someone before her job. Marshall matters more to her than protecting her witness.
OMG SO SEXY SO SEXY SO SEXY!!!!!!! *fans self*
"I'll try not to die... for you." *dreamy sigh*
- And now we get to THE scene. The one that's probably the closest we'll ever get (for now) to Marshall "confessing" his feelings. It was ALL there, written in his eyes, the pauses in his voice, but Mary is still clueless. *weary sigh* I love that she's the one who initiates the conversation. Previously in the episode she would initiate it only to shut him out. This time she didn't play around, and we saw that she was terrified that she was the reason he wanted to leave, and when she found out she was, it really hurt her. But the way Marshall is looking at her through this whole bit:
There is so much love there, and I like how Mary almost seems like a little girl there. It's so rare that we see her so unsure of herself in front of people, but with Marshall, she's never been afraid to show him her vulnerabilities. She is so completely open to him here, and her admission to him about him being her only friend was beautiful, and then his admission back to her was so full of wonderful and we see how much these two people really need each other in order to survive in the world. They'd be lost without each other.
And then we get to the real root of why Marshall wants to leave. You can see on his face how much he wants to tell her it's because he's in love with her, but the explanation that he gives is so beautiful and poetic and absolutely perfect:
"I feel like I'm the keeper of this exotic animal, and I spend my time either protecting you from the world, or the world from you. And it's just... it's just a lot of responsibility."
"I'm sorry... but that's your job."
"And you cannot quit."
"Okay."
OMG OMG OMG!!!!!! I adore this scene with every fiber of my being. Like I said before, the job transfer letter was his half-hearted attempt to move on. Mary is like this sweet torture that he can't pull himself away from. He loves it and hates it all at the same time. Dude, I could actually feel his blissful torture as I watched his face when she kissed his cheek. He wants her so badly. She's just right there in front of him every single day, smelling good and being kickass awesome, and he can't have her, not the way that he wants to, and yet he lives for the moments that he does get with her. He loves just being a part of her world, and he loves being the one that gets to truly know her, the one that gets to be her keeper, but at the same time, it kills him because he can't have all of her. GAAAAAAAH!!!! OMG, THEY KILL ME!
Oh, also, I'd just like to note, I think Mary is aware of Marshall's feelings, but she refuses to acknowledge them because it scares her, and Marshall knows this (which is why he didn't even say anything when there was a possibility of him dying).
- Marshall starts bleeding into his bottle, so Mary decides to go after the killers, but then she figures out that the killers are there to rescue Dave Foley's character, not kill him, which means that there is no Lola. So Mary puts a gun to his throat and gets herself and Marshall out of there (she took the killers' truck). I love it when she kicks the girl and says, "You shouldn't have shot my friend. I've only got one friend."
- Mary gets Marshall to the ambulance, but she goes after Dave Foley's character instead of riding in the ambulance with Marshall. Now, the shipper in me was all SADFACE at that, but I knew that was the Mary thing to do. She knew Marshall was strong and didn't need her, so she went after the bad guy, which, for her, is much easier than the sentimental stuff.
- THE HOSPITAL SCENE! OMG!
"He'll be okay. Marshall is tough."
"You have no idea."
GAH! The way she says that. There is so much awe in her voice, so much appreciation and respect. And right here she looks like she's on the verge of a breakdown. And then she sees her mom, and for once, for once Jinx actually has a purpose, and we finally get to see her be a mother, and we see how much Mary really needs her family, despite the fact that they cause so much chaos in her life:
And to see Mary break down like this is a beautiful thing. It's so foreign to Stan that he gets ridiculously uncomfortable. But to see Mary care SO MUCH about someone, and that someone being Marshall, was so incredibly moving. All the events of the day came crashing down on her and the thought of losing Marshall tears her apart. I can't see her reacting like this had it been anyone else.
Man, this episode was intense. I LOVED IT!!!!! Definitely the best episode so far.