This is another strong episode for the first half of season six, one that puts characterization at its core and gives almost every member of the show's ensemble something to work with. The emotional heart-strings are pulled by Kimber and the titular Wesley Clovis, two naïve characters who are cursed by their flaws and both end up suffering terrible consequences as a result.Kimber's saga is incredibly powerful. Like always, she bases grand and personal decisions on whatever Christian wants, and it unsurprisingly backfires on her. Christian returns to his unspeakably cruel ways here, demanding Kimber get an abortion after she falls pregnant with his baby, and initiates some emotional blackmail to get what he wants. The episode also depicts just how lonely Kimber really is. She has no close friends to turn to, and reluctantly seeks help from Liz when she reaches the abortion clinic. It's really sad and horrible, made even worse because you just know Christian will once again screw her over at the drop of a hat.
Elsewhere, Eric Stonestreet is similarly devastating as the poor Baby Huey-type death row inmate wrongly convicted of murder. He gives a brave, moving performance that is worlds away from his Modern Family character. The story itself was an interesting blend of presumably ripped-from-the-headlines science and soap opera melodrama, something the show rarely does nowadays, prefering to go one way or the other, and not so much somewhere in between.
One of the character highlights of Wesley Clovis was, undoubtedly, Matt's actions in regard to his release from prison. But a highlight for all the wrong reasons. Surely this has got to be the nail in the coffin for his character? He's no longer Matt McNamara, but a walking barrage of asshole behavior. I always felt that the writers abandoned any attempts at giving him character-driven stories to work with back in season three, and since then have just been throwing whatever batshit antagonism they can think of at him. Meth, cults, incest, robberies? It's disappointing, and I'm sure John Hensley had grown tired of it at this point. Regardless, the story still works somewhat, if you try and excuse the character assassination and the fact that Christian and Sean's respective opinions on Matt's incarceration were totally reversed for this episode.
While there's still that obvious feeling of Nip/Tuck being dragged on far longer than it should have been, the show still manages every once in a while to be absorbing. This usually coincides with dropping most of the insane soap opera shit and concentrating on its regular characters, something which seems like a ridiculously obvious concept to pursue. A
Credits
Guest stars Mario Lopez (Dr. Mike Hamoui); Eric Stonestreet (Wesley Clovis); Tina Lifford (Warden DeMarco); Roger Aaron Brown (Jeremiah Cole); Gary Graham (Silas Martel); Camille Saviola (Sonja Thomas)
Writer Jennifer Salt Director Tate Donovan
I strongly disagree about Matt in this one. I don't think there was any ill intent to his lie in the end (at least I assume that's what the comment is about), it's more about him not wanting Sean and Christian feeling as guilty about the whole thing as he does because they are all powerless to do anything to help that man anyway. If anything it's the inmate who's behaving horribly here, there's really no reason for telling Matt any of this and making him feel guilty over it for the rest of his life instead of trying to get the man off himself.
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