Nip/Tuck: Cliff Mantegna (1.7)

I found Kimber really depressing in this episode. She's clearly a damaged woman, who is madly in love with Christian, and willing to fulfill all his desires in order to make him love her like she loves him. Unfortunately, she's realizing this is impossible. The scene where she begins making out with the girl at the party made for uncomfortable viewing, seeing as she really didn't want to do it, but ended up doing so only to try and please Christian. She's a really sad character.

Meanwhile, the Matt threesome storyline reached a conclusion, and you can't help but feel bad for Vanessa. While she did lie to Matt about her feelings, her slow realization in both this episode and last episode that Ridley doesn't love her was heartbreaking to watch, especially since Kate Mara gave a consistently great performance. I really liked the "sexual intervention" in this episode, especially when you considered how embarrassing Sean was being as he made bad jokes to lighten the mood and then brought up lame references to Marilyn Manson.

I found it interesting that both Sean and Julia have ended up having affairs. In both cases it's understandable why they're doing it. Sean isn't being fulfilled in his relationship with Julia, and Megan is a genuinely kind soul, who has a lot of chemistry with him. With Julia, she has always been in love with Christian, and when, as Christian says, a low-rent version of him shows up in Jude, can she really be blamed for being attracted to him?

Another excellent hour all about loss and deception, most of the characters end up in bad places as the episode reaches it's conclusion, but the strength of all the central performances and the audience's eagerness to find out what'll happen next makes sure you never give up on the show. A

Credits Guest stars Gerry Becker (Robert Bartholomew); Sophia Bush (Ridley Lange); Kelly Carlson (Kimber Henry); Alex Carter (Cliff Mantegna); Kate Mara (Vanessa Bartholomew); Phillip Rhys (Jude Sawyer); Julie Warner (Megan O'Hara); Phina Oruche (Mia); Cyd Strittmatter (Mrs. Bartholomew); Sydney Walsh (Alexi Lange); Belinda Waymouth (Vivian Schiraldi)
Writer Brad Falchuk Director Scott Brazil