Nip/Tuck: Trudy Nye (2.14)

Famke Janssen gives another amazing performance. Despite knowing that Ava is a demanding, manipulative, lying, soul-destroying, family-wrecking, incestuous hag, Famke's performance still makes her somehow sympathetic. It almost makes my skin crawl to admit that, but her last scene with Matt really got to me. I'm not surprised so many people are drawn to her. As sympathetic as Ava is, it's nothing compared to Adrian, who is just a tragic example of what abuse can do to somebody. His life is a mess in almost every way possible, and because of Ava's actions, his abilities to connect with people and how to treat those around him is completely screwed up. It's so sad, knowing what one woman did to him.

I don't know how anybody could not love the relationship between Christian and Natasha. This episode showed both the humorous and heartbreaking elements to their coupling, with the sad but kinda funny opening with Natasha completely unaware that Christian's car is being taken apart while she's inside, and then later when Christian dumps her. Rebecca Gayheart's sincere and endearing performance didn't make the scene any easier on the audience either. Christian couldn't stand that Natasha was so blind to all his bad qualities, and realized she deserves someone better. The only way he could really send her packing was to be as cruel as possible, and while it was completely devastating for both Natasha and the viewer, it had to be done.

Kimber continues to crack me up. I loved her surgery this episode, getting her "love lines" surgically placed together, as apparently that'll mean she won't suffer a romantic tragedy in her life anymore. It's something so showbiz and ridiculous, you just have to love this girl.

The Trudy Nye story was really tragic. She's one of those women that constantly blame themselves for their husband's violence, and it's so sad to see Trudy keep going back to him. While it's a little more extreme in this case with the issue of child murder, I thought the writers did well with the story, and I liked how Christian brought up his childhood, and how any type of abuse still affects him. It's ironic that Trudy's full name features the word "deny", since that's essentially what she's done all her life.

An excellent episode with several heartbreaking storylines running all at once. Episodes like this really show what an amazing series Nip/Tuck is. Superficially it's nothing but trashy entertainment, but some people fail to realize how deeply moving and well-written it is beneath the surface. A+

Credits
Guest stars Famke Janssen (Ava Moore); Rebecca Gayheart (Natasha Charles); Kelly Carlson (Kimber Henry); Seth Gabel (Adrian Moore); Andrew Borba (Stan Nye); D.W. Moffett (Kevin Hotchkiss); T.J. Thyne (Nightmare); Lisa Waltz (Trudy Nye)
Writer Hank Chilton Director Elodie Keene