MTVP Rio 2016 Olympics Coverage: Opening Ceremony

It’s that time again – time for the 31st Olympiad! I’ve been borderline obsessed with the Olympics for almost as long as I can remember. In 1988, Brian Boitano and Katerina Witt were heroes to a preschool-aged me who then tried (and failed) to learn to ice skate. I remember watching Today Show broadcasts from Albertville and Lillehammer before school in 1992 and 1994. I showed up very tired to a summer clerkship during law school thanks to devotedly watching the primetime coverage from Beijing in 2008. I’d say my real intense watching of the Olympics began in 2000 with the Sydney games. This is fitting in a couple ways. First, the Sydney games were the first for Baltimore (my adopted hometown) native Michael Phelps who is now competing in what will probably be his last Games in Rio. Second, the Olympics coverage on MTVP this year will be a little more sparse than usual because of all places, I’ll be in Sydney for the second week of the Games. I’m going to try, if it’s technically feasible and I can find a way to do some Olympics viewing in Oz, to write something comparing American and Australian coverage of the Games. I have a feeling it’s quite different.

Anyway, on to what actually happened last night. It’s no secret that the background to this year’s Games has been one of deep anxiety. There have been numerous ISIL related terrorist attacks this year, and certain politicians who shall remain nameless are using the fear generated by those attacks to fan the flames of nativism and xenophobia. Closer to the Games, Brazil itself and the state of Rio de Janeiro are in political turmoil. Brazil’s president has stepped aside in the middle of a de-ranging corruption scandal, and the state of Rio itself is in extreme financial crisis and had to be bailed out by Brasilia. There are major concerns about security and environmental health at the venues. In the middle of all that turmoil, though, the organizers of Rio 2016 gave us what Brazil is best known for – a joyous samba-infused party.

Brazil doesn’t have the money that China or Russia do to spend on the games, so these Opening Ceremonies were planned with a real do more with less attitude. I found that kind of refreshing, but maybe that’s just because I’m a government budget analyst in my day job. I think the Olympics have really become too gaudy and too much of a money pit to continue as they have been, so this was a welcome step back. For starters, the ceremony, instead of taking place in an elaborate brand-new stadium, was in Maracana Stadium, which has great historical significance to Brazilians. It was built to host the 1950 World Cup, where Brazil made it to the finals only to lose to neighboring Uruguay. I would like to see more host countries refurbishing sports venues as part of their Olympic plans instead of building more large stadiums that can never attract as large a crowd in the future. But the IOC at the moment only seems to see bling, so I suppose that’s wishful thinking. Additionally, the pageantry of the ceremony wasn’t quite as elaborate as Beijing, for instance. Money was put into a state of the art projection system, but everything else was more scaled back.

There were, as you would expect, many elements of the presentation that were meant to highlight Brazilian history and culture. Some worked better than others. The one that I thought really didn’t work was early on in the presentation where Brazilian supermodel Giselle Bundchen did a catwalk-style walk across the stadium. I’m not a huge fan of Giselle to begin with, and it was kind of tacky. The one redeeming aspect was that this portion of the program was set to “Girl from Ipanema,” because how could it not be? There was also a segment that traced Rio’s early history, from the water to the rainforest, to settlement, and the development of cities. It was an impressive visual spectacle, for sure. As per usual with Opening Ceremonies, there was also a segment highlighting Brazilian music, which was entertaining, although I was frantically hunting through my apartment to find my camera because I leave for Sydney on Friday and how could I go to Australia without my camera (I eventually found the camera under some clothes in my bedroom, for the record)? There was also a very positive social and environmental justice theme to the ceremony. There was a segment about taking care of the environment, and there was also a celebration of Brazil’s diversity and the international spirit of the Olympics.

The tensions in the world right now and that spirit of diversity made the parade of nations, usually a point in the festivities that I just have on as background noise, especially poignant. To see people from so many countries all having the time of their lives together was touching, and especially touching was the newly formed ten-person refugee team, with participants from, among other countries, Sudan and Syria. The crowd gave the refugees a standing ovation, and if you didn’t get at least a little teary, then I don’t think you have a heart. It was exactly the kind of message that I think needs to be broadcast earnestly before we go too far down the path of “I’ve got mine.” Another favorite moment of mine from the parade of nations was the entrance of the Brazilian team to more thunderous applause. The music choice was “Brazil,” which was both appropriate and something I appreciated because that was one of the songs we performed in our marching band show during my senior year of high school.

Following the parade of nations were all the ceremonial steps that have to be taken to officially open the Games. IOC President Thomas Bach shifted effortlessly between French and English as he gave the usual thanks to the host country and warning to the athletes against doping. Brazil’s interim President Michel Temer then declared the games open. I think the Rio Olympic Torch is especially beautiful. Marathoner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima lit the torch, which is housed within an intricate sculpture that is meant to look like the Sun. The way the sculpture sparkles when the torch is lit must be spectacular to see in person. The torch lit, it was time to party. The samba music started again, and samba clubs began to dance, providing a very fitting end to an uplifting evening of unity in sport.

MTVP So Cal Summer 2016: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 1.09: "I'm Going to the Beach with Josh and His Friends!"

“Oh my God, who pole dances for male attention? Do you know the name of the class I took in New York? It was feminist pole dancing!”
-Rebecca

This is another one of those episodes of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriends” that just strikes at the heart of my own anxieties and hang-ups. All her life, Rebecca has wanted a real friend crew, and when Valencia invites her on a beach day with the gang, Rebecca jumps at it, even though she knows full well that Valencia probably has ulterior motives. Instead, she ends up being a seventh wheel, making a fool of herself, giving up one of her big secrets (the partial truth of why she moved to West Covina), and playing right into Valencia’s hands. Even though she does have her Josh obsession, which Paula (for her own reasons) tries to force Rebecca to confront in this episode, I feel like Rebecca does genuinely want friends too. It plays right back into the whole “I Have Friends” theme in the episode where she throws a house party. In fact, Rebecca even sings a few bars of the song early in this episode when she’s feeling especially lonely.

The episode begins with a scene that I feel like could be ripped right out of certain phases of my life. Rebecca has gone to see a movie called “The Cancer Crew” by herself, and we see her chowing down on popcorn. After the movie, she sees all the friend groups chatting and having fun, and she feels very lonely. It turns out that Josh, Greg and crew have also gone to see the movie, and Rebecca spots them hanging out outside the theater. They’re talking about their plans for an upcoming beach day. Josh wants to do everything exactly as they always do for a classic beach day. Greg would rather do something more cultured like go visit the Getty in LA, and he’d also like to bring Heather along. Josh vetoes all of this. Valencia spots Rebecca, and once she remarks about how weird it is that Rebecca is always around, Josh calls her over. Valencia, clearly with a scheme in mind, asks the very eager to be friendly Rebecca if she’d like to join them for the upcoming beach day, and of course Rebecca says yes. Valencia sings a very passive aggressive song called “Women Gotta Stick Together” where she mixes female empowerment with put-downs.

The next day at the office, when Rebecca tells Paula about her plans, Paula is not enthused. She sees that the beach day can only end in tears. She wants Rebecca to stop living in denial and admit her feelings for Josh. Rebecca, of course, refuses to do that, and she refuses very loudly. She’s loud enough that Darryl asks if he can join Rebecca and her friends on the beach day, and Rebecca has to tell him no. He even offers to rent a party bus for the whole crew, which Rebecca dismisses as trying way too hard. When Rebecca pulls up to Josh’s place on beach day, though, she’s in a party bus. The whole crew doesn’t really know what to make of this, but they go with it. Valencia says it’s perfect for being able to sit on Josh’s lap the whole way to the beach. Josh and Greg are busy just generally fighting. Greg wants to bring craft bear and listen to new music, and Josh hates both of those things. Greg thinks Josh is controlling, and Josh thinks Greg is a misanthrope who isn’t very fun to be around. They’d both be right, I suppose.

At first things are mostly okay. Josh and Rebecca robot dance to some music, but Valencia has to put the kibosh on that right away. Defeated by Valencia, who is now grinding with Josh, Rebecca talks to Greg for a bit. Then Greg asks the bus to stop to pick up none other than heather. Nobody knew Greg was dating Heather until now, and Rachel seems mildly upset about it. Greg turns all his attention to Heather (as he should, if she’s his date), so Rebecca tries to strike up a conversation with White Josh, who only wants to talk about working out and dieting. Rebecca sees Darryl stranded by the side of the road, so she begs the gang to stop the bus for him, thinking she’ll finally have someone to talk to. Unfortunately for Rebecca, though, White Josh is a trainer at Darryl’s gym, and Darryl is kind of obsessed with him, so Darryl immediately wants to only talk to White Josh. White Josh is very sweet about the whole thing. Now essentially a seventh wheel, Rebecca does the only thing she can think to do to regain the attention of the group. She starts pole dancing. The rest of the group is kind of horrified at the sight, and Rebecca quickly realizes she made a mistake. She goes into the bathroom and asks Paula to come pick her up at the beach. Paula says she only will if Rebecca admits she loves Josh, and Rebecca continues to deny it.

When Rebecca reemerges from the bathroom, the bus has arrived at the beach. Valencia decides to press Rebecca on why exactly she moved to West Covina. Rebecca starts to say she got a really good job offer, then Darryll blabs that Rebecca actually called him begging for a job at Whitefeather. Rebecca is forced to tell the partial truth. She was very unhappy in New York, and it was her brief conversation with Josh that led her to believe West Covina was a place where she could start over and be happy. The rest of the group is kind of sketched out by this, and Valencia feels vindicated. Josh tries to act reasonably upset, but he asks Valencia if he can talk with Rebecca privately. She thinks he’s going to tell her off, so she’s cool with it. Instead, in “West Covina (Reprise)” Josh sings about how proud he is that he introduced Rebecca to his favorite place, and he’s very happy she moved there. When Rebecca exits the bus, Paula is there, and she finally admits her feelings for Josh.

Summer DVR Dump: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow 1.09: “Left Behind”

“It doesn’t matter. We’re not leaving our team.”
- Professor Stein

When last we left our team, Ray, Kendra and Sara were left in 1958 while the rest of the team had been hijacked by Chronos. He screws with the Wave rider a bit and then take offs with Snart and leaves Stein, Rip and Stein on the ship. While those three are trying to find the rest of the team, Sara, Ray and Kendra have to accept that the team isn’t coming back. We see them as time starts to pass. They share an apartment and then when Ray tries to get a time beacon working and it fails, Sara takes off, saying she needs to find where she belongs. I have to say wouldn’t it be confusing for her to go to the League before she’s even born? Wouldn’t Ra’s Al Ghul be all “I’ve met you before” when he sees her again?

Anyway, Ray and Kendra end up starting to date and when we next see them, she’s a librarian and Ray is a college professor, teaching Bill Gates’ father which is pretty hilarious. He gets kind of excited by that. They are celebrating their two-year anniversary and Ray is about to propose when his beacon goes off. Ray and company (minus Snart obviously) pop in and scoop them up. Kendra is happy to be back in her original life but Ray isn’t willing to let things go.

As the team is trying to find Sara, we get some very interesting information on Chronos. The reason he’s kidnapped Snart becomes clear when he takes off his helmet and reveals he is in fact Mick. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting that to be the case but it is kind of interesting and gives him more to do. It turns out Snart didn’t kill him (obviously). He kind of chickened out and just punched Mick in the face to knock him out. He was eventually rescued by the Time Masters after he’d nearly gone mad and was built up to be this bounty hunter badass focused only on killing the team. He was taken to the Vanishing Point and rehabbed over many lifetimes (or something). He seems to be taking more joy in threatening Snart with having to watch his sister die over and over again. I’m with Snart that Mick is really demented and off the rails and not worth saving but then again they have plenty of time to figure that storyline out.

When the team finally realizes where Sara is (aka the League of Assassins), they try to rescue her. But it’s hard to rescue someone who doesn’t want to be rescued. Sara has been indoctrinated again into the League’s way of doing things and she’s all for Ra’s and doing his bidding. So when the team shows up, she sounds the alarm and they all get locked up. Trespassers will be executed. Oops! At least it gives Ray and Kendra some time to sort out their issues. We also learn that if one is stranded in a foreign timeline for too long, they begin to lose their original self and their past. Kendra admits she was starting to lose herself and her past lives and that is likely what’s happened to Sara as well.

Lucky for the team, Rip studied the League for a thesis in school and he knows about trial by combat. He seems only a little alarmed when Ra’s defers to Sara. But ultimately, Kendra steps up. It is two-fold: it allows Kendra to get her wings back and hopefully remind Sara of her humanity. Things don’t seem to be going too well until Chronos shows up and starts blasting people. He was kind of stupid to leave Snart alone on the jump ship because Snart is definitely not stupid and manages to get free (even though he loses a hand in the process. With a little League assistance, the team takes down Chronos and they’re all pretty shocked to see that it is Mick under the helmet. But they’re going to take him back to the ship. Before leaving 1960, Sara and Rip fill Ra’s in on their time travelling. And Sara makes sure Ra’s sends Nyssa in October of 2008 to rescue her so she can join the League again. I also found it kind of hilarious that Ra’s wasn’t really surprised by the whole “from the future” thing.

It seems that despite the drama of leaving 1960, Kendra and Ray are still good as a couple. He still hasn’t proposed (although he’s got the ring so it won’t be long now) but they’re both quite happy that for once, Kendra gets to choose who she falls in love with. I suppose that’s fair. With Carter dead, she is free to be with whoever she wants. And perhaps on an interesting note, they are going to try and reform Mick and turn him back to their side of things. Sara is particularly interested in this endeavor since she thinks that if they can save Mick, then she can be saved, too. Girl really just needs a spa day or something (and not in the Lazarus Pit). But thanks to some future tech, at least Snart is back to having two hands after having it regenerated. He’s got a fighting hand!

While the team recovers from their trippy experience, Rip sets their sights on 2147. He explains that while Vandal Savage may have disappeared from history for a while, he knows that they will find Savage in this time and place. I have a sinking feeling that they’re going to find him as a young child and Rip is going to make the decision to try and assassinate him. That’s going to cause all kinds of drama amongst the team. It’s the big dilemma in all those kinds of stories about going back in time to get rid of horrible people like Hitler (I’d kind of love a “Let’s Kill Hitler” moment but that’s just the Whovian in me).

MTVP So Cal Summer 2016: UnREAL 1.09: "Princess"

“Really? I’m sorry, your below-the-line, coupon-cutting boyfriend is going to offer you something more interesting than a five year deal with me?”
-Quinn

The penultimate episode of “UnREAL’s” first season didn’t fail to bring the drama. Adam was down to his final three women, and there was continuing jockeying for position. The relationship drama also heightens, as Quinn starts to try and make her moves against Chet, and Rachel finds herself torn between Jeremy and Adam. Not gonna lie, I think I’m pretty firmly Team Adam in the Adam vs. Jeremy showdown. Jeremy is kind of bland, and he has treated Rachel horribly. Adam, however, while he’s a bit of a horndog, at least has some depth to him. He’s more of a fully-drawn character than Jeremy is. I can believe that Rachel would find him intriguing enough to risk her career over. This episode also sees Dr. Wagerstein come into her own a bit. She becomes aware of some of the gamesmanship going on between Quinn and Chet. It’s hard to believe she is played by the same actress who plays Josh’s super-loveable mom on “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.”

This episode picks up pretty much right where the last one left off. Rachel and Adam have just had sex. Rachel notices she has a bunch of text messages from Jeremy, and she instantly regrets her decision. She hustle’s out of Adam’s room, claiming their night together was a mistake, and heads right back to the electric truck to be with Jeremy. Jeremy invites Rachel back to his house for an evening so she can take a real shower and enjoy some creature comforts. He thinks she deserves to not live like a homeless person for a night. Rachel does go back to the cabin with Jeremy, and they end up showering together. Later in the episode, Rachel goes to a party with Jeremy and some of his friends. They have a lot of fun, and Rachel seems to fit into that life easily. Jeremy suggests that maybe they should get out of the reality TV business, go back to LA, and live a “real” life with his friends. This seems odd to me given that just a few episodes ago, he was insisting that it was never his dream to get out of the business.

Ridiculously, Chet says he wants to have a baby with Quinn, and Quinn seems to agree, letting Chet finish without a condom. The next day, Quinn says she has a gynecologist appointment back in LA, and she takes some emergency contraception during the flight. I was glad to see Quinn hasn’t completely lost all reason. Her actual appointment is with the jerk network executive, though, not a doctor. She wants to pitch show ideas to him solo and completely cut Chet out. She’s got a whole notebook of ideas, apparently. The network exec agrees to give Quinn a chance to pitch some ideas, and Quinn thinks she’s on her way to starting her own company. She’s so sure that she tries to blackmail Rachel into joining her. She’s going through old footage, and she happens to see footage of Rachel and Adam having sex. Rachel had tried to cover up the camera in Adam’s room, but it wasn’t good enough. Quinn tells Rachel that if she doesn’t join her new company, she will tell Jeremy all about Rachel’s extracurricular activities. Adam agrees to keep quiet for Rachel’s sake, since he does seem to have real feelings for her.

Quinn also tries to use Madison against Chet, but it appears that move is going to come back to haunt her. She gets Madison to admit what she did to Chet, then she insists that Madison needs to report the incident. Because you know, there was a massive power imbalance, and what Chet did was not at all okay. This is all true, of course, but it’s not coming from a genuine place with Quinn. She just wants Chet to go down, and if it’s direct repercussions for his cheating on her, so much the better. Madison, however, is not down with this plan at all. She doesn’t think Chet did anything wrong, because she was completely okay with what happened. She’s so torn over what to do that she talks to Dr. Wagerstein about it. Dr. Wagerstein tries to reassure Madison that Madison can handle the situation in whatever way makes her the most comfortable, but then she quickly turns the information to her own advantage. She tells Chet about Quinn’s whole plot to use Madison against him, but in exchange, she wants her own segment on Everlasting that could eventually turn into a Dr. Phil-like spinoff. Something tells me Quinn’s dream’s of having her own company free from Chet aren’t long for this world.

As far as Everlasting goes, this week the final three spend some more time with Adam at the vineyard. In one especially memorable scene, Adam and Faith have some fun with demolition and find a “secret room” that turns out to all be courtesy of production design. Faith tells Adam that she actually wants to win Everlasting. She thinks it would be a win-win for her and Adam, because Adam wouldn’t feel like he was leading her on, and she could maybe introduce Amy to San Francisco and the idea that they don’t have to hide their relationship. Both Adam and Rachel think that Faith playing pretend for another year would not be the best thing for her. She needs to come to terms with who she is and make her peace with that and her hometown. Adam ends up eliminating Faith from the competition at the elimination ceremony.

In addition to the vineyard dates, Adam is supposed to select one woman for an overnight date. Determined to get Rachel’s attention, he chooses Anna, and he actually has sex with her. Rachel, of course, can’t resist watching this happening from the command center, even though monitors are supposed to be turned off for overnight dates. Rachel also sees Adam leave the room later in the night, and she gets concerned. She finds him by his favorite pond, and he drops a bomb on her. He doesn’t want her to start her new life with Jeremy without him saying how he feels. Adam wants to run away with Rachel. He thinks they should go someplace glamorous to start, then see where life takes them. He doesn’t think Jeremy can provide Rachel with the kind of life she wants. Rachel is going to have quite a decision to make.

Summer DVR Dump: Heroes Reborn 1.09: “Sundae, Bloody Sundae”

“I can see you’re in pain. I know how it feels to be overcome with anguish and grief. All you want even for a moment is to feel some relief, a release. To be unburdened. I can give you that.”
- Casper

Now that we got most of the backstory doled out over the last two episodes, we are back to the present day and picking up story threads we left dangling a while ago. We find Carlos and the cop finally making a bid to free the priest and Carlos’ nephew. They get through the gate and Carlos tests positive for powers. The cop warns Carlos not to get near the Director because he can get inside your head which makes me think that it might be Matt. Which again, just breaks my heart if it is because he is so much better than this! Things aren’t going at all according to plan for the little jail break. Sure Carlos takes out a guard and is wandering around while Matt talks over a loudspeaker and Evos just sort of stand around but the cop gets taken out and drugged, too. Oops! I am really disappointed in Matt at this point. He had tings rough sure but he’s sold out big time for these people. He’s basically using his power to torture other Evos. Just his dad did. Just like he never wanted to. He convinces the cop to kill himself. Really Matt? Really? Carlos is finding things difficult as well. He tracks down the priest and his nephew but they are stuck in Matt’s mind warp and don’t want to leave. Carlos gets snatched up (after getting electrocuted) and Matt goes into his head and drags out the memory of the raid in the Middle East hat Farah was responsible for but for which he got the medal.

Out in Carbondale, Tommy/Nathan and Emily get back from their Paris trip and Tommy heads back to see his mom. Apparently Noah has managed to track down his grandson because he shows up shortly thereafter and he and Tommy’s mom fill him in. He’s got Hiro’s powers, Hiro is sort of his dad and Claire is his mom. He’s also got a sister he’s never met (well not that he remembers anyway. Speaking of Malina, she and Luke are at a diner sort of bonding a little bit. I don’t know that it will end well for Luke but whatever. He does open up a little while he and Malina are in the car and heading for Illinois. They talk about movies and how Dennis loved funny movies. At least he’s opening up a little bit.

Taylor is also getting wrapped up in things she probably doesn’t understand. She ultimately gets snatched up by Evos behind Hero Truther. I kind of want Micah to show up again. Like maybe he managed to get free or something. Well it turns out he’s not free but also Renee didn’t get killed by Noah because Casper wiped his memory this time around. So he is working with some of the other Evos and they needed to know they could trust Taylor. Taylor ends up pointing out the facility where Carlos and the cop are as the most likely place Micah is being held. I’m not sure what Erica is using Micah’s power for but it can’t be anything good.

Erica is still looking for her but she’s got more pressing matters to attend to. Like getting her hands on Tommy/Nathan. Quentin appears to be on that task and after getting a candy bar unstuck from the vending machine, our dopey guy turned villain goes in to kill Tommy but he’s gone. Joanne has showed up at the ice cream shop. I’m not sure what her deal is to be honest but she’s threatening Emily and Casper. On the bright side Casper didn’t end up wiping Emily’s memory. So that’s nice. But Joanne is still a lunatic. It also makes me wonder if she somehow get on Renautus’ payroll too. Well she might very well end up there but she’s not quite yet. Luke and Malina show up not long after Tommy does. Unfortunately, Tommy can’t make Joanne calm down and she ends up shooting Casper. Luke doesn’t have much luck getting her to back down either but at least this time Tommy takes control and actually stops time for the first time. He really is becoming the Master of Space and Time like his surrogate dad. Awesome! He aligns things so that Luke’s heat blast and Joanne’s bullet don’t hit their intended targets. He even glimpses Malina in the back room before getting himself and Emily to safety.

That safety isn’t so safe as it turns out. Quentin and Phoebe show up to kidnap Tommy and her darkness temporarily neutralizes Tommy’s power. Noah has no choice but to let them take his grandson because if he shot Phoebe, Quentin would have shot Tommy and without his powers there is nothing he could have done to stop it. So they usher him off to Erica’s house where she has prepared an elaborate meal of venison (because why not) and she says she’s going to tell him how he’s going to save the world. Before we cut to black, we jump to 7,957 years in the future and the planet is pretty barren. Except for a single butterfly that lands on Miko’s hand. Um, how is she even there? She’s not real. We saw her basically dematerialize in Evernow. But she’s definitely there and she runs off and sees what could be a settlement where all the Renautus people were going through the weird portal thing a few weeks ago.

The end of this episode left us with more questions than answers and with only four episodes left in the season, I really hope we get some resolution. I would also like to see Tommy and Malina get a chance to bond at some point. But hey, at least she’s now in Noah’s care. So I guess Luke did his job in sort of reuniting her with her family.

MTVP So Cal Summer 2016: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 1.08: "My Mom, Greg’s Mom and Josh’s Sweet Dance Moves!"

“Look, this is important. No one is wearing a Christmas sweater. Why isn’t anyone wearing a Christmas sweater? It is National Christmas Sweater Day. Whatever.”
-Darryl

This was “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s” first attempt at a holiday episode, and overall, it was quite charming and insightful. We finally really meet Rebecca’s mother, and she’s kind of horrifying. By the end of the episode, she explains to Rebecca why she’s always been so ridiculously tough on her, but I don’t think the explanation justifies her behavior. I believe she loves Rebecca, but her way of showing that love has done quite a bit of damage. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we learn more about Greg’s difficult relationship with his mother where he is the one with the worse behavior. He resents that his mother left him and his father when he was a kid, but he is completely hostile to any attempt by her or her new family to be kind to him. Both Rebecca and Greg come to difficult realizations in this episode, Greg more than Rebecca. Also, in a C plot that kind of mirrors my own feelings about the holidays, Josh is bummed because the holidays aren’t quite as fun when you’re an adult and have work and responsibilities and stuff. This plot has the advantage of showing off Vincent Rodriguez III’s amazing dance skills.

It’s the holidays, and Rebecca’s mother Naomi is coming to West Covina for Hanukah. Ahead of the visit, Paula rightly accuses Rebecca of being an Level 5 Mom Pleaser. We get all sorts of flashbacks to Rebecca’s mom-pleasing ways throughout this episode. She basically always tells her mom exactly what she wants to hear in every situation. The dysfunctional relationship between mother and daughter seems to go back generations in Rebecca’s family. First thing in this episode, we see ancestors of Rebecca coming to the United States on a ship, and the mother of that generation is just as judgmental as Naomi. We also learn about the Garfinkel ring, an heirloom in Rebecca’s family. The ring is passed down from mother to daughter on her eighteenth birthday, but Rebecca still hasn’t gotten it. Naomi hasn’t found her worthy of it yet.

Naomi arrives in West Covina with a vengeance, immediately bursting into a song called “Where’s the Bathroom?” where she simultaneously berates Rebecca and repeatedly asks where the bathroom is. Naomi is played by Tovah Feldshuh, who perfectly captures this type of overbearing, hypercritical mother. She’s not passive aggressive – she’s full-on aggressive. Rebecca also takes her mom to visit Whitefeather, where Naomi is not impressed at all. Audra Levine has a much nicer office and is married to a hedge fund manager, after all. Being the mom-pleaser that she is, Rebecca says that Whitefeather isn’t her actual office – she just goes there often to mentor “underprivileged attorneys,” which Naomi points out is kind of an oxymoron. As a former public interest attorney, though, I’d say that’s not entirely true (I worked part-time at a nonprofit for $20 an hour my first year as a licensed attorney), but in general, she’s on the mark.

Greg’s mom left him and his father when Greg was young, and now she lives in Beverly Hills with a husband and two teenaged kids. Greg resents this immensely. Nevertheless, he goes to his Mom’s family holiday gathering on Christmas Eve Eve (also my late paternal grandmother’s birthday) every year. Greg is at the mall begrudgingly shopping for presents for his half-siblings when he runs into Heather, who is working as a Santa Elf. They vaguely remember each other from Rebecca’s party, so Greg starts telling her about holidays at his mother’s house. Heather, because she has no filter, asks if she can come along. After pausing because the request is kind of odd, Greg basically says “why not?” Greg’s mother’s house is beautiful of course, and his half-siblings are typical teenagers, but not especially horrible people. Greg, however, finds every detail of the proceedings offensive. It’s all rather Norman Rockwell, complete with gingerbread house-making. Heather is actually having a great time eating all the food and talking with Greg’s siblings.

Rebecca desperately wants to convince her mother that she’s not hanging out with losers anymore, so she asks Paula to pretend to be the kind of person her mother would really like. They all go to lunch together, and Paula pretends to be a British Jew. Naomi, of course, thinks this is fantastic and classy and not at all loser-like. I found it interesting that even after criticizing Rebecca for being a mom-pleaser, Paula still can’t resist a scheme. Anyway, later when they’re hanging out, Rebecca gets a call from Calving, and Naomi insists she take it. After all, what could be more important than work? Rebecca also notices that Naomi brought the Garfinkel Ring with her, and Rebecca really, really wants it.

Back in Beverly Hills, Greg is continuing to be super annoying and finding every aspect of the celebration offensive, even as his family is doing their best to be nice to him. Heather eventually calls him out for this, saying he’s the one being horrible, not his family. Since Heather is a neutral party in all this, he actually takes this seriously and starts reevaluating how he has been behaving. He and his mom end up having a good conversation where Greg talks about his abandonment issues and his mom admits she should have pushed harder for joint custody, even though her instinct at the time had been to not separate Greg from his dad. It ends up being something of a healing night for everyone. Afterwards when they debrief about the evening, Greg and Heather start making out. I found this pairing extremely random, although I’m glad Heather was at least able to help Greg make some peace with his mom and her family.

Rebecca arranges for Calvin, herself, and her mom to meet for drinks so that Calvin can go over his latest real estate issues. Naomi, though, is flirting with him like mad after she has some wine. Calvin leaves the table for a minute, and Naomi starts insisting that Rebecca needs to set them up. She can’t find any suitable men at her age in New York, and she thinks Rebecca owes her this. Rebecca wants her mom’s approval so much that she actually asks Calvin to sleep with her. Thankfully, sanity prevails and he says no. Rebecca is ever the mom-pleaser, though, and she tells her mom that Calvin wanted to sleep with her, but Rebecca said know because it could affect their business relationship. Naomi isn’t happy about this at all, and Rebecca does not get the Garfinkel ring. She also tries to send her mom to the airport in an Uber. Before she leaves Naomi says that she loves Rebecca and that’s why she pushes her so much. She wants to know she’s able to survive. I guess that’s nice, but it’s done some real damage.

Josh, meanwhile, has been bummed that he’s got to work a double shift on Christmas Eve, so he can’t see the local high school do their Winter Showcase. He was on the dance team as a student, and he really wanted to be there to support the kids during their performance. He meets one of the current students while hanging around the mall, and they really hit it off. The kid is really excited to meet Josh, since he’s apparently still a big name at the school. Josh ends up having his mom call in sick to work for him, and he goes to see the showcase after all. The student he met pretends to have an injury so Josh can dance. The whole thing is kind of inconsequential compared to the other plots, but Josh does realize that he is a grown-up after all, since while he could still do the dance routine, it really hurt afterwards. The whole episode ends with a gaudy Christmas group number called “California Christmastime,” which has wickedly subversive lyrics. Would you expect anything less from this show?

Summer DVR Dump: Lucifer 1.09: “A Priest Walks into a Bar”

“It’s a church, what am I going to do? Pray too hard?”
- Lucifer

When last we left our Head of Hell, he was on the outs with Maze and Chloe isn’t hit to Dan’s involvement in the Palmetto shooting. Lucifer is having a party and invites the pizza delivery guy in for a threesome (or is it a foursome). Anyway, the important bit is that Lucifer doesn’t join in. Linda points out at their next session (which is much more professional than they have been) that he seems lonely and doesn’t have any friends. He can’t even say that Chloe is his friend.

Back at Lux, Maze begs Lucifer to stop for half a second to check out the actual priest that walked into the bar, looking for help from the Devil. Lucifer isn’t interested, even when the priest says he thinks a thug is running a drug ring out of a youth center. He does think the priest is hiding something and so he ropes Chloe in. They go to question the youth center director (aka the drug-running thug) but find him dead in his office. Oops! Lucifer wants to believe that the priest is responsible (although if you believe the head counselor that’s not possible). But the boy that the priest was so concerned with admits he’s kind of over-protective. And it doesn’t help that the father has a rap sheet with all kinds of fun things on it like assault and drug charges.

Before they can head out to question the priest though, Chloe tries to have a chat with Dan since he’s kind of been avoiding her. She wants to talk about the kiss they shared (before he went off to meet Malcolm) but he keeps glancing at said dirty cop. He promise to come by for take-out that night before she heads off. Things are going to be very uncomfortable for Dan though. Malcolm got himself assigned as Dan’s new partner (to keep an eye on him). Well mostly it’s so Malcolm can threaten Dan with mutually assured destruction if he tries to tell Chloe what happened. Apparently Dan isn’t quite as dirty as we thought. Sure he looked the other way a few times but that night, when Chloe realized Malcolm spotted her, Malcolm went for his gun and so Dan had to shoot to protect Chloe.

Chloe quickly learns not to leave Lucifer alone in a church because he’ll just climb into the confessional and muck up people’s confessions. But at least he did figure out that the priest has an alibi for the murder. He was with the woman Lucifer talked to. Although he does admit to breaking the restraining order and punching the guy in the face. Just as they head out to take the priest’s statement, a car drives by and someone unloads a gun. No one is injured by it gets the priest to admit that the boy he’s concerned about is already in the drug business and it seems that there’s another drug dealer moving in on the dead dealer’s turf. The priest says he’s going to stay at the church but Lucifer convinces him to stay at Lux which results in a budding friendship that culminates and playing some improv jazz together on the piano (it turns out the priest used to be a musician and he was in the same car accident that killed the boy’s parents…and the priest’s daughter). Very sad. Even sadder is that Chloe and Lucifer discover that the boy isn’t working for the competition, he is the competition.

In other weird news, Malcolm clearly knows he was rescued from Hell by Amenediel because our annoying angel pays him a visit in a parking garage. It turns out Amenediel has a task for Malcolm and I have a feeling it involves murdering our dear, handsome Devil. Which just makes me want to punch the chrome-headed man-bird in the face. A lot. But that also explains why Malcolm needs Dan to steal some evidence. I’m guessing it’s a weapon in another crime and it will be linked to that if Malcolm can get close enough to pop Lucifer. And he isn’t letting Dan off the hook any time soon after he gets a gun out of evidence. Amenediel pays his little trigger man another visit and orders him to kill Lucifer. Yeah, I really just want to smack him hard.

In a far more interesting and emotional turn of events, Lucifer and the priest bond a bit more over God’s plan (or lack thereof) and then Lucifer and Chloe discover that the priest has run off to meet the boy they think is the other drug dealer. It turns out the head counselor is the one pulling the strings and he wants the kid to shoot the priest. The kid won’t do it and so the counselor does (and Chloe shoots him). The priests doesn’t make it and Lucifer gets super pissed and nearly kills the counselor but Chloe manages to talk him down. Afterwards, Lucifer has a good yell at the sky (and his father), ranting about how if you break the rules, you lose and even if you follow them, you get shafted so what’s the point? I loved seeing this vulnerability come back in him. It shows he really is struggling to accept his own family drama. And that night, as he sits playing a piece the priest had started to play, Chloe shows up, offering to be a friend and hang with him. They end with playing “Heart and Soul” and that totally made me smile. We are getting ever closer to at least Lucifer getting a kiss out of Chloe. I really am enjoying their progression and the strides he is making as a character. I think the writers have really hit their stride, revealing pieces of the puzzle slowly but actually giving answers. I just hope the show is able to hang on enough to get another season because it is definitely a show I’d like to cover again for the blog.