In what was certainly the weakest episode of the season so far. Gordon hears the bad news. Donna drinks beer; Cameron is losing her company, and Joe breaks up with his fiance because…well actually I’m not sure why. This show runs in style and atmosphere, it always looks beautiful and always has great music. And fantastic performances to. But what gets lost in all of that and sometimes makes up for a lot of that is the decisions and actions of individual characters. Gordon feels like a lost ship at sea. I thought after teaming up with Joe he would focus on that, but clearly he has a bigger less involved issue at the present. Cameron went on a hate filled roller coaster. Understandably, being pissed that Gordon once again got all up in her business . And Joe’s “wife” is a mystery all to herself.
I had always figured that Joe’s fiance would break up with him or leave him at some point, but I didn’t think it would be this early and for a reason I can’t quite understand. She got mad at him for keeping a business decision to himself. Which is something that shouldn’t be able to break a relationship and then he was “caught” talking to Cameron after the mutiny meeting. Which she seemed angry about. I’ve never had a full grasp of this woman and, to be honest, the show hasn’t shown me enough actually to care about her yet. So her leaving him is a weird thing to put under Joe’s cap at this point. It could affect his job now too. So who knows what happens because she didn’t like him not telling her about his business plans.
“So…How are things?”
As for the Clarkes’, this marriage is a sham. I could understand one of them leaving the other in either situation. For whatever reason I suppose upsetting Donna, Gordon won’t tell the mother of his two daughters that he has brain damage. And Donna is with Child. Both of them have somewhat of an argument to stand on for keeping their secrets, but I would just rather these two have actual problems in coding or business. This marital stuff seems to bog down the most interesting things going on. And Gordon going to a night club and picturing Donna while he shouted “I have brain damage!” was just weird. But now that Bosworth knows about Donna’s pregnancy it can come out a bit quicker. I hate secret pregnancy story lines it doesn’t feel impressive enough for a show about computer programmers in the 80’s.
Cameron and Tom seem to have developed a little relationship. In another factor that drove me a little insane was the fact that Tom ignored Cameron once he found out she was having Ex problems, and then made up for it by climbing in the window at the last minute. It seemed weirdly forced and unnecessary to drive a fake wedge into their relationship. They do work well together. Some pillow talk revealed what their plans are for the future of the first-person shooter they want to develop. She’s focused on context and story. And he intends to focus on more mechanical gameplay ideas. Another strange moment was Bosworth’s reaction to a gay coworker. First it felt weird and out of place to have him react to that and then ignore it the rest of the episode. And then on the other hand everyone was very supportive, which was a bit of a shock since we are in the 80’s in North Texas, but I suppose it’s better to have no gay hating conflict on this show that is already dealing with so many other soap opra’y’ cliches.
“Don’t touch my chair”
James Cromwell makes any scene better so seeing him interact with a newly matured Cameron and a nervous Joe was cool. And the idea that Gordon keeps trying to fix the situation and keeps failing is funny. Because Cameron feels as though her company is being taken away from her bit by bit. Maybe a bit paranoid but after the whole giant fiasco how can you blame her. Even though she was in the wrong in that particular situation. I wonder what this newly found Brain damage does for Gordon. Either he dies. Or he continues to live more miserable by the month. That’s a sad end to a pretty integral character. Maybe he goes all breaking bad and starts dealing meth.
A weaker episode so far and, to be honest, this season has been a bit more vulnerable than the first anyway. Separating all these character for so long. I mean we just now got to see Joe and Cameron interact in this episode and that was a huge part of last year. Gordon seems to have no purpose except dying slowly and Cameron and Donna have been the brightest spot so far. I loved the carefree dynamic of Donna, but now she seems “bogged” down by this pregnancy. I long for the day when all four of these great characters are in the same room working on something they love together. But I don’t think that will happen and if it does it won’t be for a while.
