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Nip/Tuck, F/X, Airs Tuesday 10pm E/P

Episode: “Roxy St. James” (Season 5, Episode 17)

Synopsis: Sean learns Julia is planning to move to New York. Before she and Julia leave for the East Coast, Olivia goes under Sean’s knife for surgery, during which a complication occurs. Sean questions his surgery, but is cleared when the autopsy results come back. A familiar evil face reworks history to torment the living, before disappearing in a cloud. Meanwhile, Liz questions her sexuality after her night with Christian, whilst his one night stand from a breast cancer support group meeting comes back to haunt him right in his own lobby.

Review: It seems a little strange that after the drama of last week, with the reveal of Sean’s big secret, everything is just hunky dory. Only a passing nod was made to the fact that he convinced people that he was wheelchair-bound for several months. That doesn’t seem to fit, especially given Julia & Matt’s reactions to this information. However, that pales next to some of the events in this episode.

The medical case of the week, Roxy St. James and her breast-cancer-avoiding slice and dice operation, was certainly memorable, to the point that never again will I see an electric carving knife without flinching. The mark of a good scene, sure, but holy crap was that necessary? Her fear of finding a lump and the end of her life in her eyes may have mirrored Christian’s current outlook, but it seems that Christian’s the well-adjusted one, which is just twisted. This actually seems to be growing more common as Sean sinks further and further into self pity and obsession over Julia. Just shows how far Sean’s slipped in the grand scheme of things.

Speaking of Nip/Tuck’s very own Helen of Troy and all of her baggage, the reappearance of Eden served as a nice touchstone to the first half of the season and all its woes and worries. The scene also seemed to set up a finale story arc where Julia finally learns the truth about her shooting, which would be nice as it’s just not satisfying enough to know Eden’s getting away with shooting Julia and not receiving some sort of karmic payback. Especially if she’s heartless enough to scatter her mother’s ashes all over her almost ex-civil-step-mother.

The episode seemed a little disjointed overall, but as usual it sets up the next and moves the characters along. As long as that happens, who needs it to feel completely smooth, or for there to be continuity in character appearances? Liz & Christian’s relationship, Sean & Julia, everyone’s moving forward. With only 5 episodes remaining, the series needs to find a solid arc to end on. Hopefully the scattered storylines will start feeling more unified.

Up Next Week: “Ricky Wells” – Matt gets jealous when Sean and Raj starts to develop a father / son relationship. Christian and Liz try to make their relationship work. Raj’s father makes a surprise appearance.

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