Nip/Tuck/Thoughts: A Dose of Reality

Last week, when I saw the gimmicky previews for this week's episode, I was slightly afraid that we might be in for an episode almost as bad as last year's when we saw all the characters in the future. Sorry, but "Conor McNamara, 2026" is the Worst. Episode. Ever.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see that what could've been a painful hour turned out to be one of the loosest, enjoyable episodes of the season. And speaking of Conor, we also found out that he's apparently been with Julia and Olivia this whole time in Cali! (I'm not the only one who never noticed this before, right?)

With Christian still desperate for the spotlight, he agreed to let a camera crew film McNamara/Troy at work for a new reality show called "Plastic Fantastic" (loved the cheesy animated opening sequence.) In fact, I love how the show completely threw itself into its reality-show conceit, unlike an earlier episode of "House" this year, which also featured a camera crew, but switched back and forth from the camera's point of view to the characters'.

I enjoyed the over-the-top editing tricks, and the animated graphics and music cues the reality show producers used to spice up their subjects (such as the Middle-eastern music cue after Sean mentioned a belly dancer Christian had been in bed with). I also liked the donkey and other cutesy symbols used to censor Eden's mouth when she burst into the operating room and started cursing up a storm.

Even though they brought back her character from rehab a lot sooner than I expected, I probably enjoyed her character the most last night. Eden showed a softer side, by lying to Sean and claiming that she made up the fact that Christian and Julia had slept together to protect his feelings. And even though I enjoyed seeing that softer side, and I like that the producers allowed AnnaLynn McCord to play it, I'm not buying it for a second.

Unfortunately, Sean is, as evidenced by their kiss last night, which, I guess was supposed to be hot, but, since he had been comforting her a few minutes earlier, came off a bit pervy for my taste.

Another thing I enjoyed last night was the patient, Daniel Sands. He was an older male escort who recognized Christian from his new night job, and perhaps gave the doctor a glimpse of his own future, which might help explain why Christian is so desperate to become famous (other than being a massive egomaniac, of course). I liked Christian's exchange with Sean toward the end, where Sean finally acknowledged that he loved being the hot one, but my favorite part was Sean's response to Christian's accusation that Sean would even pimp himself out to appear on "Celebrity Fit Club": "I'm not fat! I'm in terrific shape!"

I mean, I even liked it when New York dropped by to school Christian on being a reality show personality ("Be more interesting, create conflict, but deny responsibility"). For some reason, she didn't offer any advice on how to respond if someone spits in your mouth.

That conflict led to another one of my favorites AND my absolute least favorite part of the episode. On one hand, Liz (pictured, right) got more screentime than she's had in forever, and a real live plotline, as it appears she's fallen for Julia's girlfriend Olivia. On the other hand, that led to more screentime for Julia, the absolute worst character on the show and someone we keep being force fed. Honestly, I can't stand to look at her, and especially can't stand to hear her talk.

It came out that Liz doesn't think Julia's a lesbian (which is clearly true), but Christian took New York's advice and created conflict by telling Julia about Olivia and Liz's kiss. I get that Olivia and Julia together is an appealing match for the two of them because they can pretty much wear all the same skinny blonde chick clothes from each other's closets. But I'd love to see Olivia with Liz, mostly because I wouldn't mind seeing Liz with a solid love interest (Alanis Morissette's Poppy turned out to be a bitch almost right away), but also because Olivia can do better than whiny, needy Julia.

So what'd you think of this episode? Why no mention of the fact that the boys' new publicist, Bliss Berger, was a patient from a few years ago (she had fat trimmed from her arms to meet an online date, who turned out to be an ugly guy)? Did you miss Matt and Kimber at all in this episode? Finally, wouldn't Christian be a lot more likely to wind up in "Celebrity Fit Club" than Sean?