Nip/Tuck/Thoughts: A Modest Proposal

I thought that Sean was supposed to be the sensible one and that Christian was supposed to be the reckless, out-of-control, childish one.

Following what was, perhaps, the funniest episode of the season, the show got considerably more serious with Christian’s apparently fatal cancer diagnosis last night. And while it might be WAY too much to call contemplating suicide and rushing into an ill-advised marriage “sensible,” Christian mostly acted like the adult last night while Sean continued to act like an idiot.

I’ll admit that Sean’s adventures with the oh-so-edgy Teddy were partly entertaining — breaking into an open house to fool around DOES sound like fun — but it was mostly a remake of last week’s storyline. Last week, Teddy made him go too far by snapping the picture of Sean with the patient’s penis. This week, Teddy made him take some curiously strong tea and go on some sort of indulgent spirit quest that had him experiencing trippy flashbacks during surgery (pretty much the worst time for that to happen).

In the end, Sean explained that he was too responsible by nature due to him being a surgeon. (So, apparently, anesthesiologists are just wild cards.) I also liked Sean desperately trying to convince Teddy that was edgy by telling her “I had sex with a doll.” If next week’s previews are any indication, he’ll be back on the Teddy bandwagon (and back on Teddy). I hope they throw in a new wrinkle because I don’t want to be complaining once again that it was the same thing.

Sean was much more effective when he stepped up and told Christian that he would never die alone in a touching scene between the two friends near the end of the episode.

Until then, Christian was on a pretty severe downward spiral after finding out that he had less than a year to live. The news was especially crushing after being reminded earlier that morning how much of a horrible person he was after Kimber told Sean that Christian had also injected baby Jenna’s lips. Now he was going to die with everyone in the world hating him.

Except, of course, for the person who always loved and accepted him for being an a-hole.

So off he was to Miami in a ridiculous hat to propose marriage to Liz (pictured, right, with Christian), who was about to be setup by her slightly insensitive new boss. Even though Christian is pretty much a bad person, I believe that, on more than occasion, he’s genuinely tried to become a good one. The tragedy of the character is that his true nature always gets in the way.

Julian McMahon was so good last night that he even convinced me that Christian would be able to convince Liz to come back despite breaking her heart very recently. He even showed enough vulnerability and pain to convince me that Liz (a strong sensible person) would agree to stay with him even after finding out that Christian was dying (a small detail he left out during his proposal). As she said, she was going to end up taking care of him anyway — might as well get a sweet ring out of the deal.

I also liked watching him bond with the “Tree Man” patient of the week, though that might have something to do with the fact that I’ve watched a couple of documentaries on the real-life Tree Man and find his case fascinating.

At first, I was a little surprised that Christian would just pack it in and accept death (he’s not willing to try any experimental treatments). Then I remembered that, as a doctor, he would have a more realistic viewpoint of his chances. More importantly, Christian is WAY too vain to go out slowly deteriorating on a hospital bed.

I do remain curious how the writers are going to get out of this corner. There’s still the remainder of this season to consider and an entire season 6. Will Christian find some sort of miracle cure or will the end of the show coincide with the end of Christian’s life?

So what’d you think of this episode? Did Liz give in (or come back) too quick? Is the office big enough for two anesthesiologists? Finally, though Sean didn’t have to buy the house he had sex in with Teddy, he could’ve at least bought the bed, right?