Nip/Tuck/Thoughts: Sons and Fathers

Last night’s episode was classic Nip/Tuck and the show’s best episode in years. (Yeah, I said it!)

It had everything we love from Nip/Tuck. There was sex (Christian + new chest implant = a lot of random women to bang), there was plenty of humor (Raj being introduced to chicken wings and, um, Christian’s sex scenes — his facial expressions crack me up) and at least one moment that made you want to turn away from the TV (Raj’s hand being introduced to the truck door. Double ouch!). Finally, is it an accident that such a great episode of Nip/Tuck didn’t have a single appearance by (or even mention of) whiny Julia? Just sayin’

Unlike last week, this week’s episode( entitled “Ricky Wells”) built a compelling and entertaining storyline to compliment the fantastic Christian/Liz action.

I’m not necessarily talking about Patient of the Week Ricky. We instantly knew (like Sean and Christian) that the surgery was a bad idea, and as soon as we saw Ricky’s mildly pedophilic wife eye-balling his little brother after his surgery, we REALLY knew those two would end up in the sack together. Memo to Ricky: she was into you because you were young and it was wrong. Why would she want you now that you look like a creepier version of your dad? (Most importantly, why am I posing questions to a minor fictional character?)

Anyway, the compelling and entertaining storyline I’m talking about revolves around sons and fathers — namely, the relationships between Sean and Matt, Sean and Raj, and Raj and his dad.

After Matt announced that he was going to medical school, we assumed it would be smooth sailing from there, since he seemed to be an accomplished surgeon in the future episode. However, that was far from the case as Matt seemed totally disinterested in putting in the work necessary (organic chem., operating on a pig fetus) to become a surgeon. I’m not the biggest Matt fan in the world, but I actually found myself even more disappointed in Matt than Sean was. After all the craziness he’s gone through, the most outta-left field thing Matt can do is pull his life together.

I feared the worst when it was hinted that Matt would become jealous of Sean’s relationship with his protégé Raj (pictured, left). However, I was glad to see the show have Sean and Matt handle their differences in a mature way. It turns out that Matt DOES want to be like his dad — except that he wants to be an actor, not a surgeon. I’m pretty sure he’ll have to deal with a lot less dead pigs that way.

Unfortunately, Raj and his dad, who was in town for a penis enhancement he wanted his son to perform, did not have a similar happy ending. Things started out ok with Sean allowing Raj to show off for his dad by having him finish Christian’s surgery, but things went south when Raj was apprehensive about performing his father’s surgery (Triple ick.) Things reached a boiling point right before the surgery when Christian busted in with the botched chest implant and ended with Raj’s father slapping him for being incompetent and disrespectful.

That led to the pity party scene in Matt’s truck between Raj and Matt, which started out comical, got serious, and then got disgusting (classic “Nip/Tuck”). Raj hated his father for forcing him to become a surgeon and strongly suggested that it wasn’t the first time he’d hit him. He only saw one way out. Matt had to smash his hand on the truck door. Matt didn’t want to do it at first but, since he’s an idiot, eventually obliged after Raj goaded him.

My goodness was that hand disgusting afterwards! I’ll concede the fact that the hand slamming was unnecessary (really Raj? This was the only reasonable option?) but the whole gruesome thing was executed perfectly. The one thing I didn’t care for at all about this episode was the fact that this is likely the end of Raj on “Nip/Tuck.” I felt like he added some terrific humor and a different dynamic (with both Sean and Christian) and I think he’ll be missed.

He’ll be missed almost as much as Liz will be missed for the foreseeable future.

The episode opened with Liz and Christian giving their relationship an awkward go (well, Liz giving it a go anyway) before settling on some “Project Runway.” Of course, after Christian’s reconstructive surgery, he was back to his old self, banging as many women as he could.

I’m actually ok with that, the same way Liz was. What I didn’t get was that Christian had apparently known Liz was coming over (and invited her) and STILL made sure he was having sex with an anonymous woman. It’s not like Liz barged in on him after her “Pretty Woman” makeover (and she DID look pretty). It came off like Christian was going out of his way to hurt her, which is too wrong, even for him. That’s why it was satisfying to see Liz get her own measure of revenge via a late-night female hookup. I love that these two can just volley back and forth.

That is until Christian took things too far. Apparently, Liz has her limit in how many times she’s willing to walk in on Christian having sex with another woman and he exceeded it. She quit, flew back to Miami and Sean came over to give Christian a mild tongue lashing for letting their best anesthesiologist (and the show’s best supporting character) get away. As sad as I am to see the bizarrely effective Christian/Liz relationship end (for now) I’m grateful the show didn’t make Liz a doormat and it feels like the writers kept Liz and Christian true to their characters throughout (besides the whole Liz liking a man thing, of course). I believe she’ll stay in Miami for good — unless one of the doctors gives her a reason to come back.

So what’d you think of this episode? Did Christian break his own record for most women slept with in an episode? (Do we want to count Liz’s BJ in the beginning?) Will Raj be back, and if not, will he be able to become a Playboy photographer? Was “Project Runway” Liz or Christian’s pick? (I honestly think it could go either way) Finally, who will be back on the show first? Raj or Liz?