I’m enjoying where Army Wives is settling into. No, this is absolutely not the same show that we all loved in season one, but I think that, after missteps in the latter half of season two and first half of this season, the show has finally found where it excels: family drama. If that’s what the show had been about when it premiered, I don’t know that I would have kept watching, but now that I’m invested in the characters….
Picking up on the closing scene of two weeks ago, Pamela finally gets to see Chase. He and his team were badly injured in a helicopter crash, but the good news is that he’s grounded for at least six weeks. Actually, I was kind of surprised at just how scared Pamela was throughout the incident. As she reminds us when it suits her, she was a cop. Plus, she’s been living with a Delta Chase for years; is this really the first time she’s had to worry about his safety?
Of course, I don’t think any of us were thinking capture and torture. What’s a little shaky about the possibility is, how did his entire team get captured, and how did they all escape? Plus, you’re telling me that Pamela’s experience with domestic abuse cases trained her to recognize signs of crude torture methods? If so, an inordinate amount of people must be shoving bamboo up their spouse’s fingernails (Sayid!).
Denise is training to be a paramedic. I never questioned her desire to be her own person, just the way she’d gone about it. I still am shocked that Frank took her back, but I like how their relationship works these days. Had the entire incident never occurred, it would be a wonderful thing to see.
This Trevor and Roxy thing is a little weird. It’s fantastic how much he cares for her boys, but she does realize that not having another denies him his own children, right? And, as for him, what about the need to discuss growing your family with your wife? Just because he says go, doesn’t mean anything. And the way this show uses symbolic gestures, like Roxy throwing her birth control out? Cheesy.
Claudia Joy is really just there to be there these days. I’m getting nothing from her current arc, and I feel like it adds nothing to the show. It’s not even like, with all of her hostility, she’s emotionally embraceable. I agree that someone like Emmalin, the daughter in the mother-daughter relationship, should butt out of the mothering, but beyond that? Why the push-back? Of course, as expected, Claudia Joy learns her lesson from an unexpected source, and turns it all around. But, to what end in the grand scheme of things?
For me, the star of last night’s episode was Joan. I have never been, and am still not, much of a fan. And, I seriously dislike the fact that Trevor took advantage of her sex, and her race, to help recruit Kanessa (Sonequa Martin), in a manner completely undignified for a Lieutenant Colonel. However, Joan is a role model, both for women, and for underprivileged kids looking to get out of whatever rut their lives are in. I think she degraded herself a bit by falling backwards into a less educated speech pattern during their conversation, but I liked learning a little bit about how Joan got to where she is.
And, of course, there was the call; Joan deploys in a week. Leaving with her men, instead of staying behind and working for Michael, was her choice. I find it difficult to empathize with her. But, she has to leave her daughter. And, she has to do it knowing just how high the statistics that she might never return. I feel for that, no matter whose decision it was in the first place.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Sep 14, 2009 @ 15:00 EST5EDT
