Family dysfunction was at an apex during the latest episode of Private Practice, as Addison’s family reacted with robotic behavior, heavy drinking, fisticuffs and inappropriate flirtation as a way to process their grief over Bizzy’s untimely death.
Setting the tone for the Montgomery household was The Captain — the fact that his daughter calls him “The Captain” and her mother “Bizzy” as opposed to Dad and Mom speaks volumes — who blamed Addison and all her doctor friends for wasting their money on medical degrees because they failed to fight to save Bizzy’s life. Hey, at least he didn’t slap Addison across the face after he said it.
Both of Addison’s parents expected her to have superhuman powers. FIrst, to save Bizzy’s lover from the cancer that was so advanced that it would kill her regardless of what Addison did, and to save Bizzy whom The Captain doesn’t know committed suicide. He just figured it was easier to blame the doctors, and his daughter.
And when Addison fell short in her parents’ eyes — couldn’t save Susan or Bizzy — Addison turned into what Sam described as “the ghost of her cold and WASP-y mother,” completely unlike her normal self.
The icy metaphor was even extended to the family’s home itself, where the heat apparently wasn’t on and people had to warm themselves with sweaters and liquor. Characters went outside to have meaningful conversations while standing in the snow, shivering. The whole episode was like a giant ice cube.
Now the scene that had a lot of emotion, the one with Addison and Sam, where he aggressively tried to get Addison to snap out of what he called her “Stepford WASP thing” trance and give him the “real eulogy” as he grasped her arms tightly, seemed contrived to me (I probably hated it mostly because Sam was following Cooper’s inane advice that he had to push back against Addison’s coldness to prove that he could be strong for her in a time of crisis.) His approach may have allowed her to release some of her sorrow, but it didn’t even begin to alleviate the painful secret she’s toting around, that her mother killed herself and didn’t want anyone other than Addison to know about it. Narcissistic to the end, Bizzy.
While her husband The Captain walked around drunk and tried to pick a fight with Pete (for a half a second, I thought he was going to have a heart attack and die after he tried to hit Pete), his son Archer was also drinking and trying to get Naomi into bed, after having abandoned her when he decided, some time ago, that their fling was over. By comparison, Addison’s stone cold facade seemed saner than her father’s and brother’s reactions.
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Feb 18, 2011 @ 14:04 EST5EDT
