Pan Am – The weak link of the Bridget-Dean-Colette love triangle isn’t who you think

When you consider how much I liked Bridget before she disappeared, it is almost surprising how much she’s fallen. Her return is the definition of the “nothing good will come of this” scenario. While things are going badly for her and several others of the Pan Am crew in Mother Russia, Ted and Maggie were finding ways to get themselves in nearly as much trouble back at home. As Pan Am lumbers to its series season finale (because remember boys and girls, the show is “not cancelled” yet), I feel less and less confident that the story will find itself at a natural ending point when the final credits roll.

When I reviewed the first couple of episodes of Pan Am, I was much more taken with Bridget than I was with Colette. That obviously began to change with former’s departure, and the latter’s role in great episodes like “We’ll Always have Paris” and “Ich Bin Ein Berliner.” The problem with their story though has nothing to do with them, and everything to do with the dope of a man that they are fighting over. Last week I called him an idiot, an accusation I’d probably expound this week if it wasn’t for his standing up to the KGB on behalf of the captured Bridget and Laura. If the endgame of this particular storyline is he and Colette reuniting, he’s got a long row to hoe in terms of redeeming himself in her eyes.

I fear the biggest consequence of Bridget’s return, though, had nothing to do with neither Dean nor Colette. The conversation she had with Laura in the back of the KGB opened a door that will eventually lead to Kate’s secret work for the CIA to become not-so-secret anymore. For Kate’s sake, hopefully her exposure will be limited just to her sister – a scenario that could save her job.

Maggie, too, has come a long way since the Pilot. Throughout the first several episodes, many of us were wondering why Christina Ricci was involved in a show that was so solidly putting her character on the back burner. But dating a Congressman that she’s so politically opposite of is a great little twist. I don’t really think that the newspaper article was a necessary obstacle to their relationship; in fact, I think publically insulting one of Rawlings’ biggest donors was much more damaging to the Congressman publically, and their relationship privately. But I like relationships where both parties inspire better things in their partners, something I can see developing between these two if they are able to get past the hiccups borne out of how their relationship started.

The only moment of concern in an otherwise solid episode, though, was the private moment Maggie spent with Ted’s new fiancé Amanda. I’m not sure I like where that story is headed. I never had much doubt that she and Ted’s relationship would come to an end, but I’d hoped that it would because he realized what he was missing with Laura. As much as I like Pan Am, I just don’t have faith in its ability to manage this story with the delicacy it will require to keep it from becoming clichéd.

Notes & Quotes

• I love how Dean’s pilot cap was so artfully displayed on the hotel table, in case we forgot what he did for a living.
• “You knew I’d be stopping by sooner or later.” – Richard
  “We’re going to Russia, of course you’d be stopping by.” – Kate
• “Yes, just drinks.” – Bridget, proving  Colette a much bigger clue than the cufflinks did

Clacked by Ivey West
on Jan 16, 2012 @ 13:16 EST5EDT