SEASON 5

EPISODE 8: THE SILENCE

A middle-aged man grudgingly goes to a play, and dies of a stroke or heart attack right there in the theatre.

He's a member of Maggie Sibley's church. And in this episode, we will learn that Maggie is from the Quaker church. I don't know much about the Quakers, but I heard that in their older days, they "quaked" and danced, much like the Pentecostals do. In Maggie's church though, they mostly keep silence in reverence to God.

The 2 new daddies, David and Keith, are slowly but surely adjusting to life with their new children, Anthony and Durrell. David appears to love Anthony very much, while simply tolerating Durrell because he has no other option. Sounds harsh, doesn't it? Until we see Durrell poking through things that he has no business poking through. What a brat! This leads Dave and Keith to throw out their gay porn collection.

Ruth is relishing her new single freedom. She has joined a knitting class and has been invited to a friend's dinner party. In spite of the friend assuring Ruth that there will be plenty of good food and no need to bring anything, Ruth decides she simply MUST bring her famous potato salad! The salad looks out of place among the fancy little hor'deurves, as does Ruth, dressed in her usual frumpy attire in this fancy house full of little black dresses.

At the Diaz household, Rico's in the mood for love, but Vanessa is not interested. Rico has yet to learn how much anger still lurks there.

David has still been plagued with episodes involving his attacker from last season, and the attacks are getting worse lately. Later, Durrell is displeased to find that one of his new dads has been rummaging through his backpack and found a flyer about a musical he will be in at school. I don't think it's right to teach a child not to do something by doing the same thing to him. D and K go to Durrell's play, only after Dave says some really harsh things to Keith, who doesn't want to go because they weren't invited by their kid, and Durrell ends up happy that his dads are proud of him. There is hope that this is the beginning of Durrell and Keith finally winning each other over.

Brenda has had some testing done on her unborn, and some alarming news has been given to her. The doctor recommends an amniocentesis to be sure. Brenda has heard some bad stories about amnios causing miscarriage and fetal injury, and says no. Who can blame her after she has already lost one baby. She and Nate are deeply divided on this issue, and it becomes all the more clear that this marriage is on shaky ground.

The most realistic thing about the characters on this series, and the most frustrating and infuriorating, is that they are selfish. All of them. Every last one of them, to one degree or another. Not a one of them thinks to discuss their true needs, wants, wishes, desires with the important people in their life. Or if they do, they don't know HOW to do it without being accusatory, confrontational, deceitful, and/or passive-aggressive. They do what they want to do, they end up fighting one another, breaking up, making up. They are firmly fixed in their own positions, none willing to compromise. As a result, things are beginning to look dim in all of their lives.

George, no good at being alone, has already found a likely 8th wife, so he's asking for a quicker divorce from Ruth. How does Ruth handle this? By making it her duty to inform this new fiancee that her hubby-to-be is a crazy man who's been married 7 times and has spent time in a mental ward. To me, Ruth just makes herself look like the angry bitter psycho.

Nate turns to Maggie yet again for advice about the baby that might be born with defects. She tries to make Nate understnd that even the briefest lives have meaning, and even an unhealthy child can be a blessing. I'm sure there are some who would agree with Maggie, whose young son died from leukemia. But there are also those who would share Nate's fears, and even Maggie's marriage ended after the death of the child.

Claire meets a nice yuppie named Ted. She has no idea just how "yuppie" he really is, but it seems she's finally decided that perhaps she needs to be with a "nice, normal, clean-cut, maybe even a little bit dull, square sort of guy". She also finally admits that she doesn't really hate Billy, she just isn't equiped to handle his illness.

Brenda seeks some wisdom from Ma Chenowith, who dishes out the usual useless advice and is of no help to her daughter, who is already seeing signs of an affair in the making between Nate and his step-sister Maggie. Brenda also begins to understand that Nate is just not good at marriage, and that this marriage was probably yet another mistake. She's the only one who seems to truly want this baby and have the capacity to give it unconditional love. Brenda feels very alone, but she looks as though just realizing that her marriage is failing is lifting a heavy burden off of her. She looks beautiful, happy and radiant, as any mother-to-be should look, and there is a liberty in her body language as she leaves the maternity shop.

A very complex episode that is sure to get your head spinning with controversy, as it did mine. I'll give it an A or an A+.