Aiden Turner (who plays Brad), much like Heather Hemmens/Marcie, was underused during Season 1A. I didn't get too much into it during my review of 1B but he really gets his chance to shine in 1B. Like I said earlier, this show is best when it embraces the ridiculousness of it's soap opera genre...and boy does Brad embrace the soap. I've already listed his savage moves from the first season but in the first scene of this episode when the girls (Kelly and Esperanza) are trying to talk Brad down after seeing Alex' son (who is clearly black, while Brad is not). Natalie warns the two to not push him but the scene reaches its climax when Brad threatens to run Esperanza over with his car and as you would probably expect, the women promptly dipped out of there like they were multiple tortilla chips. It's moments like this that drive ILYIW to be it's best.
Natalie gets a chance to shine this episode, which is a relief because she's usually annoying the living daylights out of me. She gets a chance to call Alex out on all of her bullshit, saying everything the audience is thinking. On Twitter, I likened them to your three best friends (the good friend, Kelly. the real friend, Natalie. && the dumb friend, Esperanza). Please tell me I'm wrong. Kelly is able to speak to Brad for her friend Alex but Esperanza, on top of her and the dumb ass Eddie drama, is at a loss for words. Natalie may not be saying this to Alex (which I'm not complaining about because who would yell at their friend who just had a baby about what a hoe she is?), but she gives us the sense of realism that we need. The rest of the characters (Alex, Kelly and Esperanza) are absolutely delusional if they thing Alex having the baby was somehow going to make Brad see the light. It's no his kid. He could have definitely taken responsibility for the child and stood by Alex, but first things first he's a human. Every time he looked at that child, who's to say he's not going to see the face of the man that slept with his wife feet away from his house. Also, this is a soap opera and that would have been boring.
Lushion is being grilled at the office but Lushion being Luschion keeps his mouth shut. Ben (trying to be useful) sneaks in and takes pictures of his file. He goes to see Eddie and Eddie's wondering where the hell his money is (I think for a drug deal or something). Ben tell's him Tank, the guy with the money, didn't give him the money because Ben doesn't have it. Eddie takes his wounded ass and Ben to the location and holds a gun up to Tank. Ben swears he didn't get the money. Tank, knowing he would say this, recorded him giving the money to Ben. Eddie turns around like Bonnie Tyler in the Total Eclipse of the Heard video and has the gun up to Ben now. Tank gets the hell out of there, understandabily. Eddie notices Ben took the money with his left had and not only shoots him, but shoots him right in the hand that he took his money with. Like I said, when this show embraces its soap elements it's unstobbable. And it was hilarious watching Ben on the ground holding his hand but yelling out how much it hurts in the same tone of voice he's been speaking the entire episode. I didn't want Eddie to shoot Ben because he was so innocent and low key fine but the moment he said he had a girlfriend I surrendered my hands up and got out of the way when Eddie shot his ass.
All of this baby daddy drama, all of this Criminal Minds shit takes a backseat to Marcie's one little scene she is (unfortunately) restricted to. She starts her scene off on the couch on the phone with one of her friends and you can immediately see the fire in her eyes. You can see the shift in the character than Hemmens excellently portrays as she's on the phone talking about Randal and the "slut" (Alex) next door. Her words, not mine. Even in pain Marcie is a riot. "Are you drinking?" He friend asked. "Yeah." She plainly and coldly says as she takes a sip of her wine. "It's not even noon." "So?" They get into a back and forth just as the door rings and Marcie gets off the phone to answer it. The doorbell is ringing. Innocent enough, right? The doorbell rings more and more as Marcie takes her sweet time to get there, yelling out "I'm comin', damn it!" Upon opening the door, there's a woman standing there who immediately takes her sunglasses off like Will Smith in Men in Black and asks where Randal is. Marcie smiles and asks how she is. Ms. Holmes, as we know her as right now, ignores this and asks where Randal is again. When Marcie tells her she doesn't know, Ms. Holmes tells her she's probably lying. You see Marcie react subtly before she composes herself. Ms. Holmes doesn't notice this as she's too busy shoving her ass in the house telling her that she can't stop her, revealing to the audience Randal is her son.
They have some more back and forth before Ms. Holmes begins making herself at home. She's driven (1,192 miles to be exact) because she hasn't spoken to or been in contact with Randal. Marcie hilariously point out it will be a long drive back so she might as well get started now, clearly a look of irritation on her face, as she's being nothing but nice to the mother of the man who ruined her life but getting nothing back in return. Louise (Ms. Holmes) proceeds to call the house dirty and asks Marcie what she did wrong. This is where Marcie pulls out the claws and finally releases the beast from within as Louise tells her it must of been her that did something wrong. Marcie tells her she needs to go and Louse tells her to put her out. After a few more exchanges, Marcie slowly walks up to her with eyes that would strike fear in the devil and says she can either us those legs to walk out or she will gladly drag her "old ass" out of there. On the surface it seems disrespectful, especially looking from Louise's perspective, who is just trying to see her son. But after 20 episodes of seeing Marcie get hurt time after time again, it's clear to see where this anger is coming from. Especially when she's dealing with an unruly woman who is disrespecting her in her house as well. What Louise seems to forget while standing in "her son"'s house is that Marcie is a hardworking woman herself and it's just as much her house as it is his. To come into her house and accuse her of this being all of her fault, especially when (by the looks of the way Marcie was treating her prior to her accusing her of doing something wrong) Marcie seemed to have nothing but respect for her: calling her Ms. Louise, then Louise, then old lady. Louise leaves after telling her that she will make Randal aware of the way she treated her and that she will stay on the porch. To which Marcie replies:
This brings us to the moment where I begun living for Natalie. Randal shows up to the hospital and refuses to leave until he sees Alex. Natalie tells him to give her a reason to "slice [his] ass up." This seems like a figure of speech, or a way of saying she will kick his ass. Up until this point, while you know Natalie isn't one to mess with, she hasn't shown any signs of being dangerous to be around. Sure, she roughs up Joey and Lushion from time to time but never anything that involved weapons. We'll get to that in a second. Kelly tells him he needs to go and Randal finds various ways to remind her she doesn't have a man. At one point he calls himself Alex' man. We're just going to say it right now: Randal is as delusion as a city mouse that thinks it can go sky dying into a body of water without drowning. We've seen bits and pieces of Randal's delusions. He first off thinks it's fine for him to sleep with Alex but when Marcie goes out and claims to do the same he pins her to a wall and one ups her by telling her that Alex is pregnant with his baby. Alex would repeatedly speak to him on the phone and tell him how much she hated him, to which he would simply respond "I love you" and talk about how much he wanted to spend his life with her and their child. I get into this because his simple "I'm Alex' man" bit is foreshadowing to the rest of the season as we get deeper into the mind of Randal.
Randal tries to move past by pushing Natalie aside. When I tell you my girl Natalie sliced that ass up...Natalie pulled out a switch blade and cut him above his forearm. Randal calls her a ghetto bitch, and that ghetto bitches slices that ass up one more time, just below the first cut. I had never thought of Natalie as savage. I had never really thought of her as a hood woman who would cut you if you wronged her but she came through this episode and it really gave April Jones-Parker a chance to shine and a very entertaining moment from Natalie. The doctor comes by with security and Randal is forced out of the hospital. The three joke about Natalie cutting Randal and it's a heartfelt moment. Not because she sliced him up of course but it's sort of like the calm after the storm. It was a slow character driven moment that relied on the actresses chemistry with each other. It was a fun moment that was topped off with Natalie saying she hid the box cutter in Esperanza's purse (even Natalie knows how stupid Esperanza is. Brilliant plan, girl).
EPISODE GRADE: A-
Extra thoughts: I'm very excited to review this season (particular the episodes preceding and succeeding "The Shed." We're not going to talk about "The Shed." We just won't.
Eddie is the best: "She had the baby" - Esperanza
"I hope it hurt like hell." - Eddie
"I don't care about Lushion, where's my money?"
"You better not be spraying no damn perfume in there. If I can smell it, she can smell it."
"I still smell it." *smacks her on the head* "I still smell it. Get your hoe ass out of here. Grab all your stuff and go. You're lucky you're getting high for free."
"This dumb a...*dials Ben's number on his blackberry* Don't you hear me yelling? Bring your ass in here..."
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