MELROSE PLACE: “Nightingale”
2009 September 17
Stephanie Jacobsen as Lauren Yung in MELROSE PLACE on The CW. Photo: Michael Desmond/The CW
I must admit that I had trouble paying close attention when I was watching Melrose, so many of the little details escaped my notice. However, I felt that this week was much improved, and the intrigue seems to be stacking up. I look forward to more juicy scandal, which is the whole point of this show.
Read on for my take on Melrose Place 1×02, aired 9/15/2009:
- So it turns out that Auggie (short for August, perhaps?) had a sexual relationship with Sydney, who was also his AA sponsor. Although, for a minute there, I thought Sydney was in “Black-mailers Anonymous”–which would have been awesome. It seems that Sydney was Auggie’s sponsor, and he told her about his sordid past. Said sordid past involved inadvertently killing his girlfriend in a bar-room brawl. Another flashback, from the night Sydney was killed, reveals that Sydney had fallen off the wagon. Auggie was angry with her for still being hung up on Michael, and she stabbed him. So Auggie was washing off his own blood in the shower? Sydney was the one who ended up dead though, so there’s still more the story.
- Meanwhile, David continues with his thievery, while everyone else continues to think he’s living off his trust fund. Via a conversation with Ella, we also learned an interesting fact about his childhood. David didn’t grow up as the pampered son of Michael Mancini–instead, he grew up rather more modestly, and was thrust into Michael’s life when his mother got sick. Ella’s reaction was much like mine: “Wow. This almost makes me like you.” With an emphasis on the ALMOST. So is the mom still alive? And do we have any idea as to who she is/ was? His mom can’t (or at least let’s hope) be Sydney or Jane, because of the incest factor. In the first half of season 5 of the original (which is the last season I watched), Michael divorced Kimberly to marry Kelly Rutherford’s character, but then fell back in love with Kimberly, who was dying. I thought that I read somewhere that Kimberly did eventually die. Although death doesn’t seem to stop anyone on Melrose Place. Theories?
- And now for my favorite character: Ella. In my notes for the episode, I kept on referring to her as Amanda–I kid you not. It was a compulsion or something. However, so as not to confuse you, I’ll refer to her as Ella here. Her costuming for this episode was fabulous. I especially loved the magenta dress she wore in the opening of the episode, when she interrupted Jonah and Riley. Ella uses the death of Sydney as an excuse to rope Jonah into doing something for her, i.e. setting up security cameras. Riley is on to her, but her suspicions are lost on Jonah. Jonah actually tells his fiancée: “Ella understands me!” The surveillance video ends up revealing a couple of little tidbits. First, Violet looks very much like Sydney when swimming in the pool, and was possibly re-enacting Sydney’s death. Creepy. Second, Riley and Auggie have a close personal moment. Ella tries to use the latter to her advantage, but no dice. Riley and Jonah find a way to deal with their petty jealousies, at least for the time-being.
- But back to Ella: she had some trouble at work this episode. The new boss-man (who is oh-so-beautiful, and very familiar, but I just can’t place him) tells her to pack up her office. Ella refuses to go down without a fight, and promises to land a client “bigger than Zach Quinto’s eyebrows.” Hehe. Said target is a British actor named Jasper Barnes, who happens to be attending a party that David is invited to. How convenient. Ella finagles an invitation, and wears another fabulous dress. She makes an impression on Jaspar, but when she goes to tell her boss with the good news the next day, he has already signed Jaspar. Boss: “Oh, sweetheart. You really need to recalibrate that gaydar.” However, all is not lost, as Jaspar insisted that Amanda be his publicist. Victory! At the obligatory pool party later, Ella quips: “Signed a huge client … without having to whore myself out, thank you very much.”
- In direct contradiction to Ella, Lauren (Jessie from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, if you’re still not sure about the names) continues to prostitute herself for her medical school tuition. It seems that the Melrose writers have never heard of student loans. Sigh. The guy from last week, sets her up with Rick, who offers her more money. Jessie refuses at first, but then claims that she’s going to get kicked out of medical school so she relents. This storyline was easy to believe when it featured Sydney, but it’s just hard to believe that an intelligent and educated woman like Lauren would resort to this. Just my opinion. Anyway, on her “date” with Rick, Lauren runs into Ella, but so far her secret’s safe. Rick feels a real connection to Lauren: “I’ve hired other girls before, but I’ve never had this type of connection.” He proposes that they see each other for real. Lauren’s response? “I want my money. I want to go home.” She sure got the hang of that quick.
- The hunt for Sydney’s murderer also got another suspect: Violet. We see a flashback featuring Violet telling Sydney that she’s her mom. Sydney says that she never had a baby. Is she lying? Telling the truth? At first I thought maybe the DNA matched Sydney’s because her sister Jane was Violet’s mother. But then I remembered Jane was adopted (which would also mean that Jane could be David’s mother, without Sydney engaging in incest). What’s the story here? Who’s lying? And did Violet snap and kill her supposed mother out of disappointment and anger? Ashlee is a terrible actress, but this is starting to get fun.
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ok you totally called that whole prostitute story line.
and did i miss something in the beginning about auggie killing a man in self defense?? i don’t remember that part
It was all very confusing, but I can’t bring myself to re-watch the episode. On principle, I don’t think I should have to watch Melrose Place twice to understand it. I read a recap on another site, & now realize that the stabbing DIDN’T happen the same night that Sydney died, but was during his drunk years, before meeting Sydney. Here’s a recap of the Auggie flashbacks, via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tasha-gordonsolmon/melrose-place-recap-episo_b_289302.html :
This show should not be so hard to understand, but that kind of makes it fun too.