Without A Trace 3/9/06, spoilers within

[Listener]

Okay, so, we watched Without a Trace, the episode with Christina Hendricks (Saffron from Firefly) playing the agoraphobic newspaper columnist.  It was amusing, but also probably the most conflicted episode I've ever seen.  It started out mostly serious -- an agoraphobe is dragged out of her apartment by a guy in an orange jacket, and Our Heroes must find her.

We find out that Rachel (the agoraphobe played by Hendricks) had a lesbian assistant, Bianca, who quit her job.  We learn that the guy in the orange jacket was paid $50 by Rachel to drag her out of the apartment, which she hadn't left in two years.  We learn the cause of her agoraphobia:  when she was 14, she and a friend snuck into a bowling alley after hours, then her friend ran home to get some alcohol and got caught, so the girl was stuck there.  Her ball got stuck in the gutter, so she went down the lane to knock it back and got swept into the back of the lane (where the pins and balls are processed).  Her jacket got caught in the ball conveyor and she was stuck back there for eight hours.

It gets strange, though, in the beginning, when Jack and Elena tease Danny about clipping Rachel's columns.  Then we find out Bianca is the daughter of an organized crimelord, but she is estranged because she came out as a lesbian.  It is teased out of Bianca that she has a crush on Rachel.  Then we see the scene with the orange jacket guy.  The three women on the team visit the don, who provides the clue to where Rachel went.  There's a few somewhat-amusing lines there.

Finally, Danny and Jack go to the bowling alley, where the police already are (one assumes the FBI called them).  Jack and Danny do paper-rock-scissors to see who's going to get Rachel, and Jack loses.  At this point, Jack has no patience left and is being flippant with a clinically-diagnosed agoraphobe who's sitting behind the bowling lanes.  Jack reveals Bianca has a crush on her; Rachel reveals she's never been a lesbian before and doesn't know what to do; Jack says "well, I've never been a lesbian before either... although there was this one dream... oh nevermind..."  In the end, Bianca and her father reconcile, everyone goes bowling, Rachel and Bianca kiss, and Jack and Danny sing "That's Amore".

What the hell?  I mean, yeah, it had a happy ending, but the episode tried too hard to be funny while also trying to be serious in the beginning.  Very conflicted.

Was it just me?

[pumpkineye]

i didnt see this, but now I want to, although it does sound like it would piss me off.

[Miss Molly]

I found it really weird also.  It sort of ticked me off

I was sort of like, wow, the FBI is wasting their time with this?

[Listener]

I found it really weird also.  It sort of ticked me off

I was sort of like, wow, the FBI is wasting their time with this?

It didn't upset me, but it was just... weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeird.  It was actually quite funny in places.