Two Against One

Suburgatory, S01E21

Tessa prepared to escape from the new living situation by applying to an internship in Manhattan.  She wasn't sure how to let George know about it, but Eden surprised her by supporting her decision.  George, on the other hand, freaked out when he found out that Eden had helped Tessa apply and let her go to the city on her own.  After George spoke with Dallas, he was a little less angry, but Eden remained in unknown territory when it came to offering opinions about raising Tessa.  Eden tried to make a compromise between Tessa and George by suggesting he let Tessa commute from her summer job, but Tessa was strongly against it.  Lisa and Malik disagreed about which camp they would attend in the summer, and Malik eventually let Lisa have her way.  Shelia continued to stir up trouble with Noah, regarding Eden carrying her child.

I applaud Tessa for handling a new woman (and a pregnant one at that) in her house as well as she did.  She could have been extremely difficult and mean in that situation, especially because George didn't ask for her input at all before he made the decision to let Eden stay.  I would have been much more aggressively horrible to someone who forbid us to use Wifi and cooked us dinners of wheat meat that looked liked dirt brownies with pieces of corn.  I might have run away if I were in her place.  You don't mess with people's food and you don't mess with their ease to connect to the internet.

Even so, I like Eden in their house because it's almost made them seem like a traditional family for once.  I don't know how motherly Eden is, but she at least brings in a different perspective than what George offers.  And she was in favor of Tessa taking the internship and possibly will be the reason she may get it after all.  At first, it seemed like Eden and George were teaming up against her, but then the tables turned and it looked like George was the odd man out (and he couldn't take it).  I was glad to see that--George has been really making things unfair for Tessa lately.  I hope that Eden continues to sometimes side with Tessa and make George a little less stubborn and overly protective.

But I suspect that after the scene with Dallas that George will one day wake up and realize that Dallas is a more suitable match for him.  After all, they compliment each other, for some reason, and like George said, they often are able to solve their problems when they speak with each other.  Dallas may not be the best parent around, but she's definitely a parent who is open to seeing things from different sides (unlike George who usually has to have someone point things out for him).  George is definitely stricter than Dallas, and I think together they would be a pretty good parenting team (at least better than they are apart).  George even said that Dallas was his Scully to his Mulder.  Wow.  Even without Dallas getting the reference (she was later seen watching X-Files at home), that was an important statement.  So, I doubt that Eden will be George's ultimate match,while he still has such a significant bond with Dallas.

As far as Lisa and Malik were concerned, their argument was really stupid.  I don't know why the two of them couldn't do something else fun for the summer (for kids with money, they sure have boring ideas).  Why not take a trip together (although I could see Shelia murdering Malik before that happened) or just go to a normal camp?  But I guess if they did, it wouldn't be typical of the two of them.  They're weird, and they will always be so.

Noah seems to have gotten a bit better about being crazy about his baby, despite being egged on by Shelia.  I'm glad that he is going to back off and let Eden birth his baby in peace, but I am dying to know what Shelia's problem is with surrogate mothers.  It has to do with something that has happened to her personally.  Since Lisa hasn't gotten back her results from the DNA test, we still don't know if it's related to Lisa being adopted.  I doubt that it is.  Perhaps Lisa was birthed from a surrogate, though?  I could see that being a bad experience if some poor woman had to carry Shelia's baby while she complained and dictated every aspect of her life until the baby was born.  If it's not that, I don't know what Shelia's problem is.  I hope next time we get to see that mystery solved.

This wasn't one of my favorite episodes, but it wasn't bad.  At least there was less of Noah to see, and there seems to be some positive things about Eden living with George and Tessa.  I hope that Tessa gets the internship because I think it'll be a great (and entertaining) experience for her (and the viewers).  For her to do it, though, she'll need George to ease up on her being in the city by herself.  If Eden is able to do anything through her relationship with George, it needs to be making George a less rigid parent.  She may not be who I think George will ended up with in the long run, but it doesn't mean she can't be an important stepping stone.  Who knows--Eden may very well be the one who is key in bringing Dallas and George together.

Eden Rocks The Altman Boat

Suburgatory, S01E20

George continued to have problems while dating Eden, the biggest being that Noah was being overprotective of her and his baby inside of her.  Shelia started to fill Jill's head with the possibility that Eden would try to steal Noah away from her, adding to the negative atmosphere around Eden.  Tessa was enjoying her job at Dallas' store and got a promotion.  However, George, noticing how much time and money she was putting into her job, asked Dallas to cut back Tessa's hours.  Dallas agreed, even though George just wanted Tessa to have more time to spend getting to know Eden.  In a side story, Lisa began to think that she was adopted and looked for evidence.

George really must have no other friends he can make because if he did have another option besides Noah, I would say he was an idiot to continue interacting with Noah at all.  He has gone above and beyond paranoid and intrusive with his questions about George's intimacy with Eden and making George sign a contract about what he could and couldn't do with Eden while pregnant.  I was really hoping that Noah's insanity would make George snap, and he might literally slap some sense into him.  However, George kept respecting his friend's crazy demands, while Eden could barely hug George without him awkwardly pulling away.

I'm not sure what nosy Shelia is up to, but I can't believe Jill was so stupid to listen to her.  Everyone in town knows that woman does nothing but give out advice that no one asked for or needed.  And she's a chronic gossip.  She'll say anything, as long as it looks true enough in her eyes, regardless of what the facts might be.  I don't know if Lisa's conclusion that her mother's strange actions are linked to her being adopted, but that would be an interesting turn of events.  It would be sad, though, that her family treats her like an afterthought and she was an adopted child.  It'd be like why did you adopt her if you were only going to make her feel second-best all the time?

As for Tessa, it was nice to see her so good at her job and making some serious cash.  I got annoyed that George had been busy with Eden and hadn't even seen Tessa for a while, but only wanted to start spending time with her again so that she could get to know Eden.  How selfish!  Even if he thought Tessa was in danger of spending too much money or becoming Dallas or something, as long as Tessa was happy and doing well at school, why bother her??  Sure he and Eden has something special, but it didn't give him the right to be butting into her life like that.  As sweet as I thought it was that George provided Eden refuge from crazy Noah and Jill, I leaned toward taking Tessa's side who had to suddenly live with her father's new girlfriend and had to work less at a job she was doing well at.  No matter how well Tessa and Eden may get along, I think that George owes Tessa a huge apologetic gesture.

The last thing I thought was good about this episode was that Dallas started to show signs of jealousy that Eden and George were clicking so well.  So her feelings for George are still there, after all.  It's nice to see the shoe on the other foot because I know that George wasn't too pleased with all the boy toys Dallas had after her divorce, too.  But since he has met Eden, he hasn't bothered with Dallas since (until needing her to cut back Tessa's hours).  I'd love to see Dallas and Eden interact soon.  It'd be funny to see her try to hide her dislike of Eden.

Good episode, although I would have loved some more Dalia in it.  I'm interested to see what Lisa finds out from the DNA test she seemed to be taking at the end.  I wonder how Ryan's feelings would change for her if she was adopted?  It'll be even more interesting to see how Tessa handles another woman under her roof.  I'm pretty sure that even as sweet as Eden appears to be, there's little chance that Tessa will welcome her into their home with open arms.  Sounds like we can expect some entertaining conflict in the next episode!

Tessa And Dalia Versus The Dog-Napper

Suburgatory, S01E19

Dallas entrusted Tessa with the task of finding her dog, Yakult, who had been brushed out of house and home by Dalia.  Tessa joined forces with Dalia to find the little dog, who had been taken in by Mr. Wolfe.  Yakult had brought together Mr. Wolfe and his boyfriend Alan, who was reluctant to admit they were in a relationship.  Although Tessa did most of the work to figure out where Yakult was, she easily let Dalia take all the credit for bringing Yakult home safely.  George met a woman whom he had an incredible connection with, but he had no idea that she was carrying Noah's baby.  He eventually decided to overlook the oddity of dating his friend's surrogate mother and started to get to know her better.

We got to see Tessa working at Dallas' shop for the first time.  Her pink uniform wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  I liked the little confrontation between her and Dalia in the store.  Dalia tried to fire her, but Dallas took Tessa's side that there was no reason she should be.  I was happy that Dalia didn't get away with dissing Tessa while she was doing honest work, but I also felt bad for Dalia because she seemed a bit neglected.  I thought she might take it out on Tessa, but it's becoming clear that Yakult is a bigger rival to Dalia than Tessa will ever be.  It's a little bit of an insult that she sees a dog more of a threat than Tessa is.  Haha.

My favorite part of the Dalia and Tessa story was when they were chasing Mr. Wolfe to his condo (Dalia referred to the place as a "welfare hotel"--wow).  It was like they were some kind of opposites-attract detective duo.  I loved it.  I didn't think that Dalia would be able to keep up so well, but she was right behind Tessa and even had the time to reapply her lip gloss as she did.  I hope there will be another time they team up like that because it was great.  Later, Tessa downplayed her role in finding Yakult so that Dalia could redeem herself in Dallas' eyes.   It was so sweet of her, but I had worried that it would turn into a moment of "no good deed goes unpunished."  But Dalia didn't do anything to make Tessa regret her actions.  That was nice and surprising.  I bet Dalia just forgot that Tessa existed again or was just so generally happy that she didn't have the time to be a biatch.  Maybe there is hope for these two to become frenemies in the future.

If someone had told me that Alicia Sliverstone would be on this show, I would have been way skeptical of whether she'd make a good addition.  But the chemistry between her and George is completely believable and sweet.  It was a bit disappointing and weird to find out that she was Noah's surrogate, but I was glad that George didn't immediately want to stop seeing her.  Eden just seems like a ray of sunshine who could brighten up George's slightly cynical, city attitude.  I was gunning for him to get with Dallas, but Eden is a wonderful alternative.  I wonder what other kind of obstacles they might have that could upstage her just being pregnant in general.  I'm sure that will create some comical situations while they date.

Suburgatory just doesn't disappoint.  Can't wait to see what happens with just about everyone next time!