Wicked Games Part II
Medium
surprised me tonight. I didn't see that ending coming. That was a shocker for sure. Before we get to the nitty-gritty details, a quick recap. Last week Allison dreamed about the disappearance of Cynthia's daughter, Suzanne, a 9-year old unsolved mystery that Al knew nothing about. Bringing up all sorts of horrible memories for Cynthia, tensions were flaring and emotions ran hot. Al was fired and hired back in a matter of a few days and a story began to unravel about Suzie's disappearance.
It quickly became apparent that the story that was coming to light was not the real story, and new truths had to be revealed. Suzie was kidnapped by a man who pretended to help her with her car, or so it seemed. But behind the man was a far more dangerous sort, a pretty, sweet-faced girl who played the part of victim to lure young girls into her vile and heinous web of seduction.
Joanne, played impeccably by the lovely,
Lily Rabe, turned out to be a real nasty conniving gal who got what she had coming to her. She played sweet and innocent with Cynthia and Allison, but you could see in her eyes something far more ugly. Last week when Allison dreamed of Joanne at the door as Suzie opened it and killed her, we knew she was the mastermind. Another dream confirmed that Joanne killed the man who had "kidnapped" her and Melanie Linder, because she knew she was being found out. Eventually she even killed Peter, the guy who helped kidnap Suzie. At that point it was just a question of how Cynthia and Al were going to prove it. Since Scanlon only got about 22 seconds of face time, I figured, something wasn't going to go as planned.
Although they eventually found Suzie's bones, (Allison dreamed that Cynthia had gotten the chance to see her daughter by the water's edge which led her to the lake), and Cynthia was finally able to put her daughter to rest, there was unrest in her. Cynthia called Al with sadness in her voice in the finally moments of the show. Allison met her on the front steps of a house she did not recognize and listened as Cynthia confessed what she had done. It was a very sad moment. But you knew in your heart that she had done exactly what any one of us might have done in her situation. All she wanted from Allison was for her to hold her hand and wait until the cops came to take her away. It was tragic that it would be the grieving mother going to jail instead of that awful girl. But finally Cynthia got to show that she wasn't all steel and sharp edges, but that she was capable of deep grief and sadness.
To lighten up this ep, Joe and Allison were having an argument that lasted at least one night of couch surfing for Joe. "I need you to believe in me," Joe pleaded. He wore Allison down and she finally acquiesced to letting him have the girl's college money, so long as he promised to pay it back.
Bridgette was dreaming again and this time it was about the white-haired man at the bank who was going to solve all of her father's money woes. Joe, disbelieving asked, "That white haired man wouldn't happen to be Santa, would he?" To which his precocious daughter responded somewhat indignantly, "Dad, come on. I'm 9 trust me." Only it took two trips to the bank and a slippery fall to find the white-haired man Bridge had actually dreamed of. And to cover his assets, (ahem), he offered Joe $15K. Problem solved. Girl's college funds left alone to educate them at some later date.
I've got one small concern. Suzie was killed when she was 19 in 1999. So how could she have had a skiing accident in 1988? She would have been 8 years old. I mean, I guess 8 year olds ski. Did I miss something?
Did you notice that Ariel didn't even make a tiny appearance in this episode? I can't remember a time when she wasn't at least sitting at the kitchen table, or brooding in her room with her ipod on. Just Bridgette and little Marie eating cereal. Nor did we get a glimpse of Devalos. Perhaps now that Cynthia will be slinging hash as the local women's penitentiary, there will be more room for our two other favorite men of the show.
More thrills to come next week when another Arquette sibling graces the celluloid. Patricia's sister,
Roseanna makes a guest appearance.
While we say goodbye to Anjelica Huston, and think up ways that the entire Arquette clan could take over
Medium, watch some clips in our
Online Video Guide.
