December 12, 2006: Gala Gallardo (Season 4 Finale)
I don't know about you, but unlike last year's Carver-involved finale, I thoroughly enjoyed tonight's season finale and its ending with Christian surprisingly joining Sean in L.A. And I, of course, will tell you just
why I enjoyed it:
Bye-bye, Escobar, it's been nice knowing ya: I was overjoyed that Escobar was finally killed, and not by Liz. For a brief moment, I really thought Liz was going to pull the trigger. It would've been a good way to get revenge on the person responsible for her lack of a kidney. But having Escobar's wife Gala (
Idalis DeLeon) convince Liz to put the gun down and then taking the gun and shooting Escobar to death made more sense. Gala married Escobar to protect her children, not because she was madly in love with him. More on the fabulous Idalis later.
No evidence: The way Christian, Sean and Liz disposed of Escobar's body was quite appropriate. Feeding him to an alligator by wrapping him up and tying a bunch of meat to his entire body - just like Christian and Sean did with Silvio Perez's dead body - was perfect. Liz: "I'm gonna need a raise, Christian. Big raise."
No more Michelle: Well, at least not in Christian's love life, now that he left her behind. I like
Sanaa Lathan as an actress, and she's lovely to look at, but the Michelle character was way too unappealing and became annoying. You knew that as soon as she attempted to perform Gala's surgery after Christian and Sean refused, Michelle's jig was up. And don't even get me started on the organ-stealing. Carving of any kind, besides plastic surgery-related carving and maybe carving pumpkins at Halloween, needs to be outlawed on this show. Thanks.
Matt finally picked up the clue phone: I loved that Matt admitted to Sean that he knew Kimber married him to get back at Christian. This proved that the Scientologists hadn't
completely brainwashed Matt. Same goes for Kimber, who admitted to Sean that she was "trying" to love Matt. Yes, Matt's still with Kimber, but now that he's got all that money from Sean, hopefully he'll leave her next season. Sean's suggestion to Matt to possibly use the money to go back to school clicks with last month's episode-of-the-future in which Matt's a plastic surgeon.
Ryan Murphy excels at getting the best out of his actors: I notice when
Ryan Murphy is listed as an episode's director, I'm going to get Emmy-caliber acting from the actors. How absolutely awesome was
Julian McMahon during the scene wherein Christian realized the truth behind Michelle's connection to James? Never been better.
Roma Maffia was magnificent when Liz held that gun in front of Escobar's face. And the poignant scene between Matt and Sean gave
John Hensley a chance to show off his true acting chops. An excellent script helps as well, so kudos to Ryan again, along with co-writer
Hank Chilton.
There is life after MTV: I know she's gone on to be a successful entertainment reporter on all sorts of shows like
Access Hollywood and
Extra, and her acting credits include
Six Feet Under and
Running Scared. But I will always remember Idalis DeLeon from her gig as an MTV VJ and, before that, as one of the members of the all-girl group Seduction. Does "Two to Make It Right" ring a bell? I thought she kicked Colombian butt tonight as the in-dire-need-of-reconstructive-surgery Gala. Her pre-surgery breasts looked an awful lot like
Melissa Gilbert's mutilated boob from earlier this season. Ouch. But Gala's tainted tatas weren't doggy-related. Great exit line from Gala to Christian, Sean and Liz as she left Escobar's dead body behind: "Thank you for my breasts!"
Hooray for Hollywood: Moving McNamara/Troy from Miami to Hollywood, the plastic surgery mecca, will expand the show's horizons for next season, Season 5. You could tell Sean wasn't digging working at that clinic in Encino without his other half Christian.
Danny Strong (from
Buffy and now
Gilmore Girls) was a riot as Sean's intern.
Nip/Tuck goes all "music video" on us: Remember when MTV and VH1 used to show music videos? Those were the days. So it was a treat to have tonight's season-ender feature all of the show's stars lip-synching to the same song music-video-style a la
Magnolia. I would've preferred a song that most of us recognized, but since the lyrics of "Brighter Discontent" by The Submarines were fitting, I'll let it slide. Click
here and scroll down to the bottom for those lyrics.
So what did
you think of tonight's season finale? Are you looking forward to the L.A.-bound adventures next season as much as I am or have you
Nipped your last
Tuck?
