Everyone Does the Wrong Thing

That was a rough episode. Not in the good way—in the way where the show you love is making everyone do the wrong thing, and you can see the right thing clearly from a distance, and no one on screen can.

Seth is an idiot. He had something real with Summer and spent the episode dismantling it through sheer impatience. The closing scene, where he arrives at the conclusion that she’d be better off without him around for a while—it hit harder than it should have, and he earned every second of it. Adam Brody plays it well. Good acting doesn’t cancel out good stupidity.

Julie Cooper remains exhausting in a way that occasionally bends back into entertaining. She maneuvered herself into control of her husband’s company through the usual combination of charm and nerve, and everyone around her let it happen, because that’s apparently just what Newport does. Her husband is equally terrible and they deserve each other completely. Marissa catches the crossfire, again, because the show has decided she must suffer at regular intervals.

The Ryan-Lindsay thing is still going. Watching Marissa register what they have didn’t feel good. I thought this episode might shift how I feel about Lindsay—it didn’t. I want Ryan back with Marissa and nothing tonight moved me off that. These things take time on this show. I just hope DJ stays gone.