Mixed feelings about the finale

[Jennifer]

First, kudos to Simon on a job well done! Though we saw a powerful performance from Simon, I was trully exhausted at the end due to several storylines injected into a one hour episode. This episode is Lawyers, Gun and Money Part 2 which is my least fave episode. They are all about Nick and his pains: Burton, Lulu, Hunter Reed, James, etc. If TG is all about the struggle of a young lawyer, I see  no reason why he can't be happy at one aspect of his life, namely his love life. This is not to say that this couple should always he happy, but at least let them come up with an understanding and let us see some candlelight dinner once in a while. I, for one was disappointed with the marriage of Lulu. The only thing promising about it is that we all know that Brian is a cheater and this could lead to the break up of his marriage sooner or later. I am not ready to give up on Lulu yet. I can see that this is a plot device to create more romantic tension between Nick and Lulu next season, afterall they have started this Nick and Lulu thing for a while now to just dismiss it in a flash. I know I maybe in the minority here, but I give this episode a C.

[M.A.Y.]

Although I really enjoyed the episode, I also hated it. Now that I've had some time to sleep on it I just think that it was too cruel to Nick.  Nick usually has a rough time, but in TB he really was nearly destroyed.  When the promo said his entire world begins to crumble they weren't kidding.  

The scene with Nick bringing Hunter home after the baseball game shows just how much this show could use a little happiness.  I don't mean to advocate for sappiness here, but geez, is it too much to ask that Nick catch a good break once in a while.

The worst part of TB was the way LuLu treated Nick.  Nick is passionate about her (something she herself has admitted), he's kind to her even when he could have been a real ass towards her.  For her to just drop a bomb like that on Nick and then turn and walk away when she knows how he feels, especially since in the beginning of the episode she let him touch her in a romantic way, and then before all this in TCW she turned to him for help after telling him to basically get lost, was just too heartless.

I am (was?) a big fan of LuLu & Nick getting together...but I'm not so sure now.  She has been too reckless where Nick is concerned.  My only hope is that she was lying about having married Brian.  This is what I want to see happen...LuLu in the couple of days she was away broke it off with Brian, and then deciding that she is too "confused" (she keeps saying that!) to pursue anything with Nick right away, concocts this elopement story to keep Nick at a distance until she figures out her feelings.
Who wants to see Nick pursue a married woman who is so confused all the time?  He's already been involved with a married woman.  And if she really did marry Brian, then I hope they can give Nick someone he can pursue and fall hard for who will reciprocate.  There's plenty of excellent dramatic tension in that.  I don't want to see a sappy love story...but I'm beginning to think that LuLu is more trouble than she's worth!

[juliana106]

I, for one, was not overly thrilled with the finale. While I am assured that Lulu will be back next season (that was a worry), I didn't really care for what happened with Nick. However, when I was talking to a friend after she show --- she called Lulu's bluff. She (in agreement with M.A.Y.) thinks that she told Nick that she and Brian had cancelled the wedding to see how he'd react, and when there wasn't much there, she decided to further it by saying they had married in Atlantic City. (Question: if you are screaming at someone one day and hanging up --- would you run out and marry them the next?) If anyone else noticed, the scene was filled with hesitation on Lulu's part. Perhaps that's an indication of her lie. With Lulu, who knows.

As fans of the show, we all know that its not beyond Nick to sleep with a married woman. Maybe that will happen, maybe it won't. What I would like to see is Lulu finding out about Brian's prostitution and what she thinks when she finds out about Nick's role in it.

I can only hope that if Lulu did marry the Cad, the situation will somehow turn around. Perhaps it will be the prostitution ordeal that brings the sham of a relationship down. Maybe when Nick is imprisioned, Lulu will try and come to his aid. Nick will call her on it --- and she'd either be forced to admit she lied about  Brian, or confess to making the mistake of her life by marrying the Cad.

[LaraB]

Interesting posts.  It would make my day, M.A.Y., if you were right about Lulu lying about her marriage.  I too can't see how she can be yelling at him one day and then marry him 3 days later, although she was yelling about his mother and not him (is that right?).  At the same time, I also can't see her lying about something like that, even if she is a bit Looney.  After watching soaps for long, it's interesting how they always talk about redeeming an evil character for his/her bad deeds.  While Lulu is certainly nowhere near some of those characters, she definitely needs to show Nick that she cares about him.  I know it's in her--it's just hidden in her abyss somewhere.  Who knows, maybe next season Lulu will get the opportunity to defend Nick in some case but right now, she has no redeeming qualities except she was one half of a GREAT kissing scene!  

[Milz]

It was depressing imo (the acting was good). "All roads lead to Nick" should be the episode's title.

If you think about it, Nick is to blame for everything that happened. If he didn't help Dr. Reed to get custody of Hunter, it would have spared Hunter the trauma of finding his father in an overdose (kind of like Nick being alone with Anne the morning she died). If it wasn't for Nick's reluctance to follow James' lead, James might still have custody of Levi. If Nick didn't have a drug problem, he wouldn't have gotten arrested and Burton would never have had to make a deal with Caldwell. If Nick hadn't been applying pressure on Lulu, then she might have come to realize Brian is a mistake, rather than push her into the marriage with Brian. Yikes!

[Jennifer]

Milz, you made a very good point. It's just that we all love Nick and want to sympathize with him. ITA that he had many contributions to the problems he's been having. With Lulu, I am guessing that she will somehow redeem herself next season and be at Nick's side to support him. This is what I really want to happen.

[Hales]

Okay things I hated with this episode (trying not to think that its Nick's fault for everything):

Lulu being heartless to Nick and telling him that she married Brian...

Also Caldwell & Associates (ugh, hate that name)


Just for the record Nick did admit that he screwed up to his father during the phone call/voice mail thing...

[EllenArden]

Hi!  This is my first post here, so I'll do my best!

First, I just want to say how much I love this show, and how I love all the twists, turns, and surprises (good and bad), because it keeps me guessing.  I really enjoyed "The Beginning" because it kept on surprising me.  First, Lulu.  (A little note: I watched the episode with my husband, and it is courtesy to him that I was the beneficiary of some added sound effects commentary, which I will mention).  I liked Lulu before this episode, and... I still like Lulu.  I loved the scene where she's been yelling at Brian, and the "hair touch" from Nick.  I noticed that she immediately moved behind her desk, to put a little safety space between them.  Now, the scene when she tells Nick about her elopement was a heartbreaker.  No sooner does poor Nick's hopes rise, are they then shattered (and it was at this point when, from behind me, my hubby jumped in with some Apocalypse Now-ish sound effects - "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning!" - Boom, Boom, Boom!)  I do think that Lulu is simply struggling to stay on a secure path (or so she hopes!) and thus her decision to apparently go through with the marriage.  But - I do believe that Lulu will be forced to face the consequences of this action (Everybody eventually seems to on the show).  She clearly believes that Brian is Mr. Dependable, solid, trustworthy, and her belief system (and trust in people) will be on the ropes when (I hope!) she eventually finds out about Brian's behaviour.

A couple of things I thought were cute: the moment when the elevator opens at LSoP full of lawyers coming for the night-time meeting with Nick (looked like the C.I.A. was decending!) and the moment when Modest! Nick lowered the bathroom shade when Mandy was undressing for her shower.

And the ending was a heartbreaker...

I know there's more I'd like to comment on, but I guess that it for now -  

[Jennifer]

Ellen, YOU GO GIRL! Re: hubby.
Great post and and analogy. I believe that Lulu will suffer with the consequences of this marriage and eventually realize that it is Nick she loves and not Brian. Of course theywill make it too dramatic and hopeless at first.

[M.A.Y.]

I don't think that the debacle between Nick & LuLu was Nick's fault at all.  LuLu is the one who started the whole thing by kissing him (okay it was only on the forehead, but it was still a kiss) and then telling him that her boyfriend doesn't look at her the way Nick does.  What's a guy to do when he gets such an obvious signal from a woman albeit even one as confused as LuLu?  Nick pursued her like any guy would.  Then she continued to return Nick's "looks".  And there's the big kiss in Shelter.  The she runs to him for help with her Grandmother when she could have asked any number of other lawyers. Her obvious confusion only served to make Nick think he still had a chance. At the very least she should have realized that she need not be marrying ANYONE!  I like LuLu for Nick, but how much is a guy supposed to put up with?

As far as Nick being to blame re: Hunter...no way!  Nick did his job.  All of the medical experts said the good doctor was fit to live among the general population, so how was Nick to know that the doc was depressed & suicidal.  Hunter wanted to be with his father and Nick helped him.  It was the court's decision in the end and a lawyer can only present his/her arguments for consideration.  My take on the scene between Nick &  Hunter after custody was granted to the Grandparents was that Hunter was not upset about having gone back to his dad, but rather that he was upset that Nick and everyone else would think that he (Hunter) would regret being with his dad.

my rant is now over....

[Ginne]

You've got some really good points, MAY. I especially like your take on the situation with Hunter after the custody hearing. I couldn't figure out what was going on in Hunter's head at all.

And it's good to hear a guy's opinion of the Nick/Lulu situation!

Thanks!

[[e-mail]]

Greetings, all. I just started getting interested in this show last week (typical of me--If I don't miss the train altogether, I just barely make it) so I'm grateful to all of you for a good survey course in TG.
The finale was a real knockout, but also a downer. I'm with everyone who thinks that Nick deserves some kind of a break. Right now the only other character more put-upon in network TV is Mark Greene on ER. Nick won't end up dead of a brain tumor, though. That would eliminate the whole premise!! I don't think he'll end up permanently in jail over the Mandy thing, either. For this show to work, Nick has to be out and moving around.
Someone (sorry, I forgot who) quoted Dabney Coleman saying that the show is about a father who loves his son more than anything. I think the finale bore this out.
Much as he wants to get his bottom on a federal bench, I don't think Burton is going to cut Nick loose for it. The whole bit about letting Caldwell(?) take over F&A was to get Nick off the hook.
 Someday Nick is going to find out the truth about his mother. It will make a difference in his and Burton's relationship. The more I think about it though, it may not be from Burton. Nick may have inherited a predeliction for substance abuse from his mother as well as from his whole childhood, but Burton seems to me to suffer from an enormous martyr complex (suffering in silence, letting Nick think the worst of him) and he's passed it on to Nick. Wish he'd lose the cancer stix, though. That might be another source of Nick's thing for drugs--nicotine is highly addictive.
A lot of Nick's problems are his own, however. He sometimes lacks the judgement to see that bad things happen to him because if he behaves in a certain way, bad things will. Hope he gets some sense somehow because he's playing into the hands of his father's enemies as well as his own. Burton must have stepped on more than a few toes in his career and probably lots of people would like to get him though Nick.
 As for LuLu--good riddance. Nick doesn't need someone who's more confused and uncertain than he is. Too bad we can't beome more directly involved with the show because several of the (female) contributors to this board would be just the thing for him. (Not me, sadly-I'm too old!). A non sequitur: Simon Baker deserves an Emmy for the last scene alone.
 Anyway, it's gonna be a long four months. Here's to reruns
 

[spunkymungbeans]

I agree with MAY about Hunter.

Hunter loves his Dad.  His Dad is depressed and suicidal about what he did to his wife (hey, wouldn't you if you killed someone you loved) - but he is still Hunter's Dad and he doesn't want to lose him.

His grandparents, on the other hand, although caring and loving, and also totally bitter about their daughter's death.  And from Hunter's testimony at the custody hearing in Home, don't try to hide this from Hunter.  Hunter doesn't want to be around people who are always angry and crying.

I think part of his anger was at Nick for not helping him again.  

But remember Nick is now his trustee and so the grandparents will need to go through him for financial support for Hunter and will need to confer with him.  Nick is going to be a part of Hunter's life for a long time to come.

If for some reason Hunter's grandparents couldn't look after Hunter anymore then Nick, as trustee, would also be in a strong position to take over as his guardian.  I would actually like to see this storyline.

Assuming he manages to get his other difficulties out of the way (he must - 22 episodes of Nick being sodomised in jail wouldn't be great viewing) it looks like Nick is going to be very busy building a law firm of his own.  

I posted elsewhere on the list that Burton put Nick's wellbeing behind the time he spent building up a law firm.  Would Nick do a better job?  Or would he bail out and send Hunter to an expensive prep school?  Perhaps Nick can excise the demons of his relationship with his father by acting as a father to Hunter?

[spunkymungbeans]

I'm just cross-posting this to SimonBakerOnline - hope you don't mind.

[EllenArden]

Jennifer - Thanks!   I admit, I probably have too much spare time on my hands, but I enjoy the whole psychological, "what's really going on" aspect.  And, happily, a sense of humor when it comes to Hubby's running commentaries!  

M.A.Y. - I agree with you.  It isn't that it's Nick's fault (per sae) that he fell for someone who is so confused, but I don't place all the blame on Lulu, either.  The way I see it, is it's a two-way street.  These are both two conflicted people, and feelings can be messy and complicated.  Choices get made that seem good at the time, but which as time goes on, seem "less good  ".  And Nick is no angel with women, his relationships (such as we've seen) have been pretty much "his way or the highway", done on his timetable, at his convenience.  I can see Lulu being unwilling to throw away her relationship with Brian because, as magnetic and attractive as Nick is, for all she knows it could be a case of "Once Nick gets what he wants, he won't want it."  One way or another, repercussions abound in the future, I think!