Hot, hot, hot! Preview for What it means to you

[Garfan]

Sony/TriStar's spoiler states- Mysterious Credit card charges lead Burton to a nearby Motel. Could be Nick is meeting Lulu at a "public " place as in Motel and charging it to the business credit card and Burton picks up on this. I have a feeling by Lulu saying, "I can't believe you talked me into this" when caught by Alvin that this is the first time they have sex in a truly public place. I feel they may kiss in the courthouse bathroom, but I feel they will go to a hotel. (less intimate than their own places.)

[spunkymungbeans]

Actually my prediction [one small success and I just get carried away and can't stop myself] is that he will go to the motel and discover Shannon has been living there. Perhaps she ran away after Mary died and somehow got Burton's credit card details and used those for things like the motel and food. Like mother like daughter - no?

This is how Shannon will come back into his life. He will then decide to take her in etc.

Leonie
Resident Psychic

[cecilia]

spunkymungbeans said:

Leonie
Resident Psychic

........love it!

[Garfan]

I kind of thought Burton would attend Mary's funeral and see that Shannon needed someone and that would be how they make the connection, but Resident Psychic you may be on to something. I always thought Shannon viewed Burton as "Big Daddy with lots of money " when she and Mary stayed with him before. Maybe she did get his credit card. I don't like this story line with Shannon at all. It gave me a creepy feeling when she was having nightmares and Burton came and sat on her bed in an earlier episode. Poor Nick was in a boarding school to deal with his own problems at her age.

[Jennifer]

Garfan said:

Sony/TriStar's spoiler states- Could be Nick is meeting LuLu at a "public " place as in Motel and charging it to the business credit card and Burton picks up on this. I have a feeling by LuLu saying, "I can't believe you talked me into this" when caught by Alvin that this is the first time they have sex in a truly public place. I feel they may kiss in the courthouse bathroom, but I feel they will go to a hotel. (less intimate than their own places.)

:)I think Nick and LuLu did it first in the courthouse bathroom right after the argument we saw in the clip. Alvin caught them at LSP, but it's in the episode, Burton and Ernie. The clip we saw recently at cbs.com was a combination of What it means to you and Burton and Ernie.

[spunkymungbeans]

It gave me a creepy feeling when she was having nightmares and Burton came and sat on her bed in an earlier episode.

I've seen this scene a few times and I have to admit I find it very sweet and touching. There is nothing 'creepy' about the scene. Just a father-figure comforting a child.

I'm not naive and know that many children are preyed on in this type of situation, but that wasn't happening here. There wasn't even a suggestion of it. Burton was being protective - I loved it.

Leonie

[Garfan]

Lonnie, I also feel Burton was just conforting Shannon as well but I guess from my teaching school experiences, it was so stressed in college and the school board that you don't put yourself in a compromising looking position with teenage girls who could have wild imaginations. If I had walked in and Shannon had been my child and found Burton on the bed I would have really been bothered. I know she was staying with Burton, but he was not her father and really had not known her that long. He could have comforted her without getting on the bed. I know this is a silly point to bring up, but that was just a quirk of mine. Plus this is off the posted subject. Sorry!

[jevees]

Well this Shannon thing sucks.... the hole stuff of she living with Burton and the problems that she will have with jeremy is gonna make nick to hate her.... so i`m gonna hate her too.
Let`s just face it Shannon background(meaning her mather and her granny) is not the best, so it makes sense that the girls just copy what her realtives adults do.... I not saying that she is evil or something like that she is just going to do what she has been taught...
I`m very excited about Nick`s reaction to the foster parent thing .... he`s so not gonna like it.... ;D
I can`t wait.... and the cbs.com trailer is still not working, people are you on vacation? ... get to work, man!

[Linda Wilson]

Jevees (I apologize for consistently misspelling your name here and onother boards):

I agree with you. Burton's intentions were honorable, but he showed an appalling lack of judgement in joining Shannon on the bed. I hope that doesn't come back to haunt him.

Burton's whole tail-over-tincup attitude toward the Gressler women is puzzling. Yes, in "Testimony" Mary testified (finally!) that the drugs were Mandy's, thereby getting Nick off the hook with the probation violation charges, and since he couldn't be charged with those, he couldn't be charged with Mandy's murder, but it was Mary who made Shannon recant her testimony, which would have gotten Nick off the hook a lot sooner. Burton was sitting there, watching as his only son almost got really sunk. You'd think that would have affected his atttiude toward the family Gressler somewhat. It told me that these women couldn't be trusted or relied on, and anyone who did was a fool.

And Nick certainly never wanted Mandy or her crooked probation officer boyfriend in his life, either. If he'd had his way he would never have gotten involved with them in the first place. He avoided getting written up for some technical violations by agreeing to vet the contract for the strip club that Dale Petrocki (P.O.) and Mandy were supposed to buy together (Lawyers, Guns & Money) and found himself mixed up in a double murder (Lenny, club owner, killed Dale and Mandy killed Lenny and Mandy almost killed Nick). If Burton knew about any of this he would surely have been thinking these were good people to stay away from. Mandy attacked Nick and then because of her cocaine use fell into a coma on Nick's living room floor after a struggle with him because he wanted to do the right thing and have her surrender to the cops. I believe he would have been willing to testify that she saved his life in shooting Lenny because Lenny was about to kill him, although it would have gotten him in some more probation trouble, but I certainly don't think any of this put Burton under any obligation to the Gressler clan.

Burton more than discharged any obligations to Mary and Shannon with the college fund and taking them in after the fire (which Shannon caused). And look how Mary repaid him for that and his giving her a job at the firm (where a hook inthe wall would have performed her duties better)--cozying up to somene she felt was more exciting than Burton and on two occasions making a play for Nick in scenes whch made my skin crawl. She wasn't surprised or indignant when Burton threw her out, which leads me to believe this wasn't the first time she'd landed, then lost, a sugar daddy. I will give her points for being honest enough not to fake affection for Burton.

This all rermains to be seen, of course, but I'm willing to bet that Shannon instigates whatever happens with Jeremy and then squawks when things get out of hand. I'm not really blaming her--she's been brought up to regard men as cash machines and the sugar-and-spice-and-all-things-nice Shannon was never believable, at least not to me, but she's going to get another relatively innocent person in trouble. Two to one that's where Nick hears the big family secret, namely his mother's infidelities. Liz will be so furious with Burton for believing Shannon over Jeremy that she'll let everything out to Nick out of anger.

And speaking of anger, jealousy and hurt, this will just about destroy Nick. No wonder he'll need therapy. He's been trying to win Burton's approval all his life, thinks Burton never loved or wanted him (underscored by Burton's sending him to school, whatever his reasons may have been) and now watches as Shannon supplants him in Burton's affections, at least that's how it looks to him. Burton can try to tell him there's room in his heart for Nick and Shannon both, but Nick won't believe it. And obviously Burton becomes obsessed with this to the point where Nick, whose butt Burton was kicking last year for being inattentive now has the unenviable chore of taking his father to task for the same thing. Between Burton encouraging the cop who shot Colin, Nick's dealer, to lie about it and this debacle with Shannon, Burton will be lucky if he stays out of jail and keeps his law license, let alone his firm.

Shannon's biological father showing up and asking for custody sounds like another can of worms for Burton. Whoever he is, he'll probably want to get his hands on that college fund, which I hope Burton had sense enough to put into a trust that can't be touched unless a college bursar signs an affidavit. If Shannon leaps at the chance to go with real dad, Burton will feel rejected (and good enough for him, too); if she wants to stay with Burton he'll be futher estranged from Nick, and until Shannon is old enough to drive him to the eye doctor he'll need Nick for that, if nothing else.

I just hope Burton wakes up and gets wise to himself and everyone else before it's too late and he loses Nick for good.

[lambertoise]

Linda, What a post!

I agree with your assessment concerning Burton and the Gressler family. Poor Shannon : it will be so difficult for her (impossible?) to have normal relationships with men : she'll always want something from them and probably will end herself with creeps and wife batters, etc.

What puzzles me is this therapy thing. Will Nick go back to cocaine -when he learns about his mother's behavior- and be ordered the therapy? He wouldn't go just for psychological consult!

And like Cecilia wrote, these cliffhangers are really kid's play. Haven't we prove our fidelity through the 2 seasons? It makes me fear the writing will go soapish.

[atotaltotalfan2001]

I always thought Burton's affinity for the Gressler girls, Mary and Shannon, made sense -- to a point. I think he liked talking to Mary, who made him feel better about things during a particularly rough patch in his life.

I figure the guy was just lonely, and she was an attractive, unattached woman.

Now, I don't think he ever understood what a handful Shannon was....she just seemed to respond to him and he enjoyed it (though I always thought she was manipulating him). But let's face it: Burton doesn't know anything about adolescents. Why should he? He shipped his adolescent son off to boarding school....

I don't know if he ever understood who Mary Gressler really was either. She hurt him, so he wanted her to leave. But this was a woman who seemed to have spent a lifetime making bad decisions (including coming on to Nick. Yuk!!!!!) and I don't think Burton ever understood that.

If he'd known and/or understood as much about Mary as the audience did, I wonder if he would have retained the sentimental attachment he seems to have to the family.

[jevees]

Great posts girls and it`ok Linda i also write bad my name sometimes.... so no to worry!!
About the Burton thing ... I really feel this is such unfear for Nick who is gonna feel that his father is letting him down again! And his is so right...Poor Nick!
I know that B is not doing this to hurt Nick but it also seems like he is so selfish that he screw things just when they are getting better... come on Burt, stop hurtting the boy, man!
When i heard that Nick is gonna know that his father wants to be foster parent of Shannon by Laurie, i just got so angry... and then B asks Nick are you OK with this? ... Como on B, don`t be a bastard!
Sorry girls i like burton, a lot, but when he does things like this... murder is in what i think!
I hope that this situation won`t put their relationship as bad as the first couple of episodes in the first season .... and if Aunt Liz tells Nick the truth about his mother because she is mad to Burton she is, sorry to say a beach! There is no excuse to hurt Nick just because she is angry .... that would be so mean...
I repeat that I don`t think Shannon is bad she just need some guide, and well B nearly can have a good relation with his 33 year old BOY and he wants to rise by himself a teenager, is he nuts? It`s not that Nick is an easy guy but let`s just face it, they still don`t know how to treat each other after 33 years... please give me a break...
About the therapy..... I don`t really believe that Nick would be in drugs again, maybe something relation whith his bad temper... he is gonna loose himself on court verbally or is just gonna hit someone....(oh yeah)
What ever happens is gonna be a great final, don`t you think so.... lot of things are going to happen... for good? Well that `s another story! ;D

[cecihz]

;D...great posts....all of them....I not only agree..I´ve always believed that the "gressler-girls/burton-boys" was a relationship very ill-fated for those women...which is the probability of two young women dying in such a short term, after meeting Nick?...I being shannon would like to keep two or three states between me and him!....yes, I´m joking about it...but it´s odd......and burton getting so attached....never got it: I imagine it was an infatuation, Mary being attractive, sarah dumped him....loneliness....but those people were desperate....and desperate people are ALWAYS dangerous.....sorry to say that...I see a lot of angs for all the boys in the family, including jeremy....
and I don´t think aunt liz will tell nick about anne...she is her sister....probably things would lead one to another and he´ll find out....besides, telling him will make him feel guilty about his father, and if she is angry with burton wouldn´t work for her.....

[cecilia]

.....I meant "gressler-girls/fallin-boys"....anyway...
Yes, Linda....hope burton gets to his senses....rising a teenager?....I said it in the first moment: what makes him believe he can raise a teenage girl, with ther background? he´ll send her to boarding school faster than he sent nick.....burton and nick are terrific lawyers, but they make poor choises in their personnal lives....IMO...
he should´ve stick to sarah and then we´d be talking something more realistic....besides, sarah (was that her name....jobeth williams) had a very good attitude towards nick, and she had children of her own....she could´ve helped them a lot....
totaltotal, I can´t even IMAGINE (never picture) Farraw fawcett making a move in nick ....sorry, I never liked her!(not even with charlie....)....she has this voice that makes me sick!

...any new on the cbs.com preview?....

[jevees]

It`s true cecihz, that the truth is gonna make Nick feel bad of how he treat his father all this time .... but B also lie to him like 20 years, he lied to him about his mother problems and i undestand that lie when he was a boy but then he shoud have said the truth.
I tell you this, cause i would like to hear something like this from my father lips that from someone else, for example N listening to a conversation through the door, which i think is probable to happen!
I know that B reason were honorable because he wanted to keep the good memory that Nick has about his mother .... but he lied to him..
And let`s be honest N isn`t angry with his father about that only, sending him away to the bording school and not showing him that he cares about him... well with this both we have a lot still.
An now the hole shannon against jeremy and his father supporting her ... Nick `ll help jeremy, there`s a connection between them, and if jeremy says he didn`t force her... well Nick is gonna believe him...
And, i think i already say this but, Nick is going to be furious with his father if something happens to aunt Liz during the hole thing Shannon/Jeremy.
And how about one of some nick`s child reaction because of jelousy, would his father noticed it??
After all he say to him(in the trailer) that he needs to get his head back to work, that his job is slipping.... Nick`s traduction: Leave that Shannon girl and get back to the officce with me! ;D