Bleak Condominium (Nip/Tuck Spoilers)

Wow, Nip/Tuck last night was a sucker-punch. Here's a quick summary:

A/B: Christian owes the IRS $400,000, plus more on credit card bills. He asks Sean to take out an equity loan on the business, but Sean refuses. He tells Christian he'll spot him the money for now--they're family, after all. Christian is touched.

A: But then Sean's long lost meth-head brother comes back from beyond the grave. He needs money and plastic surgery, but he's ready to open up a whitling shop and go clean. Sean gives Christian's loan to his brother, instead. Christian seethes.

B: A father and his (adopted, teenage) son come to the practice. They want Christian to make the son look more like his father.

A: Christian refuses to let the brother (Brendan) stay at the apartment he shares with Sean. He keeps pushing Brendan--screaming at him, etc, until both Brendan and Sean are angry at Christian. Sean says he'll move out of Christian's place and get a new apartment with his brother.

B: In recovery, the son asks the father to go surfing, but the father doesn't have time. Christian offers to take him out. Turns out the father's an international banker. Could he help Christian out in return?

A: Things of Christian's keep going missing: his gold watch, etc. He accuses Brendan, and it seems as though Brendan's the only one with opportunity. Is Christian winning? No--when he comes home next, there's a noseless cokehead hanging out...he's Brendan's best friend, who Sean has agreed to fix, for free. Christian blows up. Brendan asks him what's in it for Sean, being Christian's friend? There's not really an answer.

B: Christian takes the kid out surfing, but when they come back the kid starts weeping. Turns out, his father uses him as a prop in sex parties. Christian, who apparently had the same kind of childhood (!) is aghast.

A: Sean fixes the cokehead, but within the day, he catches the guy snorting...with Brendan (sober?) right next to him. Goodbye and good riddance, Sean says to his brother.
B: He roughs the dad up, and demands $400,000 in blackmail.

A: That night, Sean meets his brother outside his house, and they forgive each other. But when they go inside, Christian's waiting. Brendan has stolen his diamond cufflinks! Christian calls the police, and Sean takes his side. He kicks Brendan out.

B: But Christian gives the kid the $400,000. Go make your own family, he tells him. Family should be the people who take care of you, not abuse you.

A/B: Seems all ends well for Christian, right? Silently, he has a cigar and cognac on the deck while Sean chatters happily behind him. But in montage, we then see:
Christian selling his own diamond cufflinks and watch.
Christian take out a loan on the business, in Sean’s name.

Christian shares his cigar with Sean, and pats him on the back. Family, right?

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So, technically I think the A story was Brandon v. Christian, the B story was Christian and the sex kid, and the C story was the $400,000. Interestingly, the ads for this episode were all about the money--they made it look very light and "topical."

But it was so complex! The whole time, we're waiting for Christian to save Sean--he even says at one point that being Sean's protector is his job! And when he gives the kid the money, it's a great moment because we see Christian as an older version of that kid--a version that has made it.

It's only at the end of the episode that we see he's actually a different version of the *father*.

And this is mid-season of the show's LAST SEASON. THIS is what they want to go out on. Wow, wow, wow. I'll probably have more on this later, but right now I'm blown away by this episode's elegance and emotional punch.