Eli Stone – Pregnant dudes, addicted daughters, some Beatles and Seal

(Season 2, Episode 7 – “Help!”)

If you needed to chose one word that could describe this protracted season of Eli Stone it would be ‘change’. Since the first minute of the first hour of the second season, the lives of all of the show’s major players have changed in so many ways. Whether it be a move to a law firm, a promotion, or a relationship change, everyone’s lives have been affected.

This week the Change Fairy struck Patti on the head and continued to pound on Matt Dowd as he continued his transformation from suave, arrogant attorney to a slobbering love puppy. It also continued to tap on Jordan as his evolution continued. Come, let us journey to the world of Eli Stone to see what happened in the lives of these fine folks.

Patti and Angela’s deep dark secrets: Who knew? Since the show began we always thought of Patti as this fairly clean-cut personality. A little strong headed at times, but an all-around honest person. An alcoholic? Well, I guess it’s those you think the least likely to be alcoholics turn out to be the ones who are.

The worst part of it all was that she wasn’t even in the ‘recovering’ stage of alcoholism. It was just there, simmering for a time to resurface. That time was this week — a particularly bad one for Patti. Not only was her daughter arrested but she turned out to be a drug addict. Well, that one we knew about. Angela’s angry denials and emphasis on her antibiotic use to Keith last week signaled something was definitely wrong with her.

Considering their circumstances, things turned out as okay as they could with both Angela and Patti. Angela really got off scot-free thanks to some finagling by Keith (who, by the way, may need to be investigated by the Bar for allegedly withholding evidence) while Patti headed on the road to recovery from alcoholism. I’m just not sure who had the harder road to hoe.

More of Keith: Though he was introduced to us last season, we have seen very little of Keith throughout the series. The last three episodes have probably given us the deepest look into his life. If anything, he is a pretty no-nonsense attorney who looks at the facts rather than believe that someone, namely Eli, has visions about their client’s innocence. Hey, doesn’t he remember who saved him during the last earthquake? It’s too bad that we won’t get to know more about Keith before the series ends.

Taylor’s a pregnant dude: Who’s the guy who replaced Matt? So self-assured and smug during the first half of last season, Dowd has become almost needy in the way he’s looking for Taylor’s response. Buying flowers and a chocolate bear for Taylor after their argument? Holy heck, he’s been replaced by an alien!

Okay, he has every right to feel the way that he does. I mean, Taylor is having his baby and he wants to be part of the whole experience, both as father and as romantic partner. Taylor, for her part, is holding her feelings back more than Scrooge holds back his money to Bob Cratchit. Partly because she doesn’t want to feel the same pain she did with Eli and partly because she really doesn’t know how she feels about Matt. There was some sort of resolution at the end of the episode, but it wasn’t really closure.

Maggie’s new client: Something is wrong here. Ashley Cardiff says she’s not trying to buy a conscience. Yet, here she is getting Seal tickets for Matt so he can woo Taylor. Isn’t this somewhat unethical? Unless Matt paid for the tickets, which wasn’t revealed. I wonder if Ashley is perhaps the personification of something a bit evil that will be a test for both Matt and Maggie. Stay tuned (for as long as you can, that is).

Another misunderstood vision: What’s going on with Eli lately? His visions were pretty easy to read prior to the circumstances of the last three weeks. Now, he has misinterpreted two visions in a row — the last one being the ‘Don’t mess around with Jim’ hallucination. This week he misunderstood the vision Patti that said ‘she is innocent.’ I wasn’t too sure what the exact meaning of the vision was, but it seems that she was talking more about herself than her daughter.

The continuing evolution of Jordan: Sometimes the re-imaging of oneself leads to sacrifices. In this case it’s a broken marriage for Jordan. At the beginning, after his rescue, it looked like Jordan’s marriage was going to last. I guess the long hours at the office and the loss of income drove a wedge between the two. It’s sad, because Jordan could certainly use all of the support he can get during this time of change.

The message of the show … and a dedication to John Lennon?: The title of this week’s Eli Stone was “Help,” as was the Beatles’ tune that Patti sung during his vision (and, a nice rendition of the song to boot). I wonder if the creators and producers of this show knew that it would be airing right around the anniversary of John Lennon’s death. If so, then a nice dedication it was. If not, it’s a strange coincidence that not even Eli could have envisioned.

Next week on Eli Stone: Eli gets jiggy with a new love interest.

Clacked by Richard Keller
on Dec 10, 2008 @ 17:14 EST5EDT