Quick spoilers for last night's "United States of Tara" coming up just as soon as I navigate my company's human resources voicemail... I wish I could spend more time on "Betrayal," which was so tragic for poor Marshall and so rife with material about the alters and the way they interact with each other. But as I've already said a few times today, I'm slammed with other assignments, so I'm just going to hit a few bullet points and open it up for discussion:
• Poor, poor, poor Marshall. I loved that the show went the unexpected route of having Jason be totally cool with kissing Marshall, even in the sober light of day. (His desire to keep it on the down-low made it seem realistic enough.) So, of course, the writers had to punish Marshall in a more unpredictable way, by having T -- who, in her last appearance, had attempted to make amends with Tara's son -- decide to screw with him by seducing Jason. So painful to watch, and so beautifully played by Keir Gilchrist.
• Last week, we had some debate about whether Tara could switch from alter to alter without first reverting to her own persona. Here, we get confirmation, as she goes straight from Gimme (whose appearance is provoked by a deep tissue massage) to T (the alter least likely to feel ashamed of how people would respond to Gimme's public outburst). So that means there's still a possibility that we could see, say, Alice turn into Buck under the right circumstances.
• Toni Collette has the flashiest part, but I'm really developing a new appreciation of John Corbett while watching this show. He more or less always plays characters who live in the same strike zone, but he makes Max seem different from, and richer than, previous Corbett types like Aiden or even Chris from "Northern Exposure." What makes Max special -- and the ideal kind of man to be in this marriage -- is the gift he has for empathizing with his loved ones problems. Last week, we saw him really get on Marshall's wavelength when he realized the depth of his son's crush on Jason, and here we had the very sweet way he responded to Tara telling him about Dr. Ocean "breaking up with" her. He doesn't get mad, or shrug it off, but instead finds a way to put himself on her level and react the way she was. Very nicely-done, by actor and character.
What did everybody else think?
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