Trina is also continuing to impress me, with her deft handling of tentative swinger Susan and her masterful takeover of the Janet issue, which she handled by turning Janet’s world famous brownies into the ultimate ice breaker by lacing them with pot. And guess what? It totally worked! After a showdown at the dinner table where Janet accused Trina of last week’s “killjoy” artwork at the housewarming, Susan slammed the pan of brownies on the table and announced their contents. What we didn’t know at that point was that pot turns Regular Janet into Fun Janet! She plays Twister and skinny dips and shares a bed (as in sleeps) with other women! She also admitted that she’d pretty much always been the uptight fussbudget she is now, except she used to wear saddle shoes. I’m thinking Freaky Janet is not all that far from becoming a reality. As of right now, however, she’s still in the dark about all the experimenting that’s been going on, unlike her husband.
Roger had a nice few moments with Susan, telling her he was “mostly” happy with his life and teaching her how to properly skip a stone. Their private time was interrupted by the rest of the gang coming out to skinny dip…at Janet’s suggestion, no less. See? Freaky Janet is screaming to be let loose! Freaky Roger may need some more coaxing, but he’s pent up, to be sure.
Over in the lost footage from Dazed and Confused (which is what the kids’ scenes always remind me of, between the music, cars and puka shell necklaces) things were sort of boring. BJ and Rick joined Samantha in breaking into the Deckers’ awesome house and hung out by their pool. Well, BJ and Sam hung out by the pool. Rick, who is insanely jealous of BJ and Sam’s relationship for as yet unexplained reasons, hung out by the bar, drinking what he called “smooth gin” until he got sick. Ah, the joys of adolescence. Samantha hinted to BJ about the Swinger lifestyle of the Deckers, but didn’t elaborate. Finding out about his parents might be the only way BJ gets interesting.
Lori is still swooning over Doug, her teacher, who has let the kiss in the library go undiscussed for at least a few days in show time. She runs into Logan again, and is positively beaming as she tells him to take a hike. Too bad he’s set up in his car outside her house and sees Doug exit late at night. And Doug was actually a responsible gentleman and left promptly after watching an old Barbara Stanwyck movie without taking advantage of a very willing teenage girl. Of course, in 2008, he’d be arrested just for being at her house, but back then teachers could still take students out to McDonald’s or have team events in their homes without parents. I’m sure Logan will make life very difficult for poor Mr. Stevens.
In the end, the sextet (Hee! That one’s too easy.) is really starting to gel. We’re seeing a friendship being forged between Trina and Janet (well, Fun Janet, for sure) over Trina’s admission that she’ll be lonely when Tom starts flying the Tokyo route, and the overall dynamic of the female trio is intriguing. And we’re seeing the Deckers being very respectful of the longer standing relationships between the Thompsons and Millers by ducking out of the weekend early. Not to mention Bruce and Susan are going strong. So, we’re all set up for a tipping point, when someone’s relationship will be impacted by the lifestyle and one or more of the characters should change drastically. Mind you, I have no inside information, but I can feel that change is in the air!
