Smash: The Surprise Party (2x10)

Great episode this week! A lot of fun. Good use of music, guest stars, rising tensions... I had problems, but overall I really enjoyed it. I'll separate my discussion of this episode into the different subplots going on this week. Most were strong, but not all.

Eileen. I really do like her, but her romance with Richard Francis is really boring. Not only boring, but this week I was getting annoyed by how controlling he was being. He admitted at the end that he was used to having a wife stay at home while he worked, so Eileen's career-mindedness was going to take some getting used to. I found this to be a tad irritating.

Now for Ivy and Tom's story. I loved it! I was really anxious about Ivy and Tom's fighting, but this episode was a great way to further explore it. I thought that Tom and Liza Minnelli's song was really fantastic! Megan Hilty (Ivy) is so adorable, and she had such a great smile on her face the whole time they were singing. I liked that the show didn't spend too much time going down the "this is a misunderstanding" route. At first Ivy was worried that the whole thing was a PR stunt, but she very quickly realized differently. Although it was a bit contrived to have Ivy forget her keys in order for Tom to find out about the party, it was still heartbreaking when he turned up. I like Ivy's declaration about directors and friends being incompatible, but I hope that once Bombshell is firmly under way we can move past that and have them  be friends again.

Jimmy, Karen, Derek. Oh boy. I am actually really happy about how things came to a conflict this week. We all knew it was inevitable, and I'm glad we can now move forward from this. Jimmy is simply adorable, but I do wish he had said something to Karen earlier about what was going on. Jimmy's cute little smile to Derek as he payed him back the money made me really happy, as did Derek's wounded-yet-reasonable attitude for the bulk of the episode. But after Derek actually laid his feelings on the line for Karen, (wow!) he went on the attack. I was a little annoyed about this abrupt turn-about, but the argument could be made that Derek perhaps believed he had a chance with Karen, and once that hope was dashed, he was embittered at the thought of Jimmy and Karen together. Regardless, it was a well-acted confrontation, and even Katharine McPhee was in pretty fine form as she berated both of the men for their possessive behavior. Go Karen!

But then... the ending with Karen and Jimmy had some serious problems. For one, did she forgive him a bit too easily? I'd be willing to along with that, except for I'm starting to get worried that this will be a recurring element to the show. Secondly, why the hell would Jimmy give Karen a jacket that had drugs in it? That's a completely unrealistic portrayal of a former/current drug addict. If he wanted the drugs, why would he leave them in such a conspicuous spot? If he didn't want them, why did he take them from his drug dealer friend? It made no sense!

Very briefly, I also have some problems with Hit List. I really liked the song "Original" but I think that this fake musical suffers when compared to Bombshell, because the latter has  real-life figure (Marilyn) to tie it together. Hit List does not. Apparently, Karen's character tries to kill herself in this thing? Well... that seems rather petty and contrived. I feel like over-all, the show is trying to be all edgy and urban, but it cannot quite figure that out.

But moving on to another plus of the episode: Julia, Scott, and Kyle. I think honestly this was my favorite part. I know I've admitted reservations about the Scott/Julia plot, but I actually find myself rather compelled by it this week. Seeing them work together showed me that these two characters actually have a good deal of chemistry. It was also adorable to see Kyle working with them, stretching his creative muscles and coming up with a solution. It was adorable to hear his repeated requests that they wait for Jimmy, but endearing to see that he actually can manage to do great creative work on his own. I was really angry at Derek at the end, because while it is nice to see that he liked Kyle's changes, it was annoying to think he might only have said so because of his anger towards Jimmy and Karen. Jimmy in particular really shouldn't have been left out of these decisions. His intellectual property is being messed with without his knowledge. 

I do hope that we see how this plays out in a satisfying way in the next installment!

One more final praise for this episode - it had a number of subtle tie-ins to earlier portions of the show. Often, Smash fails to make meaningful connections between distant characters, plot threads, etc. This week was full of good examples to the contrary. For one, there were two references to Devon in this episode - the first was when Jimmy mistakenly classified Ivy as an old "friend" of Karen's, and Karen quickly corrected him. The second was during a conversation with Ana, when Karen reminded her that she had been with a supposedly decent man for three years, and look how that had turned out! Eileen even had a good moment this week when she told her new love interest that she wasn't quite over her ex. Then there was Ivy and Sam's conversation at the end about the ups and downs of the past year, and a very touching tag to the episode in which Derek shows up to wish Ivy a happy birthday.

In all, I was very pleased with this week's episode! Only a few minor flaws brought it down for me.

8.5/10