State of the #SHEA part 15: The "Hurt" that Helps

There’s a sizable fleet of writers on TGD who handle scripts both solo, and as part of a team. And when the show takes on a two-part episode, as it’s now done once for each season it has been on the air, it also takes on the challenge of not only setting up/resolving more complex plotlines, but creating enough conflict, engagement, and tension throughout the first part to hook us through to the second. I suppose there are those out there who were simply intrigued with the earthquake concept, and more or less “tolerated” the individual stories to see what the cliffhanger final three minutes would bring—after all, “Hurt” appears to have pulled in more viewers than any season 3 episode to date (6.81 million viewers; a 1.0 ratings share) Those might be the same viewers who griped about how the earthquake didn’t look authentic enough. (Don’t ask me, I’m a Midwesterner… we get a lot more tornados than earthquakes!)

Anyway… when Shaun and Lea took their Road Trip to Remember in “Islands Pts. 1 and 2,” their words in both parts were written by the same two people (Thomas L. Moran and William Rotko). “Quarantine Pts. 1 and 2,” on the other hand, had the same director for both parts—Mike Listo, who also happened to direct the “Hurt” episode—but 2 different writing teams. Of course, Shaun and Lea didn’t have any scenes together until the very end of “Quarantine,” and they were in the very platonic, nicely settled-in roommate phase of their relationship back then.

Hardly the case now, which could have made it all the more difficult for the writing team behind “Hurt” (Liz Friedman and Adam Scott Weissman) to sync up with whatever’s to come with Earthquake pt. 2, a.k.a.  “I Love You” (written by Weissman, David Hostleton, and David Shore). But I really liked what I saw in part 1—plenty of points for discussion; some of them stand on their own, others depend on part 2 for resolution. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised that at least a few of the items on my “Hurt” wish list were addressed, even with the quake hitting before the opening credits even made it to the screen. (Efficient storytelling strikes again!)

I’ll run through my list from the previous post (in bold) as we make our way through this episode…

What’s the timespan on the show between the parking garage scene in “Heartbreak” and the start of “Hurt”?

In the opening pre-shaken minutes of “Hurt” we saw Melendez encounter Lea at the bar of the brewpub as she ordered two Klosch beers. Was she there with a friend? No… “It’s been a rough couple of weeks,” she said

CUT IT OUT, Glassy

in explanation. Which answers a later wish list question of mine. Then she gets a savage evil eye from Glassman, standing a few yards away. Which answers yet A LATER wish list question of mine. (Damn, Friedman & Weissman did this well.) Plus, we later see that Morgan’s hand surgery was so recent—less than 2 days ago—that she’s still officially a patient, with the hospital gown to prove it. She hadn’t yet scheduled the surgery when we last saw her, so again, a two-week span from “Heartbreak” to “Hurt” seems about right.

…I want to know if Shaun has told Glassman (or anyone else) what he almost did to Lea’s car…

This is still uncertain, as it was only referenced this past Monday night by way of the (lengthy) recap of previous episodes at the top of the show. I’m going to guess, for now, that both Shaun and Lea are keeping the incident to themselves.

How are Shaun and Lea doing, individually, prior to the earthquake?

For once, interestingly enough, we have a little more of a direct read on Lea than Shaun for this. When I initially heard she’d be at the fundraiser, I thought she was going as a guest of Glassman’s. Hardly! She went on her own, perhaps in an effort to forget her troubles (“It’s been a rough couple of weeks”) and get happy in her so-called superficial, selfish way. Just her luck that she endures an earthquake and falls through the floor instead…

Andreas also noted that not only do we have shots of Lea “bookending” this episode—it starts with her ordering her beer(s) at the brewpub bar and ends with that GORGEOUS closeup as Shaun’s possible fate

Natural disaster glam

becomes frightfully clear to her—but in what seems like a TGD first, neither “bookend” shot pairs Lea directly with Shaun. This could bode well for those of us pleading for more character development for Lea in S4 (hand raised high here).

As for Shaun? There’s not enough of him in hospital mode to tell anything, but arguably his entire, immediate effort to find and rescue Lea conveys much of what he’s felt and continues to feel. 

And of course his stellar “Lea makes me… more” monologue contained no trace of the anger in “Heartbreak”—though his sadness behind the current state of things was palpable. (As was Lea’s… we’ll get back to that.)

Are we privy to any conversation, pre-earthquake, between Lea and Glassman?

No, but again, that look… it’s still making me uneasy.

What is Shaun’s new encounter with GhostSteve about?

Wow, did THAT scene generate a lot of Twitter conversation. The last time we saw Steve ahead of “Hurt,” he was calming Shaun’s first-surgery worries in the middle of the night… remember?

STEVE: Surgery’s the easy-peasy part.

(SHAUN sees STEVE’s head emerge from the top bunk of a bunkbed they are sharing)

STEVE: You wanted this. Enjoy it.

SHAUN: I can’t… if I get distracted, if I get upset…

STEVE: If you do, Andrews has your back.

SHAUN: If Dr. Andrews has to take over, then I have failed.

I have failed, and I have endangered a person’s life… and if I’m no good at the easy-peasy part, then what part am I good at?

STEVE: What do we do when we get all nutty like this?

SHAUN (thinks a moment): Blow out the candles.

STEVE: How many do you need?

SHAUN (thinks further): Three.

(STEVE disappears; SHAUN leans back on his pillow and exhales deeply through his mouth three times)

Flash forward to the Steve that Shaun encountered beneath the rubble in “Hurt.” Just the way he appeared—not in a kindly, I’m-by-your-side-

BOO!

whenever-you-need-me kind of way, but more like a scary, head-on, out-of-nowhere thing—was a jarring indication that this ‘visit” might not be like the others.

Why? The recurring reason I’ve seen proposed (and agree with) is that GhostSteve was this time representing Shaun’s internal dialogue—which, especially at this point in the season, has become rather savage. Just take Shaun’s actual lines out of the scene, and imagine him talking to himself instead:

You should be up there, doing your job…

You think rescuing Lea will make her fall in love with you.

It won’t. I used to believe in you… right now, I don’t.

She doesn’t love you. She told you.

She thinks you’re limited. You ARE.

      You are not her hero.

It doesn’t sound like GhostSteve because it isn’t GhostSteve.

I find it especially interesting, for all the discussion of “Love” this season (including its role in the title of the upcoming finale), Shaun/Steve is now telling himself that Lea doesn’t love him. Half of us probably rolled our eyes at that and said Oh, man, not you too (GhostSteve-as-Shaun’s-demons)? She DOES love him; I heard her say it herself! But in light of everything that’s been said and done since the moments those words were spoken by the two of them, it doesn’t FEEL like she loves him. When she said it, there was that momentarily flicker of joy on his face… but now, I wonder if he even remembers that moment.

Does Shaun actually find Lea and/or bring her to safety in this episode?  My guess is no… could it be that she gets out, either on her own or with assistance, while Shaun’s still deep into the crumbling structure looking for her?

And that’s exactly where we are, though that ambulance tailgate shot in the promo was a pretty big clue. Turns out it’s true… Shaun really isn’t “her hero” in that Lim and other first responders pulled her out first. But for at least two reasons I can think of right now, that’s good news for both of them.

1)   Shaun required himself to set aside his need to find Lea when he encountered Vera instead. He was able to get away with his singular search early in the episode, when the brewpub’s co-owner was in danger of permanent paralysis until a little burst of Shaun-Vision® spared her… but the second after he got his warning communicated to Claire and Melendez, he said “I need to find Lea.” And off he went. By the time he encountered Vera (and made his little “Hmm” sound of surprise/unexpectedness, which is somehow becoming one of my favorite expressions of his), his options were much more stark: somehow bypass this woman who clearly did need his help urgently (and keep seeking out a woman who very well might not), or put his own “fix it” needs aside and do his job.

Considering his trajectory of late, I’m guessing this decision was, for at least a moment, more difficult than Dr. Murphy ever realized it could be. But he made the right choice—and another step in his evolution was achieved.

2)   As things stood by episode’s end, Lea is now in a prime position to help save Shaun (rather than the other way around). Whether she knows he went “rogue” exclusively to try and help her is unclear to me; I’m not sure it would benefit either of them if she does know. But I think about the good that can come out of this dire situation—the boost it would give Lea’s flagging self-confidence, the power that the right words from her could have on him when he needs them most, the lessons in trust and surrender that might abound, especially for Shaun—and I’m even more eager for next Monday’s finale to come than I already am, if that’s possible.

 

Finally, I want to give a shout out to this device and the way it’s being utilized for #Shea’s quake saga. It made perfect sense for Shaun to be armed with a two-way radio as he searched the depths of the building, and it also made sense for Lim to tell him to keep the channel completely open (rather than open only when he pushes a button to speak) so that she could hear him at all times. So it doesn’t seem terribly contrived for Lea to be sitting there, walky-talky in hand, listening along. Sure we could quibble about the details—how did she happen to come across this particular radio tuned to that particular frequency, why is she able to hang on to it when someone in authority might need one, etc.—but it’s such a great way to move things along for them, I’m almost ready to call it another form of catapulting. But I want to see how it’s used in “I Love You” before entering that discussion.

Later this weekend I plan to do a post featuring what other #Shea fans have said they’d specifically like to see in the finale. I posed the question on Twitter the other day, but feel free to put your guesses in the Comments section of this post and I might share those too.