Army Wives: 2.13 ‘Safe Havens’ Review
Original Air Date: September 14, 2008
I have no idea why this particular episode has the description “safe” or “havens” in the title because it is, without a doubt, one of — if not the — most depressing episodes of Army Wives ever.
It opens with Roxy confiding at last in psychiatrist Roland about her fears concerning Trevor’s painkiller addiction. What she doesn’t realize is that as a soon-to-be new parent, Roland is (correctly) concerned about his wife and his unborn child’s safety. After he warns Joan about Trevor’s possible problem, she hires a replacement driver and temporarily assigns Trevor to an administrative desk job, warning him to get his painkiller problem under control in the process.
Roxy is pissed at first, no matter how much Roland tries to make her understand how important and relatively simple it is for Trevor to join an outpatient addiction program. His problem is not unique, and help is available. Stubborn Roxy resists this sound advice initially, until Joan hemorrhages at the end of the episode, resulting in the premature birth of the Burtons’ daughter.
Just as the others in the tribe do, Roxy goes to the hospital to lend her support. The baby is quickly out of danger, although Joan not so much because her bleeding is difficult to control. More on that in the next episode, the equally depressing sounding “Payback,” I’m sure.
When Roxy shows up at the hospital, she’s half going out of her mind wondering where Trevor is. He stormed out of the house the day before when she confronted him about the pills he was hiding in the kitchen cabinet. The episode ends with him waking up in his car, which is on the side of the road and has apparently hit a hydrant. Perhaps this unsettling incident will urge him to get the professional help he needs.
Meanwhile, the Holdens welcome a supposed friend, a foreign dignitary named Paolo, they’ve known for about two decades. Michael hopes he will help convince his country’s anti-American government to extend the lease on a military base located there called Fort Rivas. After agreeing to help if Michael will persuade the Pentagon to give his wife’s family’s supply company preferential treatment for stocking non-military goods, Paolo agrees. Then he turns around and attempts to rape — yes, rape — Claudia Joy at the end of the episode.
We last see her struggling with him on top of her on the couch, just as she grabs a wine bottle from the floor and gets ready to strike. Considering how inappropriately Paolo keeps coming on to Claudia Joy earlier in the episode, this attack shouldn’t be as much of a shock as it winds up being. Bravo to the showrunners for pushing the envelope. I can’t wait to see if Claudia Joy manages to brain Paolo. At the same time, I also hope this plotline doesn’t play into stereotypes of Latin men as overly sexual, which definitely crossed my mind during the earlier scenes with slick — but not slick enough — Paolo making unwanted advances.
The segments of the episode dealing with Denise and Frank are far less interesting, simply because the whole damaged relationship subplot is going on too long. It also doesn’t help that I don’t care for Frank — or Jeremy either, for that matter — but the goodbye scene when Denise lingers while she hugs her son before sending him off to Iraq is very touching.
Finally, we have poor Pamela, stalked by an unseen and possibly mentally disturbed admirer who seemed to have disappeared, and then emerges again when he leaves photos of her at her home with the creepy message “The camera loves you.” After a failed plan to meet him in the park, with undercover officers nearby waiting to make an arrest, while he approaches her daughter in another park and gives her a rose for Pamela, the former Boston cop gets more serious than ever and heads to the target range for a little brush up on her shooting. What an awful time for Chase to be on assignment.
So, we end with a drugged out heroic soldier and a car accident, a premature birth and a mother in uncertain condition, a ruined friendship and an attempted rape, and a threatening stalker and target practice. See what I mean about depressing? Overall, “Safe Havens” is a very good yet uncommonly joyless episode of Army Wives. I’m not sure if that’s the way I’d like to see the series continue.
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1 opinion for Army Wives: 2.13 ‘Safe Havens’ Review
Army Wives: 2.14 ‘Payback’ Preview
Sep 21, 2008 at 4:47 pm
[...] the very succinct and gritty “Payback.” That makes last week’s depressing “Safe Havens” seem almost joyful in [...]
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