Swingtown: 1.12 ‘Surprise’ Review
Original Air Date: August 29, 2008
Don’t let the title of this episode of Swingtown, “Surprise,” fool you because there are actually precious few surprises in it. In fact, the only incident that caught me off guard was a revelation concerning the Millers’ neighbor Sam. But I’m jumping ahead of myself, so let’s review events in a more orderly fashion.
The title is meant to refer to several surprises, and the central one is the traditional surprise dinner Susan arranges to celebrate Janet’s birthday each year. This time around, however, things are more than a bit hinky. Not only is Janet moving ahead full speed at her typing-pool job at the Daily Sun newspaper, but Roger openly declares to his wife’s best friend that he’s falling in love with her, a mutual development Susan stubbornly continues to deny.
When Janet’s boss suggests she’s a perfect replacement for the paper’s absent Dear Trudy advice columnist, who’s on a forced leave due to her boozing ways, we see the former happy homemaker’s eventual agreement coming a mile away.
Ditto for poor Susan’s repeated rebuffs of Roger’s repeated puppy-dog-eyed insistence that he won’t accept a lucrative new construction job that requires a move to Cincinnati, Ohio, if she would just say the word and admit her attraction to him.
It’s clear to Roger that he and his wife are growing further apart when Janet claims all she needs to be happy is for him to find a job so things can return to exactly the way they were before. The strangled look on Roger’s face gets the point across better than words.
Too bad Susan persists trying to stay loyal to her whiny husband Bruce, my least favorite adult character on the show. He eventually ends up lying to her at the end of the episode, all to go running to his colleague Melinda in order to prove how much he doesn’t want her to bolt for another firm in search of career advancement.
At Janet’s surprise dinner turned party, Susan overhears his intimate conversation with the deliberate home wrecker. Yet, she just allows Bruce to lie to her face and walk out the door without even getting in a choice word or two to let him know she’s not an idiot. This familiar passive behavior on Susan’s part bugs me to no end. She can have a foursome — twice!!! — with the neighbors across the street, but she can’t speak up to her deceitful, childish husband? Puh-leeze!
As for the kids: Laurie finally gets an admission of love out of her former teacher Doug, who decides not to take a job at her school so they won’t have to hide their relationship. According to Doug’s friend, he has a history of getting into short-term hookups that respect the Milk Carton Theory (love ‘em and leave ‘em quickly before the one-week expiration date), which seems to not bode well for their future together. Since I find both of them incredibly annoying and boring, though, I don’t care if they get married and have ten children or break up next week.
It’s the youngest children who get the best storylines this time. While playing around with the boys’ CB radios, B.J. and Sam overhear that Rick ran for his life when Sam’s cousin Lisa took off her top after the strip-poker session. On the not so funny side, Lisa then admits that her mother plans to seek legal custody of Sam and have her move away to live with them because Sam’s mother is an unfit parent. Spot on and great idea.
After Rick gets over his jealous and incorrect belief that Sam is stealing his best friend — following a night of downing the booze in adults’ abandoned cups at his mom’s party — he comes around and gives Sam his CB so she can stay in touch with B.J. after moving. Awww!
However, the biggest bombshell of the episode — which also isn’t a surprise by the time it drops — is Trina’s discovery that she’s pregnant. We know it’s coming the moment she wakes up feeling ill in the bed she’s sharing with her husband and another couple. The only real question is if her husband Tom is the father, considering how they swing and all.
That mystery’s solved when Trina confides in Janet that he is. Whew! But then again, maybe not, because Tom looks thoroughly relieved later when, feeling him out before revealing the news, Trina brings up the possibility of parenthood and Tom laughs it off. Still, I think her worries are unnecessary because Tom comes across as flexible and willing to do anything to please her.
The after-episode previews show that on next week’s season/series finale, Susan is going to pay Roger a visit in a hotel. I hope they finally do what they’ve been wanting to do for ages now and then find a way to be happy together.
The chances of that happening seem slim, but I’ve actually reached a point where I kind of care. So, I’ll definitely be tuning in to see how this huge mess of entangled relationships is resolved … or not.
3 opinions for Swingtown: 1.12 ‘Surprise’ Review
Shawn C
Sep 5, 2008 at 11:19 am
I completely agree with everything you say!
My hubby can’t sem to understand how quickly I can predict the moments between the Swingtown couples or what will happen next. I find it amazing that everything I think will happen does!!
Laurie and Doug also annoy the heck out of me but I do like the anticipation of waiting for the next scene with the interesting characters!!
My fav is Trista!!
Shawn C
Sep 5, 2008 at 11:21 am
TRISTA??
I mean TRINA!! WOW!! Wrong ‘reality’ show!!” HAHAHA!!
Chandra
Sep 5, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I find it amazing that everything I think will happen does!!
Isn’t it weird how that happens? Even so, I’ve gotten used to the characters enough that I actually like several of them by now.
And, yes, Trina is groovy (that word does come from that era, right?). She’s really turned out to be much more complex than she originally seemed, one of the pleasant discoveries I’ve made watching every episode of the show when I really didn’t want to at first.
Don’t forget that tonight’s episode is most likely the last unless CBS can find a cable buyer, which it’s trying to do.
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