Being Erica!
Dec. 16th, 2010 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalAt this point, I might be better off waiting a day or two so I can watch the season finale (Christmas episode! Yay!) but I've got a lot to say, so a way belated reaction post to the penultimate episode, coming right up...
At first, I was confused why the previouslies went all the way back to the pilot. Having seen the episode, it all makes sense now. :)
I... am not pleased about the Erica/Adam thing. Yeah, yeah, we all know I'm biased (Kai!), but even without that, it's just felt so forced that it's really hard to get invested in the relationship. Erica's relationships with both Ethan and Kai seemed to develop so much more organically, whereas with Adam it's hard not to see the writers' in the background chanting, "Like Adam! Erica/Adam 4-eva!" I also have to say, if they were gonna go with this pairing, it was a huge mistake to bring Kai back (I mean, I love Kai and more Kai is NEVER a mistake, lol, but it definitely hinders the writers' goals here), because their chemistry is SO much better and Erica/Adam pales in comparison.
Anyway, I don't hate it or anything, and I'm getting a pretty strong sense of foreboding here, so it's possible this couple won't last very long into season 4. Seriously, the way Erica was pointing out how great everything was, not only for her and Adam, but her parents and Sam and Lenin, too, I was so totally expecting disaster, lol. I can't say I would've ever expected what happened, though...
"Pronto Toronto" is kind of adorable. Everything Julianne does these days is kind of adorable, lol. I also love Erica's "Focus focus focus!" because it's such a typical real-life kind of moment
"Who needs a shrink when I've got you?" Not so subtle foreshadowing there, lol. Also Adam saying she'd make a great doctor. Of course, I have to agree with him that he wouldn't make a good doctor, so I wasn't exactly surprised at the outcome of the tests.
Clearly I just have Kai on the brain all the time, because for whatever crazy reason, I was expecting him to walk in on Erica and Adam's sexytimes and be hurt that Erica was with someone else, lol.
And we're back at the beginning, with Erica waking up in the hospital after her allergic reaction, which of course bears a strong similarity to Buffy and "Normal Again." Everything she's lived through the past two years is just a dream, a fantasy she constructed, and now she's back in the real world, where things couldn't be farther from a fantasy.
Hahaha, the pajamas! The shoes! The same song, Erica escaping out the window... it's like deja vu all over again. :) Erica's faced with everything she thought she'd left behind - her parents bickering, Sam back with Josh, everyone treating her like a child who can't manage her own life, and on top of that, now they think she's crazy because of the time-traveling therapy story.
The perfect life she had really does seem like a dream, compared to where she started - "single, unemployed, and in the middle of a nervous breakdown." And now everything she had, everything she worked for, her entire support structure, take all that away, and what's left? "Me." Even when she's got nothing left, she still believes in herself, believes in the person she's become.
She passes the test, of course, which is eerily reminiscent of the Cruciamentum, with Dr. Tom toeing the party line so well he could've been a Watcher: "It's inelegant, perhaps, but that's the way it's done. That's the way it's always been done." It's a trial by fire, a test of her ability to rely on herself and not the special gift she's been given. It's so similar, right down to the dying = failure thing, since Leo was trying to convince her to jump off the bridge OMG. Erica was right when she called it torture. I mean, to convince her she's insane and that two years of her life was all just a figment of her imagination is bad enough, but then to use LEO against her? That's just so unbelievably cruel. It makes me wonder how much of this experience was actually constructed by Dr. Tom, or if they just send the patient back and details are determined by her own fears and insecurities.
Erica testing out her new doctor powers and decorating her office is too cute. And I foresee some conflict with Adam being jealous and/or resentful of Erica passing the test when he failed. Though I am confused about how the transition from group therapy to doctor training actually works. I mean, Erica was clearly the new kid on the block when she started group therapy - I got the impression most of them had been doing it for a while before she joined them. So if they didn't all start at the same time, and moving to the next level is determined by whether or not you're ready, is it just an incredible coincidence that all five of Dr. Tom's patients happened to be tested at the same time? Or is it like the SATs, where they're only given on certain days, and everyone takes them together, but if you don't do well, you can retake them at a later date? Or is it just one shot, ready or not, and if you fail, you'll never become a doctor? Will Adam and the other two who didn't pass stay in group therapy with two new people, or are they booted out of the program?
I'm assuming we'll find out the answers to at least some of those questions next season, as well as hopefully more of the intricate details on how the time travel aspect works from the doctor's POV. I'm also excited to find out who Erica's first patient will be - is it someone we know or a new character? It'd be kind of cool if Erica could finally share this experience with someone who knows her outside of therapy, but at the same time, they probably aren't going to give her someone she's close to already, given the issues with her and Dr. Tom. Which means there aren't many existing characters she'd be able to work with. Definitely not Ethan or Julianne or Judith or any of her family. Maybe Brent? Even that might still be too personal - not because they're close, but because of what he did to Erica and Julianne. I mean, could Erica really send him back to fix a regret that was about her?? So my money is on a new character, although I haven't heard any casting news for season 4 yet. At least we know there will be one! \o/
At first, I was confused why the previouslies went all the way back to the pilot. Having seen the episode, it all makes sense now. :)
I... am not pleased about the Erica/Adam thing. Yeah, yeah, we all know I'm biased (Kai!), but even without that, it's just felt so forced that it's really hard to get invested in the relationship. Erica's relationships with both Ethan and Kai seemed to develop so much more organically, whereas with Adam it's hard not to see the writers' in the background chanting, "Like Adam! Erica/Adam 4-eva!" I also have to say, if they were gonna go with this pairing, it was a huge mistake to bring Kai back (I mean, I love Kai and more Kai is NEVER a mistake, lol, but it definitely hinders the writers' goals here), because their chemistry is SO much better and Erica/Adam pales in comparison.
Anyway, I don't hate it or anything, and I'm getting a pretty strong sense of foreboding here, so it's possible this couple won't last very long into season 4. Seriously, the way Erica was pointing out how great everything was, not only for her and Adam, but her parents and Sam and Lenin, too, I was so totally expecting disaster, lol. I can't say I would've ever expected what happened, though...
"Pronto Toronto" is kind of adorable. Everything Julianne does these days is kind of adorable, lol. I also love Erica's "Focus focus focus!" because it's such a typical real-life kind of moment
"Who needs a shrink when I've got you?" Not so subtle foreshadowing there, lol. Also Adam saying she'd make a great doctor. Of course, I have to agree with him that he wouldn't make a good doctor, so I wasn't exactly surprised at the outcome of the tests.
Clearly I just have Kai on the brain all the time, because for whatever crazy reason, I was expecting him to walk in on Erica and Adam's sexytimes and be hurt that Erica was with someone else, lol.
And we're back at the beginning, with Erica waking up in the hospital after her allergic reaction, which of course bears a strong similarity to Buffy and "Normal Again." Everything she's lived through the past two years is just a dream, a fantasy she constructed, and now she's back in the real world, where things couldn't be farther from a fantasy.
Hahaha, the pajamas! The shoes! The same song, Erica escaping out the window... it's like deja vu all over again. :) Erica's faced with everything she thought she'd left behind - her parents bickering, Sam back with Josh, everyone treating her like a child who can't manage her own life, and on top of that, now they think she's crazy because of the time-traveling therapy story.
The perfect life she had really does seem like a dream, compared to where she started - "single, unemployed, and in the middle of a nervous breakdown." And now everything she had, everything she worked for, her entire support structure, take all that away, and what's left? "Me." Even when she's got nothing left, she still believes in herself, believes in the person she's become.
She passes the test, of course, which is eerily reminiscent of the Cruciamentum, with Dr. Tom toeing the party line so well he could've been a Watcher: "It's inelegant, perhaps, but that's the way it's done. That's the way it's always been done." It's a trial by fire, a test of her ability to rely on herself and not the special gift she's been given. It's so similar, right down to the dying = failure thing, since Leo was trying to convince her to jump off the bridge OMG. Erica was right when she called it torture. I mean, to convince her she's insane and that two years of her life was all just a figment of her imagination is bad enough, but then to use LEO against her? That's just so unbelievably cruel. It makes me wonder how much of this experience was actually constructed by Dr. Tom, or if they just send the patient back and details are determined by her own fears and insecurities.
Erica testing out her new doctor powers and decorating her office is too cute. And I foresee some conflict with Adam being jealous and/or resentful of Erica passing the test when he failed. Though I am confused about how the transition from group therapy to doctor training actually works. I mean, Erica was clearly the new kid on the block when she started group therapy - I got the impression most of them had been doing it for a while before she joined them. So if they didn't all start at the same time, and moving to the next level is determined by whether or not you're ready, is it just an incredible coincidence that all five of Dr. Tom's patients happened to be tested at the same time? Or is it like the SATs, where they're only given on certain days, and everyone takes them together, but if you don't do well, you can retake them at a later date? Or is it just one shot, ready or not, and if you fail, you'll never become a doctor? Will Adam and the other two who didn't pass stay in group therapy with two new people, or are they booted out of the program?
I'm assuming we'll find out the answers to at least some of those questions next season, as well as hopefully more of the intricate details on how the time travel aspect works from the doctor's POV. I'm also excited to find out who Erica's first patient will be - is it someone we know or a new character? It'd be kind of cool if Erica could finally share this experience with someone who knows her outside of therapy, but at the same time, they probably aren't going to give her someone she's close to already, given the issues with her and Dr. Tom. Which means there aren't many existing characters she'd be able to work with. Definitely not Ethan or Julianne or Judith or any of her family. Maybe Brent? Even that might still be too personal - not because they're close, but because of what he did to Erica and Julianne. I mean, could Erica really send him back to fix a regret that was about her?? So my money is on a new character, although I haven't heard any casting news for season 4 yet. At least we know there will be one! \o/
