Episode: “Granville Trapp”
Reviewer: Tim Stevens
This Week’s Theme: Someone you have known for so long can still deceive you.
Who Was Nice Enough to Tell Us About It: The titular Granville Trapp
The story picks up almost exactly where last week ended. We see the Carver drop in on Rhea Reynold in the “clips from last week” package and then immediately we are into the new episode, watching our favorite kinky detective, Kit McGraw, go over the crime scene. Turns out that Carver went all the way this time, raping and murder Reynolds and taking the time to write “Fraud” with her blood on her bedroom wall. This, of course, gives Kit an excuse to use typical cop profiling language, talking about crossing lines, losing control, and making mistakes. Again, I have to point out that while Kit does seem to be a competent detective, her manner of talking and acting often suggests the exact opposite. When she’s not questioning victims’ manhood, she’s busy doing her best to imitate every serial killer thriller she has ever seen.
Meanwhile, back at stately Troy/McNamara, the Nip/Tuck dynamic duo are talking to Mr. Granville Trapp. Trapp suffering from AIDS and the drug cocktail he takes is stripping away the fat cells from parts of his body. He is particularly concerned with how it has left him with his “AIDS face”, a situation he hopes the doctors can rectify. Helpfully, he is also here to relate to us how his boyfriend had been stepping out on him with other men and that is how Trapp got AIDS. A man he had known so long and so intimately had been deceiving him all along. Gee…I wonder if this will come up later.
Shock, shock, horror, horror, moments later Christian comments to Sean that there is a lot Sean does not know about him. Then he gets arrested for the Carver murder. Foreshadowing? Perhaps. But either way, that is some sweet sweet theme action there.
Inevitably, the remaining members of the team (Sean, Liz, and Quentin) need to discuss where they go from here. Liz is shocked that they would discuss business at this moment, exclaiming, “How can you be so blithe about this?” While I’d be inclined to give her credit for her use of the word blithe, Sean is not really interested in beauty points and steps up to defend his friend of twenty years. Liz, apparently delighting in wounding her boss, responds that Sean also could have never imagined that Christian would impregnate Sean’s then fiancée (now ex-wife…or estranged wife…I think). (THEME!!!!) Quentin, meanwhile, is firmly in the “no way Christian is guilty” camp. His dedication to it, in fact, was almost comical throughout the episode. Despite a speech about knowing more about someone in five minutes after meeting them then you can in twenty, I never really get a feel for why Quentin would be so loyal. Unless of course, he is the Carver. But… I’m not ready or willing to declare that yet.
At the station, Kit tells Christian that she’ll do him a favor and, if he confesses, she’ll make sure the DA takes the death penalty off the table. Not seeing this as much of a deal, especially since he did not do it, Christian politely (or, less so) says no. Kit then tries to ply him with a tape of Kimber being arrested for slapping Kit while the two were in the interrogation room. During Kit and Kimber’s exchange, the detective reveals that the whole threesome thing was part of Kit’s undercover work. Avoiding the obvious pun (undercover, under the covers), can I just say what?! Where do I sign up for this sort of undercover work where I have sex with attractive people in beautiful apartments and, possibly, get commendations for it?
In any case, Christian, while upset about Kimber’s arrest, still refuses to confess. So, Kit brings out the big gun: a condom found at the crime scene with Reynolds’ blood on the outside and Christian’s semen on the inside. Oh snap!
Around this time, Sean and Julia arrive at the police station. Kit allows Christian to visit with them in what appears to be someone’s office. This won’t be the last time in this episode where Sean is allowed to move in and out of the police station and chat with Christian either. I always thought that those under arrest had a little less, I don’t know, freedom to take guests. Especially in the midst of an interrogation. I probably do not quite get Kit’s super secret technique is all.
In the outside world, life goes on. Quentin and Sean perform surgery on Trapp’s face and spar over whether or not what they are doing is right. Sean thinks that Trapp may take his “new” face and spread the AIDS virus willy-nilly like. Quentin says that Christian’s arrest is making Sean paranoid. Quentin is right.
Things get really rough for Christian now. When Christian was a kid, he was a foster child. He had been told that his mother was dead. As it turns out, she was not and, in fact, was only living a hundred or so miles away from Miami. Kit has found this out and brought her in for a visit with Christian. If seeing your long thought dead mom was not rough enough, Christian also has to quickly contend with the fact that he is the product of rape. Apparently, his mom was the eleventh victim of a serial rapist. She kept the baby to term because that is “what the family believed in at the time” and then gave him up for adoption because Christian would always be a reminder of his father. Now that she’s got him reeling, she drops the big blow on him. “You never had a chance to be a good man,” she says, urging him to confess to the Carver’s crimes. That’s right, she came all this way to meet a child she had never known just to say, “Hey, you’re a killer. Not your fault, but you should admit it.” And you thought your parents were difficult to deal with.
The hits keep coming as a search of Christian’s apartment turns up some hardcore pornographic videos and, more disturbingly, a vial of the same tranquilizer that the Carver uses on his victims. Sean, now thoroughly turned out, tell Christian the news, but Christian has an explanation for it. According to him, he used the tranquilizer on himself to see if he could have moved when the Carver attacked him. He felt his fingers move during the attack and he needed to know if that was just a nerve reaction or not. Perhaps he was able to fight back when the Carver raped him but did not because he felt as though he deserved it for being a “generally soulless man.” Then, hurt that anything would make Sean question his innocence, Christian returns to his cell.
Just when things seem like they could not go any further down, they do. A local news station gets a hold of the story and reveals that Christian has been arrested.
The next day, after a sweet little dream sequence between Christian and Kimber, Christian is released. Apparently, while Christian slept in his sad, gray cell, the Carver struck again. Therefore, unless he’s magic, Christian cannot be the killer.
Back to the office he goes (if I am ever falsely accused of a crime, the last thing I want to do upon my release is go to work…but what do I know) and finds the place empty. Apparently being a cosmetic surgeon arrested for rape, murder, and mutilation can be bad for business. Anyway, Christian does find Trapp eventually and gives him the once over. Trapp thanks him for the work and mentions that he is still the same guy underneath, that only the surface has changed. Of course, sometimes people do not bother to look below that surface (could that be a DOUBLE THEME?!).
Finally, Sean shows up and the two awkwardly embrace and pretend not to remember that one thought the other one was a killer a few hours prior. Christian reveals that he was the one who leaked the story of his arrest to the police because he knew the Carver could not accept someone else taking credit for his work. Sean is sickened that Christian would put someone else in danger like that and he does have a point. On the other hand, Christian would have been charged at some point, right? And if he was, the same thing would have happened then, right? It just would have happened a little later. That’s my read on it, anyway.
Liz breaks up the bicker twins (and fails to mention, “Hey, I was the first person in the office to turn on you”) and tells Christian that the newest Carver victim is in his office. Again, I’ve got to question why Christian, even if he did decide to come in immediately after his release, would also want to sit down with the latest victim of a man he was just accused of being. Ahh well, dramatic license. In any case, he walks in, sits at the desk, and the victim is…….ready?………..you sure?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..KIT!!!!
Daaaaaaaaaaaamn.
