“The Next Step” concludes the annoying and intolerable
Ephram characterization. Ephram, near the end of season three, became a most
insufferable character. He acted passively and spitefully after he learned what
happened with Madison and his baby. He gave up his future to spite his father.
He broke up with Amy as part of his self-destructive streak. The Madison baby
arc was the worst plot choice in the series, a decision that rippled for too
long and would’ve lingered into season five if The CW renewed it. It was a plot
device to shake up the core of the show. Andy and Ephram finally reached the
place Andy imagined they’d reach when he moved his children to Everwood. “A
Mountain Town” concludes with father and son at one. Ephram found the best kind
of love with Amy in season three. The characters were happy. No more drama or
conflict. The Madison/Andy/Ephram plot was the worst plot contrivance too--an
easy way to detonate the natural flow of Everwood’s story, because TV, for all
its many virtues, is driven by advertising money. It’s a commodity.
Ephram’s still a dick for most of the episode. His
insufferable characterization had to gradually disappear, even though few fans
would’ve protested if Ephram returned free from what made him the worst at the
end of season three. Ephram asked Andy to pay for his living expenses because
Andy’s decision in “The Day is Done” cost Ephram Julliard. Andy didn’t want
their relationship to begin anew with guilt. Later, Andy experienced an
epiphany about finding balance in his during during his conversation with
Harold about doing surgery for five hours every Monday, i.e. being the father
he should’ve been, surgery and all, in New York.
“The Next Step” deals with the next step: change, moving on,
and growth. Ephram and Andy can’t continue fighting. Their fighting alienates
Delia. The show couldn’t continue to write them that way. It had to move away
from the ripples of the Madison story in season three. So, this episode ties
the last loose thread from the end of last season. Andy and Ephram find a
balance. Ephram is given freedom in exchange for daily family dinners (and
$50). Ephram, in a symbolic gesture that the past is the past, leaves the check
Andy gave him in the refrigerator. As Andy hopes to find the balance he failed
to find in New York by taking up surgery in between his role as family doctor
and father, Ephram’s open to finding a balance in his relationship to Andy that
won’t dismantle the Brown family. In short, Ephram’s insufferable qualities
leave him at the end of “The Next Step.”
The other loose thread from season three was Amy and Ephram.
They were the destined couple since episode one, the Dawson and Joey, the Matt
Saracen and Julie Taylor, and destined couples don’t stay together for the
entirety of a series. There’s no anguish. Their relationship in season three
reminded me of Pacey’s and Joey’s. They were great together, they broke up for
no reason besides plot contrivance, and then the writers needed to find any
reason to keep them separate in season four. Amy explained to Ephram, in Sam’s,
that she felt too hurt by how it ended between them last season to think about
starting where they left off.
The Bright/Hannah relationship, in its early stage, annoys
me. I never gave a whit about their coupling. They can be cute, as evidenced in
some season three scenes, and in their honest conversation at the carnival, but
Hannah’s neurosis combined with the neurotic hurdles in their relationship
(such as the three-dates-and-out misunderstanding) grates. Bright’s easy and
simple perspective of things balances the pairing, they even out, and I become
indifferent about them.
“The Next Step” is better than the premiere, which means little
because it’s an ordinary episode. Andy’s look after he receives the wine bottle
from Ephram, and the Amy/Ephram conversation are the most touching parts in the
episode.
Anna Fricke wrote the episode. Perry Lang directed.
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