“Getting to Know You” was the last episode to air in 2005.
Bad ratings forced TheWB to put the show on hiatus. “Ghosts” didn’t air until
March 27, 2006. This episode is the typical pre-winter hiatus Everwood episode.
Storylines come to a head. Characters force a moment to its crisis. Pre-winter hiatus of Everwood in previous
seasons had Amy running away at the end in season two, Andy beginning an affair
with Amanda in season three, as well Amy learning Hannah’s secret in the same
episode, and Madison drama for Ephram. Would he meet her? No, but lying to Amy
about trying to see her would have an unresolved fallout that lasted through
the Christmas season and the New Year.
“Getting to Know You” ended with Nina, in tears, rushing to
Andy’s home for comfort after Jake confessed about his relapse and prior
painkiller addiction. Elsewhere, Ephram and Amy spent a night together, their
first since the Madison/baby nonsense. Amy wanted to delay ‘defining’ what it
meant for them. With Ephram headed to New York the next day for the holidays,
it’d have to wait. She found the postcards he never sent her, which motivated
him to tell her he still loves her. His whole reason for returning home to
Everwood was his love for Amy. As the hip youths of today would say, that scene
gives one ‘the feels’. Rose decided she wanted to adopt a child from Africa.
Like many network shows today, the ones burdened by a 22
episode order, the first nine or ten or however many number of episodes in the
fall run of the series make up the first act of a season. Jake was in a free
fall. He hit bottom. Nina learned the scary truth. What’s next for them? Jake’s
relapse story differs from what 7th Heaven would’ve done with the
same idea. Greg Berlanti wanted a Norman Lear quality to his show. He still
refers to the abortion episode, “Episode 20,’ as the best episode of the
series, because he and his writers didn’t preach against or for abortion
rights. They wanted families to watch the episode and have a discussion.
Jake’s story is not a lesson. It’s an effective performance
by Scott Wolf. The catalyst for the relapse annoyed the hell out of me, but the
relapse story was about the constant struggle of a former addict. Jake told his
brother, “I can’t be normal anymore.” The best scene of the episode is between
Jake and Brian about what’s next for Jake. Jake wanted to avoid the meetings
and the fallout. Brian won’t let him. Jake looked anxious and afraid. It’s not
hysterical or dramatic—it’s fear that this thing will upend his life again. Nina
reacted as she did because of her past experience with Carl. Lies already
destroyed her family. She’s not mad because he’s a recovering addict, but
because he lied about something so huge.
The story of Rose and Harold has been about the next
meaningful step, more so for Rose. The next step is adoption. Harold doesn’t
want to adopt, but Rose does. Harold told his mother and Irv he couldn’t
remember a time when he and Rose weren’t in sync about something. Irv assured
him her humanitarianism would fade as the demands of present day Everwood
distracted her. Harold and Rose will never part, though. The adoption storyline
ahead is okay. It gives the writers an opportunity for more inane melodrama.
Hannah’s never been the typical Bright girl. She’s not as
pretty or as sexy. Her feelings about her body made intimacy, non-sexual
intimacy, between them impossible. This is the episode with the famous bathroom
scene. Bright didn’t want Hannah to leave the bathroom until she saw herself
the way he saw her. Hannah and Bright then showered together. They reached the
synthesis of their arc.
A synthesis begets a new thesis, of course, and that begins
in “Ghosts.”
Tom Garrigus wrote the episode. Joe Pennella directed it.
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