Figured this show has stuck around long enough — in today's TV environment — to get its own topic.

Patrick's tranny lover is played by Candis Cayne, apparently. I didn't realize it was her... as transvestites go, she's probably the famousest. Well, except for Daryl Hannah.

I guess the twins are Nick's half-siblings. I can't figure out any other way to construe the scene between Tripp and Letitia. Jeremy does strongly resemble Nick.

It's too bad, because I had my heart set on it being Brian. Who was more awesome than ever in this episode. Though it's a little early to be revealing that the villain has a heart, boy does he. (And that actor is wonderful.) I hadn't thought he cared deeply about anyone, including No Fun and his twins.

Hmm, a lot of twins on this show. Just as many as there are secret illegitimate children...

It does seem in general like too many things are being given away too quick. Maybe they are all bogus hints to through viewers off.

I will go with Patrick as the illegitimate child and now that Tripp knows he is transferring his "you must succeed" pressures to the boy twin.

Intriguing. But then why would Tripp have whined about how the twins were "different," and why would that have prompted Letitia to ask if he'd told Nick about the illegitimacy? Maybe all the kids except the twins are Nick's siblings? Ooh, I like that. Except then Nick would have slept with and almost married his sister... and I assume Letitia wouldn't have allowed that. It seems certain that Karen isn't a bastard.

Maybe Tripp always suspected the twins weren't his and so let them run wild, basking in his indifference. And now that he suddenly knows they're his children, he's pissed that they're such screwups?

I just read that Glenn Fitzgerald, who plays Brian, was Lonnie the LSD-loving son in Flirting With Disaster. Nuh uh. Another petulant magnificent bastard.

I think there's a better than decent chance that only one of the twins is Tripp's. A more convoluted theory is that the next oldest child was Dutch's, and Letitia spoiled the twins out of guilt, but I think that would make it Karen and I don't think there's a chance it's her. I really want it to somehow be Brian, just because I totally dug the brotherly vibe in his scene with Nick today. Those actors just have great chemistry.

I'm quite refreshed by the way that they are answering questions and (more importantly) asking them - how annoying is it when a show, book, or movie manufactures suspense just by having its characters fail to talk about things (Lost, I'm looking at you)? This gives me hope that the real mysteries of this show will be about human nature, and not the identity of Mysterious Appointment Book Man. It's too early to say, though; they could lose the thread at any point. Right now, this is my favorite new show.

As for Brian, I think it makes sense that they are showing us both sides of him - if he was heartless, he would be nothing more than a villain. They might as well give him a mustache to twirl. What makes him an interesting foil and a worthwhile character is the fact that his more evil characteristics come from a very recognizable place. He's also the most interesting to me as far as the money is concerned - its effect on him is the least clear.

It's biologically possible, but isn't it a rarity? Because it depends on a woman having sex with two men within the exact same period in which she happens to be ovulating. More likely is that one sperm would have fertilized and the shop would be closed for business for the next nine months.

If it were true, it'd have a lot of dramatic potential. Jeremy and Juliet, closer to each other than anyone else in the family, discovering that they're the least related. How weird to share a womb with your half-sister.



Yes, that was something. I was talking to mj, and she thinks the twin thing was just misdirection to throw the viewers off the fact that it's really Brian after all.



Succinctly put. I hadn't thought about it quite like that.

I see what you're saying about Brian, but with how far they've gone now, the villainy is hard to remember or really believe in. Specifically, it's the self awareness he's shown — e.g., his comment about the friendship-bait bunk beds and his kind absolution of Brian Jr. That self awareness is antimatter to his previously displayed selfishness and willful pettiness; they can't coexist.

He's still an odd duck, that's for sure. All sharp angles. It's hard to figure out how he went from that kind of modern wealthy clan, into the clergy, and also into his weird little family. Did he meet the wife in church?

Twins from two different fathers are rare but not impossible. I get the impression that Letitia was carrying on active sex lives with both men at one point, and she would just have to have two eggs fertilized within the same menstrual cycle. Obviously Tripp never had reason to doubt his fatherhood of any of the children before now, so the timing could make sense.

I can see what you're saying about Brian, but I think his recent experiences have rocked him back. I suppose it is a little bit of a tease to make a character that unpleasant and then redeem him (sort of). I think he spent a long time feeling unlovable, and now he's losing the person who gave him a family, but maybe it would work better if we had spent a little more time with him before all of this happened.

Do we think Letitia always knew which (if any) of the children belonged to which man? Like Ananda I imagine she was sleeping with both of them during the same time period and would never have known for sure herself until Tripp ordered the DNA test? (Which by the way, how did he have this test done on all the kids without their knowledge?)

Having the twins be only half siblings would certainly be interesting. I wonder if they would use it as a stepping stone to turn their current relationship that currently borders incestuous closer in that direction. After all, wasn't it someone on this board who said said "incest is the new anal sex." ?

I think Letitia suspected and then had a DNA test done herself. It wouldn't be too hard to collect hair samples from the relevant kid(s) and Tripp.

But having twins with separate fathers is very rare. I think it's a little too drastic, even for this show.

A woman sleeping with two men, within the same few-day span, within which she just happens to be ovulating, within which she just happens to release two eggs instead of one. I think that's why it doesn't happen often.

Also, as I understand it from one of those fascinating Desmond Morris biology programs, men have "fighter sperm" that are designed to kill the sperm of other men who might happen along.

Nick does have romantic feelings for Karen. That discovery disappointed me... disappointed in him, I think. Now it seems like they might end up together.

Brian is still awesome. I liked his "oh crap" before falling into bed with his mistress. And also the sensible, calm way he handled the wife coming to take the child, ostensibly to Brazil. He is really a gentle sort, except that he's not.

Anyone have guesses as to the third thing with a "C" he was going to name in his service? I think it was most likely "consummation," but then he didn't feel he could say it without betraying himself and what had just happened. Or "commitment," for the same reason. It's interesting that he wouldn't lie or be hypocritical in a sermon... it has to be heartfelt, or he won't say it.

I think either of those make sense. Or, there might never have been a "c" word, and he planned the ending the whole time. He is quite clever.

I'm ok with Nick having feelings for Karen because, a) I think she's adorable, so why wouldn't he, and b) his wife is kind of annoying. Those ant paintings were ug-ly. Also, his daughter grates, so I guess I'm just not that attached to his family unit.

Watching Tripp get progressively drunker throughout the day was sort of delightful. I don't care what Joss Whedon says, Donald Sutherland is just great.

I don't mind the wife. I see them as a real, solid family, and one he's committed to... it's a real come-down to reveal that he entertains any interest in being a Darling. It's like falling to the dark side. When he's basically created a life and an identity that is a principled stand against them.

Plus I don't see much real value in Karen as a person. She's drunk, superficial and messed up. I'd rather see him marry Brian.

I knew it was Brian! It makes perfect sense. It's why Brian hates Nick... and Dutch... and the world.

The actor they cast as Dutch really looks like Brian; you can believe that he and Letitia would have produced exactly that bony child. There's actually a greater resemblance than there is between Dutch and Nick.

I didn't realize that the relationship between Nick and his father was so rancorous. It doesn't seem like Dutch did anything bad enough to justify Nick being so harsh and dismissive. He's right to blame himself... it's not just post-death guilt; there's some truth to it.

The moment when Nick found out about Brian was so emotional, and well played. (Ditto the parallel scene with Brian.) Because, in addition to the usual feelings — betrayal, loss of identity, confusion — it meant to Nick that he was forever tainted by the Darlings. They are him and he's them, and he'll never be free. That's a blow.

It's an interesting conceit, this show: the relationship between two servants raised in a wealthy house and the family that owns them. Oddly, their status and dilemmas seem to mirror those of Simon Elder's parents.

Poor Gustav, the bastard son of a bastard son. The thing is, the mother may be right: he may be better off growing up away from Brian and the Darlings. Because look at how rich scions turn out... he'd be another Hilton sister, another Jeremy, another Juliet. A father's love is a weighty thing, so it might tip the scales. But then that father seems to be in lifelong pain, and acting it out on everyone and everything; he's not the best role model.

The actress who played Karen won me over a little in this episode, with the awesome "I don't like hospitals. It's like... Death! Coming to get you, Karen! Soon!" Hee!

I saw a panel discussion on this show last night that featured Donald Sutherland, Blair Underwood, Billy Baldwin, Seth Gabel, Natalie Zea, Samaire Armstrong, and writer/creator Craig Wright. They were all tremendously smart, delightful and funny...

With two exceptions. Samaire Armstrong appears to have the brain of a thumbtack. (There are rumors that she has drug problems that may oust her from the show... it'd actually be to her credit if it's drugs that are at fault.) And Wright was pontificator who, while obviously intelligent, was overly fond of proving it with big words and subtly angry tangential lectures. He said that Six Feet Under was a show about how the heterosexual patriarchy has to die so that homosexual and female artistic energy can ascend. Gee, I must have missed that episode. Then there was a long story about the Mahabharata, which while pretty seemed to come in answer to a question about how the writers' strike will impact the acting job market.

The weirdest thing for me was when he was asked about the theme of money in Dirty Sexy Money, and he answered quite seriously that the show has nothing to do with money, that the money is meaningless and he doesn't know any rich people, and it could be a show about any set of people. Huh? I'm watching the show, and it may not be the only theme, but it's in there. (It's the title!) Money has troubled or tainted every character on the show, and it's the central thread that has bound the two Georges inextricably to the Darling family and made them servants to a power they can't entirely stomach.

It's a weird thing. I'm trying to figure out how a decent show can emanate from someone whose thought processes are so rambling, and who has completely different ideas about the series than what's on the page. I get that audiences can find meanings in art that weren't in the artist's intent, but this...

It was still an enjoyable and illuminating discussion. I seemed to detect the rest of the panelists straining to be patient with the other two... sometimes you'd catch them with their hands over their faces or laughing. And Billy Baldwin just wasn't having the long rants from Wright; he kept interjecting (welcome) funny comments.

............what?! We need emoticons on here to express that level of crazy.

Yes. It takes guts to sling a load like that at an audience full of cynical college students.