Nip/Tuck: Season 1, Episode 5: Kurt Dempsey Review

Kurt Dempsey

Original Airdate: August 19, 2003

Writers: Lynnie Greene & Richard Levine

Director: Elodie Keene

“You can be amazed what you can do if you want something enough.” These words spoken by the McNamara’s doctor during their ultrasound couldn’t better represent this episode. David smashed his wife’s nose with a hammer so she could get one more procedure. One of their patients covered his body with tattoos to show his love for his ex Latoya. Kurt underwent a procedure so his eyes would look like his Japanese fiancé's to get her xenophobic mother to approve. Julia had a miscarriage because she attended class against doctor’s orders so she could pass.

David’s efforts to “ease [Ellie’s] pain” were the most disturbing, and I'm still not sure that their explanation was the truth. It seems too dark for love, but love does make people do crazy things for it. His affection for her during their consultation looked genuine. Grace’s is probably right that couples that are willing to share their darkest parts to each other can be capable of things most of us can’t understand.

Julia’s pregnancy comes at another inopportune time. Her first time with Matt made her drop out of school to be a stay at home mom. Being a mom gave her an excuse to put off doing what she wanted. Then she had Annie, which renewed it. She’s in denial about it, comforted by Sean’s promise to be a more active father, but Matt makes her see that the baby is another excuse. Did she ever want it? She risks the baby so she can pass the class and ultimately miscarries. Unfortunately, she didn’t talk about this with Sean. Such passive aggressive measures are careless and selfish, especially knowing the risk involved in heavy activity that her doctor told her.

Kurt’s procedure is worthy of debate. I have heard of procedures for Asian people to make their eyes look “European”, but I never seen it the other way. While it’ll get Kurt in, how will he explain his family? They must’ve not thought long about this. Making him appear as a minority also has ethical consequences as Liz mentioned. Although he is doing it to get her mother’s approval, not to receive any special treatment, he is still changing his face to resemble a minority.

Most of this episode’s plot focuses on Christian’s lifestyle. Even this early in the series Christian’s womanizing was one of his dominant traits. He’s with a different woman each episode, sometimes more than one. In this episode, he has sex with three women. So Grace suggesting he go to sex therapy to handle his addiction isn’t too soon. Plus, it provides the venue to introduce Gina, who’ll be a great foil to Christian throughout the series.

Christian is often cruel with his sex partners. One night stands are common, and he discards most of them without a second thought. The closest he gets to intimacy is getting business out of them. Gina is payback for those countless women. They encounter each other at the Sexaholics Anonymous meeting. While Gina devoutly follows the lifestyle of recovery, Christian goes more to forget about one woman who propositioned him in a bar. His experience doesn’t convince him, and he is able to persuade her to spend the night, an experience that she regrets. Humans are “a walking pile of ashes” to Christian, so he spends his life pursuing pleasure instead of seeing it as a problem. Gina resents this callous nature of the philosophy she had been living by for eight months prior. Her appearance in this episode is a prologue to the vengeance she wreaks on Christian.

It was clear that Christian and Grace would sleep together since there was tension from when they first met. In retrospect, this was the only thing Grace’s character had to do. After their affair subsided, she was hardly seen on Nip/Tuck and not mentioned during the second season. This could be simply because of something behind the scenes or the producers felt she, like Christian’s friends in the beginning, was detracting from the major drama of the McNamaras and Christian.

This scene with Christian and the two other middle aged men seems to be a typical experiment in trial and error of a new series. Early in many shows runs, characters, storylines and actors are switched or written out to enhance the long term show. Christian womanizing alone better represents loneliness and his quest for someone who will make him feel what he does towards Julia. This feels more like a male Sex and the City. Luckily, they scrapped this.

Their encounter is much tenderer than the previous liaisons he’s had on the show. There isn’t loud music and the lovers take it slow instead of rapid thrusts and frantic gestures. Oddly enough, Grace gets up and leaves without looking at Christian. Juxtapose this against the earlier scene with Gina and we can see how both genders use sex to get what they want. Grace and Christian aren’t different in this regard. Both characters mentioned they were “absolutely exhaust[ed]” looking for someone, but Christian wasn’t serious. Grace wants to avoid feeling miserable about being a thirty something single woman, even for a few moments. This characterization could’ve been interesting to explore further had the season not been packed with other storylines.

Unlike Sean and Julia, the other relationships (aside from Latoya’s ex) seem to work because of the heavy sacrifice they make for the other. While her xenophobia may still exist, Leigh’s mom accepts Kurt because of what he was willing to do. Similarly is David, who was willing to do what it took to make his wife happy, even if it meant hurting her to do it. Julia wasn’t willing to put her dreams aside, nor tell Sean her feelings about it. So the rift grows, which provides the stage for the rest of the season.

This is another good episode, marred only by some failed experiments common in the first batch of episodes. Christian’s womanizing is given the focus. Along with Gina’s introduction, this will set the tone for his story. Grace and Christian sleeping together was predictable and the consequences were small. But things are starting to move towards what is to come.

Score: 7/10