BEFORE WE START… can we go back to that last scene in “Rebellion”?

I’ve formed another theory about it…

OK, onward to our main feature…

There are THREE film references in this clip…

• The Magnificent Seven (2016 version), which was a remake of

• The Magnificent Seven (1960 version), which was an “Old West” remake of 

• Seven Samurai, a 1954 Japanese film considered to be one of the most influential works in cinema.
  

As Lim suggests in the clip, the basic story is the same in all three films: a desperate farming village hires “freedom fighters” to combat the antagonists, who plan to steal their crops after harvest. We all know who the antagonist is in TGD’s version… but who will ultimately comprise the “seven”? Assuming the nurse and anesthesiologist are essentially “extras”?

There were three confirmed, as per the episode. But based on what we’ve seen of the “Cheat Day” follow-up (5x10), I took educated guesses on some of the others… and tried to match up all seven with character descriptions from the 1960 film. (That’s the film whose theme music we heard in the closing scene with Lim and Glassman.)

WARNING: The photo embellishments I made are decidedly NOT great (I can’t draw!!!), but I still thought it’d be fun to do them. And it was. I wish I had time to do more, but adding drawing time to writing time is not advisable if you’re me!

Meet the (possible) St Bonaventure Seven:

What, no Dr. Morgan Reznick-?

She, too, appeared to have no intention of joining Team Lim last week… and given her history with Salen, it makes sense. It also makes sense that Park influence her to change course in the coming week. But I don’t recall seeing her in many pics or scenes with the others, so I’m thinking of her as a late addition at best.

If she does, I’ll draw a pic of Morgan with a cowboy hat next week if you really want me to…

As for the Shea interlude within the whole recruitment process…

This is a challenge, you know?  

Back in S3 I spoke of the incredibly ambitious road TGD chose with regards to Shaun’s lovelife development, and the subsequent “catapults” we found in key episodes that drove the plotline forward faster than expected.  

Here, in S5, I see a slightly different challenge: the writers wanted to make Shaun and Lea’s path to the altar interesting, yet as relevant as ever to their uniqueness. AND they needed to deal with Shaun and Glassman’s relationship evolving. AND, OH YEAH, the hospital itself was going to be a vital part of the story arc. But that part needed to come to a (partial?) conclusion in very big fashion at the midway point of the season.  

You know, right after Shaun kind of breaks up with Lea? And calls Glassman out for abandoning him? And has a breakdown? Yeah, right after all that. 

So now it seems like not so much a need to keep moving the ball down the field as it is a need to split the ball (at least) three ways, keeping a couple of them in a holding pattern while the majority of the attention spins to the other ball.  

It’s tough to keep those “holding pattern” balls afloat, and interesting… but they are essential to the success of the third ball, so the writers have to find ways to make it work. At least short-term. 

With Shaun/Glassman, their final scene together in “Yipee” was the most successful to my eyes for the reasons I mentioned earlier (Glassman being inspired by Shaun’s assertiveness). Other efforts this time around were not my favorite; it felt weird having Glassman barely ask about the latest development with Lea when he was ALL. ABOUT. THAT the last time we saw him. But for now, I still say time is on TGD’s side with this relationship. To be continued…

But Shaun and Lea’s moments (OK, two minutes) in “Yipee” were fairly satisfying for me. Am I surprised they appear to be well on the road to full recovery already? Kind of, but knowing the show has hung all its promotion this season on their wedding, I did the math and figured the split couldn’t last TOO long (more than 3-4 eps would count as “too long” in my book).

Yeah, but this was only 2 episodes after Shaun’s meltdown. Didn’t they rush this just to get both of them working together for Team Lim? I saw more than a few people say this past week. Sure, I wouldn’t put it past the writers using that tactic…but I still bought it. Here’s why:

• True to form, Shaun absorbed input (mostly from Jordan) like a sponge before going to talk to Lea in this episode.

• Also true to form, there was no awkward first-sighting-after-the-big-blowup because Shaun started talking before he was even through Lea’s office door. I’m guessing Lea knew he was telling a story with current resonance as soon as he mentioned 4th grade… because let’s face it, Shaun doesn’t have many grade school stories that aren’t rooted in some sort of pain. (It’s funny to think of the storytelling as a strategy on Shaun’s part… If I go into her office already talking, she won’t be as likely to interrupt what I’m trying to tell her and I’ll be able to be clear.)

• I mentioned last week that David Hoselton was a part of both this script and “Autopsy” in S3; it’s also worth a mention that his co-writer on “Yipee”-- A.S. Weissman– has ASD himself. I can’t help but wonder if Shaun’s gym class story was borne of one of Weissman’s own experiences.

• I admit I would’ve liked to see Lea actually talking through things with Jordan rather than just the implication that they did so. But, like the “makeup” itself, I felt lucky we got what we did in the midst of the Salen crisis. 

• The promise of “hard work” for #Shea in the future is encouraging, but I’m feeling pretty believe-it-when-I-see-it.  Will we get to see enough of the “hard work” happening to fully accept they’re in a far better place as a couple? THAT’s the tough part.

• As an aside, though… the way Shaun said “I like hard work” with such an intimate, spellbound sweetness totally melted me into the furniture. 

• What about the lack of a kiss? This time, I say no problem. Two episodes ago, Shaun’s eye contact with Lea was vanishing and physical contact was impossible. With “Yipee,” the eye contact returned (for the most part), and they joined hands as if they were already standing at that altar– something they seemed to do many times last season. That’s enough, for now. Sure a kiss would’ve been nice… but so many already calling foul on THIS much of an early reunion, can you imagine the frustration if there’d been more to it?

In the end, Shaun and Lea managed to leave me feeling pretty good about their future, yet definitely wanting more both in terms of their physicality and their conversation. We know how TGD works, and that the show’s version of “more” is never quite what Shea Nation has in mind. 

But we know how to be patient, and we’ve come to expect a nice payoff for doing so. 

Let’s table our expectations for the week and focus on the showdown instead. I do believe we’re in for some solid entertainment with that strategy.