And now for something completely different…I haven’t watched Kingdom in a million years but I think it is exactly the palate cleanse I need right now. Plus hot sweaty guys, amirite? Rolling S2:E12 No Fault after the break.
We had a BUNCH of problems last time; the worst of it was Alvey (Frank Grillo) and Lisa (Kiela Sanchez)’s baby dying but Ryan (Matt Lauria) breaking his knee one third of the way into defending his title is no bueno either.
We open with a young woman we don’t know yet; bumming around the beach and staring at the local scenery, some of whom stare back. She gathers her nerve and calls Alicia Mendez (Natalie Martinez) who doesn’t answer but calls back. The mystery woman is Ava Flores (Lina Esco) and I’m wondering if she was Alicia’s lover, not sister, because they’re acting WEIRD.
Alvey wakes up to texts from Ryan (he’s not coming in to train) with a naked woman coughing; she calls him a rough one. Yeah, you could say that. Somewhere there lives a picture of Alvey with Toxic Masculinity scrawled across it but I do enjoy getting a peek inside his melon here and there.
We’re in rehab with Christina Kulina (Joanna Going) now; she is TAHRED of listening to Reggie (Hector Luis Bustamente) go on about his rockstar life as a Corrections Officer (? hot dogs hanging out of your bums for why?); why not talk about when he left his daughter in the car while high? Use the time properly, Reggie, that’s what everyone is here for. Counselor Leader Jason (Billy Lush) is useless at controlling the group.
He does seem to have a pretty good grip on Christina’s bum while she’s humping him, though. What’s that about? She turns his face away when he calls her beautiful; she can’t get off if he’s all doe eyes and romance.
Nate (Nick Jonas) and brother Jay (Jonathan Tucker – worth the price of admission) are practice sparring in the room because Ryan is still hiding; you can’t hide away a broken ACL, dude. You just can’t. That is experience speaking.
Alvey’s going to check on Ryan himself, but bad luck just can’t leave him alone.
The cyclist thinks his collarbone is broken, Alvey calls an ambulance while Keith (Paul Walter Hauser) joins them in a bathrobe for absolutely no reason I can see.
Ryan lies about the how he broke his knee and how badly it’s hooped; but Alvey can tell right away they’re in trouble. He’ll arrange a meeting with the doctor, after he eats some shite from Ryan for missing Alicia’s fight.
Jason the Therapist is drowning in guilt over his unethical sexual relationship with Christina, who doesn’t understand what the problem is.
But he’s her therapist, AND a newlywed AND his father-in-law paid for his schooling to become a therapist. Yeah. He’s dying over it, but: he says this every time. Christina reminds him, they can just stop! But she isn’t going to say anything. Is it okay if she comes back late after lunch with her son? Sure, anything for you, patient who Jason is totally going to bang again.
It IS Alicia’s sister who called her earlier; why is Alicia using their mom’s last name instead of Flores? Ava puts Jay on the spot; who’s older? He hilariously declares Alicia the kid sister, which is exactly the opposite. Awww! They’re both stunning and looking to party that night, although Alicia looks concerned.
Ryan lucked out, no serious MCL tear, it can heal on its own. In ten days..? No way to tell if he’ll be ready before the fight but if it’s up to Ryan of course he’ll say he can’t. Every single time before a fight he tries to get out of it; now he has a giant puffy blackened knee to do that for him.
Ryan makes a point of insinuating that Alvey will tell Jay about his injury; that’s a hard spot for a trainer: one fighter is his son and the other is his best fighter. Not for Alvey, though, he never cared for Jay the way he cares about his other son Nate.
Alvey comes into Navy Street for the first time since he smashed up his office; calling Nate and Jay into his office to tell them about the baby. Because Lisa wasn’t just sort of pregnant; she was HUGE. And now the baby is no more and that’s all we know. It ends in a Kulina Klan Group Hug; after Alvey’s got his head on the desk again. I think the pain is starting to seep in now that the numb has worn off.
Jay and Christina have a lovely mother/son visit; she’s gonna try to make his fight, seeing as she gets special privileges and all. I am not anti-sex-work, yay for me, I know, mostly because I have known sex workers; they were all in it by varying degrees of choice. To a one: they all saw themselves on the other side of the glass from society, and you can see it here. Christina’s in rehab but she’s still using her most familiar currency to get what she wants. It can be hard to not see all other non-sex-workers as potential clients, I’ve heard.
Ava wants to invite Jay along on their Girl’s Night Out; Alicia was hoping for a good one on one talk but I think her sister is just there to party.
Bob (Paul Ben Victor) sweats his way through another Nate Workout only to fire him summarily at the end. He called 8 times the other night! 8! And Nate didn’t pick up once; that’s what he paid Nate ten grand for, not to sweat by his own pool whenever Nate could fit him in. Can he make Bob’s smoothie on his way out? Thanks!
Christina is painting her toenails in her room when Jason the Therapist comes for a visit; he wants to hump and doesn’t understand her reluctance to get involved. He was a means to an end for Christina, she has no interest in young Jason and he is furious when he realises that. She has to scream to get him off her; I’m worried she’s going to get kicked out of rehab.
Ryan and Keith settle in for a nice, quiet night watching a movie together. Until Ryan realises it’s a porn that Keith has queued up; he’s not watching it with you, Keith, he doesn’t care if it’s his movie!
Jay is going out with the ladies, he looks goooood! Nate just wants him to move out of the way of his video games.
The world according to Jay.
Ava and Alicia verbally spar a bit; I gather Ava is a model and she’s a little confused about Alicia’s new life path. Does that mean she now sups from the furry cup? Nah, does SHE? That’s when Jay walks up, great timing! He’ll banter a bit, but he can’t stay and have a drink because he has a fight against Alicia’s boyfriend to train for.
Then Alicia has to explain about Ryan; Jay figures if they’re f*cking AND fighting: they’re a couple and I can’t argue there.
Nate picked up with Bob called his time, yes he did, and now he’s at a party in his gym clothes in the middle of the night: this doesn’t look like a training session? Stay and drink a bit!
Alvey’s decided to do target practice in his house for a bit; so drunk he can’t hit an orange across the room. It’s not just the baby messing him up; his old friend Sean Chapas killed himself in front of Alvey not that long ago and he hasn’t dealt with ANY of it.
Jay comes out of the washroom to find Ava; she wants to hang out with him. Tonight. He doesn’t disagree, but he isn’t easy either, he’ll wait until she comes to his fight. Ava is unused to not getting what she wants but laughs. Jay is totally not my type at all but Jonathan Tucker is crazy compelling and I get the attraction.
Nate gets drugged at the party; half a drink in and he’s almost passed out. He’s led into a bedroom where a half-naked man waits; a beautiful woman (Alexia Rae Castillo) takes off her clothes and starts kissing an almost comatose Nate. The man crawls over top and this is what we’ve been waiting to see for two seasons, huntys. Nate throwing down with a dude in a threeway.
*cold shower break*
This was obviously planned; Bob is watching from the next room through two-way glass.
Ava’s trying to talk Alicia out of Jay’s number when a woman walks up on her at a hot dog stand; Alicia kicks the ever-loving shit out of the woman and that can’t be good. She’s an actual fighter; could she be sued?
Alvey calls Ryan and gives him the bad news, even though he told his sons he didn’t want anyone to know. Well, Ryan and Lisa were engaged back in the day, maybe that’s why, but he still doesn’t want Ryan calling right now, OKAY?
Nate wakes up groggy, Bob’s assistant Will (Jonathan Howard) tries to run interference for Bob but Nate is furious. He doesn’t want the ten grand payoff offered by Will, he wants to f*ck Bob up, and he will, when Bob gets back in a month. We’re out.
I forgot how much I like this show in general; it’s fast paced and doesn’t take itself too seriously while covering some pretty serious territory. It was more uneven that usual this episode; so many naked women for so few naked sweaty men, boooo! I hope Alvey’s storyline eases up soon, he’s been on a downward spiral for months. Until next time, rubber side down, y’all.
