Loveday Writing

Later, Roxy goes to see Natalie and Izzy to train Izzy. Natalie sends Izzy into their house, although Izzy watches Natalie ask Roxy if she is high from their front door. Natalie tells Roxy that she needs to stay away from her and Izzy, and she can no longer trust her with Izzy.

Later, Edie and Julia wait for Roxy to come home and try to have an intervention with her, only for Roxy to lash out at them and leave. Roxy then goes to Leon’s apartment. Leon can immediately tell she is high and lets her in, but tells her he can’t give her alcohol or drugs. Roxy tells him that Edie and Roxy hate her and admits that she feels no-one cares about her. She asks Leon if she can stay here, he reluctantly says yes, but when she leaves the room, he looks through her phone and uses his own phone to make a call.

While Roxy and Leon play backgammon, they hear a knock at the door and Leon answers, revealing that he called Ron and Diane. Roxy is reluctant to accept their help, but during Ron and Diane’s intervention, Ron and Leon get into a fight, ending up with Ron angrily ordering Roxy to go with them and she does. Later, Leon calls Julia to let her know about calling Ron and Diane to help Roxy, she thanks him and reassures him that he did the right thing. Later, when Ron and Diane struggle to find the rehab they want to take Roxy to, Roxy gets out of the car and walks to the other side of the highway, narrowly avoiding being hit by cars. She tells them they can’t force her to go to rehab and runs off. Later, Diane comes to Julia’s apartment and asks Julia for her help, as Roxy will listen to her and Edie.

Edie and Julia eventually find Roxy at the gym talking to Nick. While Nick tries to steer Julia and Edie away, they angrily tell him to back off. Julia and Edie take Roxy to rehab the next day, promising to be there waiting for her when she is released.

Edie – This was a big episode for Edie too, as she eventually and finally told Tim the truth about her affair with Amanda. At the beginning of the episode, while Julia is video chatting with Donovan, Edie accidentally reveals to him that she is cheating on Tim, as she asks Julia and Roxy for advice on how to tell Tim. She asks Donovan to keep her secret and he politely, but quickly agrees and ends the video call.

Later, Edie and Tim talk with Leon in their office. Edie and Tim tell him that he needs character witnesses to win over the jury, Leon offers to testify himself but Edie and Tim shut down this idea. Tim suggests Genevieve, which both Edie and Leon try to shut down. Later, when Edie and Genevieve are going for a walk, Edie asks Genevieve if she’ll be a character witness. Genevieve says yes, on the condition that Edie follows her heart and tells Tim the truth, informing her that she always knew she was gay. However when Edie and Amanda are going for a walk later on, Amanda gives her an envelope with a report on a background check she had done on Genevieve, which reveals that she has been lying to the IRS about her income.

Later that evening, Tim comes home and it looks like Edie is about to tell him the truth about her affair, only to tell him that Genevieve won’t work as their character witness.

Towards the end of the episode, Edie finally tells Tim the truth about the affair. He is rightfully angry and asks Edie if she loves Amanda, she admits she does and he asks her to leave.

Julia and Leon – I’m reviewing Julia third as I felt the episode focused more on Roxy and Edie. The episode kicks off with Julia video chatting with Donovan and telling her about her first fertility testing appointment with Isaac. When she’s at the appointment with Isaac, Julia admits she doesn’t know how many children she wants to have, but she wants to know she has the possibility.

Later, Isaac tells her that her FSH levels are higher than they should be which means she could be infertile and that more tests need to be done. Julia tells Leon about this and asks whether Sarah had any issues conceiving her, in case there’s a genetic factor involved. He tells her that Sarah had no problem conceiving, but she did have doubts over whether she wanted to become a mother. He tells her that Sarah’s doubts melted away when she first held Julia in her arms.

Later, Genevieve visits Leon. She tells him that she wishes she could help as his character witness but can’t due to her old warrants. They then reminisce over their activist pasts, which includes them and Sarah chaining themselves to City Hall. Leon tells Genevieve that he put pressure on Sarah to settle down but Genevieve counters that Sarah was her own woman who made her own choices, and that he should tell Julia the whole story about Sarah. Leon eventually reveals to Julia that Sarah nearly died giving birth to her and had to spend three weeks in the ICU. Leon also tells Julia that he took care of her whilst Sarah was in the hospital and bonded with her.

The episode ends with Isaac coming to see Julia in her office, telling her that the high FSH levels were a false alarm but that the genetic screening found that Leon is not her biological father.

Overall, this episode contained a lot of crucial plot and character development with Edie finally telling Tim the truth, Roxy finally going to rehab, and Julia finding out that Leon is not her biological father. All three of these crucial moments did happen in the original series, which I appreciated, although there was a slight difference in how Roxy obtained the painkillers, in the original series, Roxy stole a dying Leon’s painkillers.

I felt that Edie’s reluctance to tell Tim the truth was dragging on for too long, so I’m glad she finally told him. On a more positive note, Emily Osment’s performance as a rock bottom hitting Roxy was fantastic. With Julia’s subplot, I honestly expected a reveal that she was already pregnant but I was glad that the writers went with the reveal (which again happened in the original series, albeit under different circumstances) that Leon is not her biological father. Although that being said, if I was in her shoes, considering that the high FSH levels were apparently a false alarm, I would have asked Isaac to rerun the genetic screening to be absolutely sure. I also appreciated that this episode didn’t introduce another sibling and instead focused on Edie, Roxy and Julia, which I asked for in a previous review.

It will be interesting to see where we go from here with these truths coming out.

Stray Observations:

-Julia told Isaac she had 8.5 sexual partners this year, how did she have half a sexual partner?

-Roxy’s full name is Roxanna.

-Apparently Edie carries police-quality mace around with her. As she’s a lawyer, Edie having access to police-quality mace is actually believable.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “I have to work late, I have detention,” (Donovan to Julia via video chat)
• “Everything okay? Are you sick?” “No I’m fine, nothing’s wrong, yet, today’s purely informational.” “You’re planning on getting sick?” (Donovan-Julia-Donovan via video chat)
• “Anyone want a smoothie to cut the tension?” (Roxy to Julia and Donovan)
• “Project onto us all you want, but the fact remains, you are an addict.” (Edie to Roxy)
• “You, sir, are the cat’s pyjamas.” “The cat’s pyjamas? Did I walk into a 1930s picture show?” “Sometimes I do feel like my life is a big screwball comedy.” “You’re more of a Bronte heroine if you ask me.” (Julia-Donovan going back and forth)
• “I blame the drugs, you should see what they put me on.” “You mean Tylenol?” (Julia to Donovan, and then Isaac)
• “Fathering is easy, parenting is the hard part.” (Genevieve to Leon)