HBO Enlightened “Agent of Change” #18 Square One

by Catherine Giordano

Season 2 of HBO’s Enlightened ended with episode 18 “Agent of Change” which aired on March 3, 2013. It ends with Amy right back where she started in episode 1—friendless, jobless, and turning to her ex-husband Levi.  She is back to “Square One.”

This season finale could very well be a series finale. I hope there is a season 3. This show is one of the best on TV—unique, emotional, beautifully written and produced. The poetic voice-overs, the beautiful music, the quirky characters—everything is so well done. 

“Enlightened” is listed as a comedy on the HBO website. I wouldn’t call it a comedy; it doesn’t make me laugh, although I smile wanly as I recognize myself in the characters. Yet it is not quite a drama either, if you define drama as I do—a show where the plot is preeminent—although there are plenty of plot twists. This show defies categories. Perhaps I can best describe it as an extended character sketch or a treatise of the philosophy of life.  

On episode 18, Krista took center stage. The episode opens with Krista gazing at her newborn marveling at the miracle of life in this “beautiful upsetting world.”

Amy’s voiceover has her musing about her place in the world. “Am I the agent of change, or a creature of chaos?”  (Later the CEO of Abaddonn, after Amy’s betrayal of the company becomes known, calls her “an agent of chaos.”)

Amy muses, “Am I the fool, the goat, the witch, or am I enlightened? Maybe like all of us, she is a bit of each of them. This is what I mean about this show being unique.  What other show would ask us to think about these things?  As Amy searches for answers in her life, we the viewers, are asked to search for answers in our lives.

Tyler is feeling very guilty about his part in the upcoming exposé.  Eileen sees that he is troubled and asks him what is wrong. Tyler spills the beans, and Eileen charges off.

Eileen has warned her boss, George Szidon, CEO of Abaddonn about the exposé. Jeff phones Amy and tells her, “They know.”  Amy thinks Krista has ratted her out.

In the previous episode, Amy and Krista have finally mended their friendship. Krista is willing to accept Amy as a friend again. In recognition of this renewed friendship, Amy tells Krista about the exposé. Krista is shocked, but is much more concerned about the imminent birth of her baby than anything related to work. She promises not to say anything.

However, when Amy learns that “they know” she immediately blames Krista. She breaks into Krista’s hospital room and verbally assaults Krtista. Amy gets overwrought, reminiscent of the scene back in the beginning of Season 1 where she confront her co- married lover  and co-worker in the halls of Abaddonn and has a very public meltdown.  It’s déjà vu all over again and Amy is firmly escorted out of the hospital room.

Amy returns to Abaddonn and Tyler tells Amy that he told Eileen. Amy is in crisis mode now, grabbing all her things--especially her computer hard drive--and trying to leave the building. Amy is intercepted by security and brought upstairs.

Szidon is furious. He shouts at Amy, “You have committed a crime.”  

Amy is calm as the invective and threats wash over her like water off a duck’s back.  She says, “I tried to take a little power back.”

Szidon continues, “You are a hysteric, an agent of chaos.  I will crush you like the bug you are.”

Amy remains calm throughout Szidon’s tirade. Szidon berates her and threatens her, but he can’t break her.  She has a clam dignity when she announces that the meeting is over and she is leaving.  Here we see Amy at her best.

She’s at her best later with Jeff also when they speak on the phone afterwards.  Jeff says, “We knew this would happen.” 

Amy responds, “We did?” 

This reminds me of the last episode when Jeff is telling Amy she knew things that she did not know.  (In the prior episode he told her that she knew that their relationship was not real. She was very dignified then, too.)

Jeff asks if she wants to come over. Amy replies with a dignified, “No.” This is the “for-a-ditzy-woman-she-can-be-so-smart-so-brave” moment of the week.

Amy ends up on the steps outside Levi’s condo.  Levi sits down next to her. Their conversation revels that the bond between them is so strong.  Levi is accepting and reassuring.

“I’ve just done something crazy.”

“So what else is new?”

“I’ve got no job.”

“Great, we can hangout. Want a beer?”

“Who am I? Am I crazy?”

“No, you are just full of hope.”

They sit quietly together. In a voice over, Amy thinks, “You can wake up to your higher self… you can walk out of Hell into the light.”  That sounds like a hope-filled person to me.   

In the last scene, we see Eileen go to Tyler’s home and ring his doorbell.  Tyler opens the door, and they embrace. It is clear that she has forgiven Tyler for his role in the exposé. Tyler, at least, has stepped off “Square One.”

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Amy and Levi at the end of season 2.

HBO Enlightened “No Doubt” Ep 17 Everything Changes

by Catherine Giordano

Amy begins episode 17 of HBO’s (aired on 2/24) “Enlightened” feeling certain that her life has been transformed and she poised for wonderful things. And then everything changes… for the worse. (Has that ever happened to you?  Don’t you hate it when it does?)

Amy has broken if off for good with her ex-husband, Levi. He doesn’t take the news very well, but Amy feels she must move on. She has a wonderful new boyfriend, Jeff, a handsome, successful journalist who can give her a life of adventure. She and Jeff are involved in an exposé of Abaddonn that will bring down the company she sees as evil and win them both fame and glory. Life is wonderful.

And then everything changes. 

Dougie has a very public meltdown as he informs everyone that the whole basement crew is being let go at the end of the week.  The crew doesn’t take the news too well either.

Tyler has saved himself by getting a job elsewhere in the company, and he wants to help Amy move into a new position also. He asks his new girlfriend, Elaine, the secretary to George Szidon, the CEO of Abaddonn, to ask her boss to give Amy an interview. Amy is conflicted since she knows the company is about to go down once Jeff’s story is printed, but she can’t refuse the interview without tipping Elaine off abot the coming exposé. 

She meets Szidon at his country club.  There, surrounded by luxury and sunshine, she presents her plan.  This is the plan to have Abaddonn be a force for good in the world, the plan that was rejected months earlier, and consequently started her on her mission to bring Abaddonn down.   

To Amy’s surprise, Szidon likes her plan and offers her $100,000 a year—to start—to start up a department to implement her plan.

After this meeting, Amy is not sure which way to go. She goes to see Jeff and tries to nudge him away from the story. The offer of an exciting job and a big fat salary has weakened her resolve to bring Abbaddonn down. Jeff tells her there is no way to stop this story now.

And then Jeff tells her something else. He says that since she is named in the story, it would not be politic for them to be involved in any kind of personal relationship.  He adds that they both had just let their emotions carry them away and now we need “to put the brakes on.” He tells her it wasn’t real and that, “We both knew that all along.”

Amy is stunned and says nothing.  Then she quietly collects her purse and heads for the door. Now for the “best-exit-line-ever” moment of the week, she turns back and in a soft, quiet voice says, “I didn’t know that all along.”  You’ve got to watch this episode if just for that moment along.  No tears, no accusations, just dignity and a quiet put-down.  She says so much with those few words.

(It's a nice contrast between how Levi reacts when she breaks it off with him and how she reacts when Jeff breaks it off with her.)

The next episode is the final episode of season 2. Things are going to change even more, and probably not is a good way.

P.S. Once again real life intrudes. I’m going to be very busy with work so the reviews will have to be much shorter for the next 6 weeks. I may even have to skip a few.

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HBO Enlightened “The Key” #11 On a Mission

The season 2 of Enlightened premiered on Sunday January 13 on HBO. It’s officially named #11, “The Key.”

Amy Jellicoe (played by Laura Dern) is on a mission. She’s always on a mission of one sort of another. It is how she defines herself and gives her life meaning.

Her “partner-in-crime” is her co-worker, Tyler (played by Mike White). Amy usually manages to drag poor Tyler into her schemes.  For a lady who portrays an image of sweetness and light, she is quite a manipulator.

Amy has used Tyler’s password to hack into the email files of Abbadonn’s management.  She takes these files to a journalist, Jeff Lender (played by Dermont Mulroney) known for writing corporate exposés for the local newspaper. 

Amy’s dreams of bringing Abadonn down are crushed when Jeff tells her she has nothing. The emails show unethical and immoral behavior, but not anything illegal.  Jeff asks her if she is just on a mission for revenge. Amy says her mission is only to right wrongs.

Jeff tells Amy that she can be useful. Her access to the company’s electronic files can right wrongs. Abaddonn has been paying off government officials. Jeff’s mission is to use Amy to “blow the lid off” these secret pay-offs.  

Amy is tired of feeling small. She needs to do something to feel alive. She doesn’t want to go back to being nothing. Tyler on the other hand is something of a nebbish.  He doesn’t have much ambition, he doesn’t want much from life; he’s just a quiet guy who lives a quiet lonely life.  Maybe that is why Amy has so much power to manipulate him—she may be his only friend.

And that’s about it for this episode. Not much action—the episode is just setting the stage for the rest of the season. We will see some kind of relationship between Amy and Jeff, and we’ll see Amy’s adventures as a spy.

I hope we will be seeing more of Jeff.  He’s a hunk and a nice change from Amy’s ex-husband, Levi, the slacker.

A lot of time in this episode is spent on voice-over philosophy-ing.  There are lots of shots of skyscrapers glittering in the night and talk of “dreams and kingdoms and how this will end and life and earth will reign again.”  (The writers have apparently fallen into a bushel of metaphors.) And the final shot—the “guess-what- the-metaphor-means” moment of the week-- is a sea turtle swimming alone in the ocean.

Oh my little seas turtles—each of us swims alone in the sea of life.

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Amy's new squeeze--journalist Jeff Flender (played by Demont Mulrooney)