Life Unexpected 2x12 "Teacher Schooled" 2x13 "Affair Remembered"

I must say, after the many lows of this second, and final, season of this little show, they managed to turn things around in these last two episodes and send it out on a high note. That's right, friends. For those who don't know, the show is not coming back. These last two episodes were the series finale. And though there was certainly more story that could've been told, I found myself quite satisfied by the ending, thanks to the little coda at the end. The coda where they tried to fake us out, mind you. Were you as satisfied as me?

But, per usual, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's first take a look at the first hour - Teacher Schooled - or as we may like to call it - Secrets Exposed. Because there was a whole lot of drama a goin' on revolving around the two big secrets broiling - that of Lux and Eric and the newly discovered secret that Emma had an affair with Baze's dad. Just how did these secrets get exposed? Well!

Baze was all happy happy joy joy about his relationship with Emma going so well that he revealed that he was thinking of selling the bar and using the money to buy a house that she would eventually move into with him. Lux told her she needed to put the kibosh on the deal because the truth has a way of coming out eventually (maybe take your own advice there, Luxy). Emma tried to make it seem like it wouldn't work because of her son, Sam, but Baze just rose to that occasion and decided he'd win Sam over. Which he did in rather goopy but ultimately heartfelt fashion by showing him that he'd have a place in this new house too.

Of course, it was not meant to be, because meanwhile, Lux was trying to set up a secret rendezvous with Eric at Tosh's place. He'd been blowing her off for a while, and she was upset about it and blah de blah. The night they were supposed to meet, though, Eric decided he couldn't go through with it, and instead went to tell Math what had been going on. Meanwhile, Cate and Baze are freaking out because they don't know where Lux is, so Sam has to spill the beans that he knows where she is and what's been going on.

Thus, all hell breaks loose. Lots of yelling ensues, and Baze tries to physically get into it with Eric. Lux takes the opportunity to tell Baze he doesn't know anything about relationships and tells him about Emma and his dad. Uh oh. And when he confronts Emma about it, she reveals that it went on for four years. FOUR YEARS! Holy moly. Dunzo for them.

Also dunzo? Lux and Eric. I did feel bad for him a little, because he really does seem like a nice guy, but he should've stopped the whole thing long ago. Lucky for him, Cate and Baze decide to just tell him to get out of town and never talk to Lux again rather than get the police involved. Of course, Lux is still pissed, as is her way. And that was basically that episode in a swift little nutshell.

Moving on to the grande finale! Cate and Ryan seem to be working things out pretty well. Kelly, Ryan's radio co-host, has been fired, and they want to give Ryan his own show for Cate to produce. On top of that, they are headed to a doctor's appointment to see the development of their gestating fetus. Except that's when things start to go down the tubes. Because the doctor can't find the baby on the monitor. Cate's lost the baby, and on top of that, she finds out that she won't be able to have another one.

But even with all of that going on, she's still dealing with Lux issues, because Lux is still mad about the Eric thing, and also accuses Cate of never actually listening to her and thinking she's lying all the time (HELLO, you WERE lying all the time!). They work it all out in the end, of course. That's what they do on these shows.

Meanwhile, Baze is real pissed at his dad for the whole Emma thing, but has to hide it at a big birthday soiree his mom is throwing for him. He almost spills the beans in front of the whole group, but upon seeing his mom's blissful ignorance, decides against it. Emma tries to talk to him and work things out, but it's too late for these two.

Lux is still dealing with the departure of Eric, and how she's not normal (her whining about it? very normal). She and Jones end up having a heart to heart, where he reveals to her that his mom is bipolar, and that no one is actually normal, and thinking you're not normal is actually the most normal thing of all. How many more times can I say normal in there? Probably not as many times as they said it in the episode!

Even with all of that going on, everything looks like it would be okay for everyone eventually, except that Cate sees Ryan's ex Julia at the doctor's, and she is certainly pregnant. Bum bum bum!

And with that, the episode jumped ahead two years to when Lux is graduating from high school. She gives a rather long-winded and teary speech, and we are left to wonder who has ended up with who out in the audience since everyone is seated all next to each other and it's all rather mysterious. Luckily, after the speech is over, people take to kissing each other and we find out that Ryan and Julia got back together and had a son. Math ended up with ummm... was her name Alice? Lux and Jones eventually got together. And Cate and Baze! Yes, I was rooting for them from the start. A shame we could not see their rekindled romance develop, but hey, it had to happen eventually.

Of course, I knew it was coming, but we also had Lux call Cate and Baze "Mom and Dad" there at the end, so you know things are all hunky dory for the little family. D'ahhh.

Well, that's about it, folks. Will you miss the show? At least it got a decent ending that didn't have some giant cliffhanger, right? I absolutely hate it when that happens (I'm looking at you, Farscape, no matter if you eventually had a TV movie to finish the story or not!).

Previous Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 2x11 "Stand Taken"

Sooo.... this recap is quite late, I know. And I also skipped the last episode and quite frankly, don't have much desire to find a way to see it online. I didn't miss much anyway, so, eh.

First of all, what is up with guys named Trey being complete bastards on TV? Trey on The OC, now this Trey. Have there been more? It seems likely, given the trend. But what makes the Trey on this show so terrible? Well, if you'll recall, he was the one who used to hit Lux when she lived with him and Valerie some four-odd years ago. He was also the one that Tasha hit over the head with a shovel a couple episodes back when Lux went to confront Valerie and Trey about the lies they were spreading about her. That has all come to a head now, because Trey and Valerie are pressing charges against Tasha for assault, for which she could be tried as an adult and end up going to prison for six years.

Of course, all of this could go away pretty quickly if Lux would just come forward and testify as to why Tasha felt she had to protect Lux by hitting the dude over the head with the shovel in the first place. Lux, though, is still being hesitant about doing that, for reasons we just can't fathom yet. Because at this point, it seems like she's just being selfish or something by not coming forward.

Lux only makes matters worse when she first decides she's going to testify, then instead decides to go to Trey on her own and tell him that if he doesn't testify against Tasha, then she won't reveal anything about him either. But everyone is less than pleased with Lux's sudden change in story, and I have to at least give Cate some credit here for not believing Lux when she said she had been lying about Trey being abusive. She has been doing a lot of lying lately, though, which has gotten old for me.

The court date arrives, and Lux decides to actually come forward with the truth after Tasha basically has to remind her that she's her best friend and they'd do anything for each other. At first it looks like things aren't going to go so well when the other side starts poking holes in Lux's story, but then Lux unloads with the really terrible truth. It wasn't just that Trey was abusive, it was also that he was sexually abusive. He made her kiss him, and probably would have forced himself on her if she had not fought back the last night she was there. With all of this new information, and Cate convincing Valerie that she needed to come forward as well, the judge decides to drop the assault charges against Tasha. She does, however, still have other charges that hold, which will send her to juvie for a couple of months.

In the end, we find out that the reason Lux didn't want to come forward with any of this stuff was because she was afraid of losing another mom like she lost Valerie (because, you see, she told Valerie what Trey had been doing, and she chose him over Lux). Cate assures her that she would never leave her.

As for what else is going on, Cate's pregnant and back together with Ryan, seemingly on the road to recovery from all of their crazy drama. Eric and Lux are still a secret couple, and he even says the big L word to her. And, after Baze's dad threatened to fire him if he did not break up with Emma last week, their relationship is on the mend after he stands up for Lux in the courtroom and whatnot. Baze's dad is still not okay with the Baze-Emma relationship, though, and we find out that it's probably because he and Emma had an affair in the past, which Lux just happened to overhear. Oh boy.

Overall, one of the best episodes of this season. And come January next year when they air the two hour finale, it's probably going to be all she wrote for this little show. Oh well.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 2x09 "Homecoming Crashed"

I think I can say with a certain amount of certainty (hyuck) that I really just cannot stand Lux anymore. She gets all up in arms about Cate trying to figure out what's going on and not trusting her, but HELLO. She is totally lying and keeping secrets left and right. When's the last time she told either Cate or Baze something genuine? Seriously, they'd be a whole lot more understanding if you just quit with the lying and general hypocrisy.

Okay. Now that I've got that rant out of my system. While I do find Lux ultra annoying of late, I will say that this was one of the better episodes of this second season. We didn't have to deal with constant bickering between Cate and Ryan, and we didn't have to watch too much of the stupid Lux and Mr. Daniels inappropriateness either. In fact, I rather enjoy the meatier storylines given to the newer characters - meaning Emma and her teenage son Sam. Although, is it just me, or is there some sort of rule that at least one character on every CW show must be named Sam? Sam Winchester, Sam from Reaper, now this Sam. I honestly can't say I even know that many Sams in real life!

Anyway, this week's episode had two basic plots. The first of which is everyone trying to figure out Lux's learning disability. Apparently, somewhere around 7th grade, she had some kind of stroke that caused some blood loss in the brain, which has resulted in something called, I think, disgraphia? I think that's what they called it. I suppose I should've written it down. In any event, everyone grilled her about something happening around that time to have caused such a thing, but of course Lux just LIES about it and claims nothing did. Tosh, however, tips Cate off to the fact that 7th grade was the time when Lux was living somewhat permanently with a woman and her husband, whose names I have failed to remember. So, Cate goes to investigate, only for the woman to tell her that Lux had turned out to be kind of violent and a liar, and that's why things hadn't worked out.

Meanwhile, while Baze and Emma work to schmooze a possible new client, they have entrusted Lux to watch Emma's son Sam, by taking him to the homecoming dance with her, Tosh and Jones. Sam ends up getting him and Lux in trouble by getting caught with a joint, so the school calls in Cate. Cate, already upset from the previous reveals, gets into a disagreement with Lux, who ends up storming out and taking off in Cate's car, with Tosh and Sam in tow. She rockets over to the lady's house and we find out that what really happened was that the husband had pushed Lux down the stairs and was otherwise violent. He shows up and starts getting violent again, which leads Tosh to hit him with a shovel. They take off and end up getting into a car accident (not with another car, though). And Lux still doesn't want to come clean to Cate and Baze about what happened to her. LUX, ugh. Sam ends up taking the blame for the car accident to get Lux out of being questioned. Sam is also going to be a new student at Lux's high school, and has figured out that she has something going on with Mr. Daniels.

And that's the basics. I'm just sick of Lux's constant lying and secret keeping, mostly for how it gets everyone else around her involved in it too. Just... boo. Boo boo boo.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Life Unexpected 2x08 "Plumber Cracked"

Pretty much I've just decided to watch and write these whenever I feel like it, since I don't think many people actually read the recaps of this show anymore. Because, let's face it, it's not getting renewed. After the 13 episodes are up in a few weeks, I think it will be time to say goodbye to what could have been a promising little family dramedy, but ended up being too much soap opera with characters making constantly ridiculous decisions.
Take this episode, for example. Even though they both know it is stupid and wrong, Lux and Eric (aka Mr. Daniels) have decided to try dating each other. Even though he's her teacher and she's only sixteen. And, as a friend of mine pointed out, they look as though they could be brother and sister. Once she pointed that out, I cannot get it out of my head when I see them. They totally do! Eugh. As if it wasn't bad enough already. ANYWAY. These two have started taking advantage of poor Tosh, who is the only person who knows about their scandalous affair, and are frequently spending time at her new apartment that Cate helped her get. When they lament that they can't do anything out in public together for fear of being caught (you know it's always a good relationship choice when you can't be seen together), Eric decides to whisk Lux away to Astoria (which apparently now requires you to take a ferry? Since when? Astoria is not an island. And if people were really just going to go hang at the beach for the day, they'd go to Seaside. OREGONIAN ALERT.)

Okay, tangent aside, they go to magical mystery non-existent island Astoria, wherein they learn that Eric has mysteriously lost his wallet along the way! How often does that happen, anyway? Lux decides they should crash a wedding so they can eat, and they get so caught up in the wedding stuff that they end up missing the last ferry back. I'm sorry, I just can't get over this stupid not real ferry thing! Ridic! They end up having to stay the night there, using the credit card that Cate just gave Tosh for emergencies, figuring Cate would never find out since Eric would transfer the balance to his card in the morning. Of course that doesn't work, because Cate gets a call from the bank about the suspicious charge. Lux begs Tosh to cover for her, which she does, only putting Tosh's relationship with Cate on uncertain footing. And then Lux and Eric just keep hanging out at Tosh's anyway, like it's all grand! WTF. Appreciate your friend and don't take such advantage, stupid Lux. You and Mr. Daniels, who should know better, infuriate me to no end. U to the GH. That means UGH.

In the world of the adults, the supposed adults, relationships are becoming more flimsy by the second. Cate and Ryan head to counseling to work out their honesty issues, and are told to begin a truth-only policy with one another until their next session. Cate wants to use this honesty thing as a way to find out more about Julia, Ryan's ex, but he decides he's just going to avoid the whole thing and instead have a guy's night out with Baze, Math and Jamie, who's back. But Cate, meanwhile, has decided she's going to try to get the information on Julia out of Paige, and takes her out to a bar to get her drunk. Cate ends up being the one who gets totally wasted and starts dancing on the bar, so Paige calls up Ryan to come get her. This leads to a big fight, naturally, wherein Ryan admits to Cate that he and Julia were together for 3 years, he proposed, and she said no. And, he's not over her. They leave separately, and their counselor suggests they take some time apart. Ryan heads over to Baze's to stay. How many more people can possibly stay at Baze's place, anyway?

Baze is having his own relationship issues. Everything seems to start out great, making out in his car with Emma (but also, another relationship that requires the two to sneak around. So much sneaking around going on). But then, Emma gets a mysterious call and hoofs it out of there. Baze tries to get in touch with her later, but some guy answers her phone. He assumes she must be seeing someone else, and goes into a bit of a depressed spiral with the guys. He drinks himself to the point where he decides he has to know what's going on with Emma and goes over there, professing his love at high volume on her doorstep, which leads some teenager to open the door and wonder what the hell. Turns out, Emma has a teenaged son named Sam who has been a bit of a troublemaker, and who hasn't lived with her for some time. She and Baze end up making up and things are actually looking sort of serious for these two. I actually like the two of them together. She's much less annoying than Cate, certainly!

And... yeah. I don't even remember what the preview was for the next episode. Umm. Nope, not coming to me. Oh well.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 2x07 "Camp Grounded"

I apologize for the lateness of this recap (for anyone who cares!), but the show was preempted here in sunny Los Angeles for the election stuff this past Tuesday. Also, the outlook for the show does not look so great anyway, so these recaps may be coming to a screeching halt in a few episodes. In a way I wish I were more upset about it, but I have to say, I'm not going to be. Sorry, little show. You've kind of gone down the tubes.

And why? Because it's just so much of the same every single week. This week's show really did not advance any of the plotlines all that much. And by plotlines, I should just say relationships. Sure, there were fights, kissing, and sex, but in the end? Not a lot of change. But okay, let's take a quick peek at all of our regulars...

First up, we've got Baze and his lady friend Emma. Random aside: Emma is played by Emma Caulfield. Did they name her Emma because they had her in mind, or did that just happen to be a coincidence? Moving on. Baze was trying to set up an intimate date with Emma to prove to her he could, or something, but he forgot about this school camping trip (sponsored by the English department? Bzuh huh?) he had to chaperone. So, he sort of tricked Emma into thinking they were going on an intimate trip just the two of them when instead it was this big group thing. He ended up making it up to her by planning a special evening for them aboard the bus, complete with mood lighting and some sexy times. By the end of the episode, Emma decides she's just going to put her reservations aside and go with it, since she can't control her feelings.

Her decision ended up having an accidental repercussion on Lux's business, though. Because Lux's relationship issues are still revolving around Mr. Daniels, aka Eric, who also happens to be a chaperone on this trip. He's supposedly trying to keep distance between them to stamp down his feelings, but then ends up teaching Lux how to "swim" at night, alone in the lake. I think we can all discern here that "swim" = "kiss." But! Someone sees them making with the lip locking, so they have to stop quick. It turns out that it was just Tosh that some them, so she won't tell anyone, but she does tell Lux to put a stop to the whole thing. It looks like Lux is probably going to take her advice, but then Emma inadvertently basically tells her to go with her gut by explaining how that's what she's doing with Baze. So Lux tells Eric to basically either stop it altogether or just deal with the conscience and move onward and upward. He responds by "slyly" grabbing her hand on the bus on the way back. BAD NEWS.

Meanwhile, Cate and Ryan are having the mother of all fights, which only gets worse when Ryan doesn't show up to their therapy session. Cate expects him to also blow off the camping trip he had agreed to chaperone, but he ends up going. They bicker and bicker and bicker some more for ages and ages and some more ages until it all comes to a head in some break up/make up/who knows angry sex in, I guess, a cabin. Cate basically tells him that she's upset with him about lying because he's supposed to be the upstanding one in the relationship, blah blah blah. In the end, Ryan decides to go to their next therapy session, after some advice from Baze, the last person he would ever expect to get good advice from, I suspect.

And... blah. Next episode it just looks like more fighting between Cate and Ryan. I am so over the constant bickering between these two! I'm sure I'm not alone. I also get annoyed by how stupid Lux and Eric are being, especially when they have people telling them they're being stupid. Sigh.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 2x06 "Honeymoon Interrupted"

I have to admit up front that this episode was much better than I had been anticipating. That's not saying a lot because my expectations were rather low. Perhaps I should just always go in with low expectations?

This episode was all about revelations and relationships, and for the most part, our three protagonists were mostly kept away from one another, which was actually a rather welcome change. So let's just talk about each of them, shall we?

Let's get the most annoying one out of the way with Lux. I'm sorry, but Lux has become my least favorite character on the show. She just gets so whiny and upset about the most ridiculous things. I suppose that is perhaps a by product of teenager-dom, but come on. So what's her story this week? She's getting all upset about Eric/Mr. Daniels again, particularly after she not only sees him come out of Paige's room in the morning, but also after she gets another F on a test. He decides to try to help her understand the material in a new way by bringing over the movie version, but this all somehow leads to yet another fight, wherein Eric has to admit he likes her, and that tutoring is the only way he gets to spend time with her. Later, her also tells her that he thinks she might have a learning disability, and that he'd like to help her in whatever ways he is legally allowed to do so. But then when she heads off for their next tutoring session, he's assigned some new lady to be her tutor. So... huh? That was a lot of bluster for nothing, dude. Also, he broke up with Paige because he "has feelings for someone else." Inappropriate, seriously.

Moving on to Cate and Ryan. Cate decides that since they never got to have a real honeymoon, that they should have a stay-cation. Meaning, they take a vacation in town. They head out to this new hotel, but the honeymoon is not meant to be. There are Baze shenanigans, and then mysterious women named Julia in photos that quickly derail the mood. It turns out, this Julia was Ryan's ex, who he hooked up with while he and Cate were broken up. Julia also showed up the day before the wedding to inform Ryan that she might be pregnant, but then she came to the wedding to tell him it was a false alarm (but was it really? for all we know she's secretly having a bastard lovechild somewhere. Cate did it, after all.). Cate finds all of this out and appropriately freaks out. But then, Baze happens to also let slip to Ryan that Cate was having doubts about their wedding and came to him the night before too. So, their relationship is left all in a shambles. I suspect they will make up, at least until Julia shows back up. You know she will.

Meanwhile, Baze is trying to get all lovey dovey with his boss lady Emma after last week's concert bonding, but she is having none of it. He maneuvers his way into going on this company retreat thing to try to flirt some more, but it turns out she's there with a guy. Some passive aggressive comments ensue between the dudes, which Baze later apologizes for during a poolside talk with Emma, wherein he gets all seductive-like and almost kisses her, but she puts the kibosh on it before he can. He thinks all is lost, but then sees her supposed boyfriend leaving with another guy and finds out he's not actually her boyfriend after all. He tries to convince her to go for something again, but she again puts him down. Well, Baze is really taking the bull by the horns here, because he goes back to her one more time back at work, and manages to work his magic into a kiss. As if we did not see that coming!

The next new episode features some kind of camp shenanigans. Cheesy cheese cheese!

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 2x05 "Music Faced"

My favorite part of tonight's episode was when Baze and his boss lady, Emma, were chatting about ideal mates and she was guessing his and said something like, "looks like that chick from Roswell." HA. I love in jokes like that.

Anyway, tonight also featured the "big" crossover "event" with one of the The CW's other resident soap opera melodramas, One Tree Hill, in the form of Kate Voegle and Bethany Joy Galeotti guest starring as their OTH characters Mia and Haley. Haley and Cate got to commiserate over high school pregnancies and valedictorian-ness (another valedictorian in the house here, what what) but on the whole they were just used for some musical performances, along with Ben Lee, Sarah McLachlan and Rain Perry, who is the woman behind the Life Unexpected theme song "Beautiful Tree." But on to the stories!

Cate & Ryan - Cate is still taking birth control pills even though she told Ryan they were trying for a baby. Apparently Ryan let slip to Cate's mom that this was happening, so she shows up at their place with an inappropriate baby-making basket. Cate confesses to her that she doesn't want to have a baby, and Ryan also finds this out later when he spots her pills in her purse (crack job at hiding those, Cate!). Cate has a tiff with her mom about their relationship and how it has affected her relationship with Lux and any future child. Yada yada, they get over it in the end. Cate figures out that she didn't want to have a baby because she felt guilty about leaving Lux when she was a baby. It's not clear whether they will be trying in the future or not, but Ryan basically told her she has to start being honest in their relationship if it's going to work. As if that's news!

Lux - Lux finds out about the baby thing, but is far more ensconced in her romantic drama to pay a whole lot of attention. Because, despite his many ways of telling her he can't date her, she is still trying to get Eric/Mr. Daniels to hook up in one way or another, this time by inviting him to the concert thing. He, of course, has already been invited by Paige, which is a surprise to no one except for the people on the show, who don't realize that they only seem to know people within their own small circle. She gets huffy about it while at the concert, and therefore pays no attention to Jones, who Tosh invited to go along with them because she thought Lux liked him. But, it turns out that Jones is tired of waiting for Lux, and makes a move on Tosh instead. Lux, for some reason, gets all pissy about that, wanting to have things both ways, and the two ladies get into a fight. I'm sure they'll get over it soon enough.

Baze - Baze is the most shaken by the news that Cate and Ryan are trying for a baby. In an attempt to move on, he tries to invite a random office worker to the concert, but ends up having to take his boss Emma instead, who wants to try to sign Haley for something or other. What the heck does their company do, exactly? Whatever. That was basically all just a set up by the writers so that she and Baze would get stuck alone together when the supposed backstage passes Cate was supposed to set up for Baze did not come through. They ended up bonding, and it's quite clear that there is going to be something romantical developing between these two in the coming weeks. My guess is sooner rather than later with the way this show works. In the end, Baze tells Cate that by seeing her move on, he was forced to move on himself. Right-o, cheerio! Except that Cate clearly does not want him to be moving on at all, no matter how much she says it. Mother and daughter have that in common - they like to have it both ways. Well, ladies, it just doesn't work like that.

And the next episode preview? Oh my gag. A coincidental next door hotel stay? Really? How many coincidences can this show run on?

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 2x04 "Team Rebounded"

Let's see, was there anything surprising about this episode? I'd say only one thing: that Lux apparently once lived with a woman for almost two years who wanted to adopt her. For some reason, it looks like Lux purposefully made that not happen. Who knows why. I am also betting it is involved somehow in why Lux hates the schooling as much as she does. But how did this mystery woman come back into Lux's life? Why, because another blast from her past came blasting back! That would be Tosh, who I had not missed in the least, but who apparently the writers felt they needed to bring back rather than have Lux make any new friends.
Because not only does Tosh come back, she also joins right up with the basketball team that Lux is on, which also happens to feature Math as coach and now Baze as assistant coach. They have their first game, they suck, they all get happy because by the end Tosh is able to score their one basket of the game. There were speeches flying about being winners even if you're not winning, all rather a big yawny yawn yawn to me.

Meanwhile, Cate is still butting heads with Kelly at the radio station, but decides to try to take the high road. And by the high road, she means taking Kelly out and getting her drunk so that they can be "friends." Of course, Cate lets slip some of her own issues with Ryan that, surprise surprise, Kelly uses while on the air! SHOCKER. This causes some more fighting between Cate and Ryan, this time to do with kids. He wants to have some, she is less than open to the idea. By the end, she's agreed to try, but when he leaves the room, she continues to take her birth control. SHOCKER x 2!

And, in the itty bitty sideplot department, we had Math crushing on Paige. They go on a date of sorts, he thinks it's gone well while she of course does not. It turns into this big hullaballoo that seemed rather exaggerated - do guys really get so huffy about girls? And, also, Paige sat down next to Eric, so you know they're going to start dating. Because apparently everyone in the cast can only get involved with each other!

I'm not sure I can continue watching if things are so predictable and cheesy. Sigh.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 2x03 "Criminal Incriminated"

I noticed while the credits were rolling in tonight's episode that one of the producers has the last name Basile. Is that a coincidence? How common can that name be? Anyway, like any episode of our dear Life Unexpected, this one was filled with melodramatics and much of the getting mad and yelling at each other, followed by understanding and making up. Really, that's every episode in a nutshell.

But what were the melodramatics about this week? Lux is feeling the pressure from both sides when Baze wants her to join the basketball team while she still has to get A's on her English tests, of which there is a brand spanking new one right after the midterm she just took/cheated on to get an A. She has a run in with Jones at school and overhears his friends talking about cheating on the upcoming test, so uses Jones to get in with the cheating ring. The jig is finally up, this time, and she and the other dudes are caught fake-blue-book-handed. Math manages to get her sentence minimized to detentions rather than a suspension. Jones feels betrayed that she used him, but it turns out he'd rather just make up and get to the making out... sometime. Lux is open to the idea, but then! Then she goes to meet with her new tutor, and who is it but... Mr. Eric Daniels! Did anyone not see that one coming? And if she's having problems in English, why is a math teacher her tutor? And wouldn't they do a peer tutor first? All questions left unanswered.

Meanwhile, Baze has started up his new job at the finance place. His first task is to help get some celebrities to appear at a golf tournament to try to land this new client. Though he is at first unsuccessful, he ends up coming up with the obvious plan of getting Ryan and his new co-host Kelly to do it. But when Cate comes along to the tournament, things take a turn for the bad when she "accidentally" hits Kelly in the head with a golf ball and Cate, Ryan and Baze all get into a tiff right there on the course. Things are looking rather grim with the potential client dude, but Baze goes and talks to him after hours and manages to use his charm and honesty to get him to sign on, much to his boss', and I'm sure his own, surprise.

So what was Cate in such a tizzy about? Well, when is Cate not in a tizzy about something? But this week she was annoyed with Paige, Ryan's layabout sister who was also the one whose cigarette burned down Baze's bar. A bunch of money goes missing from Cate's wallet, and she is convinced it was Paige who took it. Ryan wants to give her the benefit of the doubt, and they have a whole big thing about it. Eventually it does come out that Paige did in fact take the money, which she used to start to pay off her debt for the aforementioned fire-starting. They kick her out and she ends up taking the empty room in Baze's loft. And Cate and Ryan decide to pay Baze the $10,000 she owes him for the bar. Man, radio must pay pretty well for them to just have $10,000 lying around.

I have to say, though it was certainly cheesy, I rather enjoyed the ending basketball scene of Cate, Baze, Lux and Ryan all playing basketball together. They can all get along sometimes! At least when it's the end of an episode, anyway!

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 2x02 "Parents Unemployed"

This week's episode featured Cate, Baze and Lux each facing their own problem to overcome. Cate and Baze both need jobs (right when the school is hosting a career day where one of them should speak! My! What a coincidence!), while Lux needs to get an A on her upcoming English test or risk failing out of school. She also has added drama with new teacher Eric Daniels, who she shared a kiss with in last week's episode before he knew she was only a mere sixteen years old and one of his students to boot.

Honestly, Lux was being rather ridiculous about the whole situation. She was acting like he was being something of a douche for not wanting to have anything to do with her after all of that. But, hello, miss thing, it's his career and also his life that would be ruined if anyone ever found out about it. He eventually admits to her that it did mean something to him too and blah blah. I suspect this is not quite over. Lux's other issue was the test, which Cate tried to help her study for, but which she felt supremely overwhelmed about. It came as not at all a surprise after they so helpfully showed that Math carries around his test in his bag, that Lux eventually looked at the answers and questions for the upcoming test, thus CHEATING and getting her an A.

Baze, meanwhile, has an interview at some kind of financial firm that his dad owns, and is less than enthusiastic about the job at first, thus bombing his interview (with guest star Emma Caulfield - aka Anya to any fellow Buffy fans out there). He eventually decides that he actually does want the job, and fights for it. So, he gets it. Apparently he majored in economics in college? He went to college?

Cate is also having job procurement issues. Her agent basically informs her that there isn't a whole lot out there, but her old show would like to hire her as a producer rather than on air talent. This is something Ryan apparently set up, which pisses Cate off. She tries to get a position at another morning show, but unfortunately they meant very early morning, as in 2am-6am. After Ryan saves the day at career day and reminds her that sometimes a step back can be a step forward, she decides to take the producing job.

The other development of the episode was that Baze found out that Paige, the girl he slept with whose cigarette burned down the bar, is actually Ryan's sister. It appears that everyone else finds out next week. How soapy.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 2x01 "Ocean Uncharted"

Confession: I completely forgot this was premiering tonight. I noticed my DVR was recording something and turned it on to find: oh! Life Unexpected returned tonight! Ummmm.... I suppose I did not miss it oodles and oodles?! I did love all of the various Portland references in tonight's episode, though. Yes, it's "set" in Portland, but it's always nice when they actually refer to it specifically in the show itself. (In case you forgot, I'm from Portland. So, you know, Portland for the win!)

Anyway, on to tonight's premiere. It pretty much picked up where things left off in the finale last season, only a couple weeks or so later, once Cate, Ryan and Lux get back from a Vegas honeymoon of sorts. Cate and Ryan are lovey-dovey, Baze is mopey that he missed his chance with Cate, and Lux is avoiding Baze because she told Cate to choose Ryan. The drama-rama has not abated.

First up, let's talk about Lux. She went to visit with Bug, and then he did something completely idiotic. He asked her to marry him. Really, Bug? The girl is sixteen. I don't care how much life she's lived already, that is still only sixteen. She says yes because she feels obligated, but clearly she is not feeling that yes. Later, she meets this new dude, Eric Daniels, at the bar. They end up going on a spontaneous road trip, trying to get to the beach so that Lux can "see what's out there" or something. He somehow runs out of gas, and they have a super special moment, leading to a kiss. Surprise, surprise! Lux decides to tell Bug she can't agree to marry him at this point in her life, he gets all huffy puffy about it and takes off. Then, back in school, Lux finds out that this Eric dude is actually a new English teacher! I was not at all surprised by that turn of events, then again I think I already knew about it.

In the land of Baze, he's still hung up on Cate. He decides he's going to tell her even though she's already married now, and she reacts poorly. He takes out his sorrows in drink and sex with the new bartender, Paige, who ends up leaving her cigarette in a trash bin (idiots all around tonight), which sets the bar on fire. Baze and Cate don't know where Lux is at this point, and, thinking she might be in there, Baze runs into the burning building. She wasn't in there, of course. Cate visits Baze in the hospital (he'll be okay, obviously), and they patch things up. Baze has now determined that he is going to set his life straight after all of this.

Cate and Ryan are back at the radio station, but things are changing up there too. First, they are introduced to a third co-host in Kelly something, a born again virgin marriage expert. Cate is of course most displeased by her addition, and voices her displeasure at every turn. The producer lady decides that she's had enough of that, and decides to fire Cate and hire this Kelly person full time to do the morning show with Ryan.

And, Paige? It turns out that she's Ryan's sister. That is one twist I, in fact, did not see coming. There was also mention of a mysterious Julia from Ryan's past, who sent some kind of fancy vase to the newly married couple. You know she'll be turning up at some point.

That's pretty much it. Does anyone even care about these recaps? If I have too much on my plate this TV season, I might have to drop a show, and this one would most likely be it.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 1x13 "Love Unexpected"

Well, my friends, we have come to the end of the road. Whether it is just the end of the first season, or the end of the series remains to be seen, but it is an end nonetheless. If the series does end here, it will be sort of sad because it really seemed to be getting into a groove after some rather rocky episodes. Remember that one with the hands on the car? Or the Nearlywed Game? Yeah, I’d like to forget those too.

The episode starts with a fakeout. We hear some older guy doing some voiceover yada yada, and we’re made to think that he’s the priest at the wedding of Cate and Ryan, but no – he was the judge reinstating Cate and Baze’s parental rights over Lux. Everyone got rather teary-eyed, and Cate and Baze held hands, and it was rather touching indeed. Lux has what she always wished for – a family.

The little family that could goes back to Cate’s to celebrate, but then gets a dose of reality when Ryan crashes the party, and some wedding stuff starts to go haywire. Cate’s sister Abby got some food poisoning, so she won’t be able to come to the wedding, and their rehearsal space for dinner has suddenly fallen through thanks to a coinkidinky sewer pipe burst or some such. Guess who gets to host the dinner now?! I think you’ve guessed it – Baze! Derrr. It was Lux who suggested it, and who is still suggesting to Baze that he tell Cate how he feels.

But Baze is having issues doing that, in part thanks to his issues with his dad having not actually been resolved after that little bit of turtle racing before. His dad comes by to get the rent check and gets all uppity that Baze didn’t tell him about the adoption. Then he storms off. “You can send the check in the mail!” Mr. Basile, you are a bit ridiculous.

At the rehearsal dinner, things don’t go exactly as Cate would like. People give the couple more of a roast than a toast, and she escapes upstairs to where Baze has been brooding. They have a really nice moment, wherein Baze might have actually told her how he feels, but guess who crashes the party again! RYAN, you doof! You keep ruining all of their moments.

Baze still wants to tell Cate how he feels, but Math gives him a talk about how, if he really wants to prove that he’s grown up, he has to let her go. You know, he makes some sense. But meanwhile, Lux is giving Cate her own talk about how she knows Baze has feelings for her, and that she knows Cate reciprocates said feelings, no matter how much she tries to deny it. Cate tries to brush it off, but ends up going to see Baze in the middle of the night.

Now, if this had been before Math’s talk, Baze would’ve told her the truth, but now he’s trying to be all noble or some such, so even after she tells him she’s had feelings for him ever since Lux came into their lives, he tells her that he doesn’t have any of those same feelings for her. Lies, lies and more lies.

And now it’s time for the big day! Oh, I forgot to mention that Cate and Ryan were having their own little tiff about being ready and commitment thanks to Alice, their producer, wanting them to sign a new contract that would keep them in place for five years. Ryan was wishy washy about it, and Cate thought that meant he was wishy washy about their marriage. You know why I left that out? Kind of boring.

Back to the Big Day. Cate has locked herself away, Lux is trying to reach Baze, and Ryan is wondering why Lux has been giving him the cold shoulder. They have one of their patented heart to hearts, wherein Ryan tells Lux that he understands how she’d want Cate and Baze to be together so they could be a family, but he just wants to be part of that family too. He says that he’ll wait on the wedding if that’s what she wants, and leaves it up to her.

Meanwhile, Baze is in some emotional distress and goes to find his dad to unload. He can’t tell the girl he loves how he feels, and it’s all his dad’s fault. Daddio is like wah wah, go cry to someone who cares, but then Baze hits some strong notes. He was able to give Lux what she always wanted – a dad. He’s still waiting on his. Damn! As Kelso from That ‘70s Show would say – BURN!

Back at the chapel, Lux goes to find Cate. Their requisite chat boils down to – Cate knows that Baze has feelings for her, but he’s too afraid to admit it. Lux thinks she and Cate are the same in wanting a fantasy ending with Baze, but they should go for the good reality with Ryan. So, basically, Lux tells Cate to go for it with Ryan.

BUT! Baze’s dad shows up to make amends with Baze. He doesn’t know why he always berates him rather than just telling him that he misses him and wants to be a part of his life. And that – get ready for it – he lurves him! Awww. Baze, your dad loves you, it’s okay, it’s okay. I don’t mean to make light of the moment, because they both play it rather well, and you know I love a good angsty man tear. Dad tells Baze to go tell Cate how he feels.

So, while Baze runs into a major traffic jam on his way to the chapel, Cate and Ryan go through the process of getting hitched. All to one of my favorite songs, The Weepies’ “Can’t Go Back Now,” incidentally, which automatically makes it better. Baze finally arrives, and I don’t know about you, but I thought they were going to do the fakeout thing again, where he’d get there, run to the doors and open them – only the wedding would already be done and gone. But nope, he got there, just as the dude was telling Ryan he could kiss the bride. Baze swings the doors open! Cate looks over! They lock eyes! THEN – Cate turns back and kisses Ryan!

What has Lux done? Has she ruined what could’ve been her little family’s together-happi-ness? Either we’ll find out if the show gets a second season, or we may never know. Personally, I think that Cate and Baze would end up together by the end of the series, but that obviously can’t happen right away in a television show.

Well guys, this recap has gotten a little out of control in length, so for now, I bid you adieu.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 1x12 "Father Unfigured"

Just to get this out of the way up front - do we think maybe, just maybe, State Farm was a sponsor of this episode? Seriously, that was over the top promotion. I even have State Farm, people.

Anyway. On to the episode itself, which I think I can say with confidence, finally lived up to the promise of the pilot episode. In past episodes, things have gotten a little too schmaltzy with the ending, but this time I actually felt emotionally invested and it didn't seem as overly cheesy as it has in the past. Probably because of all of the cute family bonding. Love me some Starship.

The basic set up of the episode was this - Cate found these old birthday cards that her dad had sent to her over the years, but her mom had never shown her. Convinced her dad wasn't the deadbeat she had grown up thinking he was, she determined that she would go find him, via a road trip to Lake Tahoe, with Lux along for the ride.

Meanwhile, Bug's old supposed friend Gavin showed up, hustling Bug for money that he apparently owed or some such, in the process totally ruining Baze's bar with graffiti and lots of overturned chairs and general mess. He didn't want Baze to see, because Baze had warned him about leaving the past in the past. Therefore, he makes Lux work her charms to get Baze to go on the road trip with her and Cate, saying she wants to experience the classic family road trip.

And they do! With lots of bathroom breaks, a stop at a Corn Dog stand and lots and lots of Starship, they made their way to Lake Tahoe, to meet Cate's dad, Grant. But not before they had a run in with a chicken truck, and were forced to stay the night at a bed and breakfast, where Baze and Cate ended up sharing a bed, and woke up spooning in the morning, despite a pillow wall being constructed. Yeah, those pillow walls rarely last.

They finally make it to Cate's dad's place, and at first everything seems okay. They chat and he agrees to come up to Portland for her wedding, but Baze has a bad feeling about the guy. He sees in him what he used to be - someone who doesn't want to be a dad. He tries to warn Cate, even after getting a warning from Lux that she'll just be mad at him. Which is exactly what happens. Shoot the messenger, per usual. Baze goes to leave, but Lux tries to stop him, confessing that she really wanted him to come because Bug is trying to fix up the bar before he gets back. Way to ruin his night by making him feel even more unwanted, Lux! He drives off.

But in the morning, when Grant is supposed to pick up Cate and Lux to drive up to Portland, he totally brushes them off. Cate confronts him about it, and he confesses that he never wanted to be a dad, and he still doesn't. She realizes that she's been blaming Baze for a lot of the issues in her life, but really a lot of them come from her dad. It turns out that Baze didn't leave the night before either. He's there, ready and waiting to be her shoulder (or chest, since he is so much taller than her!) to cry on. Awww.

They make the trip back up to Portland, and Cate apologizes to Baze for blaming him for everything, and says she's seen him change. Back at his loft, Lux also tells him that she's seen him change, and that compared to the other dads she's come to know since moving in, he's the best there is. Awwww again. But she also brings up the fact that he's totally in love with Cate. He confesses that he thought it would go away, but now he's not so sure that he wants it to go away. They really felt like a family on that road trip, and it felt good. Indeed, so much better than when Baze is sparring with Ryan over something or other.

In the end, Lux makes the decision to let Baze and Cate become her legal guardians. I didn't really remember that she had those papers for "when she was ready," but it came back to me once she brought them out. And we end with the three of them hugging and being generally adorable.

Next week is the big wedding event, and the season finale! Will Cate and Ryan actually get married? Will Baze confess his feelings? And... will we get a season two?

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 1x11 "Storm Weathered"

In case you weren’t catching on what this week’s theme was, Ryan spelled it out for us about 3/4 through the episode. So what’s the winning theme? Rejection! Whether it be romantic or familial, it was all about rejection. Per usual, we had our two basic plotlines - the adult and the teen. And, per usual, the adult one was more interesting than the teen one.

Jones invites Lux over to his place for a party. He manufactures an “accidental” kiss out of a game of suck and blow, and Lux freaks out about it. But that doesn’t compare to the following freak out she has when she finds him making out with another girl! What, you’re allowed to have a boyfriend, but he’s not allowed to do stuff with other girls when you’ve rejected him? Ah, irrational bouts of irrationality. At least she actually realizes that later when she’s having a chat with Ryan, telling him bits about her life story growing up, with some inconsequential flashbacks that weren’t really needed. He reassures her that she was just acting like anyone does who has been rejected. A little bit cray cray.

Meanwhile, Baze and Abby are still dating, and she’s moving things awfully fast. Moving stuff into the top drawer, wanting to change their relationship status on Facebook, deleting his roommates stuff off the DVR (whoa, that is a big no-no, you don’t just delete other people’s DVRs!). Cate inevitably finds out and inevitably freaks out. The irrational freak outs are something Cate and Lux both do so well, are they not?

Things come to a head back at Baze’s when Baze, Abby and Cate get stuck in the loft during the storm that leads to a power outage. Baze’s buddies pressure him to cut things off with Abby, since he was only doing it so he could prove to everyone that he was capable of being in an actual relationship. He attempts to break things off, but when she doesn’t have it, he pulls the trump card and says they can’t be together because he has feelings for Cate. Cate, of course, overhears this, and freaks out some more. Baze must later fess up that he didn’t really mean it, he was only saying it to cut things off with Abby. But Abby gives them both a dose of reality. They both have feelings for each other, whether they’d like to admit it or not. As if anyone really needed to be told that. Hello, obvious!

Oh, and, Cate and Ryan get re-engaged. They were going to go elope to avoid any family drama, but in the end decide that they’re going to get married with their families - in two weeks rather than in June, however. Everyone congratulates them, but Baze looks a little stunned, which Lux notices. Come on now, Luxy, did you really not realize your parents have a little somethin’ somethin’ brewing?

Next week, we meet Cate’s father and it looks like Lux confronts Baze about how long he’s had feelings for Cate. And apparently it’s the second to last episode of the season! Or the series? I don’t think we’ve heard yet whether it’s been picked up for season two.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 1x10 "Family Therapized"

For the first third of this episode, I thought we were going down another sad road of Cate and Baze trying to do something for Lux, failing, and Lux getting all cranky whiny upset about it. But, luckily, after some of that happened, things took a turn and became what this show should always be about.

But, I suppose I must start with the stuff we've gotten used to. Lux, annoyed with both Cate and Baze, hangs out with Bug to hand out fliers at a club late into the night. She gets picked up by the cops for being out past curfew (and maybe I was just a big goody two shoes, but I don't remember the curfew thing really being a thing when I was a teenager in Portland). This gets them a meeting with Fern, the social worker, who tells them that things aren't looking so hot and their evaluation that wasn't supposed to be for some time has now been moved up to the following Monday.

In an effort to make things better, Cate decides to try to get Bug a job at the station to make Lux happy. Only, Bug has no high school diploma or experience of any kind, so he doesn't get the job. Lux flips out about it, being ridiculous. Baze, upon hearing of the whole thing, decides to give Bug a job at the bar, which Bug actually excels at, but then Baze ruins it all when he says something about Bug not mattering within earshot of both Lux and Bug. Whoops.

That brings them to the meeting with Fern, wherein they all lie about being one big happy family. Fern sees right through it, however, and challenges Lux to tell Cate why she's really so upset with her, since it's not so much about letting her friends down, but about letting her down. And that's when Lux finally opens up and the episode started to get interesting. Lux revealed that she hasn't forgiven Cate for giving her away and never going to look for her all those years ago. Very powerful scene, which ends with Lux leaving the room. But don't despair, Fern tells them, this is actually a very good step to them actually becoming a family, and she thinks Cate and Baze can start working on getting their parental rights back.

But that's not the end yet! Cate goes to Ryan to ask him to help her with Lux, stating that she has changed since Lux has come back into her life, and she just needs some help to get things moving in the right direction. Ryan is reluctant, but he does eventually talk to Lux and help convince her of Cate's changing and deserving a second chance. Lux turns that around on him and asks why she should be able to give her a second chance, but he can't. Good point.

Baze also goes to apologize to Bug and tells him that the job at the bar is still his if he wants it. Bug decides to take him up on the offer, and Baze then asks if he can get some practice on being a dad with Bug since Bug's dad isn't in the picture and also because Lux told Baze a little earlier that she'd rather have him as a friend than a dad. Bug has sort of a weirded out look on his face, but he didn't say no.

In the end, Ryan brings Lux back to Cate's place, and decides that he's going to stay and try to work things out as well. Cate isn't left alone and crying at the end of an episode, for once!

And, I didn't really mention, but yes, Baze and Cate's sister Abby are still having their flingy thing. At one point he tells her he has to break things off because he needs to set a good example for Lux, but then he goes to her later on because he needs someone to talk to about this whole friend versus dad issue. She suggests that they try being a real couple rather than just some spring fling. Blah blah. This will not go over well with Cate either way, people.

Overall, one of the stronger episodes of the season. For the most part, this show has seemed to want to keep things light, but it really is better when it delves into the deeper emotional issues these people have at their cores. Lux was in the hospital for much of her young life, and then in foster care for the rest of it. That does not leave a person unscathed. Cate's mother is a drunk and her father wasn't around, and Baze has issues with his dad as well. Let's stick to those and not have another nearlywed game or a hands on a car contest, yes??

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 1x09 "Formal Reformed"

This week's episode was centered around a staple of any high school TV show or movie: the dance. In this case, the winter formal. Which is where, if you remember, Baze and Cate hooked up back in the days of the Spin Doctors. I have to say that this was actually one of the more cohesive episodes in a while, though it does seem like every episode ends up revolving around some sort of event where Cate and Baze make a scene, thereby embarrassing either themselves or Lux or both. And tonight was no exception to that rule.

At the top of the hour, we find Jones asking Lux to the winter formal on very short notice. Right after she says yes, guess who shows up at Baze's looking to reconcile? Yep, Bug. Things get hot and heavy between them, until Bug finds out that Lux is going to the winter formal with Jones, then he gets all huffy about it. Lux calls him out on it, and gets the grown up award, at least for now.

Cate, trying to make things better between her and Lux, helps her pick out a dress for the dance, but it ends badly when they get into some kind of fight again. I don't even remember what about, something or other they've fought about before. Oh wait, Baze. It always comes back to Baze, doesn't it? Indeed. Lux goes off in a huff. There's a lot of people going off in huffs in this episode, if you hadn't noticed yet.

Math, in an attempt to get closer to Cate, asks if she'd like to co-chaperone the dance with him, as a sort of date. While Jones and Lux have a good time on the dance floor and Cate is lamenting to Math about her own disastrous high school days, Baze has found a condom in the loft, and thinks it must be Jones'. He hurries off to the formal and things get heated out in the parking lot between Cate, Baze and Lux. Lux reminds him that she had a boyfriend named Bug that she was going to live with, and that any sort of sex talk he wants to try on her is already too late. And guess what she does now? She goes off in a huff!

By this point, Jones has had enough of the drama, particularly when he finds out that Lux had just been with Bug earlier that day. He ditches her, but don't worry, Lux isn't lonely for long, because guess who shows up at the dance with a bouquet of flowers and puppy dog eyes? Yep, Bug. They dance, they kiss, they generally make up.

But Baze and Cate? Oh they do what they do best: get into another argument. But this one took a sad turn when Cate revealed just how terrible Baze really was to her in high school. Basically, after they had sex, he completely denied it to his friends and said there was no way he'd sleep with someone like her. She's still hurt about this, all these years later, even after Baze tries to apologize and convince her he's not that guy anymore.

But has Baze really changed? Because later, he goes back to the bar and encounters Cate's sister Abby, who he had recruited for an ill-advised sex talk with Lux earlier on, and don't you know it, they end up in bed together! Yeesh, that was as subtle as a freight train. And, Lux walks in on them during the deed, because it turns out that Cate has shown up there to try to start anew with Baze and let go of the past. Yeah well, how long is that going to last?

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 1x08 "Bride Unbridled"

Alas, dear friends, this week features the return of the dreaded Lux acting like a wee baby sourpuss. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, but she acts rather foolish and self-righteous quite a lot of the time. Actually, most of the characters do apart from Ryan and, so far, Jones. The teenage boy being one of the most mature people on the show? Unexpected, indeed.

Lux is still upset after the previous events of Bug leaving town and Tasha going off to another foster home an apparently inconceivable 3 hours away. She is in a slump, so when Jones stops by to "give her her homework" (yeah, sure), Baze decides to give Jones a little push in Lux's dateable direction. And with some advice from Lux's dear old so-and-so, he takes her on a 3 hour road trip to visit her bestie.

Meanwhile, Cate and Ryan - who have broken up after the revelation of Baze and Cate's more recent rompy roo - are being forced to take part in a Bridal Expo and keep up the happily engaged facade. Blah blah boring, really. Even once Baze and Math show up to shake things up, it didn't really get that much more engaging. Why did Baze and Math show up, you ask? Because Baze accidentally intercepted a text from Ryan to Lux, consoling her about Bug and talking about giving her a car. Baze, ever upset about anything related to Ryan giving Lux anything, but particularly a motor vehicle, he storms the Bridal Expo.

It all ends in Ryan, Baze and Math taking part in a Nearlywed Game, matching answers to Cate's. Wah wah. Baze and Ryan start getting testy with each other again, until Ryan storms out. They have a minor encounter backstage, in which Baze tells Ryan off for being so mad at him when he didn't even know he was in the picture when he slept with Cate. Math overhears the sleeping with Cate stuff and gets all huffy because, in case you forgot, he's been in love with Cate for ages. Better get over that Math, there are much prettier men vying for her affection at the moment. Ryan leaves, also in a huff.

Meanwhile, Jones brings Lux back home and fesses up to the fact that it was actually Baze's idea to take her to see Tasha. And for some ungodly reason, Lux flips the hell out and says some BS thing like, "If you don't know why it was wrong, then you don't know ME!" Bzuh? She proceeds to also get all stompy and pouty to Baze about it and... Pardone moi, but they were just trying to cheer you up, you little insouciant.

Anyway, she eventually gets some sense knocked into her by Ryan, after he has a little heart to heart apology time with Baze. Those two will probably be friends eventually, yeah. After she realizes she's been rather a dope, Lux goes over to Jones' and does the whole "let's start over with the lame-o handshake and hi my name is yada yada." Because we haven't seen that done a million times before! NEXT!

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Life Unexpected 1x07 "Crisis Unaverted"

You guys, I think this is a momentous occasion for one Life Unexpected. How is that, you ask? Because I don't think I have a single SHLOCK ALERT for this episode! What?! I know. It's nuts. There was a moment where things could've gone schmaltzy, but thankfully they refrained from going too far this time. No "I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at me" speeches. Yay!

So there were two basic stories this episode. I'll start off with the more boring of the two - the Lux/Tasha drama-rama. It's becoming a trend where I like the adult stories better. I wonder if this is because of my age or because of the quality? Perhaps it is a combo of the two. At any rate, the drama for these besties arose when Tasha got picked for a new foster family that lived, gasp!, 3 hours away! They've apparently never been that far apart before! Lux promptly freaked out, and then had a rather very extremely unlikely coincidental moment in which she saw Tasha's real mom on the streets of Portland while Tasha was apparently stealing a dress.

Tasha's mom was a druggie who quit rehab, but now she's got a husband and two new kids and looks to be on the straight and narrow. After some reluctance from Tasha, Lux gets her to agree to go talk to her. And I must say the casting department did a rather bang up job in matching the mom's looks to Tasha's, because they really looked like they could be related. Anyway, it seemed like things were going to go well when Tasha was greeted with a big hug, but it turns out that she reminds her mommy too much of the bad times, so she can't take her in.

Lux, in a panic, decides that because Cate told her earlier on in the episode that she could come to her with anything, that clearly she meant it would be just fine and dandy to ask Cate to take Tasha into her home as well. This coincided right at the worst point in Cate's story (which I'll get to in a bit, do not despair), so Cate said no. Which was the sane thing to do, duh. Rather stupid of Lux to then go all "BUT YOU SAID! I HATE YOU!" and then go to Baze. Baze, trying to connect with Lux and be the dad, decided to try to take Tasha in, but was rejected by Vern, the case worker lady. But, on the plus side, she did grant him dual custody of Lux, so she is now allowed to live there as well. Which she promptly decides to do since she is all uppity toward Cate for no real good reason other than being kind of snippety.

Now for the Cate-Baze-Ryan drama. Baze feels like he is being frozen out of Dad time with Lux thanks to Ryan, and decides to take a stand. This comes in the form of competing in the Hand on a Hybrid competition that Cate and Ryan's radio station was holding, and in which Ryan was also competing. Now, if you remember, Ryan is especially mad at Baze at the moment because he believes that Baze tried to kiss Cate and she pushed him away. Which is a LIE, since they actually had sex and it was mutual. But Ryan doesn't know that, and Baze doesn't know that Cate told the lie. And when she gets sort of bitchy to him about not competing in the competition, I gotta say, I was on Baze's side.

AT ANY RATE. At the competition, things get heated between Baze and Ryan to the point where Ryan actually punches Baze in the face! But it wasn't because Baze even told him the truth. He sort of told the truth, then figured out that Cate had actually lied about the sex, and went along with it to a point. Ryan storms off, and Cate goes after him. Thinking Baze must have told him the truth, she starts babbling on about how sorry she is and how it was just sex the one time. Well. The Truth is out. And Ryan is pissed, as he should be. He says it's over and storms off, despite Cate's protestations.

In the end, Cate is left alone to wallow in ice cream and wine. But she sort of deserved it. Not so much from Lux, but definitely from Ryan. And Lux cried on Baze's shoulder about the departure of Tasha, who she apparently did not get to say goodbye to.

Next week, the show moves up to 8pm. Which totally ruins my DVR schedule, by the way. Now I can't record How I Met Your Mother! Dang it. It seems like everything is always on at the same time.

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...Set: Life Unexpected 1x06 "Truth Unrevealed"

This week was all about the ladies' love triangles. In the red corner we've got Baze-Cate-Ryan and in the blue corner we've got Bug-Lux-Jones! Who will come out victorious? And who will lie their way out of a possible break up? If you've been paying attention, you might expect it to be Lux who lies, because that is her way, but this week she actually acts the grown up. But wait, I'm spoiling things for you, aren't I?

But hey, since I'm talking about Lux, let's start with her little triangle. If you remember from last week, Bug "borrowed" Jones' car and ended up getting arrested for it. Now, he's facing a possible two year jail sentence, or a six month plea bargain. Lux wants him to take the bargain, but he decides there's actually another way to get around all of this - by Lux going to Jones (QB Abercrombie gets a name I actually remember) and asking for him to drop the charges. Jones'll do it, but he wants Bug's motorcycle as penance.

Bug's not so into giving up his bike, it was the only thing his dad ever gave him you know, but eventually agrees. Jones proposes he and Lux skip class once he has the bike, but he can't even get the thing started. So naturally, Lux starts up the bike herself and tells him to hop on - time for some fun! No, not really. She just wants to make Jones understand why Bug likes the bike, I guess. She takes him to Bug's old house and tells him his sad story, as well as one of her own having to do with a locket. Jones decides he doesn't want the bike after all, but then he goes and tries to kiss Lux. As if we did not see that coming. She rebuffs him and he takes her home, but of course Bug is waiting and proceeds to punch him in the face, even though he didn't even know about the kiss.

Lux is upset by the whole thing, as she should be, because, as Cate tells her, she deserves better. She confronts Bug and tells him about the attempted kiss, but he just tells her she deserves better and kicks her out. By the end, he leaves town, leaving poor Luxy to cry a little. Even though Jones was super sweet and tried to give her a locket. There's probably more for them in the future, and actually they're rather cute together. I can get behind it.

Now, for the more interesting triangle! At least, I think it's more interesting, but maybe that's just because I'm not a high schooler anymore. Basically, Ryan's upset with Cate because he thinks she's obsessed with Baze (which she kind of is). Not helping matters is the fact that their corporate bosses tell them that Cate's likability has gone way down of late, and the only way to clear things up is to have Baze come on the air with them. During said on air show, they are confronted with a question asking if anything has happened between them since high school, to which they both answer with a not so concealed LIE. Ryan later confronts Cate about it, and she just LIES some more, saying nothing happened.

Meanwhile, Jamie (token black friend) accuses Baze of losing his lady game, and secretly being in love with Cate. To combat this heinous (totally true) notion, he flirts with a lady who just happens to be Ryan and Cate's corporate boss! What a coinikidink! They end up starting up some fireworks, but Cate walks in on them and gets all uppity about it, despite her saying that the recent sex between her and Baze meant nothing (which resulted in a rather puppy dog look from Baze that I admit, I sort of loved). She goes home and after having a nice heartfelt conversation with Lux about truth and trust, she decides to tell Ryan the truth.

Except, she LIES. She tells him that Baze tried to kiss her that night, but that she pushed him away and that's all that happened. Now, I'm not really remembering entirely, but I think it was actually she who kissed him. I could be wrong. Feel free to correct me if I am. And, of course, they had some hot sex. I believe they even had it more than once that night. But, nope, she doesn't tell Ryan. Because that will surely end well when the truth finally does come out, as it most certainly will. The previews even seem to indicate that it will happen next week! And it's no wonder, really, since it seems like quite a few people apart from Ryan already know about it.

And, one last thing. At the end of the episode, Cate sets a date for the wedding while Baze listens (Ryan had been upset about the no date thing earlier, of course). Ah, poor Baze. But people, if I know one thing about TV, it's that things are certainly not over between Cate and Baze. And good thing, too, because I find them much more interesting than Cate and Ryan.

I also just want to say that I think this episode was pushing things along in a much better direction than last week. I didn't even give you my patented SHLOCK ALERT! Wow. No, but there were a couple places where I could've, I just glossed over them. Wah wah. The big question we should really be asking ourselves - Will Life Unexpected be picked up for a second season? TBD.

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...Set: Life Unexpected 1x05 "Turtle Undefeated"

This week, Lux decided to continue her clearly winning streak of lying and getting caught, by doing it again, more than once! Way to go, Lux! Cate, meanwhile, was upset that she was not connecting to Lux more (because she's the responsible bad cop!) and Baze was having more of his economical crises, trying to figure out a way to get more people to the bar. I kind of am feeling this show just repeats the same themes every week. Hopefully if it gets renewed for a second season, they will explore more stuff.

So, basically, Lux is still having issues with the mean girls of Westmonte High being, you know, mean. But the cute quarterback seems to have taken a liking to her, and Baze informs her that if she gets in with the popular quarterback (which he used to be, remember?), then she'll be in with everyone. And because she's suddenly concerned about fitting in, she decides to have a party for QB Abercrombie's birthday at Baze's loft after Brynn can't. That's right, her name is Brynn. QB Abercrombie is like woo hoo, let's do this thing! In order to have said party, though, she ends up lying to her foster friends Bug and Tash, who wanted to take her out to the Newberg Drive-In for Shaun of the Dead.

Meanwhile, Baze and his buddies are working on a plan to get more bodies in the bar. For some reason, turtle racing ends up being the winning idea. While the lackluster races start, Cate takes her friend Alice out for a night on the town, but ends up at Baze's because she wants to check on Lux's party. She abandons Alice down in the turtle races to cuddle up to Baze's friend Jamie and goes upstairs to party with the kids half her age, who are now swilling beer, thanks to Lux who lied to Baze and brought up beer from the bar. Say that ten times fast. Lux's foster peeps Bug and Tash show up as well, and get mighty PO'd that Lux lied to them about the party and didn't invite them.

Baze ends up going upstairs after a Yoda cookie jar, or something, gets thrown out a window, and has a mighty yell at Lux about her not using her head, using the exact same phrasing his own dad used on him earlier, mind you. Lux and her buddies head out, and Bug suggests they take the party over to the drive-in, then proceeds to "borrow" QB Abercrombie's car. They get pulled over, Cate and Baze show up to try to stop the cops from arresting them and get arrested themselves, and it's Baze's dad to the bail out rescue.

While in the clink, Cate suggested to Baze that he try to reconnect with his dad, because maybe he has become the bad cop and can't figure a way to change it. Baze tries to take her advice and offers his dad a do over, but gets rebuffed. The hurt puppy goes back to the bar and finds that the turtle thing turned out to actually be a moderate success. And I'm skipping over everything to do with the three-legged turtle because it's CHEESY, so there. And, in the end, Baze's dad shows back up at the bar to have some bonding time with his son. Awww. Actually, it was rather sweet.

Because this week's SCHLOCK ALERT goes out to... Lux! It seems to usually do that. She apologizes to Tash about lying about the party, saying she wanted to know what it was like to fit in, and she's not really ashamed of her foster friends but rather, "ashamed of me." Oh god, she didn't say that? No, she did. She did indeed. Sigh.

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