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!

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...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.

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...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.

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