I know I’ve said this before but the men on Army Wives really are a sensitive bunch. This is by no means, a complaint. It’s part of the reason why this show is so much fun to watch in a Lifetime sort of way. In tonight’s episode, Roland once again managed to steer Joan in the right direction in terms of the pregnancy and her job, Trevor came through for Roxie, Getti was there for Denise, and Chase apologized to Pamela for snapping at her for sticking her nose in other people’s business.
Pamela and Chase went to visit the home of one of Chase’s Army buddies. Steve and Carla appear to be pretty well off, though Carla claims everything they have of value is fake. She says their lavish home is rented and the emerald ring she wears isn’t real. Later when Pamela and Chase return home, they talk about it and while Chase brushes it off, Pamela has doubts as to whether or not Carla’s being honest. She seems more curious than suspicious but the cop-side of her won’t let it go. The next time she’s visiting with Carla, a conversation starts up about where Steve and Carla vacationed. It’s a totally awkward conversation with Pamela constantly bringing up how she couldn’t afford all of this and Carla claiming none of it is as great as it appears. Finally, Carla asks Pamela if she thinks she’s lying, to which Pamela replies that she thought she was just being modest. The two brush it off and all seems fine but Steve, who overheard this conversation, tells Carla he thinks it’s time to call it a day.
Chase later tells Pamela that Steve doesn’t want her hanging out with Carla anymore. Seriously, I thought Steve was Carla’s husband, not her father. Obviously this guy has something to hide but we don’t get to find out what it is. In the meantime, Chase sides with Steve, telling Pamela she shouldn’t have stuck her nose in other people’s business. Later he apologizes and all is fine with them but I can’t wait to find out what the secret is behind Steve and Carla’s money.
Denise and Getti are still flirting dangerously close to adultery. The two are sharing lunch and poetry together on a semi-regular basis. When Denise’ son Jeremy returns home with the rest of his troop, Denise goes out of her way not to introduce Getti to him. Getti later says he’s fine with this but the fact that Denise didn’t introduce her son to her “friend” is very telling. Later, Denise pretty much begs Getti to come to the hump bar opening and despite claiming that he doesn’t like parties, he shows up anyway.
Jeremy, who was once in a relationship with Amanda, is still grieving over her death. When he speaks with Emmalin and sees that she’s happy, it hurts him. He doesn’t understand how Emmalin could be happy when her sister is dead. On his mother’s advice, he goes to see Emmalin and tells her that he can’t hang out with her because she’s not sad and he is. This brings us to Claudia Joy’s story. Claudia Joy is all set to go to Roxie’s big opening of the hump bar even though Michael can’t bring himself to do it. She has the floral arrangements all set up and drives them over to the bar where Roxie is still getting things set up but when she gets there, she can’t even bring herself to get out of the car. All she can think about is how she felt seeing Amanda just before the crazy guy blew the whole place up.
When she learns that a local man recently lost his son over in Baghdad, she bakes a cake (or a pie or whatever it was) and brings it to the man’s house. The guy doesn’t want to talk about his son but when he realizes that Claudia Joy is the wife of the General, and that she too knows what it feels like to lose a child, he opens up a bit about his son Roger. They talk about the pain and he says he feels guilty when he stops feeling sad. Like that if he doesn’t feel pain it means he didn’t love his son enough. They both agree that pain isn’t love. The man says he wishes he could go to Baghdad because that’s the last place that Roger was Roger.
So when Emmalin explains to her mom that she wants to go to the opening of the hump bar, Claudia Joy is resistant at first. But in the end, she and Emmalin decide to go and upon looking around the bar, Claudia Joy says this is the last place that Amanda was Amanda. She and Emmalin share a tearful hug.
Speaking of the hump bar, getting the place up and running was no easy task for Roxie. She has a hard time getting the inspector to give the place the green light and since Trevor has to go deal with the aftermath of walking out of the interview, she’s got the boys with her while she’s trying to attend to some last minute issues at the bar.
Trevor goes to see the general and is reprimanded for not being disciplined enough to handle the situation better with that interviewer who gave him a hard time about the war. Holden tells him that as a soldier he has to know how to deal with hostile situations, whether it’s in the field or in an interview. He goes on to tell Trevor that there will be no more interviews and that he’ll be sent back to his troop as soon as the doctor clears him for duty. This is good news for Trevor. Holden also adds that if he had been in front of that interviewer, he would’ve punched him.
Trevor goes back to the bar and rescues Roxie by taking the boys away. He also realizes now is not the time to tell her that he’s going back to Iraq soon. Later when he gives her that news, the two have an argument over priorities. The fight ends with Trevor reminding Roxie that she knew he was in the Army when she married him.
Later Trevor makes amends by getting one of his Army buddies to fix the dishwasher at the bar and convincing the inspector to come back and stick around until the place is up to code. The bar gets finished in time and the opening is a success. Roxie talks to Betty on the phone during the party to let her know her place is a hit. After all the nervousness and resistance from many people who didn’t think the place should be rebuilt, the bar, now known as Betty’s Bar and Grill is back.
Finally, Joan is once again dealing with a power struggle between herself and Evan, the guy set to take over her job while she’s on maternity leave. After a long day at work, Evan reminds her that pregnant women aren’t supposed to work longer than eight hours per day. He’s doing this whole passive aggressive thing, telling her he had her contacts forwarded to his phone because she’s past her limit for the day. On top of that, Joan’s resistant to wearing the maternity uniform and she isn’t very excited when she finds out she’s having a girl. She was a tomboy as a kid and doesn’t know what she’d do if her daughter wants to play with Barbies.
Roland, ever the perfect husband, tells Joan that Evan is using her fear of losing control against her and she needs to take the control back, using Evan’s own weight against him, Tai-Chi-style. So the next day, Joan goes to work, showing off her new maternity uniform and thanking Evan for reminding her about the work-hours rule. She goes on to say she thanked the General for hiring Evan to fill in for her while she’s “resting” after she has the baby. Evan is pleased by all of this. Then Joan dumps a huge pile of work on his desk and tells him she’s over her eight hours for the day and has to go home. She adds that the General wants that stuff taken care of by the morning. Burn! Point to Joan (and her coach, Roland) for regaining the power.
Of everything in this episode, I was most intrigued by what was going on with Pamela. Sure, the Carla/Steve story was a total tangent from everything else that was going on but all the same, it was kind of refreshing to have some new drama on the show. And as much as part of me wants everyone to be over Amanda’s death, I think it’s good in a “real” sort of way that they’re all still dealing with it. It would’ve been unrealistic for the hump bar to re-open without there being some painful memories of what was lost there.
