Dirty Sexy Money: The Injured Party (Episode 206)

So, in a week when none of the characters is quite getting the thing the want, it makes sense that we'd get the news that the show was cancelled. I'd be more upset if the show was still as cool as it was last year, but as it is, I'm disappointed not to have this cast I have become very fond of for much longer. Darling family, we hardly knew ye!

Let's take it one family member at a time, shall we? We'll start with 1.) Letitia, who, drunk with freedom and her breakfast mimosa, takes the coup out for a cruise and promptly mows down an innocent bicyclist. And rather than raise another dust up for the tabloids, the family brings the girl, Wren, back to the Imperial to get better. She charms 2.) Tripp, by asking him inappropriate questions about his marriage and how Tish cheated on him and how saintly he must be for putting up with all her infidelity and never making her beg for a second chance because he'd never given up her first chance, or something, I don't know. She manages to pump both Tripp and Nick for information in such a way that I'd remain fully convinced she's a reporter digging for stories if Rena Sofer weren't pulling that bell next week. Anyway, Wrenn enchants Tripp but ends up coming onto Nick in Tripp's eyeline, prompting the old dude to wonder to his pseudo-son if he hasn't been wrong these last forty years thinking Letitia is the only one for him. Which Tish of course hears, because what goes around comes around.

Tripp also spends the episode trying to convince 3.) Patrick, newly crowned Senator, to take a high profile committee chair that Tripp can wrangle for him via his many vast and manly connections. But Patrick's had Nola whispering in his ears, and he wants to walk quietly and not carry a big stick. He poo-poos Foreign Affairs for Agriculture, buying into Nola's thinking that his best bet is to go to Washington without flying the family flag, since he's already three scandals deep before his tenure has even begun. Pat's flush with the decision and how it's freed him from being under his dad's thumb, which he says about every other week, so you know it won't last. Nola's starting to feel uncomfortably immersed in the family doings, and when she tells Simon that she can't continue pulling Patrick's strings and going to family dinners and witnessing Karen be all psycho, Simon shows her video of her younger brother, who he is apparently holding hostage in a location he's keeping secret from Nola to get her to do his bidding, because he really is evil incarnate. He wants Patrick on the Agriculture Committee to help secure the future of his biofuel, and he's using Nola to help him reach that goal. And kidnapping small children, apparently. The family are only dimly aware of Nola as anything more than a nuisance, though Letitia makes a point of telling Nola that her relationship with 4.) Jeremy was all a sham, and if she's working for Pat to get to his mom, she'll fail like she failed in court. Pat just thinks she's doing it to get to Jeremy, which is what Jeremy thinks as well. He deals with his pain by writing more songs with his buddy Justin Timberlake.

Brian Junior at least finds Jeremy amusing, though 5.) Brian doesn't have much time for the rest of the family this week, given that he's intent on bullying Andrea into participating in a clinical trial to treat her cancer. When told that chemo would give her a 10% chance at one year of survival, she decides to forgo treatment and teach her son how to live by example. Brian, of course, thinks this is crap, and blackmails Andrea to the head of the year-long waiting list for the clinical by threatening to pull the family's funding of a pediatric cancer center. He and Andrea argue, which, as usual, turns into sex. She's unwilling to participate in the clinical trial, still, until she witnesses 6.) Karen's behavior at the family dinner.

After last week's "step up" conversation, Karen's waiting to hear from Nick, and Simon's conniving to get Lisa on his side by providing her the DVD of said conversation. Lisa at first tells him she's not interested, because Nick has decided he wants to make things work with Lisa because she's his wife and they have a kid. Lisa makes a big deal about Nick putting Karen out of his life for good, asking about the tape. Nick tells her he saw Karen on business and told her not to marry Simon, and she believes him and agrees to move back in, with the caveat that he sever ties with Karen permanently. He brings Karen in and tells her he can't step up, and Lisa calls while he's in the meeting with her. Angry, she calls Simon and asks to see the security tape. And then, downright furious, she crashes the Darling family dinner to punch Karen in the face and dump Nick for good. He takes it well, having lost both Lisa and Karen in one day, and tells his sad story to Wrenn, who puts the moves on him and waxes on about how unforgettable and awesome he is, so he kisses her back. Meanwhile, Lisa's back at her gallery, having gotten a lift from Jeremy. She thanks him for sort-of intervening during her throwdown with Karen, and they proceed to have sex all over her couch. Nick then takes himself to Simon's, saying he's going to destroy Simon. Simon literally says that if Nick plays with his toys, he'll play with Nick's, but if he's that riled, he can have Karen when Simon's done with her. Nick gets very nearly violent, but Simon's bodyguard gets in the middle, and Nick leaves promising Simon that he's got a whole new problem in his life now. And then, I can only assume, Simon feasts on the livers of new born babies.