I apologize for misleading you.
Last week, I stated that the past few episodes of The Big C had taken us to a place that, while ridiculous, at least was dealing with Cathy and her crazy ways. It wasn’t great television, but at least it was starting to make some more sense. Even Cathy was starting to acknowledge that she was behaving rather poorly. If nothing else, I thought that we would get an engaging close to a rather disappointing season. Turns out, I was hoodwinked.
First off, Cathy decides to take off in her scuba gear into the middle of the ocean and away from her boat and dive buddy, Sean. Granted, Sean was busy with a very specific type of well-shaped water animal, but he didn’t stray too far. Yet somehow, Cathy ends up in the middle of the ocean. Seemed like a creaky plot device to get Cathy to someone that she could talk to*, but I was willing to go with it anyway.
*Before you say anything, yes, I get the whole lost in the middle of the ocean metaphor. Still, she was already on an island. I don’t think we needed a supposedly intelligent woman deciding to swim into the middle of the ocean to be caught by a fishing net.
Though I don’t like how we got there, anytime you put Laura Linney in a situation like that, she is going to deliver. She was exceptional as she ran the gamut of emotions with Angel (I had to dodge an anvil when his name was revealed). This show has gotten so preposterous that sometimes I forget that Laura Linney is a highly-credible actress with plenty of range. This episode really gave her an opportunity to let loose, and I thought she capitalized on that opportunity.
Let’s jump to the end. When Cathy walks up the dock and notices several instances of people being angry or frustrated, I thought that the next shot would be of her driving in a convertible around the island with her bags sitting in the backseat. Instead, she makes the perfectly rational decision to jump back in the water to swim to Angel’s boat to… I don’t know. Apparently, she’s assuming that the fisherman will have plenty of room for her to stay at his place in Esperanza.
Again, I can’t help but think back to other people that I have known who have had cancer. Those people didn’t toss aside their entire world because something bad happened. At this point, I think I feel more sympathetic for Walter White circa season 2 than I do for Cathy at this moment. Cathy doesn’t have to be a heroic person, but at the very least, she could be someone to root for on the show. Right now, I don’t. It seems that everyone in her life would be better off without her. Maybe by diving back into the water, she finally is doing the right thing.
I guess we’re going to find out.
What did everyone else think of this season of The Big C?
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