Dirty Sexy Money: The Nutcracker

The Darlings certainly know how to prepare for the holidays, don't they? Not only did they have a performance of "The Nutcracker" in their living room, but they found time to battle Simon Elder. Every week it seems like another Darling is involved in the plot against Simon--I can't wait for Juliet and Jeremy to join the fray. The twins can be excused, however, since they were busy with their gorgeous significant others.

Juliet left the Seychelles with a little souvenir: a hot foreigner named Kai. I can only hope that this relationship is more successful than Jeremy's. I think I'm becoming as paranoid about "love pirates" as Jeremy is, because I was convinced that Sofia was lying about knowing the Darling name (wrong). I also can't help but be suspicious of Kai, whose two-week visit turned into an indefinite stay once he saw the inside of The Imperial (I love that the Darlings name their homes). For Juliet's sake, I hope that Kai turns out to be a decent guy. It's likely that Jeremy will get over his break-up with Sofia, too, seeing as how he sat in Lisa's lap and kissed her while he was still dating someone else.

Speaking of that kiss, I'm concerned about the strength of the Georges' marriage. Nick was visibly jealous of Simon and Karen's relationship, although he tried to play it cool at first. I doubt that Lisa has romantic feelings for Jeremy, but she looked pretty comfortable kissing him after sharing her troubles. It wasn't really fair of Lisa to blame her marital difficulties entirely on Nick's job. If having another baby was viewed as an easy solution to life's problems, their marriage probably had some flaws to begin with. Seriously, how strange was it that Nick responded to Lisa's news about getting fired with the suggestion that they have a second child? It was a very casual way to introduce the idea, that's all I'm saying.

Patrick and Ellen were busy ignoring their relationship issues as well. Despite Ellen's ultimatum, Carmelita is still very much in the picture, and she might have been abducted because of it. I'm putting Ellen at the top of my list of suspects for now. She had to have noticed that Patrick would wait for her to leave the room before answering the phone. As his wife, she probably knew Patrick well enough to realize that he would be tempted to break his promise to her. Perhaps she's keeping Carmelita out of the way until the election's over. I'm sure that Clark the driver/pilot/night-watchman will get to the bottom of things. I can't get enough of that guy.

Does Brian own any colorful clothing? Even when he's dressed in layman's clothes he sticks to the black and navy color family. Glenn Fitzgerald was looking good, though. His career path within Darling Enterprises should be interesting to watch. I was relieved that Tripp stopped being so hostile to Brian this week, and it was great to hear him call Brian "son" again. He might be a George by blood, but Brian can scheme as well as any Darling. The scenes between Glenn Fitzgerald and Donald Sutherland were the best of the episode. Both Brian and Tripp are deep thinkers, and I believe that they'll work well together.

Karen also proved to be an asset to Tripp's plans for the both the family and the company. It's a little weird to have your daughter seduce your greatest enemy, but I guess you have to use the weapons at your disposal. Every week I am more impressed with Karen's ability to manipulate people and situations. She is definitely her father's daughter, and she might be the perfect person to bring down Simon Elder. I got to meet the Ghanaian ex-wife, who is still an important figure in Simon's life (and probably his business, too). What happened at that dinner to bring Karen to tears? Did she lie to Tripp about not getting attached to Simon? Was it all a ploy to get Nick's attention?

From what I understand, there are only three episodes of Dirty Sexy Money left. I'm starting to panic. I've gotten quite attached to this soapy drama, so the strike had better end soon.

My favorite lines of the episode:

"Who doesn't love workshops?" --Brian

"I don't think I've ever said this, but that seems overpriced." --Jeremy, on the German sponge

"I've seen myself referred to as an empire builder." --Tripp, in a nod to the show's intro.

"Sugar and stakeouts, there's where those cops go wrong." --Clark the driver

"I have to marry into this family." --Kiki

"They managed to elude the ficus." --Clark telling Patrick about Carmelita's disappearance

"I've suffered too much at the hands of these love pirates." --Jeremy