nbc_medium | [6.05]: "Baby Fever" (Discussion Thread)

Friday, Oct. 23 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) - "Baby Fever" - When Allison investigates an infant's kidnapping, Joe worries when she becomes too attached to the little boy. Also, Bridgette and Joe are amazed when Marie plays the clarinet perfectly without one lesson while Bridgette struggles to learn to play, on the 100th episode of MEDIUM, on the CBS Television Network.

Wow. Medium has reached the big One Hundred Episode mark, the TV milestone, and it did it with yet another awesome episode.

The beginning of the episode had me giggling. It was like the writer's had stumbled into the realm of fanfiction and grabbed the "Age Regression" (Which is quite popular in the "Supernatural" fandom) plot and used it as the inspiration for Allison's whacky dream of wishing her daughters back into babies, and, inconsequently, her husband as well (Baby!Joe was so cute). Joe's half-conscious expression when Allison whispered to him about having another baby was priceless (I swear she stomped any want of having another kid out of him when she kept avoiding the pregnancy test in S1's "Coming Soon").

That aside, it was great to finally get a glimpse of Lynn and Lee's baby girl, even if it was barely for a second and on Scanlon's cell phone. Scanlon looks as though he's fallen into the role of fatherhood quite well since season five, espcailly with the way he was talking to Allison about it and the "guy" reaction to having or wanting more children. I loved that he was determined to Lynn out of the house and away from Leigh long enough to have a little personal time with her, despite Lynn's inability to stop from worrying. The irony of that scene was that, despite her concern, she looked really disappointed that their personal time had been interrupted by work.

The constant sound of a baby crying through the entire episode was a mixture of annoying and distressing (I hate it when babies cry, but not because I think it's annoying). At one point I grew tired of them using that standarized "baby cry" you hear in every sort of media, and at another point, I wanted Allison to find that baby and make him happy again. With that said, I loved the use of it though, It acting like a detector for locating where Byrce had been stashed away, via the picture Allison took from the babysitter's house, was creative and altogther creepy.

Patricia Arquette gave a phenomenal performance in this episode; Allison's fixation with little Bryce was downright disturbing, to the point where I forgot that she was probably genuinally concerned for the child's wellbeing and started to wonder what procuations Joe would have to take if her "concern" escalated any further into a "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle"-esque obession.

I loved the slightly misleading implication that Bryce's late sister gave Allison when she appeared. It almost made me think that there was something amiss with the mother, but I ended up siding with Joe on the entire issue everytime. That the parents were nice people and that there nothing wrong with them, that all of Allison's worry was just a very unhealthy obsession born out of her brief desire to have children (well, he probably didn't think that, but I know I did). My mouth was quite literally, hanging open when she sprayed the mother in the face with papper spray and stole the child from the house. Behind me, my dad was speculating that there was no way to get Allison out of the hole she'd dug herself; she would be going to jail for sure. I agreed.

I was relieved though, when she finally had a vision of the baby-sitter with Bryce. What I didn't expect though, was that the one who killed the babysitter was none other than her own cousin. I half-expected it to be the mother (my dad suspected the husband) out to make sure the sitter wouldn't live to regret her mistake! The only thing I can say that bothered me about this storyline, was that there was real resolution at the end. No arresting of the cousin, nothing from Joe or Manuel, just Allison relieved her ass wasn't goin' to jail. It just felt weird to me that the woman just let Allison off for kidnapping her son, even if she believed all that Allison did, did save her child from an untimely death in the end. Lord knows I would've charged her for hitting me in the eyes with pepper spray.

With that asid, this episode saw alot more use of the Dubois girls, sans Ariel, who just appeared for breakfast and vanished for the rest of the episode. Bridgette's subplot with her strugging to learn how to play the clarinet, while Marie just seemed to get the hang of it without so much as practicing, was probably my favorite part of the episode. Joe's expression when the guy came up asked if Marie was "with them", made me laugh. Meanwhile, Bridgette was just beside herself with frustration and defeat whenever she hear Marie playing the clarinet, while she continued to struggle with getting the hang of it.

Despite being present for all the craziness that Allison was experiencing, Joe seemed to be employed alot more (and alot better) in this subplot. He really seemed more useful when he was helping his girls out with their problem(s), as he could really do nothing except get really, really pissed at Allison, what with her lack of a proper explaination for her obession over Bryce and her ignorance to her own daughter's phlight.

I loved that his interest in getting Marie clarinet lessons wasn't born out of some absent minded-giddiness that one of his daughters finally mastered the clarinet, and was quick to make that clear to Bridgette when she confesed that she didn't think she was anything special. That she was just "the sister" to Ariel and Marie. I wanted to hug Bridgette so badly when started crying. Maria and Marianda/Madison did really well in their performances, especially when Bridgette decides to play "big sister" and tells Marie to get out of bed.

(I love that Marie how more lines now, I can't get enough of hearing her talk, its just too cute.) I really didn't think that they would complete that storyline with the old man, figuring that, maybe once he realized that Marie didn't want to be bothered, he'd just go and bug Bridgette. But the sudden introduction of the son who was trying to complete a song his father started and never got to finish because he died, was just icing on the cake. Its not the way I would've ended the episode though.

Overall, fantastic episode, but I seriously cannot wait for Halloween Episode! Zombies FTW! ...Kinda.