Venice, 4x06
Recap by Jaina
Episode Six opens with a reminder about That Damn Letter, that Lara is an unreliable source of information and that she played pyromaniac with said letter. Also that Gina wanted to propose to Ani but instead got her heart crushed at Ani's engagement party to Lara. And fun times were had by all. Not.
Hi, Gina's breast. Was I supposed to be looking at her face? I'm sorry. At any rate we don't immediately find out who "It's you" is that showed up at Gina's door the night before. I'm betting it wasn't Ani.
Instead we cut to Lara and Ani's humble abode. Lara looks like ten miles of bad road as she contemplates a table full of papers and her laptop staring accusingly at her, waiting for her to finish her novel. Lara's had a shitty night so she takes another shot. Her excuse – to clear her head. It doesn't look like her first attempt at head clearing though.
Also, drunk writing? Never a good idea.
Oops, I was wrong. Lara's not trying to write, she's drunkenly staring at Ani's photo and saying all she wants is a wedding. Then she asks what Ani wants. Two problems: one, I suspect Ani doesn't know what she wants and two, if she does it's probably Gina, no matter what Ani might say out loud. It sucks to be Lara.
It's also probably fixing to suck to be Gina. A hand slides up Gina's bare shoulder. Cut back to Lara as her phone rings. Lara lies to her publisher/agent/book dealer hander-outer and is sad. She drinks some more.
The phone also rings for Van. He's shirtless, wearing board shorts and looking a little sweaty. Also looking damn hot. It's Sami on the phone. He wants to know nothing. Sami seems to want to pin it on Adrienne. He calls Sami babe. Aw, does he really like her? That's…incredibly disturbing. Sami asks if he's alright and Van asks why wouldn't he be? Seems his guilt has all been an act, but he's still a disturbingly hot psycho. I'm just saying. It makes it clear that Van doesn't have any problems with what Sami did but doesn't answer the question yet of whether he was trying to push her to do it. Or whether he's just manipulating her and telling her what she wants to hear like he does with everyone else. I'm gonna go with that one.
Meanwhile, Lara decides it's time to sober up for her book meeting right about the time Jake-y shows up. Boy, is that dude way too cheery. Lara dives to hide the booze. But, um, surely he smells it on her breath when he kisses her on the lips? Not that he doesn't already know, but yeah.
And then the Devil – I mean, Logan – rises up from behind Gina with some epic bedhead. Gina sighs and eventually just closes her eyes again. She doesn't have to deal quite yet.
Ani joins the happy twosome in Lara's kitchen. Everyone sounds so damn cheery. Well, trying to. Lara's also trying not to look like a drunk ass mess. Jake is stirring shit, calling Ani "Marshmallow" and bringing her donuts that she definitely does not want and hates him for. Jake brings up the awkwardness of the night before. Neither Ani nor Lara are ready to deal. It's interesting to see someone invading their space, where it's usually just the two of them. They manage to be such a united front to the world, that's it's interesting to see what happens when Jake slips inside and around that. Ani blows off talk of the reception and says she has to get to work.
Jake…goes to console Lara again. He sure is priming the powder keg. He takes Lara's whiskey out of where she's stashed it and pours Lara a shot. He has her hook, line and sinker the moment she rolls her eyes, mentally says fuck it and takes a sip. Together they start planning the wedding. Lara wishes for a restraining order against Gina. Jake posits that maybe the humiliation of the engagement party scared her off. Lara knows better. But I do love her for the indignant side eye that she gives Jake when he declares that Ani "doesn't have the waist for that" referring to a wedding dress. Lara's a complicated character, okay! I can have complicated feelings about her, damn it!
Richard, the health nut, is killing Sarah with a walk on the beach. I guess she decided to stick around. Richard wants to be the most awesome dad ever, if Sarah will let him. He suggests a father/daughter roadtrip. Sarah agrees, but says she wants to get to know Gina before she takes off anywhere for a while. Sarah shows her stubborn side and says she's up for the challenge when Richard declares that getting to know Gina might be hard. He takes the opportunity to challenge her to walk further. Sarah, like a smart kid, negotiates down.
The Devil, I mean Logan, is propped up in Gina's bed looking smug and self-satisfied. She's laying it on Gina pretty thick and she's amused as hell about Gina's little freak out at finding herself back in bed with Logan. And okay, I may call her the Devil, but she's incredibly funny as she snarks about Gina and how she's a shell of her former self.
Gina is trying to figure out how to deal with her bad decision-making while not having alcohol to blame it on. Logan pulls on Gina's shirt and doles out some advice. She starts with heartfelt condolences about Owen and moves on to telling Gina that she needs to stop wallowing in her angst and get on with her life. She needs to live again. It's not the most terrible advice but she ends it by suggesting that Gina think about the two of them getting back together. Gina thinks it's absurd and can't believe Logan's saying it. The bad part is after Logan kisses her and walks away, it seems like Gina's actually considering it.
Brandon has an actual office and he's in it! He doesn't do all his detecting in a car! In plot related news, he has security footage finally and is viewing it.
Logan is putting on her makeup in Gina's bedroom and implies that sexy fun times happened in the shower and that they were delicious and wonderful. She wants them to happen again. Gina is looking way less enthused and tells her that it can't. Then she makes it clear that they won't be getting back together, because she wants something different. It's nice to see that Gina's grown and she's sticking to her guns even with Ani very unavailable. Logan looks genuinely hurt as she walks out the door. With impeccable timing – or creepy surveillance footage – Alan chooses that moment to call Logan. She tells him that she and Gina are done for good, so that means she's joining Alan and Jake on the nefarious plan train. Inside Gina takes a shower of sadness all alone.
Gina's dressed in a gorgeous blue long sleeve shirt. Her business armor is back in place and she seems ready to take at least that part of Logan's advice. Work!Gina is back and she's calling Alan to let him know.
Work!Ani is also back looking at a map or something with a package in hand. Somehow she runs into The Colonel, also taking a walk. Bless The Colonel, he starts inquiring about how Ani is and tells her he was hoping for some good news. Ani thinks The Colonel doesn't like her and tells him she'll be happy because she and Gina are done for good now. I just want to give The Colonel a giant bear hug. He goes to bat for Gina immediately, upset that Ani let his little girl down one more time. They have words. Ani is indignant that The Colonel thinks she could have done something wrong here. She feels rejected and doesn't know any better while The Colonel is pissed that she's been toying with Gina's feelings this whole time. I loved this scene. It's all one big giant misunderstanding, of course. That Damn Letter. But it's nice to see everything get called out the way that the characters see it. It was a great moment.
Lara's shitfaced as she tries to get it together to leave for her meeting. She has limited success in the getting it together department. Jake doesn't look up from his magazine as he offers to drive her. Lara slurs her declination and asks where the trust is. Okaaaaaaay.
Even drunk!Lara isn't drunk enough to not notice that Jake is creepily over invested in her well being when he's Ani's brother and that it's weird what he's doing. Then Jake tells her he likes her and makes a pass at her. Lara is drunk enough to roll right on past that one. Speaking of rolling, did I mention that Lara's drunk driving a rental car today? I feel like that's going to be an important plot point here shortly.
Ani has managed to find Gina…or perhaps Gina was her destination all along with those packages? Don't know, but it doesn't really matter. Ani wants to know why The Colonel was so pissed at her. The "let's not see each other" message just never seems to get through with her. Gina sighs. To explain or not explain. Guya has a Bad Feeling concerning Gina. She's freaking out and calls Gina, wanting to hear from her and be reassured. She can't take it if one more thing happens to her family. Gina and Ani are arguing. Gina can't rehash this again with Ani. She's poured her heart out, bled all over the place for this woman too many times, and it's not something she's good at to begin with. Ani is demanding to know though. Demanding, demanding, demanding.
Did I mention that Lara is drunk driving a rental car? Because she is.
Gina refuses to argue anymore about where they went wrong with Ani any more; she crosses the street without looking. …and gets plowed into by Lara who doesn't even slow down. Guya freezes, as struck as Gina. Something else horrible has happened and she knows it. Ani is on the phone with 911 but all she can do is lay there and hold Gina's unresponsive body helplessly.