Eli Stone - Pregnant dudes, addicted daughters, some Beatles and Seal

(Season 2, Episode 7 - “Help!�?

If you needed to chose one word that could describe this protracted season of Eli Stone it would be ‘change�? Since the first minute of the first hour of the second season, the lives of all of the show’s major players have changed in so many ways. Whether it be a move to a law firm, a promotion, or a relationship change, everyone’s lives have been affected.

This week the Change Fairy struck Patti on the head and continued to pound on Matt Dowd as he continued his transformation from suave, arrogant attorney to a slobbering love puppy. It also continued to tap on Jordan as his evolution continued. Come, let us journey to the world of Eli Stone to see what happened in the lives of these fine folks.

Patti and Angela’s deep dark secrets: Who knew? Since the show began we always thought of Patti as this fairly clean-cut personality. A little strong headed at times, but an all-around honest person. An alcoholic? Well, I guess it’s those you think the least likely to be alcoholics turn out to be the ones who are.

The worst part of it all was that she wasn’t even in the ‘recovering�?stage of alcoholism. It was just there, simmering for a time to resurface. That time was this week �?a particularly bad one for Patti. Not only was her daughter arrested but she turned out to be a drug addict. Well, that one we knew about. Angela’s angry denials and emphasis on her antibiotic use to Keith last week signaled something was definitely wrong with her.

Considering their circumstances, things turned out as okay as they could with both Angela and Patti. Angela really got off scot-free thanks to some finagling by Keith (who, by the way, may need to be investigated by the Bar for allegedly withholding evidence) while Patti headed on the road to recovery from alcoholism. I’m just not sure who had the harder road to hoe.

More of Keith: Though he was introduced to us last season, we have seen very little of Keith throughout the series. The last three episodes have probably given us the deepest look into his life. If anything, he is a pretty no-nonsense attorney who looks at the facts rather than believe that someone, namely Eli, has visions about their client’s innocence. Hey, doesn’t he remember who saved him during the last earthquake? It’s too bad that we won’t get to know more about Keith before the series ends.

Taylor’s a pregnant dude: Who’s the guy who replaced Matt? So self-assured and smug during the first half of last season, Dowd has become almost needy in the way he’s looking for Taylor’s response. Buying flowers and a chocolate bear for Taylor after their argument? Holy heck, he’s been replaced by an alien!

Okay, he has every right to feel the way that he does. I mean, Taylor is having his baby and he wants to be part of the whole experience, both as father and as romantic partner. Taylor, for her part, is holding her feelings back more than Scrooge holds back his money to Bob Cratchit. Partly because she doesn’t want to feel the same pain she did with Eli and partly because she really doesn’t know how she feels about Matt. There was some sort of resolution at the end of the episode, but it wasn’t really closure.

Maggie’s new client: Something is wrong here. Ashley Cardiff says she’s not trying to buy a conscience. Yet, here she is getting Seal tickets for Matt so he can woo Taylor. Isn’t this somewhat unethical? Unless Matt paid for the tickets, which wasn’t revealed. I wonder if Ashley is perhaps the personification of something a bit evil that will be a test for both Matt and Maggie. Stay tuned (for as long as you can, that is).

Another misunderstood vision: What’s going on with Eli lately? His visions were pretty easy to read prior to the circumstances of the last three weeks. Now, he has misinterpreted two visions in a row �?the last one being the ‘Don’t mess around with Jim�?hallucination. This week he misunderstood the vision Patti that said ’she is innocent.�?I wasn’t too sure what the exact meaning of the vision was, but it seems that she was talking more about herself than her daughter.

The continuing evolution of Jordan: Sometimes the re-imaging of oneself leads to sacrifices. In this case it’s a broken marriage for Jordan. At the beginning, after his rescue, it looked like Jordan’s marriage was going to last. I guess the long hours at the office and the loss of income drove a wedge between the two. It’s sad, because Jordan could certainly use all of the support he can get during this time of change.

The message of the show �?and a dedication to John Lennon?: The title of this week’s Eli Stone was “Help,�?as was the Beatles�?tune that Patti sung during his vision (and, a nice rendition of the song to boot). I wonder if the creators and producers of this show knew that it would be airing right around the anniversary of John Lennon’s death. If so, then a nice dedication it was. If not, it’s a strange coincidence that not even Eli could have envisioned.

Next week on Eli Stone: Eli gets jiggy with a new love interest.

'Eli Stone': Fear the hormones

 So at the beginning of this week's Eli Stone, all -- well, most -- seems right with the world for our favorite modern prophet. He's happy. He's dating an heiress with a sassy streak, who's interested in, ahem, getting to know him better (and boy does she). And his vision is a hopeful one -- a woman named Jenny Clark wins the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on cold fusion, which helps wean the world from its oil dependency. But of course, there's always a catch. Or several.

Spoilers of the dark truth variety ahead...

Eli goes to see Dr. Chen post-vision, ostensibly to thank Chen for setting him up with Ashley (Bridget Moynihan). Chen immediately guesses about Eli's third-date intimacies. "About time, bro," he tells Eli, who's relieved for once to actually feel like a normal person. Later, when he checks in with Patti as she looks for the future Nobel laureate, she guesses as well. "You finally got yourself some!" she says. "I was wondering if you'd taken a vow of chastity." Later on, Nate guesses that Eli has gotten lucky ("You finally let the little attorney out of his briefs!") as well. Apparently there's no such thing as discretion, but it's a happy occasion, so what the hell.

Eli's got a hunch that the Janelle clark, a college dropout who works at a Home Depot-style big box store, is the future Nobel laureate. He goes to see her at her trailer, asking if she might need a lawyer, when a crowd of FBI agents screeches up and arrests her for alleged terrorist activity. She's being accused of building a dirty bomb in her backyard. When he goes with Eli to meet with Jenny, Keith's incredulous about the charges -- but this time he's not questioning Eli, who knows Jenny was working on a safe form of nuclear energy -- cold fusion.

In court, we learn that the feds were tipped off by one of Jenny's co-workers, and their search -- properly conducted under the Patriot Act -- led them to a lead-lined shed. It was filled with hundreds of smoke alarms and glow-in-the-dark clocks that had been stripped of their nuclear materials. But no explosive devices were found, and no plans or diagrams or journal entries gave any indication Jenny had plans to build a bomb. Even so, the jury thinks she's a female Ted Kaczynski, the lawyers tell her. "Kaczynski -- that guy was a hack," Jenny snorts. "You ever see his work? Shoddy."

She's trying to act tough, and her stand against the system is legitimate -- she saw her father's plan for an engine that gets 59 miles to the gallon back in 1979 get squashed by the government and big oil. It made her want to fight back and find a way to not be dependent on oil. In the meantime, Eli took Jenny's notebook to the head of the physics department at Stanford, who said her notebook contains some of the most advanced mathematics and innovative reasoning he's ever seen -- and no discussion of anything weaponlike. "Jenny's may be the most significant contribution toward a carbon-free energy economy since we first split the atom," his affadavit reads. "That's nice," she responds. "But the point is -- not a bomb."

Ultimately the judge calls out the terrorism charges for the bogus attempt at conviction that they are, but acknowledges that Jenny broke the law by stripping the nuclear materials out of the household items, even though they were legally obtained. That said, he doesn't want to be the judge who put the next Einstein in prison. Work it out, he tells Eli.

 Which brings us back to the vision. Keith believes Jenny's story, but he doesn't share Eli's faith that cold fusion will be solved in the next 40 years, based on an article written by Irving Wallenberg, the head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Who, coincidentally, is the guy who presents Jenny with her Nobel Prize in Eli's vision. They show Jenny's notebook to Dr. Wallenberg, who's impressed enough that he agrees to help get the charges dropped against her if she goes to work for him. Eli responds to her initial refusal to work for The Man by saying she has a gift -- and having that gift means owing it to the world to use it. "You don't get to say no," he tells her. "No matter how much you might want to."

Then there's Ashley the Heiress. She's still looking for a way to give some of her family's fortune to a worthy environmental cause. Maggie's in the midst of pitching sea otters (I can't even get into all the things that are wrong with that) when Ashley tells her about dating Eli. She's not looking for anything serious, but she's not bored yet, so she'll keep him around for a while, Ashley tells Maggie.

 Yet Eli, loving this new feeling, wants to tell Ashley that he's a prophet. He should probably wait until after the fourth date, but whatever. "Some people don't get it, but some people think it's a gift," he says when he breaks the news. "Jewelry is a gift," Ashley responds. "You just told me you work for God." She's not terribly receptive to the idea, and Eli's devastated at her reaction. It's back to Dr. Chen, who quite rightly reasons that even though Eli was nuts to tell Ashley, if she can't handle who he is it's better off that he know now.

For a bit it looks as though he may have talked her into continuing to hang out with him -- despite a visit from Maggie warning Eli that Ashley doesn't exactly have a long attention span. But in the end she doesn't have the staying power. Ashley stands him up for dinner at Nate and Beth's -- who are eloping to Las Vegas, by the way -- and apologizes later by saying she's just not a serious person.

 Meanwhile, Taylor insists on representing Jordan in his divorce, much to his initial consternation. "I'm sorry to have to play this card," she tells him, "but I'm starving and moody and my pants are being held together by a rubber band. Now you call Diane [his original divorce lawyer] and tell her I'm taking over or no baby pictures!" Jordan's wife, Ellen, is demanding a hefty financial settlement that he's no longer prepared to give, since his money's all tied up with the new firm. Taylor tries to reason with Ellen and her lawyer, but to no avail.

Taylor talks through the conundrum of her father's divorce with Matt while trying on clothes at a maternity store, and he's surprisingly astute with his advice. Go talk to her and work it out, he says. Taylor goes to see Ellen, who says forgive her for sounding selfish, but she won't be victim to the same tactics Jordan used on Taylor's mother, she says. Turns out that when he left his first wife, Jordan hid his assets in offshore accounts, then hired a great divorce attorney, took his wife to court and got full custody of Taylor. That explanation sounds a whole lot more reasonable than Ellen's lawyer's argument that she had a certain expectation of a kind of lifestyle when she married Jordan.

 Taylor, aghast that the story of what really happened between her parents is so different from the version she believes to be true -- that her mother abandoned her -- is understandably very upset after she confirms Ellen's story with Jordan's first divorce lawyer. She lays into Jordan for fundamentally changing whatever relationship she might have had with her mother, which has affected every aspect of her life. In the end, Ellen gets the house, the car, and alimony -- and Jordan admits he hasn't been a great person in the past. But the question now is how much and for how long Taylor and Jordan's relationship will be disrupted or altered by this.

Ultimately, it comes back to Eli. Upset about Ashley and tired of being the one who's supposed to help everyone else but has to sacrifice a normal life to do it, he turns once again to Dr. Chen. He wants Chen to practice the Dark Truth accupuncture technique on him again, so he can see his future. Chen wisely refuses, noting how dangerous it is, particularly for someone with Eli's medical condition -- and he's not going to risk Eli's life to help him straighten out his love life. But Eli's lonely and fed up, and it stinks. So in the end, he goes to see Dr. Lee, Chen's competition from down the street, and offers to pay big to get the procedure. Against her better judgment, they go ahead -- and she warns him that it'll be painful. What he ends up seeing is painful indeed: Beth leaving Nate at the altar.

'Eli Stone': Fate can be changed, except when it can't

 The last time we saw Eli Stone, our lawyer/prophet was working his way through a breakup with an heiress and had a difficult vision about his brother's wedding. Now, as a newlywed myself, I can appreciate that there are often difficulties on the road to matrimony. But they're usually of the "our caterer didn't show up" variety, rather than a Dark Truth vision of the wedding being called off. But to each their own.

Spoilers -- and fate -- ahead...

Nate, Beth, and Eli: Eli's really disturbed by the vision he had via Dr. Lee's Dark Truth about Beth leaving Nate at the altar -- and rightfully so. He wants to protect Nate from getting his heart broken. So even as he agrees to be promoted from best man to officiant, he's on the lookout, asking questions, watching Nate's reactions, looking for clues. And when he mentions the vision to Patti, whom he's tasked with making sure he officially becomes an officiant, she points out that he doesn't have the best track record when interpreting his own visions. Maybe it's something else, she says. And of course, Eli can't talk to Nate about it.

 But with all the probing questions (and in fairness, they're about as subtle as a Mack truck), Nate's onto Eli. Have you had a vision, he asks -- but Eli denies it. "Nobody wants your wedding to go well more than I do -- believe me," Eli tells him. Nate asks Dr. Chen if he knows what's going on, or if he can check their dad's journal for some clues about the wedding. But Chen waves him off, telling him to go get married and not worry about Eli. Meanwhile, Eli takes the same watchful approach with Beth, listening to her describe her first date with Nate and watching her play the piano and sing a version of Billy Joel's "This Night" that was so absolutely gorgeous it made me want to revisit that album. But when it's over, she looks a little stricken. And of course, you're thinking what I'm thinking. Or, more to the point, what Beth's thinking.

 It takes Eli just a little bit longer, though, and he goes back to Dr. Lee for another round of Dark Truth to get a better look at the future. And sees himself and Beth kissing and being caught by Nate, and Beth calling off the wedding. Dr. Lee stops the vision because Eli's convulsions were becoming too severe, and a concerned Dr. Chen goe to see him as well. You're stepping off the path, Eli, and you know that's fundamentally wrong, Chen tells him. Don't go to the wedding, change things if you can, but what you're doing isn't right.

But Eli keeps the faith that maybe he can do something about it, and goes with Nate and Beth to Las Vegas -- the Bellagio, no less -- for the wedding. It's another lovely moment between the brothers as Nate thanks Eli for being his best friend. Then Eli goes back upstairs to get the rings, and all hell breaks loose. Beth's there, looking at the rings and tearing up. I don't think I can do this, she tells Eli. The problem: she loves Nate, but she has feelings for Eli too, and she can't get married without knowing if Eli shares her feelings. He doesn't, he assures her, and goes to get Nate -- who walks in. I'm sorry, but I can't marry you, she tells Nate. Bless him, Eli made sure that the kissing from his vision didn't happen -- but that doesn't mean he could control how Beth feels.

In the end, Eli goes to see a livid Nate, who won't return his phone calls and doesn't want to see him. Nate blames Eli for not telling him about the vision, not believing his brother's desire to protect him. Before you started protecting me, I had a job, a career, a woman who loved me, he tells Eli. Now he has nothing. You chose to have the aneurysm back so that I could have a normal life, Nate says. If I had the aneurysm, at least I'd have your gift. Now I'm just as alone as you are. Everything I care about you're taking away from me -- you're worse than Dad, Nate exclaims. Ouch. That last bit really gets to Eli, and he begins to fire back when the nosebleed starts and things get blurry.

A change of circumstance: The minister at Keith's church comes to him for help with a wrongful termination lawsuit. The minister -- formerly Michelle, now Michael -- had a sex change, and was dismissed before he had a chance to talk to the congregation about his decision, his surgery and the process of becoming a man. And this is a pastor who built this church, taking it from 50 members to 1,000. Keith immediately takes the case to Eli. He's clearly uncomfortable, but he's also right that it's exactly the kind of case that's Eli's specialty.   

But Eli's not buying Keith's attempt to distance himself, and pulls him back in. The church is arguing that Michael was fired not because of the sex change, but because of a clause in the contract allowing for a change in circumstance. For two years before the surgery, Michelle lived as Michael outside the church, but didn't disclose it to the congregation. We don't want a liar guiding our spiritual lives, the church administrator says.

 Keith goes to see Rev. Michael at the community center where he's conducting a Bible study for a group of transgendered men and women. His point is a passage that reads that everyone is one in Christ -- not men, not women. Despite our challenges in offering forgiveness or understanding why other people do what they do, it's an affirmation of spiritual equality for each of us. Which makes Keith get it: equal access to God.

Keith ends up questioning Rev. Michael on the stand, getting him to tell the story of how he was fired without the opportunity to address the congregation. So he delivers his sermon from the witness box. He is the same person he was when he was Michelle. It's just that in this body his spirit is free to be closer to what God intended him to be -- and that makes him a better minister. He is a prodigal son, seeking understanding and acceptance. Now he knows who he is, and the congregants' response will tell him who they are.

The jury ends up ruling in favor of Rev. Michael, and awarding a total of about $175,000. But Keith gets him what he really wants -- the opportunity to deliver his sermon in church. Very few people showed up, and the minister is discouraged. But Keith encourages him, saying that they'll come around -- he did.

The wee one: Matt and Taylor are in some ways getting closer as a couple as her pregnancy progresses. He buys a very cute tiny pair of hockey skates on eBay as she focuses on the tests she's about to have done. The doctor finds  that Taylor's protein levels are higher than they should be, possibly indicating a chromosomal problem. Additional testing will be needed to be sure.

 Which touches off a very difficult conversation between two people who never thought they'd be serious. Taylor is clearly troubled by the prospect of the tests, and about making a decision whether to continue the pregnancy based on their results. Matt's shocked that she'd even consider such a thing. Regardless of your feelings on the issue, you have to cut Taylor at least a little bit of slack for how she's trying to cope with the unknown.

Patti gives her a little help. She runs into Taylor in the ladies' room, and even though they've never been exactly close, Taylor explains what's going on. And she's worried that by putting herself first in this scenario, she's a bad mother. But Patti reassures her -- that's what you should be doing, she says. You've got to do what's good for you, or you're no good to anybody.

The point of all this poignancy is that Taylor and Matt aren't talking. They're trying to face this like a couple, but they're really not acting like one, and at its crux, that's the problem. There will be a mission decisions to make, and a million fights, Taylor tells Matt. But they need to keep talking, even if they're screaming at one another. The call comes -- the baby's fine.

Eli Stone S2.E9 Two Ministers

With only a few more episodes left, Eli Stone is nearing it’s end. It’s too bad that the show has had some it’s worst episodes lately. Hopefully the show can recoup in the last couple of episodes and give all of us Eli Stone fans some good closure to a show that was cut short way to early. So let’s get into last night’s episode, which could be the last Eli Stone episode to ever air on television.

As I already mentioned, Eli Stone has kind of been in a funk the last couple of episodes. The episodes have been worth watching, but the show just hasn’t been the same. I don’t know if it is the cases or whether the show appears to be drifting further and further away from the perfect future, but something has been missing the last couple of episodes. Hopefully what is missing will be discovered in the last couple of episodes so the show can end on a satisfying series finale.

Onto the episode itself. We missed a couple characters this episode (which is a shame since Maggie and Jordan are two of the best characters on the show). Instead this week focussed mostly on the rest of the cast.

Taylor and Matt dealt with the possibility of their baby facing health concerns. It turns out their is nothing wrong with the baby. I have never really minded Taylor or Matt but I really didn’t care too much for this storyline. I thought it was pretty boring and I think it could have been cut out.

Meanwhile at the office Keith and Eli defend a minister that was fired from his job after he had a sex change. Eli and Keith eventually end up winning the case allowing the minister to return to his position. While the case was solid, it just was missing something that other Eli cases have had in the past. As I mentioned earlier, I have no idea what that is. Maybe it’s because the case really didn’t have a lot to do with making the future a better place. What I liked about the first season was that it was so positive and almost everyone Eli helped were part of a bigger plan in order to make the world a better place. There was also the wacky visions that have suddenly disappeared this season.

Finally we delved into Eli’s personal life some more as he tried to stop Beth from dumping Nate. Eli tries everything he can to stop it from happening but it still happens since Beth can’t marry Nate when she still has feelings for Eli. I guess Eli should realize that no matter how hard he tries he can’t always change the future. Just as Eli is about to get Nate to forgive him fore everything that happens, Eli starts bleeding from the nose and we are left with that cliffhanger. I don’t know what the nosebleed (boy have their been a lot of nosebleeds this season) is supposed to represent but I am intrigued. It’s too bad that we will probably be waiting quite a while to find out since ABC has still not announced what they are going to do with the final episodes. At this point ABC has pretty much three choices (two which I really don’t like). ABC can put the episodes online, air the rest of the episodes in the summer, or could make us wait till Eli Stone is released on dvd. I would prefer that ABC is nice enough to the fans that they just put the rest of the episodes online. Why make the fans wait so long to see the final episodes. Just let us enjoy the final episodes now instead of making us wait such a long time.

Quotes:

Nathan (about Eli): “It makes me think you’re a dork.�?/P>

Eli (to Patti): “I need you to make me a minister.�?/P>

Eli: “I got promoted to pastor, remember?�?/P>

So what are your thoughts on what is facing Eli Stone fans? Are you like me and just want ABC to put the episodes up online instead of making fans wait? Are you ok with last night’s episode possibly being the last Eli Stone episode ever to air?

Eli Stone - Eli messes up four relationships

(Season 2, Episode 9 - “Two Ministers�?

Oh, it was a banner week for our Eli. A banner week indeed. On the plus side, he did get to help a transgender minister try and get his flock back. That was the official “case of the week.�?And while it was good, and gave us some more depth into the great evolving character of Keith Bennett, it was the ongoing drama between all the other characters that really drove the story.

It is starting to feel like we’re going to get some satisfying resolution to all these plotlines, as promised. And with each passing episode it’s getting more and more disappointing to think that it’s all coming to an end so soon. They’re all getting so well-rounded and interesting. I even like Taylor again. But no Jordan at all tonight rings up a big New Year’s “Boo!�?from me.

Let’s take a look at those relationships Eli screwed up tonight, eh?

Eli and Ashley
It was done almost immediately. I have to wonder if the decision to truncate a possible romance for Eli so hastily was a part of the original plan, or some of the tweaking done when they realized they were working on a deadline. Granted, her reaction to finding out he had visions was understandable, but it was still a bit abrupt. It’s too bad because Ashley was an interesting character, and had the obvious connection of being Maggie’s client over at Posner-Klein.

That’s one relationship, actually, that hasn’t really been touched on as we’re starting to wind things down: Eli and Maggie. We know per a vision that at least at one point the two were fated to be together. We don’t know if that’s still the case or not. After all, Eli’s visions have been known to change (we’ll get to that more later). I’m guessing they’re saving this one for the finale.

Eli and Dr. Chen
I think the moral of the story for Eli here is that Eli needs to stop getting off the damned path. For whatever reason, Dr. Chen is his spiritual guide on this journey and you’d think by now he’d get that. Yes he has human emotions and desires, but come on, dude. You had to know that getting selfish was never going to work out well for you. He and Dr. Chen will bounce through this and continue being friends, but you have to feel for the good doctor feeling like he was betrayed in a way.

Nate and Beth
This one I don’t think he was going to be able to save no matter what he did, but by going to Dr. Lee and risking his life on a dangerous procedure for selfish reasons, he did make the whole situation a lot more awkward than it needed to be. If he hadn’t gone to Lee and seen the future on this one then he could have been just as oblivious as Nate was which would have helped tremendously with�?/P>

Nate and Eli
Brothers fight. I have one so I know this from first-hand experience. And then they make up. Nate blamed Eli for withholding his vision about the wedding (which is valid) but then proceeded to blame Eli for all that has gone wrong in his life (which is questionable), following it all up by saying Eli was worse than their father (which is just downright mean). Sure, in context they now understand their father better now, but he was still shit then.

Elsewhere on Eli Stone
You’d think it was Eli’s show the way he keeps hogging the limelight. Oh �?yeah. Keith kind of took a prominent role in the case of the transgender minister, which just happened to be his minister. While watching the episode, I kept trying to figure out if they’d cast a man, woman or transgender for the role.

As it turns out, the internets reveals that Dallas Malloy (who many of you will slam me for not remembering from Jerry Maguire) played this role, and IMDb indicates that it may be her first acting role playing someone other than herself, with Maguire being her only other role period. She did a solid job of playing a man who used to be a woman. I won’t say her acting was as impressive, though she got the job done. I just didn’t get the charisma that most ministers possess from her.

The Dowd and Taylor had a baby scare, which only served to reiterate that while Matt has turned into a big softy over this baby, Taylor is still reserving herself. At least I’m pretty sure that she was leaving the option of abortion on the table when the possibility arose that their baby might have Down’s Syndrome, or some similar situation. Maybe this was another case of a quick storyline change to keep things as clean as possible before we say goodbye.

Bring back Jordan! And I’m not completely satisfied with the way things were left with Angela. She and Keith did have some sort of connection and I’d like to think that he’s there in some capacity helping her. He’s a hard dude, but I think he still cares about her. Maybe they’ll get to that, too.