About Last Night: Wednesday

Mini caps of Rachel Zoe, Flipping Out and Rescue Me.

The Rachel Zoe Project: La Petite Chanteuse

Last night on The Rachel Zoe Project, they pretended there was drama, there were a bunch of disconnected segments and plots, and the show was tremendously out of date. Pre-Oscars, Valentine’s Day (the movie with Taylor Lautner, Taylor Swift, Ashton Kutcher, Anne Hathaway, George Lopez, Jessica Biel, Julia Roberts…zzzzz), a NY blizzard, and NY Fashion Week out of date to be precise. Yeah, try and think back. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

We learn Rachel has a sister. There’s more talk of raising children…this show better not be morphing into a another Bethenny Getting Married because no one’s going to watch Rachel and Rodger go through that… I learn the name of yet another minion.

But the feigned drama and endless drivel is all worth it because there were CLOTHES! I know! I can’t believe it either! Lots of lovely clothes, the starpower of Gwen Stefani and Naomi Campbell (post cell phones/pre-diamonds). They pay tribute to Alexander McQueen, they prep for the Fashion For Relief Haiti (that can’t be grammatically correct) show and don’t have enough shoes but most importantly…THERE ARE ACTUALLY CLOTHES! Join me, won’t you?

Flipping Out: Saint Claire of Assisi

In some interviews before this season’s premier, Jeff Lewis talked about how doing the show for three seasons has made him more self-aware, and how that’s motivated him to improve his behavior He told the Associate Press: “I personally feel like I’m getting healthy, and I feel like as I get healthier, it’s not that I’m less interesting, but I just don’t know if [the viewers] would be interested in me. When I was borderline insane, I think it was a pretty good bet.” So great news for Jeff, shitty news for Bravo.

I actually didn’t think Jeff was much different in last week’s episode than he usually is, but this week Jeff did seem much more healthy. It’s the same old series of renovation problems, but now everything seems a little bit more manageable. He’s still considering downsizing, so this week we get scene of Jeff reprimanding his assistant Sarah…not because he handle his stress, but because she’s just a shitty assistant. Jeff only crosses the line with the staff once this week, with Jenni, but shortly later he’s calm, carefully articulating his feelings, and apologizing.

It seems like a low-impact week. An issue about a client’s mural is resolved with a joke and a laugh. A discussion about whether they should keep accepting free lunches at Casa Vega gets successfully resolved. Zoila is bored. But the episode throws a curve at the end. Christy, the Casa Vega client, calls a meeting with Jeff. He is to come alone…dun dun DUN.

Rescue Me: Saint Claire of Assisi

If last week’s episode was a watchable good-outweighs-the-bad, this week’s was just…well, good. Mainly it’s because they didn’t over-rely on Tommy to drive the episode. But he did get his own story and, even though it was a textbook Tommy story, it was still fun. Here’s how it went down: spending the night with Janet has awakened Tommy’s old feelings for her, and he wants to make another try. By this point Janet has done this so many times she just lays it out for Tommy: this is the LAST time, and she wants it to work, but she’ll only go along with it if Tommy eliminates all “outside distractions.” Which, of course, means Sheila. And that night, when Tommy stops by to give Sheila the news, their old routine resumes, too. She pretends not to give a shit, which goads him into proving she DOES give a shit, which winds up with him on top of her. The only thing that stops them is an appearance from Mick, Sheila’s new lover and Tommy’s ongoing conscience. It looks like Mick might tell Janet about Tommy and Sheila, but he holds off for this week to let Tommy stew.

So in other words: Salvation, Failure, Guilt. You know, the uzhe.

But fun things were going on with everyone else, too. Feinberg and Needles take a trip to the FDNY to plead 62 Truck’s case for reinstatement. Feinberg wants to be delicate, but when that doesn’t immediately pay off Needles takes the direct approach. He basically blackmails the FDNY into reinstating them, using the footage from 62 Truck’s off-duty school save last week. The next day 62 Truck is back in business, and Needles appears to be a hero, but really his blunt approach has destroyed all of 62 Truck’s political capital. They were on thin ice before, but now they’re on thinner ice.

Garrity and Mike are still concerned about Mahoney, the ex-firefighter with terminal cancer. To show Mahoney how much he’s appreciated, they track down some of the people he saved and take him around for visits, with varying results.

And last, but not least, Damien saves a baby from a burning building, and we learn he’s a premature ejaculator. (Those two things aren’t directly related).