Two Ladies & Their TVs

We love our shows so much we created a blog for it.

 

ER: "Dream House"

Although ER isn't up to snuff like it used to be, it's better than last season, but I'm not going to do a full-on review of last night's ep, instead concentrating on one storyline that seems to have wrapped up last night.

Dr. Pratt (played by Mekhi Phifer) grew up not knowing his father.  Recently his father came back into his life; I don't remember how now, but after he realized who Pratt was, he tried to form a relationship with him.  Pratt, understandably, was resistant.  Last night, Pratt found out that his father had tried to come back after getting out of prison, but Pratt's mother wouldn't let him.  After she died when Greg was five or six, Pratt's father tried again, but found out that Pratt had moved out of state and in with his cousins, so he gave up; went back to the new family he had and started a life with them.  After reading a bunch of letters exchanged between his parents, Pratt asked why his mother had lied, and why his father hadn't tried harder to see him.  IIRC, his answer was that he didn't want to mess things up with his new family.

I thought that it was going to end with the standard dramatic flair; Pratt would forgive his father, and they would start anew.  Pratt in fact did forgive his father, gave him a hug, and told him that he'd heard everything he'd said.  But he basically said it wasn't enough.  His father hadn't been there for him, and it was too late to start a relationship.  And he walked away.

I imagine quite a few people would think Pratt was in the wrong, especially after his father had cleaned up his own life, stayed true to his second family, tried so hard to bring Pratt into his life, etc.  Back when I used to watch daytime talk shows (eons ago, it seems), I'd see these reunited parents and children and wonder how they could do it: sob and laugh and hold hands after decades of not knowing a thing about each other; talk about how they were going to get to know each other.  Perhaps the two sides of these situations are extreme: you either want to desperately love each other or you have a case of extreme indifference.  Neither is wrong, they're both natural, but at the same time, I'm not inclined to buy the first scenario.  A lifetime of hurt is difficult to wipe out;  Pratt was crying last night, and there was no way a new start with his father could rectify what he'd done to Pratt.  I think he finally realized that, and perhaps he also realized that it might have been best if Pratt and he had never met again, because knowing it all, knowing that his father hadn't tried hard enough, ended up hurting Pratt more.  And here's some extreme postulating: perhaps he finally knows that it's the parents that should be the ones to deal with the repercussions of their choices in life, not the children.  Many times that's hard to avoid, and of course there are situations that affect the whole family and cannot be avoided at all and are not for selfish reasons, but in this case, it could have.  I agree with Pratt; his father should have tried harder.

Pratt was kind to forgive his father.  But his father has to deal with Pratt not forgetting, and that's the way it should be.  So, I was pleased with the way the storyline ended.

***

And, of course, seems it wouldn't be a post of mine without a shallow thought: Luka was only on-screen for about thirty seconds.  Hrmph, not enough, TPTB.  Not pleased at all.

Posted by: athenawj at 03:42 | link | comments
it s all drama