Okay, here goes. I’m taking over The Glades recaps for Stephanie and I’m a little nervous. Bear with me ‘cuz I may suck at this. I mean, I *think* I’m rational and objective most of the time and then once in a while I do something, say something, write something that proves I’m a completely delusional fan just like the rest of them. I hope that doesn’t happen here.

Just so you have an idea on where I stand with The Glades… I loved Season 1. Loved it. Fell in love with Matt Passmore’s pretty face & quick wit. I love that he’s a bit of a cocky jackass ‘cuz that’s kinda my thing. I loved the chemistry he had with just about everybody and loved the idea of him with Callie. I understood that they couldn’t just throw Jim & Callie together and have them live happily ever after ‘cuz that’d make for an awfully boring/shitty show. That said, I hated it when they threw Heather and then Sam & Ray and then Dr. Avery in the mix, forcing vague triangles that I didn’t really buy. I don’t mind if they take their time getting our main couple together…I just don’t want them to be with anybody else while they’re taking their time. See? Totally rational. Season 2 had its moments. I lost interest around half way through but kept watching just ‘cuz I’m obsessive like that and can’t NOT finish something and I couldn’t abandon Passmore. He’d miss me. All in all, I think it had a strong finish so I’m hoping we stick with that momentum for this season.

Quick re-recap from the Season 2 finale: the hospital’s closing; Callie’s going to be out of a job; Dr. Avery’s all sneaky trying to get her to take an ‘in Atlanta & away from Jim’ job (which, admittedly…except for the “away from Jim” part, would be a fantastic opportunity for our girl); there was some stuff about Callie being a hostage & Jim being a sorta badass negotiator guy but the main thing (for me) was that we saw Jim find out through stupid Dr. Avery (jerk) about Callie’s Atlanta opportunity; we saw Callie getting ready to board the plane & Jim all depressed at home & then we see Callie show up at his place admitting she’s not ready to give up on something she hasn’t even tried yet; and…they kiss. YAY!

Now, let’s get Season 3 started with “Close Encounters”.

I don’t know where to start. I suppose I’m pleasantly surprised ‘cuz I half expected to come back to the show to find out Jim & Callie had made a go of things & figured out they didn’t work offscreen. I guess along with being completely rational where my TV is concerned I’m also a little bit of a TV relationship cynic. BUT…that didn’t happen.

This week’s case starts with a couple making out all hot & heavy in a car in the swamp…like you do. I’d kinda hoped, for a minute, that the couple would be Jim & Callie, just for fun. But, it was just another typical teenage couple who’d stolen Daddy’s car & whose night was about to get really bad. They decided to get out of the car in the middle of the night to investigate a mysterious light in Mosquito Lagoon. which is known for UFO sightings, and ended up tripping over a dead guy as if they’d never watched a bad horror film or crime fighting show and didn’t know THAT was going to happen.

So, the gist of it is, this week’s case is a look into UFOs & aliens & weird circles cut into the frozen dead guy. Okay, that’s not exACTly what it is…but I can’t even lie, they’ve lost me already.

Immediately after establishing what case Jim was going to be solving (I mean, let’s face it, obviously he’s going to solve it) we jump to a shot of Jim & Jeff at Jeff’s karate (or tae kwon do or whatever) class where Jeff’s just laid Jim out…caught him with “the element of surprise” and flipped him onto his back. It’s cute. I’ve liked the Jim/Jeff interactions since the beginning…I guess it’s the whole ‘Jeff needs a good male role model’ thing…I’m a mom, I can’t help it. This is when we know that Callie & Jim are still a thing ‘cuz she comes in as Jim’s getting up, Jeff takes off to go get changed and then Jim & Callie kiss. She immediately apologizes to Jim  for waiting until Jeff was gone to kiss his boo boo better (she didn’t actually do that, she just kissed him “hello” but asked if it made up for him getting flipped by a teenager) but she’s trying to ease Jeff into the kissy-ness of their relationship ‘cuz “he’s got a lot on his plate”. I mean, he’s 14…15 now, maybe? Does she think he can’t tell that there’s something between her & the hot cop who constantly hangs around & saves them from shit? Silly Callie, he watches TV too…he knows.

Question: Is this the kind of show that needs a totally detailed, every spoken word analyzed recap? I hope not ‘cuz I’m not sure I can deliver that. The bottom line is, all the stuff that actually had to do with the case kind of bugged/bored me. It’s a procedural, so it’s obviously the same kinda thing week in, week out…you just hope that some of the cases grab you more than others, right?  I mean, you’re entitled to believe what you want, but the alien stuff made me roll my eyes. A lot. I can only handle alien stuff when Ernesto Riley’s talking about it but make no mistake, I roll my eyes at him too. Then, the fact that the multimillionaire senior citizen victim’s wife wore nothing but a hot pink bikini the whole episode and was the perfect cliché of the grieving 20-something, so hard done by widow who’d been ignored by her geriatric husband so much that she was having an affair and was SO clearly the perfect suspect but of course it didn’t end up being her…UGH. We need better story writing.

Let me get to the stuff that I liked. I already mentioned the Jeff/Jim interaction. There was another cute scene where Jim & Callie were having dinner at her place… they’d finished & Jeff brought them dessert (bowls of Chunky Monkey!) and quickly bailed to go “study” with a friend. As IF he doesn’t know his mom & Jim needed some alone time. The kid’s not stupid AND he’s considerate.

Jim wants to ask Carlos to make some calls in the hopes of finding Callie a job and he runs it by her but Callie says nuh-uh…I can totally do this on my own.  Eventually, Jim ignores her and talks to Carlos anyway…asks him to make some calls all “you know, quiet?” which leads Carlos to deduce, correctly, that it’s exactly what Callie doesn’t want him to do & he says “So you’re going behind her back, huh? It’s like you’re already married.” Ha! (I probably shouldn’t laugh at that, huh…it’s kinda sucky that THAT’s a commonplace thought on marriage…but that’s not what this recap’s about…right?)  Anyway, the thing about this whole scene for me is that I generally really love it when Jim & Carlos are onscreen together…it doesn’t matter what the scene is, I just usually love their vibe.  There were a couple more little quips between them this episode but sadly, nothing that really grabbed me. I don’t know…the whole episode just didn’t seem very cohesive to me. I’m REALLY hoping it gets better again as the season goes along.

Jim visiting Callie at the hospital was cute ‘cuz he was just being sweet & checking up on her knowing she was going to hear news about the job interview she’d been on…sadly, she didn’t get the job but it still totally led to flirty fun and then freaky fun in an empty hospital room (she SHOVED him in there!).  Way to cheer your girl up, Longworth. I like it. (Truth be told, up until this point in the episode I was a little afraid that they’d lost some of their chemistry…this made me buy it again.)

My favorite part of the episode was the end conversation between Jim & Callie. Carlos’ “quiet” phone calls obviously did the trick because Callie ended up with a call requesting an interview at a hospital where she hadn’t even put in her resume. She intimates that she knows Jim had something to do with it…he tries to deflect but then gives in with this little speech:  “I know you can get a job on your own. Just like you raised Jeff on your own. Like you held two jobs on your own. Like you’re able to figure out how to do Med School on your own…you know, ‘cuz up ‘til now you’ve been on your own. But Cal, you’re not on your own anymore.” And, after a kind of blah episode for me, that was really sweet.  Which means I KNOW they’re setting us up for heartbreak.

One of my favorite lines from the show…because I’m totally juvenile: “You took a space ride? Where to…Neptune? Uranus?”  (pronounced yer anus, of course…I love Jim).

I think that’s it for this one.  For me, the episode was fine…maybe just a slow start. I hope.

Now, I’ve never ever said this, and I’m a little excited about it: please feel free to meet me in the comments…let me know what you thought…of the episode AND my maiden recap voyage…was I too ramble-y? ( I can’t promise I’ll ever fix that.)  If you’re so inclined, you can follow me on Twitter here:erintalkscrap. I’m a bit of a jackass over there…in a good way, mostly.