"Groundrush"

A review by Jenni:

At this point I only have 14 more episodes left...  Gosh, I wish those Season 5 DVDs were out!!!

What I love about this episode:
Well, the opening scene reminded me that I want to do a "Moment with Andrew" JABB involving making shapes out of clouds.  So that was good.  Plus, it was just a cute scene between Tess and Monica... well, at least at first.  Monica annoys me a lot in this episode and that sentiment starts pretty quickly.  But that's for the next section!

I get a good laugh out of this episode, as I always do, for showing an old time computer screen.  So fun!  And Tess' comment that you could push a wrong button and delete your friends is too true!  I think I've accidentally wiped out address book files before.  Not to mention the whole JABB site could get deleted if I had the right program up and accidentally hit three buttons.  So good point from Tess.  :-)

Once again, gotta hand it to TBAA for not seeming too dated (barring the computer).  Scott makes reference to the economy being lousy everywhere.  Gee, sound familiar?  Course, it makes me wonder if the economy was ever good!

I love this line from Monica cause it's so ironic coming from her.  She tells it to Jocelyn: "Have faith in who you know."  Umm, might wanna listen to that one on loop yourself, Monica.   She's not the best about believing those close to her...  ::cough:: "The Journalist" ::cough::

Speaking of Jocelyn, way to go her!  I love that she tells Monica she did consider her family whole.  I also appreciate her telling Monica about her painful marriage and resulting divorce.  Because Monica has no bloody right to be going around trumpeting marriage as vital to family when she has zilch personal experience with it.  Was I happy that Scott and Jocelyn married at the end?  Yes.  Do I think marriage is a good thing?  You bet when it's taken on my two consenting, loving adults.  But for Monica to tie "family" to "marriage" automatically does not fly with me.  Marriage and family do go together.  But family does not always depend on marriage IMO.

I love Sam.  And this quote from him is lovely: "Our job is love." 

Okay, even though I think Monica deserved to be punished, I like that Sam assures her that going to the Netherworld is not a punishment but a lesson.  God teaching a lesson seems a whole lot more loving than God doling out punishment.  Especially when Monica's intentions were good.  Even if she was a complete idiot about it.

While I am aghast about Monica's stubborn refusal to see Scott as anything but wonderful, I do think he's a good character.  I feel sorry for him.  Because the crime he committed really was justifiable in my mind.  The repeatedly running away not so much.  But I can understand it.  He was really quite a compelling character, I thought.  And I couldn't help feeling tremendously bad for his sister and I'm glad Monica stressed that.  Rape itself is such a horrible crime but to then be separated from one's loving brother because of it?  I'm so glad they showed us a reunion between the siblings.

I'm also glad Scott brings up the stigma attached to rape and how it was a blame the girl/she asked for it mentality.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure that stigma is entirely dead.  But I would hope shows like this would do some work in killing that belief forever.

What I didn't love about this episode:
Monica seems to have this habit of being "starstruck" by some of her human assignments.  If it only happened here, I could overlook it.  But she's that way in "The Journalist," too, which doesn't show much of a learning curve.  But it goes beyond a human/angel thing.  I guess I could see being an angel and being fascinated with and on the side of humans.  Cause, truth be told, I'm the flip side.  I'm more than a lil starstruck watching Andrew.  So, in a sense, I get that.   What I do NOT get is automatically trusting someone she barely met over her friends.  Tess repeatedly tells her not to be so rosy about Scott.  She ignores that.  She won't accept the implication when Andrew tells her Scott's fingerprints match the murderer.  And all this because Scott seems so great.  And, yeah, I do think Scott is a pretty great guy despite his past.  But how can Monica be so foolish?  Just because someone seems great doesn't mean they are.  I'm sure Andrew could show her some not so nice files on "nice" serial killers and pedophiles.  I accepted Monica's trust to a point but she goes too, too far. 

And, as always, Monica's behavior towards Andrew kinda makes me want to shake her.  Thank God he couldn't have possibly heard her "What's he doing here?" when he appeared.  If I said that about my friend, I'd get a good talking to.  Andrew's got enough problems with humans thinking he causes death without Monica behaving like that.

Further, I'm ticked by Monica giddily thinking she's helping to "create a family."  Bull crud.  Scott and Co. were a family before she or any of the angels showed up.  And, yeah, I realize TBAA likes the whole husband-wife-child set up.  I have nothing against it.  But to act like those three weren't a family just because the two adults weren't wed is ridiculous.  Other episodes did so well at highlighting non-traditional families.  Why this one strikes out on that note is beyond me. 

Monica subverts the law.  Repeatedly.  Think about this: because Monica didn't tell the truth that she saw Scott, a police chase began.  On wet streets.  Crazy driving ensued.  It's a miracle no one swerved right into something and got killed.  Monica's lie could have cost a lot more than a trip to God's Country.

And this is just a lil annoyance but I'm ticked about Monica and Tess' reaction to Andrew's comment about his stellar legal advice.  You could tell he was being funny and didn't actually feel all puffed up about it.  And Monica just kinda has this "Ha, yeah right" reaction which seemed awfully rich from someone who earlier was all "I'm helping create a family!" 

Lingering questions:
Why the heck doesn't Tess get on Monica's case for raising her voice after Tess told her not to help Scott escape.  All the other times Tess did yell at one of her angel babies and this time Monica's behavior is atrocious and *she* snaps at Tess and Tess says nothing!?

Parts that made me feel swoony:
It's probly good Andrew can't get mad at me.  Cause I think I'd just make him angrier, at least in some situations, by giggling as he lectured me.  He's so cute when he's angry!  And his face is so expressive and his hands move so much!  Awww.  Of course, I wouldn't giggle if it was a super serious thing.

Obviously, I'm not fond of Monica here.  That's why I love Andrew being less than enthused about them doing the wedding decorating and her "acting like the president of a fan club."  (Although that quote always makes me think of JABB).  Yet, he's such a good sport.  He's adorable. 

And how awesome is this guy?  I'm afraid if I were Andrew, my interview with Scott woulda fallen apart with me eventually screaming "MONICA!!!  This is MY assignment, too.  This is MY time to talk to Scott.  Leave me the flip alone!"  And then Scott looking on horrified...  But Andrew plays it cool and calm and wins my respect.  Not that he didn't already have it.  Also, I like how he hits the desk at one point.  I dunno why.  I just like how physical Andrew sometimes is. 

Andrew's hair apparently curls up a bit in the humidity or something.  It's cute.  Honestly, I just really had to get downright giddy about Andrew even when not appropriate cause Monica was driving me batty. 

And when they're gonna jump off the plane Andrew calls Tess "honey" and I think that's sweet.  Sigh...

Also, he totally reminds me of the Mikey cereal commercial with this (and I think it's the final line of the episode): "She likes it!  I told you she'd like it!"

Random thoughts:
I've always been ambivalent about the phrase "lost their innocence" in connection with victims of crimes.  I'm not really sure why.  I guess, to me, it just seems like a phrase better used by the survivor than attributed to them.  Maybe they don't feel they did lose their innocence.  Maybe they feel it was threatened but that they've fought to maintain it.  I dunno.  Just something I've thought about in the past.

The final scene makes me think of the song "17 Again" by the Eurythmics.  Specifically the lyrics "we should have jumped out of that air plane after all."  Which makes me sappy cause in Dyeland mode LJA put that on a CD for Andrew cause she was 17 when they met.  And the whole "couldn't be together and who could not be apart."  Yeah, so that's a little weird but, again, I was trying to not throw things at Monica on the screen.

A Word from Travis:
I enjoyed watching this episode a few days ago. However, after watching again, I wasn’t as excited about seeing the episode again. However, my favorite part of the episode is when the sister (who was raped years earlier) and her brother were reunited. Her brother tried to protect her, but he ended up killing her attacker and didn’t stick around to tell the truth as he didn’t want his sister’s good name to be tarnished by criticism.

Back to the Episode Guide

(The photographs used on this page are from "Touched by an Angel" and owned by CBS Productions, Caroline Productions, and Moon Water Productions. They are not being used to seek profit.)