'Grace' Goes for One Big Psych Out

By LillyKat
PTR Senior Staff Writer

WTF was that?

Like, the lamest episode of Saving Grace this season?

Seriously.

The first half was one big practical joke on Bobby and Butch.

The second half was one big copycat of the Norman Bates character and case in Psycho.

Did the writers get so preoccupied planning the practical joke part - which seems to me to be something the actual cast took to their own level, which then served as inspiration to make its way IN to A script - and just throw in the Norman Bates knock-off suspect/story for the second half because they couldn't stretch the practical joke out for 50 minutes?

Whatever.

This is the first ep that fell seriously short for me this season.

It wasn't funny.

It wasn't interesting.

The neighbor living next door to Grace's fireman brother being obsessed with his mother, having killed her, yet still thinking she's alive and coming home for dinner was just way too lazy of a storyline. All that was missing was filming this episode on the Universal back lot in the actual Psycho house (which I think is still there; if not, my bad).

Come on, folks.

And yet ... there were a few good tidbits: Rhetta is still completely irked with Ronny's infidelities even though he's trying to convince her otherwise. As in, takes a lie detector test but of which finds the results inconclusive. I have to say I'm thrilled she is NOT caving in to his I'm Sorry routine, and that she still believes Grace OVER Ronny. Go ahead and throw him out on his arse, Rhetta.

And how about Grace's other brother, Father John, having a dream whereby Grace tells him its time to meet Earl - and he WANTS to try?

Very interesting.

More interesting is Rhetta's continued coaching of John on the particulars of Earl - the "evidence" she's kept of his dealing with Grace, which sort of "proves" his existence (in a Rhetta/science kind of way); her explanations that one cannot ever remember what Earl looks like or how to describe him, so IF one actually does meet him, one can't really remember that one did.

That is a clever take on Touched By An Angel's throughline that human assignments COULD remember the angels - even though they would always re-approach a previously held assignment cautiously in case said human could only remember the EXPERIENCE, not the ANGEL.

That seems to be Grace's MO.

But a Catholic priest believing his wild-child sister's angel invasion? Maybe serving to reinvigorate his own faith?

I like it.

But this episode ... not so much.

New episodes of Saving Grace air Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on TNT. You can watch full episodes of the show anytime over on the show’s official Web site. You can also visit EmbraceYourGrace.com to share your stories of how you embrace your inner-Grace.