I’ve never read the Dostoevsky novel to which Teddy Rist (James Purefoy) referred in this week’s episode, but if “The Double” is as dense as “Crime and Punishment” (been there), or “The Brothers Karamazov” (done that), it’ll have to wait. What I do know, however, is that Dean didn’t quite fit the bill of doppelganger.
The Philanthropist, or at least IMDb, pulled a fast one on me, what with the old episode switch and bait. I was all decked out in Kashmiran national colors (orange and green), when we hit the sunny beaches of San Diego, instead. And I paid for expedited shipping on that flag!
Alright, so Teddy finds out there’s a guy running around San Diego, using his credit card and pretending he’s Teddy Rist. Why not just cancel the card and get the guy caught? A $10,000 charitable donation that the thief makes to the VA hospital. Didn’t see that coming, did you?
And that’s really how our do-gooder fit into this equation, as he sped around San Diego, always one step behind Dean, but always careful to one-up him on the philanthropy scale. No, I don’t think that was intentional, but it was a to-be-expected side effect of the game. “You built him a ramp? I’ll make his entire house wheelchair accessible!”
In the end, this episode was really about helping veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, after they’ve returned home. If you look at it from that perspective, the show actually fell short of illuminating their plight, and showing Teddy as their benevolent benefactor. If you don’t see it from that angle, well, then how does the episode fit in with the theme of the show?
And it’s enough with the ridiculously ludicrous structure of the entire episode being a story that someone, usually Teddy, is telling someone else. I am trying to understand why anyone thought this was a good idea, but I’m still getting nothing. What is it that’s wrong with the way every other show does things?
We got some clarity at the end of the episode as to where all this money’s really been coming from; this is charitable foundation money that Teddy directs toward different charities. The sale of his painting, and subsequent funding of the donation to be made in Dean’s brother’s name, may be the first time that Teddy has actually dug into his own pockets. I’m not taking away from what he’s been doing, just clarifying something that was unclear before.
Why did he need to fund the request himself, you ask? Well, as they like to do, NBC ripped another one right from the headlines: “financial guru rips off philanthropic foundations, and others, in giant ponzi scheme.” Honestly, I think some things are better left unexplored, because, is the temporary lack of cash flow in the Maidstone Rist foundation really going to resonate with people who’ve lost everything they owned to one of these schemers?
Let’s stick to safer topics, like nuclear war in India. I’ll have my home team outfit on for next week’s episode, so they damn well better not screw with me again … it’ll force me to write a pretty strongly-worded letter. Let’s just say, enough said.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jul 30, 2009 @ 16:00 EST5EDT
