This coming Sunday is Mother’s Day, the day on the calendar that we set aside to celebrate mothers and motherhood. So it’s interesting timing for Army Wives to be rolling out what can only be described as multiple motherhood story lines. Denise loses her son; Claudia Joy may have ovarian cancer; Joan and Roland may not be able to get pregnant again. Even Roxy got in on the theme to an extent, as Finn’s father hanging around muddies the waters of just who the parents in that family are.
I’m glad that Claudia Joy’s health scare isn’t going to amount to anything more than that, but I was disappointed in seeing the story go where it did. I think we’ve all been holding our breath for a while now about what Chandler’s (Harry Hamlin) motives were, and I think I speak for many of us when I say that I’d finally started to relax; he and Claudia Joy seemed to be falling into a good friendship, despite the fact that Chandler is not who Claudia Joy should have confided in. So why stir up controversy with an awkward kiss?
And I also wonder at Claudia Joy’s logic in not telling Michael about her scare even after she got the all clear. Yes he’s coming home soon (yay!), but it harks back to many discussions we’ve seen on the show about breaking news to soldiers in the field. Didn’t Michael ask Claudia Joy never to keep him in the dark again?
Not that she doesn’t have the right to fluctuate, but as confused as I was by how well Denise was coping last week, I was all the more confused by her funk last night. But that’s not really where my focus was in her story. Instead, it was Frank who took center stage for me … he was awesome! I’m not saying that he was right or wrong by exploding at the grief meeting, but those were such real, raw emotions. And in his anger I felt a little of his own questioning of the reason for Jeremy’s death. I think perhaps Frank’s feeling guilty for thinking, “I believe in the cause, but why’d it have to be my son?” I didn’t agree with Denise’s pushing him to apologize, though, but I think that his talk with the widow in her driveway may have done her some good.
What’s going on with Roxy? I’m not even talking about her flirting with danger by having Whit around, or her immaturely pouting at how Trevor’s been (wrongfully) acting. What I’m wondering is where her exploding at Pamela came from. It was completely irrational and blown out-of-proportion, which is exactly how Trevor’s been acting toward her this entire season. Pamela should have butt out, but yikes!
Because we’ve seen so much of them it hasn’t seemed like the men have been off to war all season, but then again only two of them are actually still deployed. Nevertheless, Michael’s and Trevor’s returns will bring a number of issues to a head. In Trevor and Roxy’s case I hope that means dealing with the issues that have turned him so nutty (Jeremy’s death?) instead of him just yelling at her about the truck stop and Whit.
And in Claudia Joy and Michael’s case, I hope they deal with where their lives are — Claudia Joy dodged a bullet, while Michael’s career has hit a wall. I can’t imagine they’d instead be focused on Chandler and his gaffe, because I think that’s totally out-of-character for both of them. But then we’ll find out soon enough, right?