'Blunt Talk' Recap: 'Walter Has to Look After Walter'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

Sometimes you sit down to watch your favorite television show and find yourself completely and utterly stunned as the end credits roll when a particular episode manages to blindside you with its incredible quality, and that's precisely the experience I went through last night when it comes to Blunt Talk. Because just when I thought the show had achieved perfection when it comes to its particular style of storytelling, 'Walter Has to Look After Walter' completely upped the ante, providing us with plenty of laughs like always, but this time around this episode enhanced the comedy further by delvering some incredibly cerebral themes and concepts that took us deep into Walter's mind and forced several characters to mature on the fly. 

Case in point...Martin's story. We've spent a vast majority of the season watching Martin do his best to find true happiness and personal fulfillment all by way of his love life. He's become close with Rosalie 2, he rekindled his romance with Rosalie Prime and well, because of that...he's acheived all of his current life goals. He got the girls, he's excelling at work...and that's prescisely why the show did what it does best, giving us a tiny slice of the real world and reminding all of us that life is going to throw you one wild curve ball from time to time since Rosalie 2 had some concerns that she might be pregnant and in one rip roaringly hilarious scene, we came to discover that she is indeed carrying Martin's child and well...he's simply beside himself at this point as he tries to figure out what to do with his perfect little world now that nothing is going as planned and it would seem this is a brewing plot point that the show will revisit a little later on...

But the show wasn't quite done yet with its maturity upgrade to the season's outstanding storylines. The long reaching arc about love and what it does to us took quite the turn when it came to Jim and Celia because...at long last these two love birds have figured out a balance. They are fully aware that they are somewhat shattered individuals who don't quite know how to love in the traditional sense, but they have found a way to make it work, and that's a huge deal. To see compromise and baby steps so that these two can heal on the fly and enjoy a healthy relationship so that eventually they can take whatever steps in life together they so choose is perhaps one of the most beautiful notions that Blunt Talk has ever put forth and I applaud the show for providing such a hopeful notion of love when traditionally it is presented on screen as a difficult venture that requires nothing less than grand sacrifice and sorrow and their balance was important to highlight...because without it, the biggest storyline of the night would never have worked...

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That plot thread of course belongs to Walter and this episode was a good opportunity to see exactly what our intrepid host has been up to since his suspension and well, it's business as usual. Walter is still conducting his own investigation on Rudolph Global, and is still desperate to get back on the air, going so far as to fly himself to New York to ask Bronson at UBS Headquarters to show him mercy...only to find himself berated and challenged by the head of the Network for being nothing less than a hypocrite and a shill and well, this scene was outright heartbreaking. In many ways yes, Walter has done plenty to show that he doesn't exactly care about much outside of himself, but that's the beauty of his journey...he is trying his damndest to change.

Rudolph Global and the mess they're creating looms large in Walter's mind as his last good chance to contribute something special to this world, to change the perception of the man he is so that he can leave a meaningful legacy behind and well, this painful slap in the face from Bronson is allowing for the story to go into new and uncharted territory thematically, where Walter's journey begs the question...how far should one go to set things right in their life, and oddly enough the answer to that question, at least as far as Walter is concerned...is to take it as far as one can and that's where Jim and Celia come back into play. Because Jim received a text message from Evelyn, and she was hoping that Jim would escort her to the annual Rudolph Surrealist Party, giving Walter a shot at stepping into the lion's den with a hidden camera and since Celia was fine with Jim taking another gigalo gig, Walter took full advantage of the opportunity, giving us one wonderfully hilarious sequence where Walter and Harry dressed in drag to sneak into the party to slip past Margaret Rudolph and guess what? The plan worked. Harry and Walter were able to get full access to the place and after all this time, Walter was able to finally to meet the mysterious Daniel Rudolph.

But alas, the meeting was more or less unproductive because Daniel is nothing more than a pawn and a buffoon since we quickly learned that Margaret is the brains behind everything and considering that she trained a gun at Walter's head...she's clearly had enough of his quest to make the world a better place and just like that, we are left with our first true cliffhanger for the series and holy cow...it's a good one. Walter's hunt for the biggest story of his career has left him in quite the precarious position and I truly cannot wait to see where this picks up next week for the season two finale. Either way, what an absolutely stunning episode. It's one thing to design a story around the characters to have something dynamic to say, but it is quite another thing to let them live freely in their world and be challenged in new and exciting ways and it's just more proof that Blunt Talk is the finest television show out there and it's a shame that the season has to come to an end, but at least know we're in for one hell of a story before we say our temporary goodbyes...until then.

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