(07x25) 172 - Ain't Love Grand

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RJ
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(07x25) 172 - Ain't Love Grand

Post by RJ »

Use this thread to discuss 07x25: Ain't Love Grand.
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Frank's Girl
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Re: (07x25) 172 - Ain't Love Grand

Post by Frank's Girl »

Ok, I'm an idiot and I need sexual relations between characters to be blatant and not just hinted at for me to really "get" what really went down. This show is notorious for hinting at what might have happened, etc. So, in this episode, on the first night Charles meets the hooker, do they have sex? He says that it is beneath him to buy sex, but they also mention that he never came home that night and that he didn't show up to the Swamp until 630AM (or something like that). The next day(s) when he is spending time with her, there's no hint that they've been intimate... no kissing, etc. He's just trying to get her to like poetry and classical music... its very strange. Any opinions would be awesome, thanks!
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Re: (07x25) 172 - Ain't Love Grand

Post by Moe_Hawk »

Haven't seen this for a while but the thought that they may have had sex never occurred to me. I always thought he paid for her company
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Re: (07x25) 172 - Ain't Love Grand

Post by Big Daddy O'Reilly »

Charles never seemed to exactly be a saint, however, it does seem a little beneath him nevertheless to have sex with a woman he isn't married to, particularly a B-girl; in "Major Topper", he makes a special note to bring up that when Honoria ran away from home to marry a farmer, she eventually left him and, "Ran off to live with, not to marry, mind you, but to live with . . . a shoe clerk."

Hawkeye and Klinger seem to tease Charles about "having a good time," which is a very old yet common euphemism for having sex.

There's also another intriguing moment from the episode: at one point, Soony mentions she hates the dress he gave her from Klinger saying that it has too many buttons and takes forever to take off, to which Charles shushes her and says, "Let's save that talk for the bedroom, shall we?"

The thing that has me curious about this episode is was Soony really from one of Korea's oldest and most aristocratic families, or was that something Charles was trying to convince himself to justify he attraction to her? Because it seems like if she's really from a well-off family - even in Korea - why would she need to prostitute herself?
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Re: (07x25) 172 - Ain't Love Grand

Post by kkt »

Yes, I think they were having sex... They couldn't be completely candid on television back then, hints were all you were going to get.

Charles is just demonstrating the amazing human ability to delude himself when he said she was from an aristocratic family. I'm sure plenty of aristocratic families lost their fortunes due to the war, due to bad luck or bad judgement, but I don't think she was one of them.
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Re: (07x25) 172 - Ain't Love Grand

Post by Frank's Girl »

Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to, I guess, but it does seem the vote is split. I think that if he'd been able to turn her into a woman he'd really want, he would have slept with her, but I want to believe they hadn't yet. I agree with the statement that she probably wasn't really an aristocrat; former or otherwise. At any rate, being Korean, I am sure she wasn't someone he would be willing to marry given he likely wouldn't be allowed due to family expectations. Charles also doesn't strike me as being someone who would just sleep with someone to sleep with them (but he is male, after all). If he'd been harping on how lonely he was or something, it might push me over to the other side.

As for Honoria, they go back and forth on whether she's married/living with someone or living at home with their parents. In "Rally Round the Flagg", Col. Flagg mentions they both live at home at the Winchester estate in Wellsley (the best scene ever IMO). There's another episode where she's considering marrying and Italian and Charles goes insane over it, but then sends her a telegram apologizing. I would think that an Italian would be considered to be "better" than a Korean in his family's eyes, and therefore, his own. The inconsistencies on this show really do bug the crap out of me sometimes!
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Re: (07x25) 172 - Ain't Love Grand

Post by Big Daddy O'Reilly »

I was watching this episode again yesterday, and I actually felt sorry for Klinger. Debbie made it a special point to actually tell him, "I know this is sudden, and you're wearing a dress, but I think I'm in love." Klinger is quickly attracted to her as well - it's the first time he's found happiness since Laverne cheated on and divorced him . . . but then after a brief romance, Klinger mentions, "Just Debbie and me and baby makes three," which she immediately shoots down and tells him she was only interested in him "for now." That was pretty shallow and kind of cold of her, she might as well have said, "I said I was in love, but I didn't mean in love." It's behavior like this that really irks me; I'm no romantic, but I take matters of the heart very seriously, and I think our society has lost sight of that: most people today are only interested in what goes on in bed, nobody takes into consideration people's hearts and their feelings anymore. Debbie lead Klinger along then she crushed him.
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Re: (07x25) 172 - Ain't Love Grand

Post by kkt »

I see your point, but those were also her very first words to Klinger. And she did qualify it "I know this is sudden..." I don't think it was reasonable for Klinger to interpret that as "Let's get married and start having kids." It still hurts, but there was a lot of wishful thinking on Klinger's part too.
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Re: (07x25) 172 - Ain't Love Grand

Post by Ferret Face »

There were some good parts in this episode. I liked the start, where everyone got on each other's nerves in the Swamp. I also thought it was interesting seeing Charles trying to fool himself into seeing Sooni as a high class lady, as it got more and more difficult to keep up those appearances. And I especially liked the line by Rosie, saying that Charles is better off without Sooni, and she's better off without him. But overall, I don't think any of the stories in this episode were as strong as they could have been.
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