Secret Service / Trial and Error

RhymesWithBlinvisible · 30 Jun 10 :: 16:38

I just finished watching these two episodes back to back in my JoA marathon. It was just as heart wrenching as I remembered it being when I first saw it but seeing it again and so close together got me thinking about a few things. Sorry if this gets long.

First off, in Secret Service Joan is working in the house and Bonnie introduces herself but when Joan introduces herself, Bonnie claims she already knows who Joan is.

Adam lies about going to Rhode Island. Joan spies him walking along the street on her bus ride home and confronts him. He seemed upset and claimed he wanted time alone.

The next day, he shows up at the house Joan is painting. Bonnie sees him and seems interested. Joan and Adam go outside to talk. Bonnie ends up outside calling Joan inside a few times before Joan relents. Adam offers to take the garbage to the dumpster where he sees Bonnie's art. Bonnie is suddenly there behind him, even though Joan had to go back inside. This is when I first assumed that they met however, they never formally introduced themselves like Bonnie and Joan did. He then shows her around the art room and encourages her to take art.

So why did Adam lie about going to Rhode Island? Where was he walking to/from when Joan spotted him and confronted him in the street? Was it really just alone time he wanted?

In Trial and Error we see Bonnie dressing herself and then it shows the reveal that the person she slept with is not the person she was flirting with in the hall earlier, it was Adam. This appeared to be the last time they slept together and since we learned later in the episode that he slept with her twice, one would assume it was their second time that we witnessed and not the first.

So my question is: were we supposed to assume that the time he lied to her about going to Rhode Island, he was actually with Bonnie? Bonnie seemed to know exactly who he was when he first walked in to the house, she smiled as if she recognized him and was jealous that he was talking to Joan as evidenced by her trying to interrupt them all the time. Or was their first time never shown or hinted at? Either way, I still found it completely out of character that Adam would cheat on Joan but I thought this was an interesting concept that I hadn't considered before. I know the first time I saw Secret Service, I never in a million years thought Adam was going to cheat, least of all with Bonnie who I thought was a one episode character that he and Joan were helping out and even though I knew it was going to happen, I still :crying: at the scene in Trial and Error when Joan breaks up with Adam.

What are your thoughts?

TheCentralScrutinizer · 30 Jun 10 :: 17:03

I don't think he knew Bonnie yet in SS. I've never thought that. I think he and Joan had been feeling at odds and disconnected and he needed some space to figure things out. To me, it seemed like he just went to the record store, something he probably loved to do by himself. He was obviously into the old vinyl and since Joan's family supposedly didn't have a turntable, why would he want her along for that? (The Girardi's really did have a turntable though because Joan caught her mom listening to an old Frampton album once.)

But you do have a point about he and Bonnie not really introducing themselves. I just don't want to believe that their thing had been going on for more than a week --- which is the "real-time" time frame from SS to T&E that show always seemed to operate in. Thing is, I guess I still can't really pay super-close attention to the details in those eps because they hurt too much.

I have gotten past one roadblock though. I no longer hate Alexis Dziena. Still hate the Bonnie character, but not the actress. She was so great in the show Invasion that she kinda won me over. I've seen her in a few more things now and she no longer sets my teeth on edge. And, actually, you know what? Maybe I don't even really hate Bonnie anymore.

When we started Butterflies, I really didn't ever want to deal with the Bonnie situation. TeeJay had written a bunch of fics where she dealt with it and kinda got it out of her system. I dealt with it in my very first A/J fic, The Haircut. I thought we were done. And I really didn't think adult Adam and Joan would want to revisit it. So we had like a rule that Bonnie would remain She Who Must Not Be Named. And we never mentioned her. We got A/J through almost a year of Butterflies time before she actually reared her head. And ironically, it was me who had the inspiration for the chapter. It was cathartic for all involved and I'm quite proud of what we did with her. I thought we were really done after that. Finally.

But then I got another idea and we wrote one more chapter. It's not published yet. A few more things have to happen before we get to it in the Butterflies timeline, but I really love how it turned out. It's very sad, but I think it gives everyone closure.

And listen, I love long posts, so don't ever worry about that.

RhymesWithBlinvisible · 30 Jun 10 :: 17:33

I too don't want to think that it had been going on that long but then again I don't want to think it happened at all. They made Adam a huge jerk to make this storyline possible and I just wasn't buying that. Adam was not the type of guy to be a jerk. The way he disregarded both Joan's and Bonnie's feelings, was just awful. It was clear that Bonnie wanted more and seemed to really like him. These are just painful episodes that I wish had never happened.

I liked that you gave the characters closure in Butterflies and how you treated Bonnie's character. I'm sure most of us hated her the first time we saw the episodes but I kind of feel sorry for her now.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 30 Jun 10 :: 17:37

Exactly right. He was never a cad, until the writers decided to make him one. "It was just a hook-up", is not something that would even be in OUR Adam's vocabulary. He would never think that would be OK. He would never think that people aren't supposed to "own each other".

You think you feel sorry for her now, wait till we publish "The Bonnie Thing"!

RhymesWithBlinvisible · 30 Jun 10 :: 22:18

This has been driving me crazy but I can't remember if Bonnie gets to talk to Adam afterwards. Or was it simply "Just 2 minutes, I think I deserve that" and then we never see her again? I could have sworn that I remembered them having a confrontation after Trial and Error where he got mad at her or something. I've rewatched up to Spring Cleaning and nothing. Did they have a confrontation or am I just making things up in my head again?

domesticelefant · 30 Jun 10 :: 22:39

You know when I saw this for the first time for a split second I had a thought flashing in my head: "They're going to ruin the show by making Bonnie pregnant ..." :witsend: Thank God they didn't. Or at least never brought it on screen.

So much for making the show more like The OC.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 30 Jun 10 :: 23:22

No, Mel. We never saw Bonnie again. That was another thing that was LAME. No way she would just disappear like that. Bad, lazy writers! Boo!

Anne, you're right. It's a damn good thing they didn't go that route. Still, who knows? Maybe they would've if there'd been a season three. Personally, I'd rather believe that S3 would've been about Joan fighting to wrench Adam away from Ryan's evil clutches before he got anymore corrupted. And in the end, they'd get back together.

domesticelefant · 30 Jun 10 :: 23:48

Adam and a baby ... I think I would have hated this. Pationately. :angry:

TheCentralScrutinizer · 01 Jul 10 :: 01:22

Not until he and Joan are grown up and married. Then, a baby would be cool.

domesticelefant · 01 Jul 10 :: 01:46

Then, yeah. But I doubt the show would have run THAT long. LOL

RhymesWithBlinvisible · 01 Jul 10 :: 03:29

That bites. They really were horrible writers in the end. Everything seemed really choppy. If they were going to have Adam cheat with Bonnie, the least they could've done was deal with it better. Bonnie's last line left things wide open with no closure. Even if they thought they had another season, it's lazy to just drop such an important storyline and continue it in another season.

I liked Common Thread which I just watched again but that scene at the end where Adam just magically appears with Ryan and he's all happy just seemed off. They never explained where he was or why he couldn't get home or call his Dad. I hated that. Wentworth Miller was really good in this role. I was as creeped out by him as Joan was. Such a pity that we never get to see what would come of his character.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 01 Jul 10 :: 04:18

My thing is, if they wanted Adam to cheat, Bonnie should've been a fully-realized character and real competition for Joan. Then I might've bought it. I understood what he saw in Iris. But this time, they had to make it just cheap sex with a seemingly really skanky girl that we never got to know. Why? Why make it so vapid and ugly and meaningless? Why destroy who Adam was?

RhymesWithBlinvisible · 01 Jul 10 :: 20:23

Oh, I completely agree. The character should've been fully realized. It's cheap that we never got to know who she was and that she was so quickly forgotten. As much as I didn't like her for coming between Adam and Joan, I wanted to know more about her and her reasons for having sex with someone she knew was dating someone else. It seems kind of sad that she was that lonely.

My best guess, from what little we saw of her and know about her was that her parents were neglectful or at least always busy and out of the house.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 01 Jul 10 :: 20:32

I always saw her as one of those sad, lonely little girls who thinks the only way to get a boy to like her is to let him have his way with her. And she never learns that it's not going to get her what she wants, which is clearly someone to love her. Those are the girls who end up repeatedly pregnant, or catching some disease from from sleezeball dude. It's tragic. And something they might've explored further if there'd been another season, and they were being honest. But there was no honesty in why they created that storyline. Cheap ratings ploy does not = great storytelling.

Editsound · 01 Jul 10 :: 23:40

I find it interesting that you guys spent more time thinking about this character in the last 2 days, than I think the writers did in the first place. I always thought her name should have been "Plot Device".

It becomes even more frustrating when you see how well done the episode was. The acting is incredible, the dialog is wonderful. Too bad it was used on this dumb manipulation, instead of the unique insights the show usually tried for.

With time, I have grown to wish the people behind the show had given up on trying to get the series renewed. The desperation was clear, and it resulted it shows which feel like they are from another series. Instead of "Trial and Error" and the devil stories at the end, I wish they had just found a way to end the series. To create episodes which would suggest the futures these wonderful characters would have. It could have been a beautiful send off.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 02 Jul 10 :: 01:05

Well said, Rick. I'm inclined to agree with you on that. Especially wishing they hadn't ever even thought of introducing a good vs evil storyline. I was pretty much instantly bored with it. Only Wentworth Miller's weird magnetism made it even remotely watchable.

pegghead · 26 Aug 13 :: 10:06

I've been re-watching JoA the last few days (okay I've watched all the way to T&E in 3 days) but I had to stop. I hate and love the T&E episode but mostly I hate it. Once they introduced the Bonnie character in the previous episode and had Adam all interested in her I knew something was up. The way they have Adam act like what he did meant nothing (even though he feels insanely guilty) was completely out of character and was so dis-respectful to Chris, the fans and the whole 2 years of pretty great shows before it. I really don't want to keep watching because once it hits T&E the episodes get crappy and hard to watch. I am so glad that Chris and Amber were as upset as the fans when they read the script and I hope they realized that none of the fans would like or agree with the drastic character change for Adam. Sadly the whole thing was just a cop out for them to break them up and they couldn't think of anything original.

My whole point to the rant is that I really don't want to watch T&E tomorrow but I will....I will grit my teeth till the scene with J&A that makes me cry and then I will watch the last few (weak) episodes before being sad it is over again.

(I might go back and watch Independence Day a few times....I love that episode even though it is awkward.....gives me butterflies lol)

TheCentralScrutinizer · 26 Aug 13 :: 18:58

Well, it seems that either Amber wasn't as upset about it as Chris thought she was, or maybe she'd forgotten about that by the time I interviewed her. By then, she seemed to have convinced herself that it was a good idea to shake up the relationship. And it have been, if they'd done something different and not destroyed such a great character in the process.

domesticelefant · 30 Aug 13 :: 14:33

I watch it this episode to see them do great acting ... but it is definitely not my favorite plot. What I did once is watch "Jump" first, concentrating on the scene when Adam comes to Joan with his mom's letter (which touches my heart in a good way) and watch T&E right afterwards (which touches my heart too, but NOT in a good way, but the acting is still overwhelming) wondering "How did they get from that to THIS???"
I don't like the plot of the episode but I can't say often enough, the acting is great and I "love" seeing it.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 31 Aug 13 :: 01:32

That's a really cool idea, Anne. I might have to try that!

BiggestChrisMarquetteFan · 28 Sep 13 :: 10:47

ill be writing joa story soon

Chris Marquette Message Board

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Secret Service / Trial and Error

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