When the episode opens, we think Tara (Toni Collette) is laying in bed with Pammy (the bartender, played by Joey Lauren Adams) after a wild night. That is, until she puts her glasses on and we realize Tara hasn’t woken up: Buck has woken up. Buck puts on his clothes, swaggers out the door and starts running back home. It’s only when he stops to cough that Tara snaps out of it and realizes she’s sweating, braless, and needs to get home – fast. As she comes up the sidewalk, Charmaine (Rosemarie Dewitt) is waiting on the front stoop. She asks what Tara is doing and Tara says that she has been up since 3am so she went for a run. Charmaine flashes her new engagement ring and both women are really excited. Charmaine is just thrilled that she’s FINALLY engaged and is not the usual pessimistic sister that we often see.
When they get inside, Charmaine asks if she can stay at their house until she gets married. Even though her fiance has now officially offered to “buy the cow” – she doesn’t want to mess things up so she thinks that living separatly until the wedding is best. She wants to “revirginize” herself. Tara tells Max that she got up at 5am and Charmaine notices the discrepancy but doesn’t say anything about it.
Max (John Corbett) wants to go look at the neighbor’s house with Tara. Tara takes off her shoes, almost out of habit, when they enter the house. Max tells her she doesn’t have to, but she leaves them off in a way that makes me wonder if she’s afraid something bad will happen if she wears her shoes. Max wants to buy the house and flip it. Tara’s not so sure about the idea but Max tries to woo her in what was a strange moment during this episode. He breaks out into song and Tara joins him. For a second I thought I had sat on the remote and accidently switched on “Glee”.
Marshall (Keir Gilchrist) is annoyed by the super gay kid in his class at school. He goes off on him in the locker room for being too obnoxious about being gay and says that the kid is ruining being gay for everyone else.
Charmaine and Tara are at the grocery store and run into Pammy. Tara doesn’t understand why Pammy is talking to her and sort of gives her the cold shoulder. Tara is more confused than anything right now. They meet up again in the parking lot and Pammy confesses that she’s “never even been with a chick before.” Tara tells her that she doesn’t know what happened between them and that nothing can ever or will ever happen between them again. Pammy is left disappointed and confused as Tara ends it there in the cart corral.
Meanwhile, Kate (Brie Larson) is enjoying her job as a debt-collector. Sometimes the job seems menial but she’s proud of herself and is intent on succeeding. She decides to try and collect debt from a woman who has evaded the collectors for a year. Kate finds her online and discovers she is an artist. When Kate visits her home to collect the debt in person, they hit it off. Kate is able to collect the debt and admits how she found her via the lady’s online art portfolio. The woman is impressed and will definitely become part of the storyline for a while.
Tara is freaking out that Buck is back. She’s so upset because she and everyone else thought that she had resolved a lot of those issues. She hadn’t transitioned in a long time and she really thought it was all over. Tara runs over to the neighbor’s house and has a Blair Witch moment in the closet as she records her video diary about not being “better” anymore. Tara is really upset and is going to keep this a secret from the rest of the family.
Marshall brings a “lady friend” to dinner that night – although he insists she is just a “friend”. Charmaine is still over the moon about her engagement and tells everyone about her cushion cut diamond ring and how she thought she wanted princess cut but cushion cut is really the way to go. She’s delirious with all the wedding bells playing in her head. Towards the end of dinner, Bucks shows up. But only to Tara; no one else can see him. She excuses herself from dinner and wrestles with the knowledge that Buck is back. Buck demands to have “the body” because he “neeeeds” it. Tara refuses but Buck wins out in the end.
Marshall ends up making out with his “just a friend” while they play the ouija board. So is he gay or what? Just experimenting?
Buck goes to Pammy’s apartment and presents her with a red rose. She tells him that she thought he didn’t want anything anymore. Buck says he was wrong and comes into her apartment. Buck and Pammy get it on! The episode ends the same way it started: Tara wakes up in Pammy’s bed, except this time she’s Tara and not Buck. She freaks out and throws her clothes on (complete with a upper-frontal shot) and hurries out of there with hardly a word to Pammy. Tara passes Pammy’s young kids on her way out while they watch cartoons. This is totally unexpected – Pammy never mentioned her kids before.
Tara is horrifed at what Buck has done. She is upset that she has once again lost control of herself & her alters.
