Two and a Half Men: More Walden & Zoey Issues

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

What's going to become of this show after this season? Ashton Kutcher hasn't yet signed on for another round of this. It's highly rumored that he'll be wanting even more money if he's going to keep playing Walden Schmidt. The show is still doing well, but it's a different audience. Many fans left when Charlie Sheen was kicked off the comedy. Many more have dropped the series since very little has happened since Walden became the main character. I've complained multiple times over the past season about the lack of attention now paid to secondary characters (and they've more or less written off Jake to be a pothead), and how nothing ever happen to push the plot forward. Well, something finally happened, but the episode still wasn't all that good. I feel like I'm too attached to give the show up completely, but I might drop it from TheTalkingBox after this season - something's gotta change.

Two and a Half Men "The Duchess of Dull-in-Sack" (S09E15): Zoey wakes up with Walden only sends him packing so that her daughter doesn't find him. [dumb erection jokes. the "port of entry" joke was even worse. but I liked Zoey's nightgown.] We get a ridiculous "quick, hide!" series of situations before Walden goes home to Alan. Apparently, the sex isn't great, and Walden's losing his patience. But when he tries to broach the topic with Zoey, she says that she's uncomfortable talking about it. [it's a good rule of thumb that if you're not mature enough to talk about it, you're not mature enough to do it. moving on... also, why are they skyping in the middle of the day? big laugh on the pool boy joke, tho. and "carnal interludes"] An eavesdropping Berta suggests that Walden bring Zoey some pot brownies to help things along, but he hesitates to give one to her. But, after she hilariously tries some dirty talk, he busts out the goods. Problematically, Zoey turns out to be the type who get super paranoid when high. [loved that pink nightgown, too.] Walden goes looking for her, but gets sidetracked by pizza with Eldridge and Jake (who are also stoned, which is now their normal state of being, apparently).

Photo: Monty Brinton/CBS

Walden offers them $100 if they can find Zoey, which ends up being a disastrous decision, as they keep bringing any non-white girl they can find back to the house. (hence Alan and Walden both pretending that the other was looking for "Zoey" in the photo to the right.) [I'm sitting here just shaking my head, by the way.] While under the influence, Zoey confides in Alan that she has a difficult time with sex if she doesn't trust the man completely. [this has the potential to be a big deal... but it fizzles almost immediately.]

The next day, Walden walks Zoey back to her apartment. [why? are we to believe that she's not well enough to drive herself at this point?] Zoey's ex-husband is there, as he has to take off on an unexpected business trip and is unable to watch their daughter for the rest of the weekend. Walden plays with the daughter while the parents argue. In a fun fact, apparently Nigel is 107th in line for the throne. [I'm in love with the idea that British kids play Queen!] Nigel takes off and the remaining three go to the zoo. After a full day of bonding, Zoey trusts Walden completely, so off to the bedroom the go. [crisis identified and solved all in one episode. who knew!] 

Oh, and in an awkward Alan-Jake scene, Jake asks Alan if he'll ever marry Lindsay (nope - neither want more children). While this could be construed as a legitimate question, Jake's intent is to figure out whether he and Eldridge could potentially try to pretend to take one another's place. Apparently Jake is unable to comprehend that you have to be twins, not just brothers to pull that off).