Chip killed a man. He
is an alcoholic. Ten years ago, he ran over a kid whilst intoxicated. Now he is
the leader of the local Alcoholics Anonymous in Venice, California. He lives at
the home of his best friend, Dennis. The home belongs to Dennis’ mother. It
consists of two houses. Dennis allows Chip to stay in the Main House whilst
Dennis lodges in the somewhat smaller and less romantic Guest House.
The debt of gratitude
that Dennis feels towards Chip is understandable at first. Dennis at some point
moved to Europe to escape the manipulative tendencies of his nymphomaniac
mother. Ostensibly, he developed a drinking problem abroad, and upon return
Chip met Dennis and helped Dennis to get clean.
Dennis at some point
developed a crush on a woman named Cara. They met at the Support Group. Chip
did not hesitate, however, to dash Dennis’ hopes of seeing this woman
romantically. Chip began to have sex with Cara on a regular basis. They never
formalized their relationship, partly because of Chip’s repetitive behavior of
missing appointments made on her behalf, leaving her in a state of abandonment
and humiliation. As a sensitive artist, Cara has a specific set of emotional
needs that even the revered leader of the Local Support Group cannot seem to
meet at his convenience.
Why did Dennis not
initiate romantic contact earlier? Simply put: it was Against the Rules. You
see: Cara was still in her first year of recovery when she met Dennis, so for
her to start to see any one romantically, from within the Group, would be inadvisable,
for fear of relapse. But there is a loophole, of course: she can sleep with the
Group Leader, so long as they are not formally dating.
This relationship
started entirely within her first year. Upon her first “Birthday” (a term that
Anonymous Alcoholics use for the first year of sobriety in recovery from an
addiction), Chip promised to atone for missing her band’s practice by baking
her a cake. The local police chief, a close friend of Chip who often gives him
rides to the A.A. meetings (because Chip is no longer licensed to drive,
obviously) supplied the cake necessary to make the deal happen, knowing,
surely, that Chip would be helpless otherwise. But upon the night of the
Meeting, Chip is absent. He is sleeping with his ex-wife, who has just informed
him that she is about to remarry. Of course: she is only his ex-wife de facto.
De jure, Chip has either been unable to produce the necessary funds to file the
Divorce, or he has found some excuse or alternative use for the money. But of
course: we pity Chip. His wife is clearly some sort of millionaire, and he has
only the Furniture Store that is formally owned by her crazy hippie
entrepreneur of a Father.
This same furniture
store, where Chip scrapes by a living by selling handmade three-legged stools,
is all so home to a Studio Apartment upstairs. As the Season unfolds, events
center on a new tenant that Chip invites to rent the room: a tall, slender
blonde named London that is, as of her recent arrival in Venice, from San
Diego, the most desirable woman in town. Of course, the complication is that
Dennis, who is all so Chip’s coworker at the store, is madly in love with
London, and has been for some time, to Chip’s knowledge (Dennis, of course,
after what happened with Cara, has developed a sort of makeshift Bro Code that
both of them are to follow with academic stringency bordering on neurosis.). But
London has no visible romantic interest in Dennis. Her eyes are solely on Chip,
as tends to be the case for women in Venice.
At this point the plot
is as solid as the building itself. But it all falls apart at the very
foundation, as any architect, psychotherapist or empath has all ready
predicted.
London agrees to a
date with Dennis, which Dennis proposes with Chip’s prodding encouragement. Yet
Chip is skeptical of her agreement to this. The date is supposedly informal and
Platonic, though Dennis has a clever and morally sound plan to transition from
the not-date to the date. To this plan, Chip replies: “You have a lot of girl
friends who never became girlfriends.” This is ironic, of course, considering
that the woman that Chip is sleeping with is not his girlfriend, either, but
chiefly not because of HER fear of commitment, but his. Cara breaks up with
Chip, rightfully so, but this only complicates things between the Band of
Brothers that is Chip and Dennis. On Dennis’ second outing with London, she
only asks any substantial questions about Chip. Then Dennis decides to probe
more deeply into her own backstory. London tells him that her brother died.
This news is followed by an awkward silence between Dennis and London that sets
off the alarm for Dennis that there is no actual chemistry between the two of
them.
Although Dennis is
initially depicted as pathetic and self-entitled, the following episodes establish
him as sympathetic and even, eventually, heroic. A sudden visit to his Mother’s
House, on the Mother’s Request (and under false auspices) produces, by a series
of twists and turns, with Chip doing most of the twisting and turning, a road
trip with London and Chip, and Dennis, at the wheel, acting as the Third Wheel.
This is only worsened when a fourth wheel is added to the group: Dennis’ Mother
joins the group of three, despite her reservations about BEING “the fourth
wheel”, which implies by her own transparent admission that her own son is the
third. And this is the LEAST transparent of her attempts to flatter Chip for
his success where London is concerned, right in front of Dennis’ embarrassed
and emasculated face. It is in this same episode that we learn that his Mother
used to be very sexually promiscuous and would use Dennis to break up with her
boyfriends on her behalf. Dennis was ten years old at the time this went on.
You might think,
reader, that Chip has criminally good luck that he is somehow, by some black
magick, stealing from his best friend. But things are not all well at home.
Jerry, the aforementioned hippie entrepreneur, is selling the building that
houses both the Furniture Store and London. Of course, we know this from the
very first episode, because Dennis keeps bringing it up to Chip, but it is not
until further into the series that Chip actually confronts the matter and the
man, considering that it was only as the result of a favour to CHIP that Chip
and Dennis are able to scrape by a living, now with the added benefit of Chip’s
paramour (who is all so the apple of Dennis’ eye) living just upstairs.
Eventually, Chip finds
an opportunity to save the store by employing the patronage of an upstart named
Topher, a kid from the Support Group. But when Chip finds out that he has
nearly prostituted London out to a young ambitious rascal, he backs out of the
deal. Meanwhile, the building becomes headquarters for SaVenice (read: Save
Venice, not “Save Nice”, as Dennis put it) when Chip allows a stoner named
Cooler to host meetings there for the hopeless Liberal Campaign (Perhaps I
should capitalize “Hopeless” as well). It’s not hard to understand, after some
point, considering that Jerry has sold the building to Chip’s ex-wife’s new
lover: Alicia Wiener. Yet the audience of the show knows the TRUE underlying
reason: when Dennis finds out that Chip kissed London out in public, a fight
ensues, and Chip is forced to crash, uninvited and unexpected, at Cooler’s pad.
The result of this is that Cooler loses a date, which is so rare an event for
Cooler that Chip barely pays heed to the loss. He saves face with Cooler,
however, and manages to stay at Cooler’s pad for the remainder of the rivalry
with Dennis, by agreeing to house SaVenice, an unusually kind act on Chip’s
part considering that he stood up Cara in episode one, and the event Cara had
invited Chip to in that instance was none other than Cooler’s lackluster open
mic routine. But clearly their friendship has gone a long way.
Dennis is of course
still angry with Chip, but a surprise visit by the aforementioned Buddy Cop
knocks some sense into the feud. Although initially joking about running a
license plate search on Chip’s stalker, the Police Chief discovers that London
is actually Claire, the sister of the young man that Chip killed whilst driving
drunk. Chip has at this point acquired a cellular phone, free from Topher, and
there is only one person in possession of his number: Dennis. But when he pulls
away from a horny London to take the call, it is not Dennis calling but the
Chief of Police. Chip realizes at this moment that “London” came all this way
just to stalk him, probably hoping to exact vengeance. So he dresses and leaves
in a tempered but nonetheless cutting and self-righteous rage. He returns home
to Dennis, who, as per usual, did the Right Thing, having been manipulated into
acting as a middle man. Oh, well. He is used to it. It’s how he was raised.
This is where I begin
to cut:
The Chief of Police is
one of the most narcissistic characters in the show, not for a lack of trying
to be decent, but for an excess of success. He so oversteps his own
professional boundaries to bail Chip and friends out of trouble that he holds
others who are relatively innocent to the same standards. Abusing his power in
a way subtler than most cops in Los Angeles (partly owing to his African
lineage) he demonstrates the dark side of the personality type known as the
Champion (MBTI: ENFP). When he shows up at Dennis’ home, Dennis has not done
any thing either legally nor morally wrong. Yet the Officer of the Law uses the
leverage of the law in order to get in Dennis’ ear. When Dennis insists that he
is not Chip’s keeper, the Chief pretends to leave, then turns about and reminds
Dennis of all the times that Chip helped Dennis. At this point, I hear an echo
of Cara from earlier in the episode, insisting that Dennis stop making excuses
for Chip. But then with chilling suddenness, like a confrontation with a Wild
Dog, (sue me, Black Lives Matter!) it dawns upon me that the Chief of Police is
trying to hold Dennis in DEBT to Chip. And for what? Nothing more than I have
stated previously: that Chip involved Dennis, at a time when Dennis was most
vulnerable, in Chip’s little Therapy Cult.
Dennis tries with
futility to back out one last time when the Chief pulls out the Big Gun
(figuratively, of course, at least until the Next Episode, when he barges in on
Chip and Dennis at Breakfast in a practical joke that is such an uproariously
funny parody of himself from the Climax of the Previous Episode that he is
redeemed within the Heart as more of a Joke than a Threat). When the Chief
tells Dennis that London is the sister of Chip’s Victim, Dennis does not
hesitate to help, except to gather his wits from the shock of hearing the news.
Yet at this point, as our disbelief is suspended most highly, (again: sue me if
you think that was an ethnic slur.) we still do not know for CERTAIN of this
factor: does London or does she NOT know who Chip is? I do not mean this
sentimentally; I mean: does LONDON know that Chip is the man who killed her
brother? The answer becomes clear by the end of the episode, of course,
starting with Chip’s first words after the fateful phone call: “When were you
gonna tell me?” But before that we are in suspense; will Dennis tell Chip? Or
will he tell LONDON? And if London all ready knows, we still wonder: whose side
will Dennis take?
Of course, let’s not
idealize Dennis TOO much. He is sort of an idiot, trauma notwithstanding. Both
Chip and Dennis only think that London is some sort of psychotic bitch AFTER
they find out that she has an Agenda (or at least Justifiable Reason to have an
Agenda). Over breakfast they hash out her motives with the Chief, who clearly
so egregiously self-identifies with the Law that he has no respect for her own
Plot of Justice, even though disrespect for him does not come at the expense of
amusement and insight. The three outgoing men agree that she is out of line,
but that she is not looking for money from a man who is obviously broke; she is
looking to HAUNT him. And this seems a bit too much for even Dennis to accept.
Personally, I thought
London was a psychotic bitch from the very start. Seeing her treat Dennis with
such disdain and Chip with such unwarranted affection made my blood boil, and
behold! I was right: she had her own intentions. She was a femme fatale. But so
what? The moment I knew her backstory, she gained not only Humanity but
Approval. The very moment that the knuckleheads flashed on her dark behavior, I
found an undying love for her that justified that same behavior. She was no
longer a self-serving cunt; she was an Agent of Justice.
What is most ironical
remains the Policeman’s pitch to save Chip. He knows by now that she is this complex
and troubled person, but he still rages at Dennis by calling her “a piece of
ass that YOU wanted”. He plays on Dennis’ good nature by trivializing Dennis’
emotions as infantile narcissism and self-entitled jealousy, pretending, with
earnest conviction, that Dennis is allowing his Best Friend to Die all over the
fact that Dennis envies Chip’s good luck. But the Chief KNOWS that Dennis,
London, and Chip are More Than That, and that this situation is a LOT more
high-context than a simple fight over flesh. How does Chief live with himself,
then? Simple: knowing himself to be in possession of the Truth, he precludes
the possibility that Dennis knew this all ready. When he finally breaks the
Truth to Dennis, he expects Dennis to FORGET the injustice towards himself and
to respond to the Imminent Danger in the way that the Officer has all ready
prefigured. True to ENFP form, the ends justify the means, and the Subjective
Factor (the Province of Introversion) is omitted; he forgets that Dennis has
every reason to SUSPECT that there is more to London than a simple “piece of
ass”, just as this writer suspected her of harbouring Ill Will. For Dennis, the
news comes as a shocker and a really blow to his entire romantic conception of
London. For me, it comes as her total vindication; her Ill Will is at least
Unselfish, so she becomes a Breath of Relief in what by this point I had
established as a World of Narcissists (a.k.a. Southern California).
What the Chief himself
forgets, or otherwise omits, is that he has just ADDED to Dennis’ reasons to
hate Chip. Not only did Chip hurt Dennis, multiple times. He irreparably
damaged the woman that Dennis loves. And now he is about to get away with that,
too.
So much for only a
piece of ass.
The Seventh Episode is
the one that really prompted this essay, in a fit of rage on the writer’s part.
The episode begins with three close-up shots: of Chip, of London, and of
Dennis. At first, we do not know what has happened; did Chip go to bed with
London, after all? And what’s DENNIS doing in the room? But then we realize
that Chip spent the night at Dennis’ place, and London is still chilling in the
Studio Apartment.
Following a friendly
breakfast with a Surprise Visit from the Police Chief, Chip gets to work in
trying to save Venice, starting with the Furniture Store. He enlists Cooler to
drive him to the office of A. Weiner, upon a tip-off that this is the man that
his ex-wife married. Cooler does so under the auspices that they are going to
Take Down the Man with petitions. As Chip dictates Cooler’s every strategic
move, he finally gets an eventual meeting with Alicia Weiner, who he is
surprised to discover is a woman. After Alicia tells him off, calling him a
parasite and making it clear that SaVenice is a joke, more or less, even hinting
that his ex stands up for him against Alicia’s loving suggestions not to, Chip
leaves in a bold fury. Not long thereafter he arranges a meeting with his
ex-wife’s other agent, in the “privacy” of a Parking Garage, so as to negotiate
a New Deal. The negotiation is obviously a threat, and he makes no attempts to
deny this fact.
At this point, the
only person save for Alicia who is on to Chip is Cara. Dennis has to talk her
out of jail in Chip’s absence, using his relatively weak connection with the
Chief in order to negotiate a Deal with a disgruntled modern artist whose
abstract piece was damaged by Cara’s reckless driving. Cara reminds Dennis that
Dennis is a much better man than Chip, but Dennis continues to stand up for
him. He tells her that Chip is simply troubled and he cites one of Chip’s many
stolen self-help (and self-centred) platitudes: We cannot blame others for our
own unhappiness. Of course, this is a lie. We know, as does Dennis, that London,
for INSTANCE, CAN blame Chip for the Death of her Brother. A reasonable woman
would not blame her own brother for a stranger’s destructive behaviours, nor
herself for her own tragic loss. She will not put on a happy face and “take
responsibility” for her own happiness, modeling herself after the killer whom
she allows to go about his merry way. She would not risk this fate befalling an
other, nor would she tell any such victim in the cycle that that person SHOULD
be happy. After all: if one’s own suffering is one’s own fault, without
exception, what about Chip Himself? He is ostensibly in PAIN, so he gets an
excuse. Where is hers? She is not looking for one. She is looking for Justice.
She knows that he is in pain, but how can she know that it’s enough?
Of course, Cara knows
none of this. She is simply an Introvert that has enough experience with Chip,
or perhaps sufficient Intuition, to see through him. But apparently she takes
Dennis’ words to heart. And then she repeats them to London.
At this point we
expect London to be more than cardinally pissed. But a plot twist made my head
spin upon conclusion of the Episode. The last scene is in the Furniture Store,
at night. Chip enters the store to wash his hands, as though of the situation
at hand, when he finds London waiting for him in the dark, long legs and
quaint, pointed face on display like some exotic bird, seated on a sort of Love
Seat. He describes her as resembling a Ghost, and one belaboured metaphor later
they have established that if she had truly intended to kill him then she would
have done so by now. And then the miraculous happens: after some elaboration on
both her motives and his own pain and guilt and anguish, she kisses him. They
fall into the Love Seat and she climbs on top of him, removing a shoulder of
her shirt, when in rushes Cooler, spearheading a mob of celebrating SaVenice
protesters. It turns out that Chip’s plan worked; “Weiner pulled out”. This at
least is what Cooler tells us shortly after he says, with such stark clarity
that only a stoner can muster: “Oh, sorry. You were just about to get it on.”
Believing themselves
to be victorious, not one of them aware of Chip’s Secret Meeting in the Parking
Structure, the protesters crowd the Store. His new babe in one hand, and Cooler
the Stoner in the other, Chip looks out at the Crowd as though he were a Hero.
Dennis, from without the store, and in the midst of the crowd, looks in, his
expression ambiguous, as Stephen Malkmus, the composer for the Series’ Original
Soundtrack, plays a happy tune swimming in guitar chords, as cheerful in their
major key as they are distorted.
Dennis has the same
questions to answer as you do:
Does Chip deserve any
of this?
Or does he deserve
Vengeance against him?
Will she exact
Vengeance still? Or will she let him keep getting away with this?
Has London all ready
made up her mind?
Is she asking herself
the same questions?
Are we responsible for
our own happiness?
Even if that comes at
the expense of an other?
And if that expense we
ourselves cannot handle?
At least not without
laying the blame on someone else?
Or hurting people
again?
Or both?
I know MY answer. But
keep this in mind, reader and prospective viewer:
In an earlier episode
Dennis did Chip a kindness by buying him a bottle of Kombucha. He says he knows
Chip loves to drink that stuff. This is because Chip keeps a bottle of it in
his fridge. At least, the bottle is labeled “Kombucha”. It is one of those that
you refill.
The bottle does not
contain Kombucha. We find that out at the end of Episode One.
The bottle contains
red wine.
Chip is still an
alcoholic.
Dm.A.A.
