This episode is the final part of a four-episode storyline which began with the episode Blonde on Blonde.
I have to admit up front that this episode has always unsettled me, and I've never felt that I fully understand it. I am very impressed with the folks at DavidAndMaddie.com who have created a really wonderful tribute to this episode. But for myself, I'm not sure I can do it justice, since, as I say, it has always troubled me.
This episode begins with a recapitulation of the previous three episodes, reminding us that David was ready to confess his love for Maddie until Sam showed up at her home, and reminding us that Sam proposed to Maddie and has been waiting for her answer.
This episode is a series of very emotionally turbulent conversations.
Maddie and Sam discuss the fact that she was out all night – with David, she hesitantly admits. She also acknowledges Sam's marriage proposal, and without giving him an answer, promises that she has thought about it, and isn't taking it "casually".
Then Sam shows up at David's apartment and explains that Maddie is very confused over the proposal; Sam correctly recognizes that it's because of her feelings for David, and Sam tells him, "If you really care about her, you should tell her. And if you don't … do everybody a favor and just back off."
David finds her at the office and demands an explanation. When was she going to tell him about the proposal? She responds that it's none of his business, and he has no right to know. Finally she admits that yes, Sam proposed, but she also tells David that David has said nothing to her about his feelings. Sam, she says, is willing to make a commitment. She asks David what kind of a commitment he is willing to make, and David says nothing.
Sam shows up at the office to take Maddie to dinner, and Agnes and Bert come to David to encourage him to "say something to Miss Hayes … while she still is Miss Hayes." In this scene, we see that David has wrecked his office offscreen in a fit of frustration. It is here that we finally get a glimpse into why David won't share his feelings for Maddie. He's watching Divorce Court, and comments what a big risk marriage is. Here we finally see that his reluctance to talk about this is not because he doesn't love her, but because he is not ready to make a marriage commitment to her.
Yet this doesn't stop him from taking Agnes's and Bert's advice and following Sam and Maddie into the parking garage, where Sam and David get into a fistfight that leaves David bloody and beaten. Maddie calls off the dinner and returns to the office, where she finds David's wrecked office, and Agnes there to clean it up for him. The two of them go out for drinks, at which point Maddie realizes that she owes Sam an answer.
She returns home to give him one, but by the time she arrives, Sam has already left, and David is sleeping in her bed. Thinking that David is Sam, she explains that she loves Sam, and she loves David, and because she knows that Sam deserves someone who will love him, and only him, she can't say yes to his proposal.
Once she discovers that she's been telling this to David and not to Sam, the two of them get into what I believe is the most vicious of arguments ever to take place on the series. She tells him to get out, he refuses to go, then tells her that she's not worth staying for, and begins to leave. She becomes angry at the accusation that she's not worth staying for, and says, "I may have let the best thing that ever happened to me get away, and now look at me – here I am having another pointless argument with you!" She slaps him, not once but twice, ordering him to get out, but he doesn't move. When she reaches to slap him a third time, he grabs her arm, and they embrace.
As you can probably tell from this synopsis, this part of this episode just doesn't resonate with me. I don't understand why this kind of vicious argument would turn into sexual foreplay. This isn't the way I pictured them getting together.
I explain my reservations about this finalé in more detail on the DavidAndMaddie.com website, but basically, it just doesn't feel right to me, and I don't like it.
I do like the discussions that lead up to it. This episode is full of masterfully written dialog, especially regarding Maddie's emotional confusion and about people's readiness for marriage. But getting Maddie and David in bed together just doesn't belong here. I don't know how else to explain it.
Incidentally, it has been suggested to me that David does tell Maddie "I love you" right at the end of this episode, but the words are silenced. As I watch the very end of this episode, I can see his lips moving, but I can't read lips well enough to tell what he's saying. If, in fact, he does finally tell her that he loves her here, I wish the editors had left the sound of it in the episode, since that would have helped this finalé end more satisfyingly for me. To me, that would have indicated David's willingness to overcome his fear of commitment for her, just as Maddie is willing to overcome her fear of the unknown for him (since, as we've seen, Sam represents stability in her life, just as David represents recklessness). Unfortunately, this episode doesn't really provide that satisfying resolution, and I think it suffers because of it.
Guest Starring:
Co-Starring:
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Date of last change: 1 June 2003
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