Surface!

Monday night saw the return of NBC's Surface and before I post my summary I want to address something that I'm getting a ton of email about. My ragging on Surface is not the reason that the show was canceled.

Instead of going scene by scene I'll summarize each of the major arcs separately. First Opie and Nim. When we left them last Opie had been healed by Nimrod's sea-monster healing powers and Nimrod had been gunned down by a cop and was being dissected by the marine biologist (known as "The Professor"). As the episode opens Opie is paying one last visit to Nimrod at the aquarium when Nimrod comes back to life (sea-monster healing powers). Opie wants to take Nim back to the ocean and let him go, but The Professor convinces him that Nim would be safer at the aquarium where he could be cared for and studied. Opie agrees but soon begins to regret his decision. The Professor keeps pushing Opie away and finally bars him from the room when Nimrod is being experimented upon. Opie wanders into the aquarium's gift shop and meets Slutty Surfer Chick (SSC) who recognizes Opie from the news and gets moist thinking about how he stole a car and all. Opie and SSC go for a walk down by the beach and she offers to teach him to surf. He says no. Later that night she drops by his house on her scooter and tells him that she swiped the keys to the aquarium and offers to take him to pay a visit to Nim. At the aquarium, while changing into her swim suit, she tries to get Opie to look at her naked, but he wont. They go into the big tank and swim with Nim but get busted by The Professor. The Professor tells the kids that the tank will have to be decontaminated because they were in it (BS, divers go into those big tanks every day) and that Opie is not to come back to the aquarium any more. SSC takes Opie home and he seems pissed at her for getting him in trouble, again, and banned from the aquarium. Now in the real world Nimrod is an animal who's species is not on any list of endangered or protected species. This makes him Opie's property and Opie's lawyer dad could get him returned to Opie's custody in about two seconds. This will not happen because it has been well established that both Opie's parents are clueless yuppie idiots.

Now for Girl Genius and Jethro (who is insane). When we saw them last they were being pulled out of the water by a rescue helicopter. We first see them this episode being taken into the hospital where Girl Genius is very careful to hold onto the video tape of the creatures spawning. We next see The Operative being informed of their location and dispatching his agents to collect them. Girl Genius sees the agents and realizes that they have to run. She finds Jethro (who is insane) and they escape from the hospital in stolen scrubs with a stolen cell phone and a stolen ATM card. Girl Genius tries to call her son (who is with her ex husband) but Jethro stops her on the grounds that his phone is certainly being tapped (insane, but not stupid). While Jethro is using the stolen ATM card to get cash Girl Genius call her ex anyway and the call is intercepted by The Operative. Girl Genius and Jethro (who is insane) go to a computer store and have their video transferred to a bunch of DVD's and have it uploaded onto the internet. Girl Genius then calls her friend who is a reporter for a local TV station and sets up an interview. At the interview Girl Genius tells Jethro (who is insane) that she wants to go on camera alone because Jethro, being insane, will hurt their credibility by talking about how his dead brother speaks to him and guides him and such. Jethro (who is insane) is hurt, but agrees. The interview seems to go well, but when it is aired she is made to look like a crackpot. As Girl Genius and Jethro (who is insane) are back at the hotel raiding the mini-bar (the TV station is picking up the tab) and getting drunk Jethro (who is insane) notices that the video that they posted on the MSNBC website has been downloaded more than 60,000 times and counting. On this hopeful note we leave.