Fall guy.
Spoilers for “Goodnight, My Someone” within.
Walter Blunt’s continued search for familial connection continues with “Goodnight, My Someone,” an episode that finds Rafe Blunt (played by Patrick Stewart’s real-life son Daniel Stewart) back in town for a boxing match. Before long, Walter is in his son’s corner and Celia has struck up yet another ill-fated romance with the newcomer.
This episode is just as much about Celia as it is Walter; more so, in fact. We’ve seen Celia dealing with a number of her issues since the series premiere, and with her magician gone, she seems to be in a downward spiral. Rafe is more than her latest place holder, though, instead presented as a somewhat tragic romance. The one guy that seems good for her can’t stick around. Their goodbye at the end of the episode was built on only a few scenes, but it was effective nonetheless.
In a nice change of pace, Walter and Jim are left to provide most of the laughs here without a whole lot of soul searching. While “Goodnight, My Someone” definitely has the underpinnings of Walter’s desperate need to be loved by his family, it’s buried under layers of circumcision jokes and talking-at-the-urinal gags. Not to mention: Patrick Stewart doing his best ring announcer voice is quite possibly the best comedic moment of the series so far.
Another highlight for Walter was the absolutely bizarre interview segment that put his misunderstanding of the circumcision process on national television in one of the most awkward and hilarious interviews of the century. It felt like an out-of-nowhere moment, but after the initial shock wore off, I realized the brilliance with which it had been set up in the (equally awkward) urinal scene. This might have been the show’s most absurd sequence to date, and I’m glad that they waited until episode six to do it.
The one dramatic moment for Walter comes when he realizes that Rafe is little more than a fall guy, but it’s not as emotionally affecting as some of the moments we’ve seen in the past. At that point, we’re more concerned with Rafe and Celia and have since accepted Walter’s place as an over enthusiastic corner man. We still want him to find the connection with his son, of course, but at this point it seems as though he’ll have to make due with Jim as a surrogate.
It’s telling that he has to ask his real sons to call him “Dad” instead of “Walter,” and yet Jim – who told us two episodes ago that he doesn’t consider Walter a father figure – is ready to take his place among his sons. That’s an odd inconsistency for Jim’s character, but hopefully he can fully explain himself in a coming episode. But still, Jim shined in this episode. Everything from his struggle to open the jar (“I have wet hands… all the time.”) to his fist bumping failures, Jim was a constant source of laughs alongside Walter.
“Goodnight, My Someone” put Celia in the spotlight and shined because of it. Thought Walter and his relationship to his sons was present, he was relinquished of the heavy lifting and got to play the comedic relief instead of the comedic center. With some of the funniest moments in the show to date alongside a very funny turn for Jim, this was another fantastic episode of Blunt Talk.
