S02.E08: Riptide

[Tara Ariano]

Carter is grounded just as an old friend arrives with alarming information about Lori; and Taylor sees Max in a different light after learning about his past.

[GaT]

Who does the promos for this show? I want to smack them. They've run Carter saying that Lori tried to kill herself a million times since the show last week. & it turns out to be the very last line of the show? They even ran a promo for it in the middle of the show, what was the point? 

[RachelKM]

I'm tired and cranky and probably should've have gone to bed instead of watching this right now.  But all I really took away from this is how much time I spent wanting to slap Taylor these last few episodes.  I know she's a teenager and they're prone to making everything about themselves, but I couldn't believe she threw a hissy fit that Max didn't tell her about a horrible thing that happened to him and his mom when he was six.  And I'm more annoyed that her emotional bullying worked.  

Edited May 20, 2015 by RachelKM

[TVForever]

Okay, now I KNOW that Taylor is the most selfish, self-centered person I have ever encountered, in fiction or real-life. Seriously. Ever.

 

Max, put this girl in your rearview mirror and don't look back.

[Ms Lark]

What I can't believe is if Taylor is such a good person, how come she hasn't 'fessed up, at least to her parents, that she was the one that crashed the car? The only people I like in this show anymore are Max and Grant. Don't know that I can keep watching. The writing has gone from bad to worse.

 

ETA: If I didn't think it was horribly, horribly wrong, I'd say Max should kidnap Grant and the two of them should head for higher ground.

Edited May 20, 2015 by Ms Lark

[Primetimer]

Finding Carter's ridiculousness, ranked.

Read the story

[gesundheit]

Who does the promos for this show? I want to smack them. They've run Carter saying that Lori tried to kill herself a million times since the show last week. & it turns out to be the very last line of the show? They even ran a promo for it in the middle of the show, what was the point? 

Right? I mean the first issue being running promos with the last line of the episode. The second being: you think your show is so boring in the first act that you need to PROMOTE the rest of the episode in the middle of it???!!! Holy crap.

 

Also the Max/Carter hookup has been promoted as "next" for like four episodes now.

 

Madison wins the Worst Friend Ever award, for sure. Stop speaking to your friend after she turns out to have been kidnapped and is going through the biggest trauma of her life? BUT STAY IN TOUCH WITH YOUR FRIEND'S PSYCHO KIDNAPPER?

 

Wow. Sounds like great roomie material!

[OrientalAmish]

Brace yourself people, but I read somewhere the other day that MTV thought it would be awesome to give us 12 more episodes for this season.... So get ready to get dumbfounded, scratch your heads, and shake your head a whole lot more because this shit is never going to stop.... Maybe it is just me, but I'd think it be a better idea to maybe just split the 12 episodes + use other half for next season, if there would be one....

Edited May 20, 2015 by OrientalAmish

[Sarah D. Bunting]

Oh, crap.

[OrientalAmish]

Madison: "I'm gonna be crashing with Max who lives with a bird?"

 

LOL.... I probably fucked up the quote, but I still had to laugh....

[Bo-Peep22]

I know I'm going to get smacked for this but...I like Taylor (cringe). 
 
   Granted she has exhibited some pretty selfish behavior recently, but I think it all stems from the fact that her entire life has been about being the good girl, the good daughter, and the good student and its all sort of crashing down on her. Being a good girl didn't stop her crazy neighbor from kidnapping her sister, being a good daughter clearly didn't make up for the fact that said sister was still gone, and being a good student meant squat to the one school she'd always dreamed of attending (because they wanted her sister).
 
    Honestly I'm shocked that Grant is the one they're really playing up as having an inferiority complex- Taylor seems to be the poster child for it. 
 
  It was interesting to me that Taylor (for whatever reason) never correlated her depression and subsequent delinquent behavior back to Lori (it seemed pretty obvious to me). I know on the show they've been selling her mood swings as a result of being related to Lori but I honestly believe it runs back to her inferiority complex- even their biological mother chose Carter. Lori claims that she left Taylor because she knew how it felt to be a "mother" and didn't want to leave Liz and David childless seeing as they were sans Grant at that point, but Lori is a psychotic loony toon so I doubt Taylor would actually see it that way (No one else on the show did either lol).
 
   Though I have to agree-when Taylor originally tossed a stink eye Max's direction about not divulging in a very painful memory (clearly) I had a "girl bye" moment. Because, you know, it was clearly Max's business and his prerogative in what Taylor did or didn't need to know (especially since they are no longer seeing one another) not to mention Taylor's entire family had plenty of issues to deal with so I doubt Max was really thinking to himself, "I wonder if I should tell her about my Mom before or after her parents' marriage goes down the toilet?" or "Maybe I should tell her after Carter gets back from getting her stomach pumped?"....but then I really put myself in her shoes. (Just for a moment)
 
It seems like Taylor is ALWAYS the last to know.  
 
 I'm talking the imaginary bird that Max should totally buy would probably tumble upon these characters' secrets before her. And when a "Taylor" type, an overachiever who strives to whirl her way out of the mediocrity stuck to her back, is confronted with the fact that-as much as she has accomplished- she's not really the 'adult' she wants to be-it's a car wreck waiting to happen (and it has). Taylor has spent her entire life being the "good one" to make up for her parents crap marriage and to counteract her brother's feelings of abandonment that she's finding it hard to connect with people that see past her imperfections (that even she can't bring herself to accept) and still want to be on Team Taylor.
 
   I think Carter can sort of sense the anxiety in her sister, I loved the little "kid on the playground" description of her, so she's trying to glue together the tiny cracks that have carved themselves into Season 1 Taylor while Season 2 Taylor flounders around trying to find herself (the same scenario Carter was in during season 1). I believe that's why Taylor was so touched that Carter confessed to Madison that she wishes she were more like Taylor because I don't think Taylor even likes Taylor right now. (Which is why she broke up with Max (IMO) she can't "find" herself so she can't see what Max and Carter are seeing- an awesome person that's had awful things happen in a short period of time.

[gesundheit]

Yeah, I heard about the 12 episode order. I don't know. I was all ready to drop this show, but last night I watched because most of my shows have ended till the fall. This show would be really smart to stick around during summer and then the winter hiatus that most shows take -- it's why I started in the first place, and it's why I haven't given up. But this "12 more" thing makes me think they're going to try to put episodes in a season that is not a vast wasteland. I can't imagine the show thriving then.

[Free]

 

I can't imagine the show thriving then.

 

It's already struggling and hitting new lows this season, I just checked the ratings.

 

 

ETA: If I didn't think it was horribly, horribly wrong, I'd say Max should kidnap Grant and the two of them should head for higher ground.

 

And go to a better show.

[ihavenoidea]

I've given up on this show.  I think the first mistake was giving Lori such a far fetched reason for kidnapping Carter.  Why couldn't she just have been a nut who randomly kidnapped her?  The best part of this show last season were the family scenes and Carter slowly accepting them.  I felt they took would could be a simple effective concept and made it ridiculous.  Now were forced to still be dealing with Lori along with the dumb sub plots for all the teens.  

[OrientalAmish]

I've given up on this show.  I think the first mistake was giving Lori such a far fetched reason for kidnapping Carter.  Why couldn't she just have been a nut who randomly kidnapped her?  The best part of this show last season were the family scenes and Carter slowly accepting them.  I felt they took would could be a simple effective concept and made it ridiculous.  Now were forced to still be dealing with Lori along with the dumb sub plots for all the teens.  

 

I suspect that maybe the writers have it in their minds that the their "audience" consists mostly of dimwitted teens who rather give a fuck about whatever "existential crises" could be going on with their lives instead of their families.... For example, Taylor making a huge deal out of not knowing about a traumatic incident that Max went through when he was a little kid as if he had to tell her EVERYTHING about his life during the short time they known each other + had been broken up + has been a bitch to him + everyone else.... Okay, Taylor, take that behavior down to all notches.... Byegirlbye

[Mrs.Reigns]

The biggest mistake this show made was no having a great Taylor vs Carter rivalry. That could have last the show at least 3 seasons. Along with making them sophomores and not seniors. Or at the very least Juniors. Nonetheless as someone said Taylor problems would be much more interesting if they were not only drawn back to Lori but Carter. Technically her biological mother left her behind to raise Carter and her mother Liz so overcome with grief was so overbearing that she wasn't allowed to live life like a normal teenager.

This would make the Carter/Max Betryal even better. The one boy she loves who seems to thinks she amazing while she pretty ordinary and nothing to write home about, who use to date her sister hooks up with her. Which could lead Taylor to wonder if Max like everyone else in her life simply settled for her.

It could be really great. It could have been very One Tree Hill ish. Nathan/Lucas kind of thing.I've always found it a little weird that two teenage sister separated at a young age would not have some resentment towards one another. Finding Carter definitely dropped the ball on that one.

[kat165]

I was just glad we didn't have to see Crash or any of the rest of Carter's "new" idiot friends.

[SonofaBiscuit]

I actually like Taylor too, but that is because of all of the goodwill that she and Max earned from me last season, not for anything that she's done this season.  I hate her stupid downward spiral storyline, and I thought that she was way out of line for getting bitchy with Max because he hadn't told her about this very traumatic thing that had happened to him when he was a kid.  I mean, maybe he would have told her someday, but they're not even dating anymore, geez.  It's just drama for the sake of drama.  I think that it was a terrible idea to break Max and Taylor up this soon, and there's not really much that I'm interested in anymore. 

[Mabinogia]

I like the idea of Taylor's downward spiral. It kind of makes sense. And I like the idea that the show would look at how the kidnapping affected the rest of the family not just Carter or Carter and her parents. However, the execution is terrible.