August 2009

Today, Tuesday, August 11, 2009, catch an all new episode of “The Cleaner” on A&E at 10 PM ET/PT.

In the episode entitled “The Turtle and the Butterfly,” an upscale woman named Gail seeks William’s help in retrieving her drug addicted son from jail in the Inland Empire. Swenton helps get Gail’s son, Travis, released from jail, but they soon discover Travis is a long way from being ready to change his life. While trying to bring Travis back to Los Angeles with them, they meet a 13-year old boy who is running drugs for a powerful dealer. The boy weighs on William’s conscience and William must decide if there is a way to save him, or if their trip to the Inland Empire is a total wash.

Today, Tuesday, August 4, 2009, catch an all new episode of “The Cleaner” on A&E at 10 PM ET/PT.

In the episode entitled “An Ordinary Man,” William tackles the substance abuse problems of a surgeon with a God complex. The hospital administrator approaches William after receiving an anonymous letter accusing a doctor and some of the nurses of using drugs. When a nurse named Carey passes out during a surgery, William brings her in for treatment. It turns out, Carey is dating the surgeon with the drug problem and she is banking on him marrying her and becoming the father-figure to her young son. Melissa assists William by babysitting Carey’s son while Carey undergoes treatment and she helps William get to the bottom of Carey’s real addiction – she is addicted to being in love.

Synopses:

Split Ends

Two fraternal twin sisters, seemingly polar opposites, discover that their paths to recovery may be intertwined. And a close friend of William’s who’s an addict puts a strain on their relationship with his out-of-control behavior.

The Things We Didn’t Plan

When William is hired to clean up a cop (Leonard) who’s addicted to drugs, he must find the best way to handle an addict who’s armed and might not like his unconventional methods. Meanwhile, Akani searches for a shelter for a homeless woman (Sunshine) and her dog, and Swenton tries to help an alcoholic father and his 10-year-old daughter (Sarah).

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Did anyone else felt sad for the mother and her twin daughters from Split Ends? The family drifted apart and found themselves all dealing with the same problems while condemning the others for it. There is a father – recently dead – who was an addict to alcohol, sex and gambling, Amber who took to the street and heroine after she was abused and couldn’t enroll her mother to see her through, Ruby who poses as the perfect daughter, accuses her twin sister of wanting all the attention for herself and took up to opiates, and a mother who disapproved of her husband’s behavior and knew Amber had been abused, but was unable to protect her daughter (and herself) from her husband and now she feels guilty for it. In my opinion, they were really able to show how a dysfunctional family thinks, how they feel and how they have to come together to overcome their problems and, in the case of the twins, recover from addiction.

As for William’s friend, Greg, I know they already had an episode in the first season (House of Pain) where a long time friend of William (Quinn) was using again, but I found this time around, they were able to show Greg’s desperation as well as William’s feelings during the near death experience in the ocean, and how against drugs William is. William understands that people are addicts and that anyone can return to drugs at anytime, but Greg put himself at risk as well as someone else and that is what William did not appreciate.

The Things We Didn’t Plan is another great episode, showing how people who need help come in all sizes and shapes and from all walks of life. Just as no one is above the law no one is immune from the disease of addiction and the consequences that result. Three story-lines is a lot to cover in one episode, but they did a good job at showing how something unexpected (the loss of your wife or your daughter, a ) can change people’s life and push them into addiction, and it takes someone who doesn’t pretend not to see to talk sense to them, and have them face reality and accept help.

It was good to see that not only William sees the faces of addiction all around him and can’t look away, but also the flirty Akani and the wisecracking Arnie share the same sensitivity and really care about people. And we see Akani and Arnie  do some freelance cleaning in this episode.

I find it very touching, when Leonard – taking William’s suggestion – goes and confesses to a coffee shop waitress that he had shot her and felt guilty about it, and the young woman says “All I ever wanted was the truth and you just gave me that. The real truth is that I would’ve died a drug addict if I hadn’t got shot that night… in a way, you took me out of my old life and you forced me into a new one.” I think that neither William when he advised Leonard to tell the truth to the waitress nor Leonard when he set out to confess what he had done to her had hoped for that much… that that young woman was able to acknowledge how a tragic experience had indeed saved her life and forgive, even thank, the man who had shot her…