Finally, in “Episode 19,” some great story lines come to an end. To begin, Mary Hartman is released when Davey, the mass murderer, gets his Porsche. Sadly, too, Davey is off to jail forever. As well, Mary Hartman reaches a high point in her life, as she looks back on the whole hostage taking situation, which makes her wonder about the real meaning of life. Towards the end, Mary and Tom agree to sleep in separate spaces. These were some very good story lines whose loose ends had to be taken care of.
This episode starts off in a rediculous way when George has to correct the police.
“Of course, she’s tired. Have you ever spent time with a mass murderer,” George tells LT. Trask.
Moreover, George has to remind the police that Mary is a house wife too.
“Well, that’s your business! Her business is being a housewife. That’s enough of a problem right there,” George adds.
During being held as a hostage, Mary has a bad dream. “It was more like a bad dream,” Mary says. “
That being said, this hostage taking to be a high point of Mary’s life. “One of the strangest things about it was while I was in there with Davey I kept having this sense that this was one of the high points of my life,” Mary says to Trask.
In this episode, Mary finally understands a phrase from a book about life.
You see I read a book once called ‘Our Town’ by Thornton Wilder, and there’s this girl in it, Emily, and she lives in a town like ours and she dies and then they bring her back to life for one day and she comes back and she sees her life. And she sees her ordinary life. And she sees how special her ordinary life is. And she says ‘does anyone ever realize life while they are living it?’ It was during this experience that I understood that phrase.
Meanwhile, back on earth, Lt. Trask reminds Mary that Davey is a killer. “Well, Mrs. Hartman, do you want him to get away? After all, he is a murderer.” Trask says.
Nevertheless, Mary really liked Davey even though she will never see him again. Mary calmly explains to Lt. Trask: “That’s funny how hard that is to believe if you knew him. I bet the Lombardis would of liked him too.” Davey will locked up forever for multiple murders.
In a talk with Charlie in a scene toward the middle of the broadcast, Loretta puts two and two together about Mary’s marriage. “Well, I’ll tell you, if their marriage breaks up, it will be a terrible tragedy. But I guess that’s the way some things happen, you know. She’ll just have to make the best of it,” sighs Loretta.
It’s this episode where Mary gives up on Tom.
When I think of all the magazine articles that I’ve read on love and marriage. And I think of all the documentaries that I’ve watched on television about the family, I think of the constant searching that I have done to make things better. The new cooking recipes, the floor polishes, the depilatories, all just to make ours an ideal marriage. That’s what I tried for. But I failed. I am a failure.
Mary is bitter, too. She blurts out to Tome: “I don’t ever want that name mentioned in my house again.” Mary does not like May.
But Mary doesn’t want Tom to leave. “No, you can’t move out. I have enough work to do around here without doing your work too,” Mary tells Tom.
Even though she is bitter, Mary still wants Tom to stay. “Who said anything about a divorce? I said our marriage is over… The difference is you live here, but you sleep downstairs on the couch for as long as our marriage lasts,” says Mary.
After the fight, Tom lacks confidence in himself. “She thinks everything has worked out. Well, everything hasn’t worked out. You think I am not a man don’t you. Well, I am a man. I proved that. Proved it with May. I can get it on. You think I can’t but I can. So I proved. So what else do you think. Ah, I can do it,” wonders Tom.
In summary, this episode got me thinking. First, Mary really liked Davey even though he was a mass murderer, which is not what you would expect, right? Also, Mary’s story about Thornton Wilder’s book “Our Town” was thought provoking, to say the least. Finally, the snake Tom got what her deserved: the couch. I really enjoyed this episode, so it one for the books.
