Chandler & Co.: Series 1, Episode 3 – “Past Imperfect” (1994)

Just when I predict a forthcoming Dee-case Elly-case format, they throw me a curveball.  Technically, one of the cases today is still Elly’s, but she’s not on the usual end of it.  While Dee tails a potentially-philandering wife in London, Elly asks Larry to look into her ex-husband Max.  He’s recently reappeared in her life, and despite her better judgment, there’s a part of her that believes him when he says he’s changed.

 

Naturally, this means that we see Larry going undercover again.  Why merely follow someone in your car or plant an external bug outside their home when you can pose as a repairman and show up at their office?  Despite Larry’s repeated assurances that he doesn’t miss taking cases of his own, I think he really enjoyed, and still enjoys, the thrill of the work.  The more blazon, the better – he likes interacting with the people he’s fooling, likes to let them see him.

 

And point of order, Larry most definitely has a thing for Elly.  It’s kind of adorable in a really gruff, antisocial way.  They’re both such closed-off people – Elly’s marriage obviously banged her up emotionally, and we keep getting hints that Larry’s not as unbreakable as he’d have people think – and it’s interesting to watch them cautiously circle each other.  There’s an especially good scene when Elly first approaches him to ask whether one can be friends with an ex (a “client” was wondering.)  Both of them keep their guard up for the entire conversation, but they both have the P.I. instincts to catch what the other is leaving unsaid.

 

Dee’s husband still isn’t doing much to endear himself to me.  In this episode, the two run into a conflict over the issue of who should stay home when their daughter is sick.  Dee’s suggestion that they take turns is immediately disintegrated – he can’t possibly drop everything with no notice, he has a schedule to keep, it’s important, and after all, they have to give priority to the main breadwinner.  Further proof that his ostensible objections to her work are perhaps a bit too convenient.