The Riches

“Trust Never Sleeps”

April 15, 2008

I love “The Riches.” It makes me want to be sneaky and lie and have adventures. However, the last few episodes have been weighing on me a bit. I know, I know, the family separates, and it comes back together, but that worked when the Malloys were still “travelers,” and, unfortunately, Wayne and Di Di are more buffer than ever. Opening the show with Sam listening to his parents fight was almost poignant…The idea of a child listening to arguing parents is so cliché on most dramatic shows and movies, and yet, that’s kind of the point here. This traveling family seems to be gradually “losing their souls” in their (now, not-so) new lifestyle. They’re all caught up in the lie, but with the discordance among all of them, they’re not all keeping up with the same lie. Seems to me, this can’t last long without them getting caught…

This episode begins, as I said, with arguing. Wayne and Dahlia realize Cael is gone, though they have no idea where. Really? His parents didn’t get that he would be gone soon after dropping out of school and living in a tent in the front yard and saying he’d rather be “piss poor” with his dad than $13 million richer with Doug Rich? Still, it’s amusing when Di Di reveals he is gone, and Dahlia is relieved because he’s on the road, so at least he knows how to do that.

Meanwhile, Wayne (Doug) is so caught up in his own stories, he hardly notices anything is wrong. He’s too busy trying to cash in on his $13 million. So, we’re reminded of how Pete is missing, and someone is looking for him, and on top of all that, Hugh wants to be mayor. I’m pretty sure Hugh is supposed to be the comic relief here, but he’s been wearing on my nerves since they first introduced him. The fact that he is so interweaved into Wayne’s story annoys me because I love Eddie Izzard and want to like watching him. For most of the series, I have liked watching him; he’s smooth, charming, quick on his feet…but now, it’s a little depressing to see him falling into this dark hole of everyday life and corporate lies. See, now he’s not playing the man, he IS the man. I’m much more interested in Dahlia…

Minnie Driver is so damn amazing, I can’t help but fall in love with her. As the series progresses, she just gets better and better. Now, she’s got her own secret job and secret apartment in order to fulfill her parole “honestly.” She’s trying to pull her life together (somewhat), clear her conscience, and keep Dale from being able to hold the threat of turning her in to the police over her head. She’s not so smooth though, as she not only accuses her parole officer of following her around because he wants to sleep with her, even after he saves her from being attacked by the same guys who strip her cool buffer car. Still, I’d be a little paranoid, too, if I had to hide a secret life. Plus, he’s a little creepy…stares a little too long, voice sounds like a pedophile…I don’t know, is it just me? And all the while, she’s so worried about Cael…

Oh, Cael, He’s so happy to be back with other travelers, he doesn’t see that he’s getting set up…It’s just so convenient other travelers were there to help him out of a jam and so convenient those travelers have a sexy blonde on board to convince Cael to stay. At least one son has the presence of mind to know when the family is about to screwed…

Sam finally gets his dad to listen to him when he explains he cleaned up some of Pete’s blood and threw the towel in the trash, and oh yeah…the PI who’s been sneaking around their house was also digging through the trash. So, Wayne and Dale go to the PI’s hotel room to steal back the towel, and Sam hides away in the back. Thank the gypsy gods, too, because he manages to sneak into the hotel room to wipe Wayne’s blood off the door handle before the PI comes back, but he still gets trapped in the room for a very tense minute. Pulling an almost caring, almost out-of-character move, Dale comes to the rescue, and Sam manages to sneak out. Father and son seem on better terms, as Sam heartbreakingly thanks his father for not abandoning him.

And, the show ends with Dahlia’s ironic anger at Wayne for insinuating she’s a liar, all the while never telling him her car was stolen, she was attacked, and her parole officer is catching on. Oh, that’s right…he doesn’t know she even has a parole officer…

It was hard to come up with a “line of the night,” as none of them seem to stick out in particular, but I say we give it to Sam for calling out his dad when he evades the truth about Pete by saying, “Life is complicated.” Sam replies,
“I though life was a river.”