Would it be totally inappropriate of me to suggest that Oliver Platt deserves an Emmy nomination for this season of The Big C? He was very good last season, even when the show wasn’t as good as he was, but this season I’m starting to see Paul as a more nuanced, believable character and tonight I think Platt stole the episode.
It was an episode about how relationships aren’t always what they appear on the surface. At the doctor’s office, Cathy’s told that she has high blood pressure, so she follows Lee’s advice to try acupuncture. As Lee enters the room to check on Cathy during her appointment, the acupuncturist notices that Cathy’s blood pressure goes down and declares the two of them symbiotic soul mates.
Back at home, Cathy mocks the idea of soul mates (we saw the elusive Sarcastic Cathy), declaring that Paul isn’t hers because they don’t exist. Paul’s not on-board yet with the idea of liking Lee, so he asks “You guys are best friends now?” when he comes home from work, crabby because he threw out his back trying to help get a TV for a former colleague (the dismayed look on Platt’s face as he hugged his old co-worker was just one of Platt’s great little moments in the episode. I also loved the sarcastic scrunched up look on his face when Cathy tells him Lee is her "mole-mate." Platt’s adorable, basically.)
Lee tells Paul that not only is he gay but Paul’s his type: he’s a bear-chaser. “Does that make you uncomfortable?” Lee asks. “No. Yes. I don’t know,” Paul says. Enticed, however, by the prospect of cheap beer, Paul agrees to accompany Cathy and Lee to the local bear bar. Far from being squicked out, Paul is enchanted by a world in which he’s the physical ideal. “Look! It’s me making out with myself!” he exclaims. I loved Paul’s childlike thrill when the guys checked him out. I wonder how believable Paul’s attitude would be with another actor portraying him, but Platt has this innocence to him that made me believe it and like it. Not every straight Midwest married guy would feel comfortable admitting that he finds it sexy that a dude can pick up and have sex with another dude in a bar. My only problem with the scene was when Paul gets his back adjusted by the guy in the chaps and he yelled “Is it in?” when lifted up from behind. That was a little much, but overall I enjoyed the sequence. “You are a little bit hard to figure out, but you’re fun,” he tells Lee, which was a wonderfully honest, plainly-written line that I really liked.