#58 - Hung - Season 1, Episode 7

We start off with Ray taking Jemma to his crappy little tent to show here where he lives. Perfect way to impress the ladies, yes?

Cut to Tanya, drunk in a bar and looking miserable, upset about icky Floyd and life in general. Another guy at the bar notices her Proust tattoo, makes a comment, which leads to a conversation, and then they guy walks over plants a smooch on Tanya. "I'm Pierce." Wow.

Back to Ray and Jemma in the tent, they're smacking and rolling around and such, so I guess the accommodations were satisfactory to Jemma after all. It verges on the romantic, and Ray is all pleased that their actions tonight "felt real".

And he wakes in the morning to find Jemma gone and a pile of cash on the pillow.Yeah, that's about as real as it gets, Ray.

Ray goes to Tanya's place (Pierce is there, and it's clear he spent the night, woo hoo!) and tells Tanya he doesn't think Jemma should be a client anymore. Tanya begs to differ. General heated argument about clients and how you should treat them, with no real resolution. Ray decides he's going to find his own damn clients.

Tanya discovers some really weird photos (is he part of the Taliban? what are these things?) while accidentally snooping among his things. He explains them as some sort of artsy writing project, and then asks how HER writing has been going. She's been blocked for two years. "I think it's my mother."

So, naturally, Pierce convinces Tanya to visit her mother's house and try to remove this blockage, and off they go. Mom's apparently not there when they arrive, so they "play" in Tanya's room, looking at her childhood things and developing a relationship that will probably be destroyed in the next few episodes. Because it's Tanya, she can't win.

Speaking of not winning, Mom arrives home and marches into Tanya's bedroom. (It's Rhea Perlman, looking severe) With just a few lines, it's immediately clear that Tanya and Mom have at least 347 unresolved issues between them. Great.

Ray is at the Farmer's Market, in his mission to find new clients. (I don't really know the protocols when it comes to whoring, but I'm really not certain this is the best place to find potential buyers.) But then he runs into Jessica. (Okay, maybe this IS a whoring venue, as she left Ray for another man with more money.)

They're actually very civil to each other, with Ray fessing up "I think I met someone" and Jessica prompting him to "come by the house". Then they wander off, each of them carrying secrets while they fondle produce.

Pierce and Tanya are at a restaurant, with him explaining to Tanya that she was a prolific writer while under his mother's roof, that she needs to write a poem about her, then crash one of her snooty parties and read it.

While Tanya ponders how many different ways such an action could go wrong, she overhears Floyd at another table giving some woman the same "you need to flower" speech that he used on Tanya. So she marches over to his table and tears him a new one. Good girl.

Ray and Jemma on the phone, with Ray explaining how he's bothered by the money thing, it's kinda weird, wouldn't she rather just go on a real date? Jemma hesitates, what would we do on this date? Ray suggests a boat ride. Awww. He's clearly falling in love, so now we just have to wait for the inevitable fallout of that.

Quick scene with Ray leaving a voice mail for Tanya, that it's a lot harder scrounging up new clients than he thought it would be. My bad, so sorry.

Ray is about to enter his crispy shack when the wife of the jerk next door gets his attention. Noting the fact that he has no working plumbing, she asks him if he'd like to take a how shower. (Remember, she's been percolating over him ever since she received the "sexy" Lyric Cookie.)

So he moseys on over, and of course she manages to catch him coming out of the shower. She likes what she sees, so they quickly come to an agreement. If he takes care of her, she'll take care of him. Deal? Then we discover that the neighbor wife "really likes to be seen", and boy does she ever. Just about every inch of her is proffered up for the cameras as they ride the train.

Tanya and Pierce show up at one of her mom's "intellectual teas" or whatever they are, with Tanya clutching a poem that she hopes to spring on Mom at some point. When Mom makes a disparaging remark wondering if Tanya brought any of those lyric thingies that she apparently doesn't care for, Tanya informs her "I did bring some words for you to choke on."

So Tanya reads the poem. It's all angsty and bitter, and Mom is to blame. Sort of. It's actually not all that clear. It's one of those obtuse pieces that could be about anything from psychological torture to chewing gum.

When she's done, the little arty friends clap in approval. Are we going to have a little validation for Tanya? Of course not. Some girl from Uganda snatches the stage away by saying how the poem reminds her of a song from her mystical past, and then proceeds to sing the song.

Tanya races from the house, with Pierce scrambling to catch up. He tries to console her, it doesn't matter, the big thing is that you started writing again. Well, not really. Seems the poem Tanya read was something she scribbled when she was 14. This poor girl is just a quivering ball of neuroses.

Back to Ray and the neighbor wife, train ride over, where Ray is surprised to learn that the wife's interpretation of "helping" Ray in exchange for sex is that she will try to get her husband to back off and quit pestering him. No money. At all. So Ray still hasn't found a new client.

Switch back over to Tanya, alone. She picks up a pen, and the words finally being to flow.

Final scene with Ray, waiting on Jemma for their first "official" date, the boat ride.

She doesn't show.

In case we missed the theme of this episode, the producers thoughtfully have someone sing a song apparently called "It Takes a Lot of Suffering to Be Happy" while the credits roll. Got it.