Mandi/Randi
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| “Mandi/Randi” | |
|---|---|
| Nip/Tuck episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 2 |
| Guest stars | Caitlin Dahl (Mandi) Melinda Dahl (Randi) Valerie Cruz (Grace Santiago Sophia Bush (Ridley) Katie Mara (Vanessa) Linda Klein (Nurse Linda) Kelsey Batelaan (Annie McNamara) |
| Written by | – |
| Directed by | Ryan Murphy |
| Original airdate | July 29, 2003 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Pilot" | "Nanette Babcock" |
Mandi/Randi is the second episode of the American television drama Nip/Tuck. It aired on July 29, 2003.
[edit] Plot
Picking up 6 weeks after dumping Silvio Perez in the Everglades, we are introduced to Dr. Pendleton, the new staff psychologist. Sean explains to him that he should watch a surgery to see the benefits, but when he sees blood, Pendleton passes out. Christian enters the scene, compliments him on his "new hire," then suggests he come to his office to help with a consult. In the office are 18-year-old twin girls, Mandi and Randi, who are tired of being confused for one another, and therefore want to develop singular identities. They have tried various things, but everyone still mixes them up. Mandi wants to change her face, and Randi, her body. After getting the okay from Mandi and Randi's psychologist, Sean and Christian agree to perform the surgery on the twins.
Meanwhile, in the McNamara house, the tension is high. Sean and Annie are drawing a sign for a reward for Frisky, the pet gerbil of Annie's that, as we saw, was flushed down the toilet by Julia in the pilot episode. Matt sees the tension between Sean and Julia, and tells his parents to stop dealing in half-measures and do something about the troubled state of their marriage.
Julia, accepting an offer from her friend Suzanne, begins a business making gift baskets for women. During the assembly of some of these baskets, the plumber Julia hired to fix the toilet discovers the gerbil that she flushed. At first Julia tries to pass the death off as an accident, but when Suzanne tries to pin it on Matt, Julia confesses that it was she who killed Frisky. The plumber is appalled, Suzanne leaves, disgusted.
The next day, Sean has a meeting with Grace Santiago, the psychologist of the twins, to confirm that her opinion is plastic surgery. She tells him that physical change is needed. Half-measures have ceased to work. Sean takes this advice, and applies it to his own life. He leaves the family for a while to work on a way to fix the marriage. Christian meets up with Julia to discuss her temporary separation from Sean. She breaks down, and while Christian believes it to be because of the separation, it is in fact because the mothers in the school carpool didn't trust their kids to a "murderer," and kicked Julia out. Christian suggests a night to relax, for just the two of them, for old times sake. As they hug, Christian tells Julia that he has a hard-on and that "we'll pick this up tomorrow."
The surgery is completed. However, the results are not as appealing as the twins had desired. A male nurse comes into the recovery room, and Mandi has a breakdown because she believes that he didn't notice her, and that her sister Randi is now prettier. The two plead for Christian to change them back so they could be the same. A man comes into McNamara/Troy, Joel Brancato, requesting a surgery to increase the size of his penis. Sean refuses, while Dr. Pendleton and Christian believe it to be a good idea. Now outnumbered, Sean agrees to perform the surgery, but clearly some tension has been generated between he and Pendleton.
The next night, the two men each have dates. Sean has a dinner with Grace Santiago, but mistakes it to be a "date" and not a business dinner. When he makes a pass at Grace, she leaves, infuriated. Christian also has his date with Julia, but when she arrives, she finds Christian in bed with the twins. Clearly, this was a plan on his part, because he immediately leaves to find Julia after she runs off. He tells her that if she wants a family man, to stay with Sean.
During the Brancato surgery, Sean is congratulated by Dr. Pendleton on going through with the surgery. Sean, irritated from his bad date the night before, fires him on the spot and goes and hires Grace to be the new psychologist. She accepts the offer. Now that he has rebuilt his practice, he needs to rebuild his family. Later that night, Julia returns home to find Sean unpacking his stuff and moving back into the family's house. Julia says she wants him out, saying that she wants to screw around with other people. Sean fights back, and when Julia argues that she hasn't orgasmed in two years, Sean throws her onto the bed and gives her one, to prove that he always could but never wanted to work that hard.
Meanwhile, we have Matt, and his self-consciousness issue with his uncircumcised penis. Towards the end of the episode, he logs into a self-circumcision website, and becomes intoxicated, the website claiming that alcohol would calm his hands and prevent shaking. In the final seconds, Matt takes a pair of scissors, and makes a cut. Lifting his hand, it is covered in blood, and he faints from the shock.
