Enlightened ‘Sandy’: Looking at our Ugly Reflection

Enlightened is starting to find its feet, and even through its minor faults, is becoming a really, really good show. In the beginning, it was hard to tell whether Amy was likable enough to be a main character: her quirks and constant need for acceptance was off-putting, but over time, you realize that awkwardness is just part of this show’s DNA. Amy isn’t a character we are supposed to like or dislike; the show doesn’t try and present us with a moral compass and judge the actions of others (how refreshing, right?). In an era where too many people are satisfied with watching the same status quo repeated over and over, Enlightened is a show that approaches the topic of change, and how internal and external forces can both reveal our flaws, help fix them, and create new ones, all in the same breath.

‘Sandy’ was all about its titular character, a woman Amy met and bonded with during her treatment in Hawaii. Amy is noticeably excited (more so than usual), and talks about how similar they are during her meditative voice over. Almost immediately, I thought the episode was going to fall into a common sitcom storyline: friend comes to visit, messes around with everyone, they like her more, Amy feels bad, then at the end it all gets better. It started out like so: Amy and Sandy bond over books, yoga, and numerous shallow interests they’ve picked up since their time in group treatment. They are so similar, you could puke. So of course Amy is bound to have an issue eventually with Sandy – it’s just common sense.

And she does have a problem: Sandy flakes on her to hang out with Levi, sending Amy off on one of her crazy tirades trying to maintain control of everything Sandy is doing, and then her mother points out a truth she had been blissfully ignoring all episode: everyone’s reaction to the Sandy was pretty much the same reaction everyone gave her (as Levi points out in a text: “Kind of annoying. Nice ass.”). It takes her awhile to catch on, but she finally picks up on it: Sandy isn’t really her friend, or someone she’s closely bonded to. She’s just the latest in a line of infatuating friendships Amy’s trying to maintain to not feel so isolated and unaccepted. We’re the seeing the end of one with Krista, she’s kind of started one with Tyler, and her on and off attempts at ‘healing’ Levi haven’t done much except drive him further away.

The episode concludes with Amy and Sandy at the airport, where we are revealed to some important information Amy just isn’t privy to. Throughout the episode, Amy was trying to look at Sandy’s journal (another idea from therapy, and one Amy’s been inconsistent with) to read its contents, but to no avail. While sitting in the airport, the episode closes with a long shot of Sandy, and finally, what’s in her notebook: she hasn’t been writing in her journal, but drawing flowers the whole time.

It’s an image with a lot of powerful meanings. For one, it presents another parallel between Amy and Sandy: Sandy’s narcissism really just pushes people away from her and she doesn’t think much of it – she’d rather draw (representations of her own rebirth and growth, to be exact) than reflect on the events of her visit with Amy (the self realization Amy finally had today about the people in relationships around her.) Secondly, the flowers draws a connection to Amy’s mother, who is an avid gardener and flower nut: Amy’s been looking for the answers to her problems in that journal, and while they aren’t the ones she thought she’d get (she was looking for Sandy’s true opinion of her, plus whether she banged Levi), they might just be MORE important: the relationship Amy really wants to repair (and needs to) is the one with her mother.

Thirdly, and less important to this episodes plot: as I said before, this show isn’t concerned with painting certain people as good or bad. We all have our vices, our intricacies… but we are who we are, and Enlightened does a good job of portraying everyone in this light, especially Amy, who usually would become the show’s sympathetic figure. And that’s what I’m really enjoying about Enlightened: its willingness to present characters in an honest way, and let us fill in the holes for ourselves. Is Amy on a self-righteous mission to save herself? Sure she is, but is that necessarily a bad thing? Is she doing a good job of it, or like her journal writing, has it been pretty inconsistent? These questions aren’t presented explicitly in every episode, but there is an underlying ambiguity to the storytelling that is quite refreshing.

I still don’t think the show is a very strong comedy, but there are such good character moments throughout episodes like ‘Sandy’ and ‘The Weekend’ that I’m really hoping this show gets to return for a second season (Entourage gets 8, but this might not get 2? that’s fucked up). It’s definitely not a show for the impatient, or those looking for the shallow, repetitive style of sitcoms like 2 Broke Girls or any drama on network television. There’s no mystery to why Enlightened has such a small audience: it’s a show that strives to be different. Some might find the meditation voiceovers cheesy, and might think the show relies to heavily on awkward glances and pauses, but these quirks are only part of the reason Enlightened is such a unique television experience. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the greatest show around, but it’s finding its legs quickly, and for lack of a more eloquent phrase, is just a pleasant show to watch.