Previously on Dirty Sexy Money: Nick George is a good guy, a lawyer whose dad mysteriously died.  Now he works for the same family his father worked for, the super-rich yet morally bankrupt Darling family.  Juliet tried to kill herself, Rev. Brian has an illegitimate son, Patrick is having an affair with a tranny, engaged Karen is in love with Nick, and Jeremy is a druggie rebel.  Tripp and Letitia (who had an affair with Nick's dad) must be so proud.


Tripp (Donald Sutherland) and Nick (Peter Krause) are very different people.  This is illustrated by showing how both start the day.  Tripp gets woken by his butler, has a guy shave him, dress him, and gets his chef to cook an extravagant breakfast.  Nick is awoken by his daughter's hand, shaves and dresses himself, then struggles to hold a burnt piece of toast for breakfast.

A Darling family photo for Patrick's campaign launch is causing problems.  Karen wants her fourth fiancee in it, but Letitia refuses.  Karen informs us that everyone knows about Patrick's indiscretions.  Patrick is waking up with his lover and says he won't run for senate.  Twins Juliet and Jeremy are toasting independence as she stays in a hotel suite (undoubtedly paid for by her daddy).  Jeremy is celebrating a song he's written the previous night with Justin Timberlake.  Rev. Brian is instructing his illegitimate son to play dumb, because his wife will kill him if she finds out.  He dumps the kid off at Nick's and orders the family lawyer to deal with it.  Nick transfers Brian Jr. to the temporary care of his wife.

Tripp tasks Nick with making sure everyone shows up to the photo shoot, which sounds simple enough, but probably won't be.  Tripp also hands him a bundle of cash for things that come up.  Nick gets a call from Norman Exley, the man who got the mysterious payoff from Rev. Brian.  Exley says it was because he overheard about Brian's son and blackmailed the reverend.  Then Exley hints that Tripp may have been upset about his wife's affair with Nick's dad.  This is way too convenient, and I suspect Rev. Brian orchestrated Exley's story as part of the payoff.  Nick confronts Letitia about the affair, and she claims Tripp has no idea about it.  When Nick asks if Tripp could've done it, she responds "We're all capable of everything," then points Nick to Tripp's secret journal in his desk.  It's impossible to trust any Darling, or their motives.

Jeremy wanders up to the penthouse to see if he can secure it for his sister.  Unfortunately it's occupied by Natalie, Juliet's former best friend and a young hottie who wants to jump Jeremy's bones.  He's hesitant.  When he returns to Juliet's suite, he lies about who's up there, then begs her to come to the photo shoot, because there will be live lions there.  The odds of someone getting mauled are hopefully high.

Patrick is laying it on the line to his dad about not wanting to run for Senate.  Tripp lets his son know he can handle any scandal that may arise.  Tripp lays the guilt on thick about how Patrick is the scion of the family, the only one who can continue the Darling legacy.  Later, Letitia supports Patrick's decision.

Nick gets a call from Karen, and her new ring tone is "Here Comes the Bride."  She wants him to tell Freddy  he can't be in the photo.  When Nick hears about the lions, his response is "We'd better get some lion insurance."  Lines like that make me love this show.  The maid sees Nick taking Tripp's journal and gets $500 for her discretion.  That's taking the term "discretionary fund" a bit literal.  The journal has a photo of a plane going down with some words underneath it scratched out.  Nick learns Brian Jr.'s mom went to Brazil, and Rev. Brian refuses to take him again.  Nick brings Brian Jr. to the photo shoot in hopes of guilting the reverend.

Nick begins the trouble of setting a tone at the photo shoot.  He tells Freddy he can't be in it, and Freddy suspects Nick of still being in love with Karen.  Nick's assistant says she handled the Juliet situation.  The solution: a lookalike.  Rev. Brian tells everyone his son is a Swedish orphan, but when Tripp reveals he can speak Swedish, Nick has to admit to stealing Tripp's journal to cover it.  Nick says it was to see if Tripp killed his dad, and after asking why, Tripp shares a moment with Letitia on the balcony in which he seems to genuinely not know about the affair.  However, like I said, I don't trust anything any Darling ever does or says.

Nick successfully gets Brian to reconsider getting to know his son.  Brian Jr. comes home with his dad, and even though the reverend still asks him to pretend to be Swedish, it's a nice father-son moment.  Jeremy sneaks back to the hotel to hook up with Natalie but is stopped in the foyer by Juliet, who knows all about her former best friend in the penthouse.  He tries to cover, and thankfully his sister is a moron who is a bad actress and therefore can't recognize bad acting.  Patrick, in bed with his transexual lover, gets some helpful advice: she thinks he should run to prove he's better than his father.  Karen drunk dials Nick to let him know she loves him.

The next morning, Jeremy brings Natalie a virtual reality game, but all she wants to do is have sex.  It's sweet that the only reason he's resisting is because he loves his sister and doesn't want to hurt her.  That lasts all of five seconds before he goes for it.  Patrick announces he's running for the Senate.  Nick returns the journal, and Tripp suggests a combination for the locked briefcase found in Nick's dad's plane wreckage: 712, Letitia's birthday.  It works, and the sound of the briefcase clicking open crushes Tripp, who admits to knowing about the affair.  Inside is a lot of patent and criminal information about a billionaire named Simon Elder.  Another wild goose chase!  This show really is the closest thing to Veronica Mars we have now.

Next week on Dirty Sexy Money: a Darling sex tape!  But who are the stars?


-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC)