(S04E01) Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else find it hard to believe that we're already beginning the fourth season of Nip/Tuck? I feel like this show just started yesterday and here we are on the 45th episode of this spectacular series. I guess time flies when you're having fun. And by "fun" I mean boob jobs, unprotected sex, and botox. Lots of botox.

We pick up roughly six months after the disappearance of The Carver. Oddly enough, Quentin wasn't mentioned once in the entire episode. Although he was alluded to briefly. For those of you wondering where I got the six months from? Julia's pregnancy. She's in her second trimester and as I recall, she got pregnant near the end of season three. So five, six, maybe seven months we're picking it up?

Anyway, this episode introduced a lot of new characters. Most notably Burt Landau and his wife Michelle. Burt comes to the McNamara/Troy practice looking to get some testicle implants following his recovery from prostate cancer. The implants he has right now just aren't cutting it anymore. That notion right there seems to be a theme for the season though: feeling unfulfilled. No one is this cast seems to be satisfied right now.

Christian, tired of his one-night stands and nervous about comments regarding his sexuality, is finally seeing a therapist. Played by Brooke Shields, Dr. Faith Wolper is equally willing to lecture Christian about his miscues in life and and then let him screw her on her desk. Hey... she's a therapist. It's a start. But his self-reformation doesn't stop there. Conscious of his very "metro-sexually styled" apartment, Christian has a decorator turn it around. Anyone else think the new apartment looked practically the same?

Sean seems to be in the same boat, but for different reasons. His pseudo-marriage to Julia is great, but the sex is a real chore with how pregnant she is. This leads to Sean ringing up Cindy Plumb (Kathleen Turner), a phone sex operator that Sean recently gave a "voice-lift" to. Everyone's out for instant gratification.

Beyond all this, there were two major plot points that are guaranteed to play a role throughout this entire season. The first being Sean and Julia's baby. He's a boy, but he's been diagnosed with ectrodactyly. Or the more negatively-termed "lobster-claw syndrome." It's a rare malformation of the hands and feet where fingers and toes don't form correctly. It'll be interesting to see how it develops once the poor kid is born, especially since Sean admitted to Christian that he would have supported an abortion had he known of the condition sooner.

The other major development was the sale of McNamara/Troy to Burt Landau. While Burt was under the knife, his wife was impressed with how Christian worked and later told her husband to purchase the business. This could spell success and more money for Sean and Christian since Burt is known for taking medical establishments or all kinds and turning them into cash cows. "He eats paper planes and shits out space shuttles" is how Christian put it. Of course, this could all back-fire since Christian also just wants to get in Michelle's pants.

Other stuff:

• Julia plans to sell her shares in the spa to Gina, so that when the baby is born she can devote herself to him. Sean will have more time too now that the sale of the practice is complete.
• What's the deal with Liz though? Is she splitting her time between the spa and McNamara/Troy?
• Matt? Nothing, huh? Didn't he kill a white-supremacist last season? There had better be some backlash from that...

Oh and I almost forgot. Keeping with the tradition of always making my jaw drop, Nip/Tuck has now given me reason to start a list of things I never thought I'd hear Larry Hagman say. This week's gem?

"My balls are no longer proportionate to my wang."