Dirt: The Secret Life of Altar Girls

(S01E06) This was a bit of a departure for the freshman drama. It's the first episode in which Lucy and her team weren't focused on digging up the story behind a celebrity. The target was a murdered high-school cheerleader and Lucy was convinced that there had to be more to it. After all, she was murdered for a reason.

The story itself didn't impress me too much. It felt very much like something you'd see on an episode of Law & Order: SVU. However, it brought in another spectacular cameo to round out the episode. Last week, Wayne Brady stole the show as Tweety McDaniel's trusted enforcer and this time around Paul Reubens stepped in as washed up criminal reporter Chuck Lafoon. Reubens really is a terrific actor. He's got lots of range and really has played some varied roles. Blow comes to mind and even just last week he was hilarious in 30 Rock. His Dirt persona was fantastic though. I'd love to see him around for the rest of the season.

We're not fools though. Raise your hand if you thought that Amber's best friend was the murderer. Everyone should have their hand up right now. That was predictable. The circumstances surrounding it were what surprised me a little. Affairs with priests, who also happen to be your father... pregnancies. This is what I was referring to when I said that it felt like Stabler and Benson could walk into the room at any moment.

Elsewhere, I still really like how Willa is being groomed as a young Lucy. Even Chuck noticed that Willa displays a lot of the qualities that Lucy did when she was younger. I wonder if Willa could somehow move up and become a rival of Lucy's? Brent is looking for any reason to take Lucy down. That could add to it, but realistically I don't think that's something we'd see in the first season. Especially since Willa is still in awe of Lucy. Something would need to happen to make her despise her boss.

Then there's Holt. He and Lucy finally acted on all the sexual tension that's existed between them. It would appear that Lucy even climaxed during their back seat encounter and that, if you recall, never happens for her. She's got her claws into Holt now but I don't think she'll need to scratch too hard since Holt seems to be done with Julia anyway. That girl is a mess...

Besides Lucy's claws, speaking of what's in Holt... worms! We finally got a glimpse of what's eating him away. Literally. He coughed up a whole pile of wriggly, live, white, maggoty lookin' worms. That's what guilt will do to you these days. How long before he ends up in the hospital getting his stomach operated on?

The only other thing I wanted to mention was how Chuck became a bit of a mirror for Lucy. Near the end, when he essentially told her that she was twisting facts and not reporting a story the way he taught her... that was a great scene. She shut him out, but it's hard to disagree with him when her requests for photos from Don sound like this:

"Less pious priest, more ass-banging boyfriend."