['United States of Tara' - 'Bryce Will Play']

Before we get to the recap portion of tonight's proceedings, I have some terrible news to impart: 'United States of Tara' was officially cancelled on Monday, meaning that this season will be the show's last. Let's have a moment of silence for our quirky dramedy, and savor these last few episodes while we still have them.

If we thought Bryce was scary in the brief glimpses we've caught of him before, this week's episode was an eye-opening demonstration of just how homicidal Tara's new alter truly is, since Chicken was merely the first step in a larger and more ominous plan.

Bryce told Jack that he's only toying with Tara, but actions speak louder than words, and his actions this week skirted dangerously close to actual murder.

'USoT' has always been adept at balancing the absurd with the humorous, and in this week's episode, that absurdist humor was also deftly combined with the sinister, since the sight of Bryce wearing a pumpkin head and brutally stabbing Gimme's poncho was both surrealistically amusing and macabre -- and Jack's poisoning was just plain creepy. If Charmaine and Kate hadn't been in the house, the episode could easily have taken a tragic turn, and it says a lot about the show that even with the characters there, I still had a moment of doubt as to whether the writers would actually follow through with killing Jack.



Happily, he was simply forced to cut ties with Tara instead -- safer for all involved, perhaps, but also fairly irresponsible, considering that Tara is now left without an adequate support system. But Bryce did manage to accomplish one thing that Tara couldn't manage alone: He made a believer out of Dr. Hatteras.

It's great to see that the show isn't afraid to try new things in its third season (although it does make the cancellation even more painful), and I found the introduction of Bryce as an abuser-alter to be a fascinating choice in further developing Tara and delving into her condition. His inclusion, and the systematic "murder" of Tara's other alters raises some interesting questions as to whether the alters exist only because Tara believes they exist, or whether these identities can truly interact with, and exert control over, each other. As usual, Toni Collette did an excellent job of contrasting Tara's growing fear with Bryce's unnerving smugness.

Elsewhere, we finally got to see a little more of Marshall's short movie, and it actually looks like something I'd want to see in full. I loved the use of stop-motion animation, it served the quirkiness of his story well.

Unsurprisingly, Max wasn't quite as enthusiastic about his son's artistic endeavor as I am -- he took offense to his son's apparent judgment of his life choices, but Marshall made a valid point as they fought: "Mom is crazy and we treat her like she's an eccentric ... There's a cost."

As Tara's rapidly unraveling mental state illustrated this week, this is far from just eccentricity, and the fact that nothing sh's tried has cured her condition is justification for Marshall's worry that she'll drag the whole family down with her. Lucky for Tara, Max loves her too much to quit on her, even though any sane man probably would've walked out on her years ago. Maybe craziness is all relative -- the Gregson family has always seemed a little kooky, after all. In some ways, Tara's probably the sanest one.

What do you think of the Bryce alter? Do you think he'll succeed in "killing" the rest of Tara's identities? Are you sad to see him scare Jack away?

'United States of Tara' airs Mondays, 10:30PM ET on Showtime.