Melrose Place Episode 2 Recap–”Nightingale”

Here’s to hoping Gossip Girl doesn’t have a copyright on the phrase OMFG, because I have a feeling I’ll be using it a lot when recapping episodes of the newly revamped Melrose Place. This week’s episode was CRAZY. However, it did serve to explain a lot more and tie the characters together. If the first episode was the hook, then this was definitely the draw. I can’t wait to find out what happens! Read more to get the scoop on last night’s episode…

"Nightingale" - Ashlee Simpson-Wentz as Violet Foster and Colin Egglesfield as Auggie Kirkpatrick in MELROSE PLACE on The CW. Photo: Michael Desmond/The CW ©2009 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

As we learned at the end of last week’s episode, Lauren went through with her “date.” She is coming back from it and David is leaving. It seems that David is something of a party boy where as this is new territory to Lauren. She seems comfortable with her decision, though, obviously relieved to have made a little bit of money. (Though $5000 is hardly a little!)

Jonah and Riley are enjoying their first day as an engaged couple–she brings him breakfast in bed, Lucky Charms with all green clover marshmallows. She took the day off work so they could spend the day together. Ella, however, interrupts their fun (purposefully?) to ask Jonah to install a security camera out in the courtyard in the wake of the murder. Riley asks if it is necessary that he do it right then, but Jonah agrees. Ella is happy, Riley is a bit miffed. We really haven’t seen the three of them interact, but the tension is obvious. I wonder how long Ella has had a thing for Jonah.

Our girl Violet, played by the lovely Ashlee Simpson-Wentz, is sitting out in the courtyard scouring the Help Wanted ads for a prospective job. Auggie engages her in conversation and tells her that they are looking for a new hostess at his restaurant.

The detective comes in and questions Auggie about his relationship with Syndey. In a flashback scene, we find out that they met at an AA meeting that Augie was court ordered to attend. Sydney comes on to him and they end up sleeping together. Flashback to present day, where he tells the detective he and Sydney were just friends. Yeah, naked friends…with naked benefits.

Ella is at her job (a public relations agency, I assume), where she finds people packing their stuff after having been fired. She goes upstairs to talk to her boss, Caleb. He tries to fire her, but she says letting her go would be the biggest mistake of his life. She tells him that she will bring in the biggest star of the summer, Jasper Barnes, who seems to be the Melrose Place equivalent of Robert Pattinson. He tells her if she can do this, she can stay. Game on! (Ella is the character I hate to love, but also love to love at the same time.)

Back at Melrose Place, Jasper is installing the security camera. Riley (rightfully) points out that it is an invasion of privacy. She is really just upset Ella comes and goes in and out of their lives as she pleases. She obviously senses something between Ella and Jonah. And she is right about the security camera–seems like something you need permission for or something.

Somewhere else, David is selling things for money, goods which the viewer is made to assume are stolen. Ella calls him and asks him to be her plus one at a big Hollywood party. The party is being thrown by David’s ex-girlfriend, who he says is still hung up on him. Ella blackmails him with the fact that she provided him with an alibi. Something is definitely up with David. I didn’t really understand this part of plot, but I guess that’s the draw. They’re just luring you in to make you want to know more about David. He is definitely one of the more elusive characters on the show.

Cut to Lauren at the hospital. Toby, the “John” from last episode, calls her from his car. Lauren asks him if he is still in LA–it kind of sounds like she likes him/wants to see him again. He says he is getting ready to leave for NYC, but that he has another friend who could make a donation to her school fund for the same services she provided him the night before. She is offended and says no, but he tells her she can call him if she changes her mind.

Back at Melrose Place, Riley is coming back from a run when she runs into Auggie. She tells him he can come to her if he needs to talk, considering his close friend has just died. Auggie says he can’t get Sydney out of his head. Riley takes his hand, and says, “Talk to me.” Interesting pairing–didn’t see a hint of this friendship in the first episode!

Violet shows up at Auggie’s restaurant, Coal, wide-eyed and understandably nervous. She asks to apply for the hostessing position. The manager takes one look at her and tells her he won’t hire her looking like that. Auggie asks the manager what’s his problem. Manager says he won’t help some girl out just because he wants to get in her pants. Auggie says it isn’t like that. Somehow it brings up Sydney and how she got Auggie his job at the restaurant. Cue another flashback, Auggie sitting with a bottle of liquor in front of him. Syndey comes in and tells him not to do it. Auggie is upset because it is his girlfriend’s birthday. Sydney seems upset; apparently they had been hooking up for three months, and she didn’t know he had a girlfriend. Auggie tells her his girlfriend is dead, that she was acidentally killed in a knife fight after an altercation between him and another guy at a bar. He feels guilty. Sydney tells him the best way to honor her memory is to not drink. Auggie tries to kiss her, but she tells him that they have to stop sleeping together and that they have to take the program more seriously. It’s obvious she really cares for him. But it was totally wack for the manager not to hire Violet. Maybe she wasn’t all glammed up, but she looked pretty. However, he compared her appearance to that of someone catering a wedding at a Holiday Inn. OUCH!

Back at the apartment complex, Lauren is on the phone. She must pay the entire $30,000 tuition bill in full by the end of the semester or risk getting kicked out. Ella and Violet walk in to the apartment; Violet had asked Ella for something to wear. Lauren tells them about her dilemma. Violet asks about the $5000. Ella is obviously unknowing about the situation, so Lauren pretends it is a scholarship that is “not an option.” Ella tells her to find a way. Violet is a bit creepy in this scene, how she subtly brings up the prostitution without actually saying anything. But Ella is a surprisingly good friend– she seems to genuinely care about Lauren.

Jonah is viewing the security tapes and sees Riley and Auggie talking. He is fast-forwarding and rewinding the tapes, figuring out how long they were talking in the courtyard. Apparently it’s quite a length of time. Riley comes in. They then view footage from 2: 14 a.m.; Violet is laying in the pool, face down, sprawled out like they had found Sydney. Jonah and Riley are stunned; she then turns around in the pool, and they realize it is actually Violet. Considering how creepy she was in the prior scene, this scene definitely secures her as the cast enigma.

Elsewhere, Lauren pulls up at a fancy house owned by some guy named Rick. They flirt, and Rick tells them they’re going out for dinner and then drinks with friends. Lauren asks what they’ll say when people ask how they met. They concoct a lie.

At Melrose Place, Jonah and Riley discuss the footage of Violet, Jonah commenting on how weird it is that Sydney was killed only a week after Violet moved in. Jonah goes off on her about the footage of her with Auggie and says its a double standard that she doesn’t trust him with Ella, yet has a similar relationship with Auggie. Jonah reveals that Ella had said something to him about seeing Riley and Auggie bonding in the courtyard. Riley says its obvious that Ella likes him, that she is just representing him because she’s into him. Jonah says that Ella gets him and understands his talent, implying that Riley doesn’t. She walks away, pissed. That is a low blow, dude, doubting the girl who’s stood by you for five years.

At Coal, Violet walks in looking totally faboo in a black dress. She gets the hostess job and the admiring looks of many hot guys.

At the Hollywood party, Ella and David run into his ex, Trudy. Jasper Barnes is in fact at the party–as are LAUREN AND ERIC! The Melrose Place inhabitants run into each other. Lauren lies about how she and Eric met and says that they are dating. David apparently lied as well, as Ella realizes that Trudy really isn’t still into him. Odd–I still don’t understand what most of this has to do with anything just yet. We’ll see.

Ella find Jasper Barnes and asks him about being his publicist. He comes on to her, so she takes him out by the pool and ask him to drop trou. He does, and she snaps a pic with her camera phone, telling him what to do so that she will not reveal it. Crazy!

Ella finds David in the house looking through things. (He steals a watch). Ella says she can’t figure him out. David shows her a photo of him as a little boy, with his mom. Apparently they were living in a trailer park. He met his real dad, Michael, when he was 13, when he took him in and threw money at him in order to assuage his own guilt. Ella says that this information makes her like him more.

Elsewhere, Lauren and Rick finish having sex. Eric says he actually likes her, and wonder if they can go on a real second date. Lauren says no, that she was just pretending to have a good time, giving him what he paid for, and asks for her money.Cold. Second day on the job and she’s already jaded!

The detective again confronts Auggie. Apparently he stabbed a man to death the night his fiance died. He was acquitted of the charges. A flashback shows Auggie and Sydney arguing. Sydney is wielding a knife and cuts Auggie. Auggie then tells the detective that he didn’t see Sydney the night she died and that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. Maybe this explains the burning of the bloody shirt in the first episode? I still don’t think Auggie did it, but all suspicion is on him right now.

Ella is at work and goes to see Caleb. Caleb was at the party–apparently he hooked up with Jasper? Officially, he landed Jasper Barnes as a client, though Jasper requested that Ella be his point person, as she apparently has the biggest balls of any publicist he’s ever known. They light a cigar in celebration. One thing is for sure, Ella is a ballsy chick. It will be interesting to see how her bisexuality plays in to later plot lines, given that she is a man-eater and a woman-eater.

Back at Jonah and Riley’s, Jonah apologizes and they talk about needing to trust each other more. We were all waiting for this fallout. Too good to be true! Wonder where this is going for the rest of the season…

Then, everyone is in the pool. Ella is talking about Lauren’s “new boyfriend,” though Lauren says it isn’t working out. Ella mentions an article she found that she thinks would be a great movie, and asks Jonah if he wants to get coffee later and discuss it. Riley says he can go, but Jonah declines. Violet comes out in her bikini, looking faboo. Jonah kind of awkwardly brings up her being in the pool, saying that Sydney liked to swim, too. He covers it up by asking her if she ever met Sydney. A flashback reveals that Violet had tracked Sydney down. Sydney was in fact her birth mother, and it was proven by a DNA test. Sydney denies this, but Violet says that she’s not getting away, not again. Back in the pool, Violet jumps in and it closes with a creepy close-up of her swimming.

Holy moly! What did you all think? I was pleasantly surprised. It was an entertainingly revealing episode. And Ashlee is absolutely amazing as Violet–she is by far the most alluring character on the show. The other characters drew me in, but she may be what keeps me coming back for more. Can’t wait for next week’s ep, though the previews didn’t reveal too much.