Numb3rs 5.07: Charlie Don't Surf

[owl]

Okay, I don't get the mystic surfing thing either. It's like sailing only capsizing is the point? :-P I am willing to take it on trust that there is a mystic surfing thing, though.

It was more hugs in five seconds than in a whole normal season :) I thought Don was pretty mopey and thoughtful throughout the episode, which would make sense if he was Nathan's friend and Charlie just tagged along. I would have expected Charlie to be at least a little more upset than he was, although he seemed sad when he was watching the footage of Nathan. He was just having so much fun with the case that I suppose it distracted him.

Yeah, Charlie, don't surf. You really can't. I could totally see Don messing about with a board as a kid, but never getting particularly good because it was wasting valuable baseball time, and Charlie going "Eeek, waves." I don't know if it's wariness of water, as such, because of the story about little!Charlie jumping in and Nathan telling him he had, er, courage. When Don was talking about doing backflips and Charlie jumping in, was that out at the islands, or somewhere else? I like backstory, but not when it's confusing me.

The two dads together was sad, especially because you could just see Alan thinking "It could so easily have been Don."

It was kind of funny seeing "Idaho" using all the surfing terminology (and being a total purist about it, too) and explaining surfing to the SoCal natives (is Nikki LA-bred, as well as the Eppeses?) Nikki got points with me for being willing to make cute!widdle!otter faces, and for this exchange:
Colby: So your urchin license has been pulled.
Nikki: But somehow your hold is full of slimy, round purple things.

But she lost them again for saying very drily "Sounds cool" when Charlie was enthusing about his maths.
Charlie before:



Charlie after:


Look at his wee crestfallen face! Bad Nikki, no cookies for you! You're just lucky Don wasn't around to hear you being mean to his baby brother. Was that the fist time we've ever seen Charlie wearing sunglasses (if briefly), by the way?

Returning this episode were flying!Colby and ME Riddenhour. Nice to see them again. I feel like we're not getting so much David and Colby snark now that Nikki's teaming up with them, but I did like the voiceless, unanimous scissors-paper-stone. Not to mention Don referring them to Charlie for cheating tips, and Charlie deciding to keep his strategies to himself.

Charlie and Larry were funny as well this episode, with Larry's orange earplugs, and Charlie's gentle, "I did know that" when Larry is giving him Waves 101. And Larry's "Dude" at Charlie's brainwave, and Charlie's nervous expression as he bobbed up and down on the surfboard. The beach scene at the end was priceless. Don's face! Chuck, did you just have the same horrible, horrible thought as I did? And then Charlie asked Don if Larry was about to get naked, as if Don would know. But all was well, Larry just made an obscure quotation, Colby references a film, and Charlie falls off into the water.