Finding Carter: Season 1/ Episode 3 “Drive” – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

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Overview

As Carter begins to rebel just to upset Elizabeth, Max finds his value outside of being Carter’s ex-boyfriend rising.

Review (with Spoilers)

After finishing episode 3, I must say I am appreciative that the majority of MTV’s scripted series are only given 10-12 episode seasons. If only because I feel the gimmick of this show would certainly lose its luster if this was stretched out to 20 some odd episodes. For while the premise of a girl’s mom being her kidnapper remains interesting and I do like the drama which has come from it, I must admit that I feel a good part of the cast are starting to come off as clichéd archetypes. Which, to me, is bringing the show down a little.

Topic 1: What Are We Going To Do About Max? – Max and Elizabeth

As we know, Max is Carter’s ex and his original purpose was to make Carter more comfortable in Elizabeth’s home. But with Max not working or going to school and just hanging out with Grant most of the time, it makes you wonder what are they going to do with him? For while Carter seems done with him and Taylor certainly has an interest, after her losing to Carter for Gabe’s affections it seems she is done competing. Though I doubt her being unable to compete will take away the power of Max’s compliments which made her smile.

But with Max being Elizabeth’s tool for getting Carter to behave, Elizabeth sadly doesn’t see the nice moment Max and Taylor have at all. Instead she sees this nice kid who she wants to hook her daughter up with. However, Max recognizes many guys are after Carter and, again, with him not even being able to establish himself, I don’t think he feels he can compete nor really should. This doesn’t stop Elizabeth however. She tries to push Carter and Max together by pretending she is going to kick Max out, and all this does is win Max a bed at the foot of Carter’s. Pushing Max to realize that this kind gesture of letting him stay is probably not at all with his interest in mind, and leading me to wonder what is going on at his home?

Topic 2: Rebel without a Cause – Carter

With Carter’s main purpose in life currently being to find ways to upset Elizabeth, it is hard to really even see from Carter’s viewpoint anymore. For while you get Elizabeth is no Lori, at the same time it is so hard to not see Carter as a bit of a brat with everything she does. Whether it is bend the rules of her curfew and bring her friends over, kiss the legendary Crash (Caleb Ruminer) just to upset Elizabeth, or continue to deny Elizabeth any sense of pleasure by denying her motherhood. At this point it doesn’t matter how cute or interesting Carter is, she is just a headache.

Topic 3: Finding Lori – Gabe, Carter, Lori, and David

Despite Carter’s attitude however, Gabe and David seem hell-bent on winning her over. Focusing on Gabe first, he wants Carter to be his girl so bad he recruits Ofe and Bird to help look for Lori using stolen information from his dad’s laptop. Then, upon finding a possible match, he joins Carter to investigate places she may have been. As for David, with him in the hole with Random House to the tune of $500,000 you can understand why “Finding Carter” is a book Toby really wants. Thing is, as much as David is a butt head to the point I’m wondering if Lori was saving Carter from him, he seems to want to protect her as they grow close. For while Elizabeth has seemingly just started to unfreeze her heart, here is Carter almost like a kid offering hers in the hopes he won’t break it. In fact their relationship has progressed to the point of her calling him dad and hugging him. So, like Grant, it seems Carter has found a way, despite her nonsense, to make herself easy to love. And while I admit I still think she is annoying, I must admit I still find Carter too intriguing to not be invested in her story and what comes of it.

Things to Note

Max and Taylor truly seem so cute. For with Max being simple and Taylor perhaps being too conscious of herself, they seem like a good opposites attract pairing and seeing them make croutons together was perhaps the cutest thing I’ve seen between a non-couple on a show in awhile.

The main reason Elizabeth wants Max and Carter to get back together is because Crash, who Ofe mentioned last episode, has not only joined Carter’s circle of friends, but to spite Elizabeth she makes out with him in front of everyone. For with Crash being a full-fledged delinquent, meaning he has been in and out of juvie, robbed people, assaulted people, and now sells drugs, who else would be the perfect person to really stick it to Elizabeth. But, as noted, Carter’s constant need to get a rise out of Elizabeth is getting old quickly. However, it should be noted Carter isn’t fully into crash since not only did he teach Grant, who is 12 by the way, how to roll up, but he takes her on a ride in a stolen car of which she almost gets caught in when they are chased by police.

Carter and David’s bond, as you have seen, has grown slowly. For with him being, as Elizabeth says, “the cool dad” his relaxed parenting naturally reminds Carter of Lori. So, bonding with him comes easy for he helped her use the car, seemed to be more caring during family therapy last episode, and in this one he just talks with her person to person and without a sense of authority. Something you can tell Carter values for she doesn’t like being told what to do. She, from what I gauge, is the type who’d rather make mistakes and learn from them as opposed to being prevented from making the mistake at all.

I should note, since Taylor likes Max she snitches that Elizabeth tried to push Max out to use reverse psychology on Carter. Something which surely is going to fuel the flames of hatred. But, does make their bond as sisters seemingly grow. Sadly though, Grant and Carter have no scenes together.