Written by Anya Leta
Directed by James Kent
Hawk: "How did I do?"
Fred: "We're not supposed to say. What the hell, it's Christmas. Clean as a whistle."
Hawk: "Happy Holidays."
Ooh, a Christmas episode within the middle of this miniseries and this one certainly had a bittersweet taste among some of the festive cheer. By screwing over one hypocritical closeted guy, Hawk and Tim also helped two equally undeserving ones to boot.
The last scene of the previous had Hawk photographing evidence of McCarthy with a man. I mean the photo wasn't explicit but certainly incriminating enough. The type of photo that Joseph wouldn't want to get out.
However Hawk wasn't going to keep it to himself and while Tim appeared to court favour with Joseph and Jean, he also happened to deliver the photo to David Schine. An opportune delivery too, considering that both Schine and Roy Cohn were on thin ice this week.
Yes, Roy's pestering of the army to keep David within the United States saw pressure on McCarthy to throw both Roy and David under the bus to protect himself. However with that photo now in Cohn's possession, McCarthy's now at a disadvantage.
As for Hawk and Tim, they did have some nice scenes together in the 1950s while the former managed to cheat Fred Treband's (Michael Therriault) polygraph test, even to the latter's bewilderment. Then there was Hawk getting closer to Lucy while congratulating Marcus on his improving career move.
Then there's the San Francisco side of the episode. Tim being an AIDS activist as well as a political switch up made a lot of sense as did that fight between him and Hawk. The end scene with Hawk finding out that Tim was hospitalised was rather devastating.
- Tim got Hawk a nice tie while Hawk palmed off some old cufflinks to Tim while giving Lucy a nicer necklace. I loved that phone conversation between Tim and Lucy in 1986.
- We met Marcus and Frankie's son, Jerome (Jude Wilson) while the rather spiteful Miss Addison (Keara Graves) put Hawk into Fred's crosshairs. Fred seemed unmoved by gay men raking their lives as was Jean.
- Standout music: Frankie's version of Santa Baby, Dean Martin's The Christmas Blues and Klaus Nomi's Silent Night.
- Chronology: Christmas 1953 in Washington as well San Francisco 1986. Hawk has been working for Senator Smith since 1948.
Your Nuts Roasting On An Open Fire was definitely an enjoyable, tense episode. Hawk under the scrutiny of a polygraph test while McCarthy, Cohn and Schine were all trying to either save each other or throw each other under the bus. The secondary romance with Marcus and Frankie also got some nice focus too.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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