'Perfect Couples' "Perfect Lies" Recap and Review: Best Episode Yet

March 24, 2011 11:40 PM EDT

Perfect Couples might be airing its last episode on April 14th, but that doesn't stop the show from putting on one of it's best episodes yet. The NBC show hit so many high notes in season one, episode nine, "Perfect Lies," balancing over-the-top awkwardness with perfectly real relationship moments.

With Amy (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) and Vance's (David Walton) wedding just weeks away, it's time for the bachelor and bachelorette parties. So what's the spousal agreement for the weekend? Vance wants to be completely and utterly honest with Amy, while the other guys say that's a bad idea. But they don't necessarily live up to their own advice.

The Bachelorette Party in Vancouver
While Leigh (Olivia) is spraying the hotel room with Rex's (Hayes MacArthur) cologne, Julia (Christine Woods) and Amy's other best friend, Dotty, aren't getting along. That could be because Dotty thinks she's the maid of honor, and Amy is afraid to tell her otherwise.

So Julia decides to take matters into her own hands; she tells Dotty the truth and that her childhood chicken blood oath with Amy doesn't matter. Dotty gets it--until Amy decides to have two maid of honors. "Half the work, all the fun," Amy declares.

A camping bachelor party on Perfect Couples?
Dave's (Kyle Bornheimer) Boy Scout side comes out when he plans a camping trip. Yet, Vance seems excited--until their "deep emotional transcendence among lifelong friends" happens within minutes of arriving to the camp site. So plans change, drastically, and in the best, most hilarious way possible.

The Perfect Couples fellows head to a strip club, where Vance takes it upon himself to help the strippers improve their lives. "I want you to take this money and buy a book," Vance says. "It's called, ' The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.'"

Vance's desire to help strippers gets him in trouble. He takes one home to give her a book on mortgage financing. Yeah, that's not what's happening. Instead, the stripper puts on Amy's wedding dress, causing female viewers everywhere to gasp in shock. What ensues is one of the best sequences in Perfect Couples history, if only because of the vast amount of ridiculousness.

The guys tell her to take the dress off, not in a sexual way, but before she does, they realize she's on fire. Luckily, Dave brought sand and douses the fire out. Drunk, the guys think they can fix the dress. They trim the burnt part and then air the dress of stripper perfume by holding it outside the limo's sunroof. And then they accidentally let go of the dress.

It doesn't stop there. Rex thinks they can still fix it, even bringing out Amy's sewing machine. "While you hens are cackling, I'm doing. I'm a doer," Rex declares. They then turn the dress over to a dry cleaner. But what to tell Amy while it gets fixed?

The guys insist that Vance spare Amy the details. The Perfect Couples friends even almost get away with it--until Julia learns she's just one of two maid of honors. Dave told her the truth, and she tells Amy.

Like dominos, all the friends fall, one after another.

"You like telling Vance secrets," Vance yells at Dave. "Well, I like telling Dave secrets." He promises to leave one big fat uncomfortable secret of Dave's on Julia's voicemail, so he best get his affairs in order.

Viewers saw this last bit coming, but it didn't make it any less funny. First, Amy decides Julia will be her one and only MOH. Then, scared of what Vance might tell Julia, Dave can't stop but spill his own secrets. He saw a Shakira concert with Vance. He owns 10 percent of an indoor lacrosse team. He gets his hair highlighted. They don't have life insurance. And, pretty much worst of all, considering the show's boy scout premise, he didn't really make Eagle Scout because he got caught exploring himself in his tent.

So what did Vance's voicemail say? "Dave, you are your own worst enemy."

Bravo, Perfect Couples. It took nine episodes, but it finally put together a stellar episode. The girl's bachelorette storyline may have been a bit weak, but it served a purpose. It lead to the guy's lies unravelling about the crazy bachelor party.

Perfect Couples hasn't been officially cancelled and, after the March 24th episode, here's hoping NBC rethinks replacing it.

The comedy airs on NBC Thursdays at 8:30pm Eastern.

Photo Credit: Flickr/Gage Skidmore

© Copyright: 2011 Elizabeth SanFilippo at Gather.com

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