Drop Dead Diva: Ashes to Ashes

SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read until after you’ve watched Drop Dead Diva "Ashes to Ashes".

I don’t think anyone was as anxious about the return of Drop Dead Diva last night as I was. I’ve given up hope on True Blood, so I had a two week wait for Drop Dead Diva: “Ashes to Ashes” and the bombshell explanation that was to come with Owen’s return. See, Jane and Owen’s relationship was similar to my last one in that it started off with skips and giggles, smooches and hugs and ended with him deciding to seemingly drop off the face of the earth without any communication. Yeah. Now, while my ex opted to return to his single and mingling days to leave me cleaning up the mess of a drive-by relationship, Owen had open heart surgery and was put into an induced coma.

What I found interesting about this episode was that while Jane was going through the pain and confusion of Owen returning only to formally withdraw his proposal, she was simultaneously representing a client who was fighting for possession of her deceased husband’s ashes in order to digest them for visions of her late husband to appear. While Jane seemed to lose hope with her client after that revelation, (interestingly enough considering she’s rolling two souls deep in her own body) it seemed to trip an emotional trigger in Grayson both for the understanding for the varied processes of grieving and the belief in the presence of her late husband’s spirit. He reveals to Jane that he went to therapy after Deb’s death, and he has a lingering belief that her spirit may be present in Jane.

I am an avid fan of Maya Angelou’s quote, “The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them. Owen mentioned in an earlier episode that he did not believe in the institution of marriage. Last night’s episode sealed the deal for me in that he kept Jane in the dark about his health condition and he lied as to his whereabouts before his heart attack and coma. He was already showing that the whole “in sickness and in health; til death do us part” wasn’t part of his mindset for their relationship. This was highlighted further when he returned, not to apologize for keeping Jane in the dark, but to withdraw his proposal and describe how his condition and surgery had changed him to the point of no longer wanting to continue their relationship. Now, Jane inferred that he was afraid of dying so he was choosing to not get close to her, but to me, real love is wanting to spend every minute with the person you’ve given your heart (figuratively) to because we never know when we could pass on. Why waste that time without the one you love if they’re willing to be with you through thick and thin? Jane’s client depicted the lengths someone would go, even after consuming the ashes began to make her sick, in order to maintain some semblance of a connection to her husband. Her love was not dictated by what others thought of her actions. (And there were definitely some grumbles, headshakes and gasps.) Jane, who Grayson describes as “never taking no for an answer”, decides to deflect Owen’s change of heart and propose herself. After a courtroom like argument from Jane, Owen finally accepts. Probably. I think. I’ve kind of felt like a tennis fan watching this relationship go back and forth. Call me old fashioned, but when someone withdraws a proposal that you never expected to hear anyway, I get an uneasy feeling about whether this is marriage will see the light of day.

Update: The beautiful and fabulous song playing during Jane's office proposal to Owen is "The Last Thing We'll Ever Do" by The Daylights

What did you think of the episode?