TANYA LEMELLE

Written by D.B. Brooks & Brian Hurwitz and directed by Julie Jordan.

Glen Meadows joins Amy Lindsay and Tiffany Hendra in the lead cast of this show in this episode, remaining throughout the rest of the season (which is kind of a spoiler, I guess, but he was already in the opening credits of episode 1 as a cast member before he ever appeared). Making his second appearance as Ryan from episode 2, he returns to Oliva and Cooper to complain about the date they set him up with before. He was looking for something serious, for genuine romance, not just a wild sex experience, which is all he got from Andrea, the soap star. There’s some debate about whether or not Olivia and Cooper owe him a refund, as they insist there’s no guarantee regarding matchmaking.

Ryan and Cooper get into a little personal argument as he makes cracks about her dating life, betting that she’s only good at casual sex, probably doesn’t even know the last name of her most recent lover (she doesn’t), and therefore has no idea what people really want from relationships. He then offers his services as their new assistant, saying he can provide a much-needed male perspective. To Cooper’s chagrin, Olivia goes ahead and hires him on a trial basis to see if he can help with their next client.

Later, while having drinks at the bar, as Cooper complains about Olivia’s decision and insists that Ryan was wrong about her, Olivia makes a deal with her, if she can find a man and make him fall in love with her within the next week, she’ll fire Ryan. Olivia takes the bet and goes over to flirt with some men playing pool.

Sean Reynold plays Lance, a professional award-winning surfer looking for romance. He meets with Cooper and tells her that he gets his share of “surfer groupies” but wants a woman who is interested in him for himself and not for what he does. He talks about his last date, which was with a woman named Tiffany (Lemelle) whom he picked up at the beach. He takes her to her place to make dinner, and they have sex. They specifically have sex on one of his surfboards (at her request), with him lying back on it, and she’s sitting on top of him. Afterward, he wakes up with her having split and taken one of his surfing trophies.

Angela Nicholas plays Gina, a corporate lawyer. She comes in, and Olivia has her meet with Ryan. She tells him that her problem is that the only men she meets are through her work, a lot of other lawyers and businessmen, but they’re too “dry,” mainly concerned with work instead of having fun. She talks about her last relationship with a lawyer named Eddie (Andy Hopper). We get a scene where she has to entice him to have sex, although he’s more concerned with a case that he needs to win to become a partner at his law firm. She gets him to have sex on his desk, but near the end, she actually touches the keyboard on his laptop and screws up a deposition he was writing.

Ryan matches Gina and Lance. We see the two of them meet at the beach, where Gina is initially put off because she thinks Lance looks too young for her, saying he could be her son if she had a teenage pregnancy (if Google is correct, Angela was 40 when this episode was filmed, but I don’t know how old Sean was).  Nevertheless, Lance is persistent, and they hit it off. They end up back at Lance’s place, where they have sex on the floor.

The next day, Gina and Lance call the agency together and tell everyone that it worked out great. They thank the agency for setting them up. Gina even mentions that she’ll be sending her sister Isabella to the agency to find a match. Oliva congratulates Ryan and tells him that he’s officially hired. However, Cooper privately reminds Olivia about their bet and says she still has a week to find love. Olivia asks about the guy Cooper picked up at the bar, but Cooper says she’s taking it slow.

Then, in a flashback, we see Cooper and the man, Matt (Collier Landry), going back to his place the night before and having sex. Afterward, as Cooper is leaving, Matt says he wants to see her again and asks for her phone number, but Cooper says her phone is broken and she’ll get back to him when she gets a new number. Then she makes a point to ask him for his last name.

This is a very good episode. Angela Nicholas is always fantastic, both as an actress in general and for her hot sex scenes. I was also really impressed with Tanya Lemelle’s sex scene. According to her IMDB, this was the first of only a handful of acting roles she ever had. I wish she had stuck around to do a lot more softcore work.

Chacebook rating: FOUR STARS

Jason Majercik is selling this UNRATED 3-disc DVD set of Black Tie Nights season 1 for $29.99. For his softcore inventory list, email him at quinn_nash@hotmail.com.