'John From Cincinnati': Satan gets a golden parachute

Wow, it was a regular issue of the Wall Street Journal during this episode, with the workplaces and finances of the major characters coming to the forefront.  Mind you, it still made no sense whatsoever, but it was nice to see the players involved in something related to the real world, instead of reenacting scenes from the Bible in parking lots with special guest star Beetlejuice.

Cissy and Kai are doing their best to run the surf shop into the ground by missing their shifts and closing the shop early.  Cissy has an ugly run-in with one of the attorneys representing the hospital that "saved" Shaun's life -- and, as it turns out, the place has an ulterior motive to screw over the good doctor who resigned his post after he treated him.  The renovation of the no-tell motel continues, if you consider repaving a small section of concrete "renovation."

And after an attempt to blackmail him, Linc winds up getting a $65-million buyout from his surf company, Stinkweed.  (Seriously.)  It certainly gives him the freedom and the cash to woo the Yost family full time -- and it appears as though the father-son combo of Butchie and Shaun may soon be hitting the waves together.  (Patriarch Mitch, for the second week in a row, is MIA.  Cissy hypothesized that he might be on another astral plane -- hey, anything is possible.)

And John's job?  It still appears to be goofball predictions.  After disappearing for the majority of the episode, he returns to tell Cass, who was fumbling around with the editing of her movie, that "Shaun will be gone soon."  What, again?  For real this time?  I mean, how many times can he be resurrected by the kiss of a bird, really?

-- Ann Donahue

(Photo courtesy John P. Johnson /HBO)