“Come on, Mom,” Laurie says, as Susan frets over wallpaper samples. “Get in touch with your authentic self.” Laurie’s vocabulary is like an annoying Me Generation glossary, but it nicely underscores the theme of this week’s episode of Swingtown, as our beloved swingers express varying degrees of authenticity in very different ways.

Trina and Tom: The Deckers both seem miserable about Tom’s transfer to the Tokyo route. But, for now, Trina is dealing, even accompanying him to the airport before a long haul. While they hang in the lounge playing their “airport game” (essentially a game of “who’d you do?”), they bump into Trina’s high-school sweetheart Luke (Ryan McPartlin), who was cast with scary period accuracy. Dude looks like he just walked off the set of an Old Spice commercial, right?

As Trina and Luke walk down Memory Lane, something strange happens: The swaggering Tom gets jealous. Despite his reservations, they ultimately end up in the sack with Old Spice anyway, but it’s clear that Tom’s feelings about swinging have been altered tonight. As I’ve said before, it’s nice to see that Trina and Tom are actually in love, but it’s also refreshing to see that having an open marriage isn’t all hairy chests and short-short robes all the time. Judging from next week’s previews, Tom’s complicated feelings will be explored further, and I think the series will be the better for it.

Susan and Bruce: In a patronizingly sexist way, Bruce urges Susan to join the Children’s Hospital Ladies Auxiliary to get in good with Bruce’s boss’ wife, Rita Pierce. Rita is pretty much a one-dimensional caricature of a woman of privilege. She heads up the planning committee for the children’s-hospital benefit, but, as Susan says, she probably couldn’t find the building on a map. Since Susan can’t seem to do anything alone, she brings Janet with her to an Auxiliary luncheon. Janet is immediately dazzled by the ladies-who-lunch, which is a sharp contrast to Susan’s hesitation about joining the group.

At the benefit, Susan meets Melinda, Bruce’s coworker. Melinda lives in a man’s world, but appears to understand the game perfectly. It’s clear that Susan admires Melinda’s authentic life, different as it is from those of the Auxiliary barracudas with whom Susan struggles to fit in. Ultimately, Susan agrees to play nice with Rita and her cohorts, for Bruce’s sake. Susan’s journey to authenticity is a gradual one, and tonight’s battle was one that she felt she could concede.

Janet and Roger: “Nobody touch the jacket!” Janet shrieks, when boozy Rita spills her Bloody Mary on herself at the luncheon. Janet performs some sort of stain-removal triage involving large quantities of Sweet-n-Low, and nabs a coveted invite to the Auxiliary’s benefit as well. Janet is a bit of a social climber, it seems, and, during the benefit’s auction, she gleefully bids on and wins dinner for two at the Lakecrest Country Club for $100 (to which this circa-2008 New Yorker said: “Such a deal!”). Rita invites both Susan and Janet to join the Auxiliary, and Janet is so beside herself with happiness that she runs home and immediately crafts a page in her scrapbook to commemorate the evening. Her hair was kind of funny tonight, right?

If only a new flip hairdo and pressed flowers were all it took to ensure happiness. Once Janet gets a taste of the good life at the luncheon, she nags Roger to ask for a raise. Instead, after 12 years as Mutual of Omaha’s best salesman, he’s fired. Naturally, he doesn’t tell Janet, who is currently suffering from delusions of grandeur about joining a country club and making scrapbooks with all her new rich friends. Roger confesses to his secret confidante Susan that he’s happy about having lost his job, since selling insurance required him to be -– wait for it — inauthentic.

The Kids: B.J. and Ricky are shipped off to camp, so no pining for Rollergirl this week. Laurie, on the other hand, has to prepare for her final oral exam, in which she has to apply the lessons of the great philosophers on the subjects of authenticity and self-expression to her own life. She balks at the assignment, since it would require her to reveal her secret affair with Mr. Stephens, who inexplicably scolds her for not being forthright in her exam. But now, to quote the immortal Alice Cooper, school’s out for the summer, which means Laurie can suck face with her hottie no-longer-her-philosophy-teacher Doug with abandon, a course of action apparently somehow sanctioned by Kierkegaard.

Next week: Tom cheats! Susan and Roger touch each other! Bruce has a wife, but Melinda has an apartment! And Roger tells Janet that he needs more! Finally! Somebody get the Thompsons into bed – stat! Talk about complications…

What did you think of “Friends with Benefits”? Was tonight’s quest for authenticity a nice metaphor for the progress of this television series, which continues to move toward its own truth? How will Tom and Susan confront their respective crises of conscience? And will they do it together?

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Friends TV Show, is a comedy series about 6 friends in New York who struggle to find success and happiness in life. All, with the help from each other try to get them through the obstacles that life naturally has for us.

Rachel Green – A popular schoolgirl of the past .Rachel is the pretty, bubbly girl who spent most of her life as a spoiled rich princess. In an attempt to start a new life after running out on her wedding, she shares an apartment with an old best friend Monica. Monica is the excessively neat and organized “older sister” of the group, who works as a chef while yearning to find her ideal love.

Monica was teased when she was in high school for being overweight. However, now a head-chef at a top restaurant in Manhattan, she has lost all her excessive weight, and just wants to start a family with ‘the right guy’ to complete a happy life.

Ross, Monica’s older brother, is a paleontologist; he has always had strong feelings of love for Rachel. Ross has experienced many misfortunes in life, including 3 divorces and bringing up a child with his lesbian ex-wife. But now, he wants to share happiness with Rachel. Phoebe Buffay , a fatherless child, Phoebe is a silly yet loveable hippy, who has become a personal masseuse. Her dream is to become a star in the music industry and bases her songs on her life experiences.

The other 5 friends secretly believe that Phoebe will never make it, but still they encourage her to write. Joey, the friend who has an inverse relationship between his good looks and his intelligence and who dreams of becoming an actor. Joey is an adorable, sensitive guy, who is very successful with women. Chandler has high hopes of Joey, so helps Joey with money for acting lessons and professional photographs.

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