rewind, recap, regurgitate: "the hills" - Lauren And Jason, Take Two

In "Lauren And Jason, Take Two", Jason (who some of you may recognize from Laguna Beach) comes back into Lauren's life. First with the oh-so-casual-you-know-he-must-have-spent-30-minutes-working-on-sounding-casual message on her machine when gets back from New York City. A bouquet of gigantic flowers, so huge it is basically a tree, accompanied by the following note:

to: lauren
love: jason

i miss you

Lovely note, but do we think he actually wrote the card himself? I mean, the handwriting was the kind of swirl that a girl might practice in study hall. But whatever. After taking a day to think about it, and after another message from Jason asking her out, Lauren applies the famous eyeliner, smooths her hair under the ever-present headband, and puts on some fierce-ass heels to meet him at pane et vino. Awkward conversation -- about their parting, about his evil ways -- takes place as we imagined it would, but no tears are shed. Of course, they could both be sedated and therefore unable to emote while they slouch in their chairs.

The next day, Jason shows up at Teen Vogue with another (considerably more modest) bouquet of flowers, charming Whitney as he takes Lauren out to lunch. We learn that Lauren does not like salmon, and used to go fishing with her father. I could see that the disarmament campaign is going well -- after the flowers and the lovely lunch, she calls him "J." which to me sounds like a nickname. A term of endearment, if you will. Ooooh. Back at work, Lauren and Whitney ponder the flowers and whether they really do mean "I'm sorry" like Lauren's father says.

The day ends with Lauren and Jason taking in a sparsely attended movie at the ArcLight. They're all cute and friendly and flirty, so it's no surprise that at the end of the evening, there's smoochage. Aw. How nice. Lauren had said earlier in the day, whilst lounging poolside with Heidi, that this time is different. She's got her guard up and everything. I can only hope that she's right.

And Heidi is still hating work. She has to do menial tasks like filing and getting lunch for her boss Brett. Returning phone calls to people wanting to get on the guest list for future events, and not getting to go to Vegas because she's not yet 21. A pep talk from planner Elodie doesn't do much to cheer her up. Heidi has to do the grunt work before she can do the fun stuff like work in the nightclubs and be the L.A. party girl she aspires to be. I feel for her, as I myself am having various work frustrations of my own. Granted, I don't work in an especially glamorous industry, and I don't have the seemingly poreless complexion of a 19 year old, but I do have a pink Razr of my own and flawless taste in accessories. If Heidi manages to stick it out at work, would it be totally weird if I tried some of her techniques myself? I'll keep you guys posted (and this time a bit sooner after the episode originally airs, too).