IMHO "United States of Tara" (1.09): Possibility

Gay teen Marshall has been crushing on his hunky schoolmate Jason on Showtime's United States of Tara, but when afternoon cocktails and bonding over mother issues leads to a kiss, how will Jason respond?

Marshall (Keir Gilchrist) has been growing closer to Jason (whom I suddenly realized is played by Andrew Lawrence, of the Lawrence family acting dynasty. Whoah!), and begins a hilariously misguided effort to buff up.  (The blue headband is a nice touch. That totally sells the look.)

Cool aunt Charmaigne (the fabulous Rosemarie DeWitt) has the best line of the episode when she sees Marshall coming home from his "run" and asks, "what are you dressed as?"

Later Marshall and Jason watch a DVD in the bedroom, and after talking about how screwed up their moms are, the rum and brandy smoothies work their magic, and Jason falls asleep.

Marshall removes the glass from Jason's hand, and after much trepidation leans over and kisses Jason on the lips. Shocked, Jason opens his eyes, and after some hesitation sits up and quickly kisses Marshall back. We then abruptly cut away to a different scene, and when we come back to the story, Jason is leaving the house. Um ... so what happened after the kiss? Nothing? Something? They don't tell us, and instead we get a scene where Jason says an awkward goodbye to Marshall's dad as he's leaving.

Marshall is enjoying some post-snogging tea when his dad comes in, and when he sees how happily Marshall is dunking his teabag his dad says, "you've got it bad, don't you?" Marshall replies, "that's a distinct possibility."

I love that Marshall's parents treat his sexuality so matter-of-factly. That breath of fresh air, plus the sensitive way that the "first kiss" scene was handled, earns this episode an up arrow.

They could have had Jason freak out, or even attack Marshall (and Jason's hands do clench when he realizes what's happening), but having Jason respond the way he did brings up a lot of interesting future possibilities for this story.

What did you Tara fans think?