They sleep with their siblings in Cleveland, Georgia?

I was catching up on a few of the latest Nip/Tuck episodes last night, and heard a reference that made me do a double take, but probably flew right over the head of 99.9% of the viewing audience. (if you're not up to date on Nip/Tuck through last week's penultimate ep of the season: SPOILERS).

While the primary patient, and episode namesake, was a horrifically ugly and venomous writer for EW (who naturally panned Sean and Hearts N' Scalpels), it was the secondary patient who caught my attention. Emmy, a young southern girl who read about McNamara/Troy and their altruistic work through the "Lizzie Grubman" (remember her?) program, came to see our docs about correcting a very visible port-wine stain on her face. Emmy was the product of a one night stand her mother had (more on that in a minute), and lived with taunts of her condition marking her like a Scarlett Letter. Of note was the city where Emmy said she grew up: Cleveland, Georgia.

For most Nip/Tuck viewers, that may seem like a throwaway line and just a reference to a small, southern town. However, for that tiny intersection of TNRLM readers and Nip/Tuck viewers, I'm sure it was a rewind moment. "Did she really just say Cleveland, Georgia?" You see, I have a few very dear friends actually native to this minuscule hamlet, including some who live there to this day (and who occasionally guest blog on a wildly popular website). My friends may know the answer to this better than I, but I can say that this is certainly the first time I've heard Cleveland, Georgia enter the pop culture lexicon in any way. Typically, Hollywood uses small southern towns as shorthand for "racist, inbred, redneck moron." Emmy was attractive, sincere and a bit naive (and had a questionable southern accent -- how hard is it to get these things right? I'm looking at you, Brenda Leigh Johnson, while throwing bouquets to Sawyer, who actually attended UGA for a time), but actually didn't represent the trite stereotype. Well, kinda.

Turns out, Matt's two dads (of which Christian is the biological father) were concerned about him falling way too hard for bombing victim / burn counselor Rachel. (side note: I didn't realize until last night that under all the make up, Rachel was played by Maggie Siff, who also plays the department store heir and Don Draper hook up Rachel Menken on Mad Men). Christian wanted to distract Matt from Rachel, and tried to push him in the direction of his sweet new southern patient, Emmy. When Rachel dumps Matt in an ugly scene and comes across Emmy in the hallway, the doc's son and newly "fixed" patient wind up doing the horizontal mambo back at dad's place. Which is all well and good, until you realize there has to be another shoe to drop. First, because this is Nip/Tuck. And second, because in the "previously on Nip/Tuck," we had a run through of Matt's cosmically awful choices in girlfriends (manipulative gender-reassigned life coach, Xenu worshipping porn star, pre-op trannie, white trash neo-nazi....). Making post-coital small talk, Emmy gushes about what a fantastic turn her life has taken, what with getting corrective surgery, meeting Matt and finally getting to know her real dad. You know, the one night stand her mom had referenced above. Her dad, who is a surgeon. Her dad, the surgeon who performed her surgery. Her dad, who is Dr. Christian Troy. Who also happens to be Matt's dad. Oooops.

Before they can even have the after-hump ciggie, Mattie has found a blog devoted to incestuous couples and thinks "this ain't too bad." Oh, Matt.

So while Emmy didn't represent the usual southern dolt in a typical way, our little gal from Cleveland, Georgia did just fuck her brother.

I've visited Cleveland quite a bit, but don't recall this being an issue there. However, my Cleveland readers might be able to shed more light on the subject:

• Is sibling schtupping more prevalent there than I recall?
• Did you ever make fun of a girl with half her face port wine color?
• Ever see a swaggering Miami doc driving a Ferrari in town, stopping at the Piggly Wiggly to buy faulty condoms?
• Do you remember any other mentions of your fair city on the tube?

This season of Nip/Tuck has been wildly uneven (and to tell the truth, it has been for the past couple of years). I still watch it out of habit, and because there are fantastic actors associated with it. But for a show that treads perilously close to camp, it wanders too often these days into an unbelievable caricature of itself. Sure, the ep that examined Rachel's backstory and haunted visions of her suicide bomber was deftly handled. And except for the hot tub scene, Paula Marshall's insecure actress was a welcome addition, as was Bradley Cooper's gloriously and amusingly over the top Hearts N' Scalpels sleazeball. But last week's collection of 70s nighttime soap vixens, with Donna Mills as a patient who literally wanted her face to look like a cat? Dear god. Don't even get me started on poor Joan Van Ark, who should have the dignity to not appear in public looking like that. One more face lift, and she'll have a goatee. I'll just ignore Sharon Gless's stalkery nutjob agent wannabe, and think of her more charismatic turn as Michael Weston's mom in Burn Notice. And the less said about season villainess Eden, looking like a reject from an 80s Motley Crue video, the better (though I probably wouldn't object to more movie scenes of her with Kimber).

Has anyone else completely given up on the show, or are you like me, and sticking it out until the bitter end?