SCENE STEALER: Ali Larter [PITCH 1×02]

Ali Larter’s Amelia Slater devastated us on this week’s ‘PITCH’ with her awful past.

Amelia’s story on ‘Pitch‘ was finally revealed to us and it was, plainly, horrible. It completely explained why she had thrown everything in her life towards Ginny (Kylie Bunbury), and why she was so—almost reliant—on Ginny’s success. She had nothing of a personal life. Hers was empty; devoid of anything. Ginny’s future is vibrant and exciting. She is on the verge of huge fame and all the gifts that come with it. Amelia has nothing of that, but it’s of her own volition. She is quoted on the episode to say that Ginny is her life now. It sounds dramatic, but it’s the truth.

Since the troubles of her past, Amelia had thrown herself into work—and by that, that meant giving Ginny a chance. If she couldn’t have a chance she was sure as hell going to give Ginny one. Isn’t that something of a three-sixty given that at first impressions, Amelia had never come across as particularly favourable. How very modern of Jane Austen.

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Some histories and relationships are explained in this week’s ‘PITCH’, and Ali Larter played a gut-wrenchingly broken Amelia.

It’s not a clear connection, but it’s implied that what draws Amelia to Ginny in the first place is the urge for change. She is first a celebrity consultant; next she is Ginny’s baseball agent (perhaps she’s an expert in both fields?!). Even from the pilot, Larter was instantly drawing up questions as Amelia. Why was she such a nutcracker? Where was the child’s father? And when it all rained down on us, it was genuinely awful to watch Amelia go through that. Everything made sense: her protectiveness and urge for Ginny to succeed. Her attitude. The single motherhood.

What’s particularly striking about Larter is that she has yanked all of our hearts out in one go—in the space of a mere two episodes. Give Larter some more time, some juicier storylines, and she may destroy us (even more). It’s something that’s both impressive and exciting. One of the most memorable lines of ‘The Interim’ was this:

Amelia: “You just obliterated my life in two sentences Eric. Forgive me if I don’t want to give you the satisfaction of seeing me cry.”

It wasn’t particularly that the line was beautifully written. It was beautifully delivered. The single reason why that line was so memorable was because it was just exquisitely said by Larter. You could feel every jab of devastation stab you in the chest too. Even in that piece of dialogue you see her walls up—as we know her to be—when she tells Eric she doesn’t want him to see her cry. But there are very few occasions where a line so simple is so striking, and Larter was just exceptional.

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The prospect of Ali Larter and Kylie Bunbury pairing up more is an exciting one.

Towards the end of the episode we see two lonely souls—Mike (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and Amelia—drawn to the other, and it’s suggested the pair may leave together. To do goodness knows what. It doesn’t matter. The silence of the moment, and the way the duo communicate their loneliness, their recognition of each other’s—is perfect. It’s absolute credit to Gosselaar too.

We’ve already seen the striking chemistry and barter between Amelia and Ginny. Now we know the background and the nature of their relationship a little more, perhaps we can understand decisions moving forward—and in giving us Amelia’s backstory so quickly, it gives us opportunity to delve into serious conflicts. Like if Mike and Amelia were to become an item. Like if it affected the Padres. But most importantly, and regardless of Mike, it gives us a really strong friendship between two equally strong women.

They’re very different, yet very similar in so many ways. And that’s the beauty of Amelia and Ginny’s relationship. If they were strikingly similar, it wouldn’t work. But they’ll clash; argue; hug it out. They can explore a whole array of emotion because they know each other inside-out. We’ve seen Kylie Bunbury’s genius; we’ve now seen Ali Larter’s. Are we ready for more episodes of them together? I don’t think the world is, but we’ll try!

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Amelia may think she revolves around Ginny, but she doesn’t—and that’s the beauty of it.

We don’t know much about Amelia’s future romantic life other than there was something suggested towards the end of the episode with Mike. Wherever that may be headed, if it does head towards that direction, then it’s utterly independent of Ginny. It creates conflict yet not the kind of conflict that we see time and time again and we hope ‘PITCH’ will only do this justice.

Amelia may not need romance in her life at all, especially not any time soon considering her traumatic past with her awful ex-husband. But we’ve seen Mike; we know he’s the ‘good guy at heart’. Maybe there was a reason both of their pasts were revealed in the same episode. Perhaps that’s reaching about as far as to say TV After Dark scheduled their scene stealer articles for Gosselaar and Larter consecutively!

But should they enter a romance it will be a storyline centred around them, not around Ginny. Ginny has her own sets of struggles and complexities to handle. Mike’s already having trouble with his ex-wife and his knees. Amelia and Mike—romantic or not—could result in conflict between two now very compelling characters, but also conflict for Ginny if she is externally implicated by any fallouts etc. It gives Ginny breathing space for her own storyline, but also for a chance for Amelia and Mike—and Larter and Gosselaar, most importantly—to pursue something interesting.

Regardless of romance, Amelia is already a convincing, three-dimensional character—and a huge part of that is because of the immensely likeable Ali Larter in the role. Like much of the cast, the role fits her like a glove and this episode was the perfect catch for her.

Catch PITCH on Fox, Saturdays September 9/8c

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About the Author

Nicola Choi

24. Uni of Manchester. Pharmacist. Online Content Editor.

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