September 8, 2008 – 5:28 pm

If any of you have seen pictures of me at press events recently you may be struck by the amount of hair I have on my head and face. To my wife’s dismay and the amusement of my family I have not cut my hair in months. It began when my barber had a massive heart attack (he survived) but has continued due to my obsession with all things Samson and Delilah. Many moons ago, before I’d written this episode, I was listening to a new Bruce Springsteen bootleg I’d downloaded. He performed a cover of the old spiritual “Samson and Delilah” also sometimes called “If I Had My Way.” The song stuck in my head the way songs are meant to do and I listened to it every day over and over. Sometime during this period the writers and I began discussing what we wanted to do for season two. I knew I wanted to start the episode with a big action sequence which would pick up right after the end of season one. I also knew how much everyone enjoyed the Johnny Cash/pool sequence in last year’s finale and I wanted, in some way, to thank everybody for their enthusiasm by trying to thread the conceptual need once again. So one day I go into the writers’ room with my ipod and said to everyone: “this is the opening of season two.” And I played Springsteen’s version of “Samson and Delilah.” In many ways the entire episode grew out of this piece of music and an idea to do an entire act of the show with no dialogue. It also grew out of the thematic underpinnings of the song: Man’s pact with God, the power of woman over man, and the fact that love can make you do some pretty stupid things. Some might wonder who exactly in the episode is Samson and who is Delilah. The story applies at many different parts of the episode to different characters. So go nuts with your analytical self. When you watch the opening act you will of course note that it is not Bruce Springsteen singing the song but the lovely and ridiculously talented Shirley Manson with a new version of the song composed by the lovely and ridiculously talented Bear McCreary. It was never in my original plan for Shirley to sing it — even after I cast her on the show I was loathe to approach her about it. She was (and is) here to act and I never had the song in mind when I brought her in to audition. Still, I’m a whore to opportunity and would’ve kicked myself in the ass had I not mentioned it to her. We were both pretty drunk when I brought it up and she agreed fairly quickly — whether or not the many bottles of wine and champagne had an influence on her I cannot say. Not surprisingly, she sings the hell out of the song. She also does a great job acting in the episode and in the three months since I’ve cast her, Shirley has not done a single thing to make me regret casting an inexperienced actor in one of the key new roles of the season. She’s good in every episode and in every episode she’s even better than in the previous one. I think the kid’s got a future. As for the rest of the episode… it’s sort of like what I had in my head those first few weeks I was listening to that Springsteen song all day long. Except better.