"Tell me what you don't like about Nip/Tuck."

Just one thing: having to wait until June to find out what's going to happen to Dr. Christian Troy after Tuesday's season finale ended with a Psycho homage of him lying helpless and glassy-eyed as serial killer The Carver slashed his face.

True, Nip/Tuck may be a glorified soap opera, but it's easily the best damn one on TV. I'm getting way ahead of myself though.

Things started off with Christian discovering teenage Matt -- the product of an affair with his partner Sean's now-estranged wife -- stealing pills from their plastic surgery office for his older-woman lover Ava.

Christian confronts Ava, who tries to seduce him. "You lubricate acid," he sneered. Of course he sleeps with her anyway, but bails when he realizes from, um, an equipment shortage, that Ava was not born a woman!

Christian and Sean trace Ava to her surgeon, over-acted by Alec Baldwin, and convince him to help them finish Ava's transformation to the tune of "Wild Horses" no less. In exchange, Ava finally agrees to stop doing Matt. As she's packing to leave for Paris, her son Adrian (who she was also sleeping with) shows up with a knife -- but he's no Carver, and ends up killing himself.

After 60 commercial-free minutes, everything seems to be in order. Sean and his family reunite for dinner with Christian, Ava seems at peace as she boards her flight; even guest star Joan Rivers says, "What the hell, give me another facelift."

The final shot of Christian's tear-stained eye is juxtaposed with Sean lying in bed with a gun, waiting to set a trap for the recurring serial killer character who never shows up. He's going to have to wait, and unfortunately so are we.

-- Reviewed by David Tatasciore