Episode Report Card Wing Chun: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Scribbling Rivalry
By Wing Chun | Season 2 | Episode 9 | Aired on 01.16.2001
Lily, at home, and Jake "The Snake" Manning, at the restaurant, talk on the phone about Zoe and Grace; she tells Jake to buy Grace a new computer, then backtracks and offers to pay for part of it. Jake correctly determines that with this gift, they're bribing Grace to baby-sit, thus killing two birds with one computer. Lily insists that the computer would be a thank-you, not a bribe. Whatever, Lily.
"So, this is like a bribe," says Grace, lying on her bed doing homework. Lily trots out the "reward/thank-you" argument, and, as Lily collects her laundry, Grace says that they can bribe her all they want, but that babysitting Zoe all the time still sucks: "I'm not her mother. I'm supposed to have my own life." Lily's all older-sister empathy: "I know." Grace adds that Zoe always seems one step too close. Lily whines that Zoe and Grace used to play and have pillow fights, and asks whether Grace remembers that. "No," mutters Grace. "I bet she misses her big sister," says Lily. "So you want me to go hit her with a pillow?" Grace asks. Hee! Lily asks her to remember that Zoe is the only sister Grace has, and that she worships Grace. "No way. She hates me. But she'll have Jesse soon," says Grace. Lily stops at the bedroom door and snaps, "I don't know even know where to start with that one." Grace scoffs at Lily not to bother with the incredulity, and then mimics Lily: "'That's getting ahead of ourselves. We don't know what'll happen. But even if Jesse does move in, there's no reason to think Zoe would glom on to her just to show you what a mean sister you are!' How was that?" As Grace takes off her socks, Lily asks, overly concerned, if that's what Grace thinks would happen. Grace tosses her socks into the basket and says she doesn't care: "I just want my own life."
Back at PagesAlive, Lily arrives to see the office much more populated than it was the day before, with Crusty introducing D.B. Sweeney to everyone. And Gwen is back. Lily moves toward the smiling Gwen, but before either of them can greet one another, Crusty spots Lily and smoothly tells D.B. Sweeney she's going to go "get Lily started on something." She's wearing an ugly patterned shirt and another pair of yeast-infection-inducingly tight stretch jeans. Crusty, for the love of god, go get you a pair of nice baggy corduroys! Give your action a break, just for a day!
After ushering Lily into her office and slamming the door, Crusty hisses, "Jackass!" She goes on to explain that "basically, [they're] under siege," and that Lily works with Crusty: "If Rympalski asks you to do anything more complicated than say 'good morning,' clear it with me." Lily affably says that she will, and gently asks whether D.B. Sweeney hired back all the people Crusty had fired the day before. Crusty says that he did, to undermine her with the staff: "Welcome to hardball." Lily quietly asks whether Crusty knew D.B. Sweeney was coming when she fired everyone, and Crusty says that it was a pre-emptive move, to prevent D.B. Sweeney from coming, but that she did it too late. Crusty seems to be enjoying all the biz intrigue (of her own imagination), and she beckons Lily closer to confide, "He wants to make it so unpleasant for me that I resign, and they don't have to pay off my contract...I have a secret weapon...I have a very high tolerance for people disliking me. I can just shut it out, and do what needs to be done. It kind of ruins my personal life, but...." ["I'm not so sure how 'secret' that weapon is..." -- Niki]