Episode Report Card Djb: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Real Slim Shady
By Djb | Season 4 | Episode 4 | Aired on 07.10.2004
George and Ruth stare at a bureau they've pushed against the wall of a room I don't know the name of, George asking if Ruth likes it. She responds, "How could I not like the first piece of furniture we purchased together as a couple?" A perfect place to fold up all that crisply ironed exposition she's just bought. She sits down on the couch and tells him that she talked to a lawyer about pressing charges against Arthur, and George is finally forced to admit that he knows it isn't Arthur who is responsible. Well, who is? "My son...Kyle." Ruth thought his son was named Ryan. Kyle is another son! It's coming fast and furious now! Ruth wants to know why she wouldn't have known about another son, and Ruth heads off George's claim that this son is not a part of George's life with the quotable "If he's sending us shit in the mail, he's a part of your life." George says that he was "very young" when this happened, and that said son's family didn't think George was suitable and didn't want him around. Was that a binding contract? Is it downloadable online? Can someone shoot the Fishers over a copy? Are they still opening their mail?
Brenda's mother! Brenda's mother! I know, I know. She'll just end up disappointing me with her sniping comments and her one-dimensional narcissism, but what a pretty one dimension she exhibits. We're at a dinner party at Margaret's house, where Brenda and Olivier (remember from before? When they told us to watch out for him? REMEMBER?) meet Joe and Brenda. Joe asks Olivier why he teaches art, and Olivier tells her that he needs the paycheck, which Margaret refutes, laughing, "All you have to do is just keep making paintings and I'll keep buying them." Margaret takes this moment to point out that Olivier was her son's art teacher, all but screaming, "I'm hot for teacher!" Brenda rolls her eyes and adopts the linguistic patois of Claire's generation, demanding, "Drink more, mom." Margaret chides Brenda for refusing to try the Shiraz, and Olivier busts in with a story about a student who tattooed a company logo on his head in return for his education. Joe takes this opportunity to sneak out to the bathroom, at which point Margaret takes this opportunity to scream-whisper, "He's the one! I can feel it!" Beat. "Just don't fuck it up this time like you always do."
Shut up, Nate. And dog-eyed Lisa. And Lisa's jaw. Nate corners Claire back in the house and makes her admit that it's possible Lisa is alive. Claire asks the most intuitive question imaginable, asking, "Are you high?" He tells her that he's not, "not anymore." Her phone rings and she goes for it, spilling condoms out of her purse as she tells him she has a date "with the Matthew Barney of LAC Arts. Even though I'm so not the Björk of LAC Arts." Quick, someone make a swan reference or pop culture will grind to a halt.