Episode Report Card Cate: D | 1 USERS: C YOU GRADE IT How do you solve a problem like Mary?
By Cate | Season 5 | Episode 7 | Aired on 11.12.2000
He warns Mary that the conversation is about to get "adult." Stephen Collins is probably an expert at that, since I hear he writes "erotic thrillers." But here it just seems like he's talking about the joint Annie found while searching Mary's room. He goes off on a convoluted thread about how it's hard to keep lies straight. Okay, dude, that's great. Mary expresses some indignation at the room search. Unfortunately, she chooses to broadcast her ignorance again by calling the CamRents "Communists" -- at least I think she means the capital-C kind. With someone that dumb, who really knows? Every so often Annie comes up with a really good speech, and this is one of those times. She talks about Mary's rights, as opposed to her privileges. Mary has the right to be indignant, but the privilege of privacy is one she must earn while living under her parents' roof. RevCam asks Mary if she's tried smoking marijuana. She counters the question with one of her own: "What is so wrong with just experimenting?" Annie stays quiet during this discussion. I never saw the episode where she admitted to smoking up in her youth, though it sounds like a funny one. RevCam says that he has never tried pot. He struggles to answer the "what's wrong" part of her question. I never thought the writers would have the gall to use the "gateway to hard drugs" argument, but, well, there it is. It makes me wonder if RevCam dropped some heavy acid in his day and if that's what's causing the flashbacks to the seventies, which is about the last time the "gateway to hard drugs" argument was even considered relevant. When that's all taken care of, Annie mentions something about accepting the offer from the Colonel. Eric elaborates by telling Mary she will be spending "winter in Buffalo." Ha! I'm not knocking Buffalo -- some areas are quite lovely. It's just that I watch the Buffalo channels all the time, and the only thing you can be sure of in winter is that it snows practically every single day. The CamRents are sending her there so she will get a fresh start away from Glenoak. They've planned it all out for her, including the course she will have to take at the community college with her grandmother.
Mary is indignant that she is being foisted off on relatives, and she panics as she asks, "What are my other choices?" Despite that fact that Mary is a legal adult, RevCam tries to tell her she has no other choices. He tells her she'll be taking the redeye to New York. I wonder if he means she'll be travelling through one of the NYC airports. That opens up a whole realm of possibilities, such as "missing" her connecting flight and just staying in New York. Stupid loser RevCam tells her he has taken possession of her car now. What state is Glenoak in again? I want to move there so I can arbitrarily seize the possessions of other adults over whom I have no legal claim, the way RevCam does. Annie says she has put two suitcases in Mary's room, and RevCam informs her that they will be driving off at nine o'clock. They leave Mary in the living room. She looks pissed off, which really isn't all that big a stretch from how she usually looks.