Episode Report Card M. Giant: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT I Say Quakerism, You Say Aneurysm
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 8 | Aired on 07.23.2005
On the drive home, Brenda sighs heavily. That's the closest thing to a line in this scene. If only it had been longer.
The next morning, Ruth sits in front of her dresser mirror, trimming the ends of her hair with a pair of nail scissors. Claire pops her head in and asks permission to take some cookies to work, since Ruth made so many. So she just kept baking even after the kids turned up missing? Claire notices what Ruth is doing, and offers to help. Ruth says she's already made a mess of it. "I don't know why I try to cut my own hair." Claire tells Ruth to pamper herself and go to a salon. "It's not like we're living on the prairie." Ruth thinks, Then why have I been wearing my hair in a bun my whole life?
Over coffee at home, Nate asks Brenda if she wants to try Quaker church again the next night. "Not really," Brenda obviouses. Nate looks embarrassed, which he reveals is because Maggie's car is in the shop and he already offered her a ride. Maggie's car's in the shop? Where's she living, then? Brenda wonders why Nate's already talked to Maggie at 8:30 in the morning. Nate reiterates that she needed a ride. Brenda cracks, "That place looked like it was full of Friends who'd just looove to give her a ride." Oh, Brenda, when did you start pulling your punches? It doesn't suit you. Brenda wants to know if Nate is really buying into the whole Quakerism thing: "When you walked into that church last night you really believed that you were in the presence of God?" Nate repeats that it felt like a place of peace. Brenda: "Which it isn't here?" He didn't say that, Brenda. "Not a lot lately, no," Nate admits. Okay, now he said it. Stupid Nate. Brenda makes a face that lets Nate know that a fight's coming on, so Nate sends Maya -- who's been watching children's TV in the living room -- off to her room to get her shoes. Maya complies. I think I spend more time on this show every week than those twins do on the set.
Brenda goes into the kitchen and starts stomping around. Without bothering to get up from the dining room table, Nate tells Brenda that it was "nice to be around some people who didn't think they know everything. And who thought there might be something more to life than what they can see and feel and…be right about." Yes, that's a clear sign that you've found the religion for you: you can use it to attack your spouse. Brenda says she feels sorry for Nate and his need to fill his spiritual emptiness with "something so…ridiculous." He asks what the difference is between a service that consists of silent meditation and the kind of meditation that Brenda practices. Brenda says, "I'm not waiting for some mythical historical ghost with his shaming blood sacrifice bullshit to come and save my soul." Ooh, and he was just about to come and do that until you made that comment. Too bad for you. She says she meditates to see and accept the world as it is. "And you can't do that with other people?" Nate asks. "Not with those people, no." Nate starts to ask what happens if he gets involved with Quakerism, and Brenda angrily interrupts that he's using it as an excuse to distance himself from Brenda and the baby. "Because you're scared and you don't know what to do." I think even that is giving Nate too much credit; he doesn't want to get into Quakerism so much as he wants to get into one specific Quaker. Nate asks how he could be distancing himself. "I'm here every fucking night!" And loving every minute of it, obviously. Brenda snaps, "Well, not tomorrow night, apparently you'd rather be with that sappy little ferret Maggie." Nate angrily roars, "Hey! She is a deeply kind person." Brenda asks if that's what Nate's looking for now. Nate says he doesn't want "someone who makes me feel like shit every second of the day." Aw, that's sweet. They should have put that in their wedding vows. Brenda asks why Nate doesn't leave if she's so awful. We've been asking that on and off for five seasons now, Brenda. Nate says he's not leaving: "Maybe you want to leave but I'm here and I'm not going anywhere." Having completely failed to answer the question, he goes to work, leaving Brenda to finish packing his daughter's lunch. I take a moment to reflect on how smart it was of this show to keep them apart for the better part of two seasons, to give us a chance to forget just how much these two really hate each other.