Episode Report Card Niki: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Baby Blues
By Niki | Season 2 | Episode 8 | Aired on 01.09.2001
And we head to commercial. Tell me you didn't see that one coming.
We return to a close-up of a negative test indicator. Rick asks if she's okay. "Sure," she says glibly, tapping the test against her palm. "Well, that was…that was…that was cutting it close," Rick says lamely. Lily smiles tightly and walks away from him, slamming the test in the garbage as she goes. "Yeah," she says, with her back to Rick. She looks disappointed. Rick walks up behind her and asks if she's sure that she's okay. She's trying very hard not to pull away from him. "Maybe not as okay as you," she says with a rueful laugh. She starts to say that she knows this was something that he didn't…He cuts her off, saying that just because he was relieved doesn't meant that he wouldn't someday, possibly want to…Lily forces a smile, says they don't have to worry about it, and asks if he wants dessert. She's got fortune cookies.
Rick's on the Soliloquy Stool again, this time reminiscing about Eli's refusal to sleep through the night until he was three years old. And people ask why I'm in no hurry for kids. Anyway, Rick makes my case for me by saying that he was a wreck, and that he remembers reading somewhere that that's how North Korean soldiers tortured their prisoners.
Back in Lily's kitchen, they're cracking open the fortune cookies.
Soliloquy Lily interrupts, though, to exposit on the whole a-woman's-eggs-are -numbered thing. How every month for thirty years, "you're reminded of what goes on down there, and then one day, poof! No more eggs." Dude, I can't wait!
And, back to the kitchen, where they're discovering the secrets of life tucked conveniently inside their fortune cookies. Lily's says, "When your heart speaks, listen." You can tell by her expression that she thinks Buddha himself just delivered a telegram. Rick reads his: "Man who builds straw house can never build fire." He asks what hers says, and she lies, saying that hers is a warning not to store food containers in the fridge for more than two days. Nice cover. Lily suddenly remembers that she has to pick up Grace and Carla at the rally, but Rick volunteers to get them since he has to get Eli and Jessie anyway. As he stands to leave, he quietly asks, "Lily, are we okay here?" "Sure," she answers weakly. Whooo, the air in that room is heavy.
Cut to the high school, where everyone is pushing and shoving out of the gym. Eli rushes up to Jessie, who's walking slightly behind Grace and Wannabe. He tells her that he's getting a ride home with Coop. Before he can get away, Wannabe blurts that she likes his hair. "Me too," Grace pipes up. Eli glances at Grace for a split-second before Wannabe's yammering again, making sure the attention is squarely on her. "It makes a statement," she declares. "It like says something. I mean, I don't know what, but…" What an idiot. Eli looks intrigued, which leads me to believe that some of the chemicals from his sad-ass hair dye leached into his brain and short-circuited a few million synapses. Carla asks if she can touch it. When she does, her mouth hangs open and she emits a simian sound of pleasure. In fact, she looks and sounds much like what I'd imagine a feral child would, touching some marvel like buttons or glass for the first time. Eli doesn't seem to share my view. He can't take his eyes off Wannabe. As he makes to leave, she pipes up and asks where he lives, saying that his place is closer to her than Grace's place, so she should get a ride with him. Oh, she's slippery like a used condom, that one. Grace manages to smile around her clenched teeth, saying that her mom would be happy to drive Wannabe home. Wannabe tries to play it off like she's just trying to do what's easy, rather than admitting she's just trying to be easy, and in the end, Grace relents. As Wannabe and Eli press into the throng, he puts his hand on her back as if to guide her. And don't you think that Grace doesn't notice.