Episode Report Card Aaron: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Dead as Folk? No. Dead as Fuck? Yes.
By Aaron | Season 2 | Episode 9 | Aired on 04.27.2002
Hey, look! There's finally an actual brother in Brenda's Brotherfucking Boudoir. Hopefully, its days as a Handjob Hacienda are over now that Billy's back in town. Or are they? Anyway, they chat about Mom for a moment, and the fact that she's on "some sort of cruise for the recently separated. Or maybe it's for people who want to quit smoking." If it's for both, can I get a ticket? Brenda asks if he's spoken to their father, and he shrugs and says, "Yeah, right." Speaking of which, I'm so right. He's gonna kill Dad. He also claims that living with Zhora is better than the hospital, and that his psychiatrist is a genius. Is that a subtle slam on Brenda, perhaps? Moving to the sink to wash her lettuce, Brenda explains about Nate's brain tum…uh, condition, and Billy seems properly saddened by the news. Until, that is, he throws in, "Well, now I know why you're marrying him." "Fuck you!" shouts Brenda (Fk=16), who's clearly had a nerve touched by that statement. She complains about how cruel Billy can be, and Billy says that she invalidates everything he says that might challenge her authority, adding, "You learned that from Mom." "The same way you learned how to explain everything to me like I'm an idiot from Dad," snarks Brenda, and then Billy gets in the last word with, "No, I learned that from you." Good one, Billy. Brenda wonders if he's still mad that she had him committed, but he insists that it was the best thing that could have ever happened to him, and that the reason he wouldn't see her while he was in there was because she "contributed a lot to his pathology." He chews her out for being way too overprotective of him when they were kids, and she calls him a "fucking asshole." Fk=17. The argument escalates, and Billy finally explains that they need to disengage, because their relationship "is really toxic." Then he leaves, saying that he has somewhere he has to be. Brenda just looks lost.
The Fortress. Claire is all dressed up and looking pretty when Nate intercepts her on the way out the door. He asks where she's going, and if Billy is going to be there, and she pretty much challenges him by saying yes. He warns her about Billy's psychotic tendencies, but Claire announces that she'll just "file that under couldn't possibly matter less." She also says, in the cutest way possible, that she can take of herself. Aww. She's totally wrong, but still really cute, and in the end that's basically all I care about. When Nate asks if she's spent enough time with Billy to be sure of her safety, she explains his condition thusly: "He's got a disease, he went through a period where he went off his medication because he was fucked up [Fk=18] and in denial about it. It's under control now." And then her eyes bore straight into Nate's brain as she adds the kicker: "Sound familiar?"