Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Oh Me, Oh Maya
By M. Giant | Season 4 | Episode 11 | Aired on 08.28.2004
In the hospital cafeteria, Brenda and Billy share strained RomCom dialogue about hospital food, and have a strained RomCom moment when they reach for the same roll and their hands touch (the tongs are right there, you animals). Billy seems to want to say something, but Brenda manages to talk him out of it. Billy asks if he should tell their mom that he slept with Olivier in college. Brenda kind of wishes she still didn't know herself, but she's tickled at the thought of Ma's reaction. "We are the most sexually inappropriate people in the world, aren't we?" Billy says. And in other news, the earth is round. They have a little exchange about whether they can blame their parents. And speaking of parenthood, Brenda picks this moment to announce that she's thinking of having kids. "With Nate?" Billy asks. I think it's more accurate to say that Brenda's thinking of having kids with Nate than to say that Brenda is thinking with Nate of having kids, if you catch my drift. But that distinction, if there is one, escapes Brenda. Billy thinks that's great. "You are going to be a great mother," he says sincerely. Ah, so he is still crazy. Brenda looks at him suspiciously for a second, and then decides to take him at his word. "It's good to see you," she finally says. Wow. After the horror of what happened the last time they saw each other, he gives her one compliment and it's all good. But then they tuck into their lunches, and you know what's not good? Hospital cafeteria food. Oh, hospital cafeteria food, when will you ever learn?
Ruth leads George down to the bomb shelter (which has been there all along, okay?), explaining that the Late Nate's dad had it built during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but that she hasn't visited the thing in ages. At least four years, by my count. George notes that the door is lined with lead. That's true of all the best bomb shelters. It's so the occupants can die of starvation or murder each other rather than succumb to radiation sickness, you see. George is further impressed that there's not a drop of moisture on the walls. Or blood. "Someone knew what they were doing." Yeah, nice construction for something that only took thirteen days to build. ["Really. What are they, Jehovah's Witnesses?" -- Wing Chun] Ruth reminisces about the bomb shelter's past, but George is clearly interested in its future. "It's so dusty," Ruth says. "It smells like --" "Life," George says. Uh-oh. "It smells like life. Yes, sir. This'll do just fine." He would be creeping me the hell out right now even without the low lighting in the shelter. If Ruth dashes up the stairs, slams the lead-lined trapdoor, and parks her car on top of it, the director cuts away before we see it.