Episode Report Card Cate: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Prodigal
By Cate | Season 6 | Episode 7 | Aired on 11.11.2001
In the Treehouse, Annie is lecturing the kids about how much they all need Mary. But they've already got one rude megabitch in Annie. Why would they need another? Annie holds the delusion that Mary is capable of being loving and supportive toward her family, and I'm not sure if anyone could disabuse her of that notion right now. She's really gone crazy. As punishment for their disobedience, Annie is sentencing them to live in the Treehouse. She has brought them a change of clothes, a week's allowance and "some school books." They are allowed to use the toilet in the CamPound, but that's it. No shower facilities, no food, and probably no water either. Great parenting, Brenda Hampton-style! I don't even know if this is fucking legal. If she's not planning to provide the basic necessities for her under-eighteen-year-old children, shouldn't she be in jail? ["And shouldn't their father have something to say about it? I know he's scared of Annie -- and he can join the very large club -- but this is so over the top, it's totally incomprehensible that Eric wouldn't try to talk her out of it." -- Sars] Please tell me that the kids are going to move out on their own and not go crawling back to their heinous mother. They'd have to be safer living on their own. At the very least, can't they finish the treehouse themselves? I seem to remember that Lucy knows how to install a toilet. I don't know. Words really fail me at this point.
Finally we get to see RevCam preaching, though it's a little hard to follow his rambling sermon. It's much more entertaining to look at Annie and Mary sitting in the front pew, while the other kids glare at them from the next row back. I tried listening to RevCam a few more times, but all I got out of it is that he thinks confessing one's sins is something that makes God happy, and that it's bad to judge people. Oh, look -- I think Annie's glaring at him now! She's so unbalanced these days, though, that it might just be her usual facial expression we're seeing.
After the service, RevCam is shaking hands with the parishioners as they leave. Hey, there's an older African-American guy here! Doesn't he know he's supposed to be at Reverend Hamilton's church? A young girl tells Eric, "My brother is bad too, and my mom likes him best!" I guess she got the point of the sermon. Annie comes out and hisses, through gritted teeth, "You should be grateful I don't have my own pulpit. Airing your feelings about me in front of the whole church. Unbelievable!" She's probably off to plan some serial killings. Dopey tells Eric that he's no different from the rest of the kids when it comes to Mary. Lucy and Simon tell him pretty much the same thing. Ruthie doesn't even want to talk to him. She's too depressed about having to live in the garage. And quite frankly, who can blame her? Mary's all chipper, though. She tells RevCam, "Great sermon, Dad. I'm not sure that they got it," then breezes off. I'd feel sorrier for Eric right now if he weren't such a freakin' milquetoast.