Episode Report Card Niki: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Scarlet Letter Jacket
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 3 | Aired on 10.04.1999
Finally freed of their familial hangers-on, Rick and Lily smile at one another across a crowded midway. There're too many eyes around, though, so she spins on her heel and heads off to her booth, clutching her money tray like a life preserver.
Grace and Eli, meanwhile, are manning the popcorn booth. Grace is staring into the gaping maw of an empty popcorn machine -- the kind they have at cinemas -- and wondering how to fire up the thing. Grace very obviously has itchy pants when Eli is around. She can't even look at him, she's so nervous.
Soliloquy Grace exposits: "When you like a boy, it is impossible to be rational. I mean, you think about him, like, five hundred times a day, whether you want to or not!" She's giddy.
Grace stares at the machine and proclaims it "stupid" because she doesn't know how to work it. She wonders how "they expect them to know how to do this." She tells Eli that there's "some kind of booklet over there," and suggests that he "read to [her] what it says." Eli's trapped. Reading? Actual words? He doesn't know how to get out of it, though, so he starts looking for the booklet. Grace struggles to catch her breath and fights an urge to giggle out loud. Ah, hormones.
Soliloquy Grace is back, and this time she's lying through her little black-and-white teeth: "This is theoretical, you understand. I don't actually like anybody right now." She squirms a little on the Stool as a little curl of smoke rises from her seat.
Back in the booth, Eli makes a show of "reading" the manual, and then quickly tosses it aside with the bold pronouncement, "Instructions are for wimps!" When it comes to Ikea and Kinder Egg toys, I'm with you man, but this is a potentially flammable machine. This is not going to end well. Eli starts dumping cup after cup of kernels into the popping basket, while Grace tries to think how she can stop him and insist they follow the instructions without making him think she's a dork. She can't think of a way, though, so she just stands there with her mouth hanging open. Finally, she works up the nerve. "I don't think you're supposed to put that much in," she says shyly. "I'm not gonna eat it," is Eli's rationed response. Grace slides her eyes to the side, à la Susanna Hoffs, while smiling widely and blushing furiously. There's a gurgling rush as Eli dumps in the oil. A lot of oil. Did I mention that this is going to end badly?
Lily, meanwhile, is striding along the game booths. She stops dead and spins around, ducking her head in horror as she checks her watch with a sinking feeling. She slowly turns to face the unspeakable -- Karen occupying the booth Lily's supposed to work. Running her hand through her hair, she takes a deep breath and steps forward to meet her destiny. She holds out her hand and introduces herself to Karen. The two of them express their confusion over the turn of events that led them to be at this place in time -- each of them thought they'd be working with someone else. Karen is, however, blissfully unaware of why Lily is so uncomfortable. She shrugs off the messed-up schedule by rolling up her sleeves and declaring, "Well, we'll just show them how to bust balloons, okay?" Again, Lily runs a hand nervously through her hair. Forcing a laugh, she agrees.