Episode Report Card Aaron: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Death Leppard
By Aaron | Season 1 | Episode 13 | Aired on 08.18.2001
Rico’s Body Shop. He and Dave stand over Aunt Lillian’s corpse (StC = 516), with Rico opining that it should be an easy job, what with just the one bruise, and also her having "remarkably thick hair for a woman her age." The fax machine in the corner spits out a document, and David is dismayed to learn that Tracy is also an Annoying Funeral Shopper. She’s changing just about everything about the viewing and the ceremony, and David is worried about pulling off a "resplendent" funeral on only two days' notice. Rico works the whole "make me a partner" thing so we won’t forget it for season two, and David has to tersely remind him that a) he’s not a partner, and b) they just rescued him from a crappy corporate job and gave him a big raise.
Our Lady Of Eternal Irony’s Home For The Criminally Creepy. Nate and Brenda make their way through a ward of mental patients before finally coming across Brother Billy, who’s been placed oh so dramatically alone in an empty hallway. Brenda doesn’t want to upset Billy, so Nate has to go wait with the other nuts, which is something he’s only too happy to do. Brenda slowly makes her way down to Billy, who’s surprised to see her, even though he’s clearly been heavily medicated. She asks how he doing, and he’s surprisingly philosophical about the whole thing. "Whatever I was feeling before," he says, "I’m not feeling it now." And just like the Creepy Jesus he so clearly is, he’s now repentant for his sins. "I hate that my blood makes me crazy. I hate that I can’t function without being chemically altered…I hate that I fucked up your life." Brenda laughs, and sighs that she did that last one on her own. Billy apologizes and begs for her forgiveness before returning to his Zen-psycho rap and professing to have "some weird-ass karma." "It feels like tears are streaming down my cheeks," he intones. "But they’re not, are they?" Given his lineage, I’m surprised he doesn’t add something about "all these moments being lost in time, like tears in the rain." I should probably throw something in there about attack ships and the shoulder of Orion so that people other than Pontoon will get the Blade Runner joke, but I’m just gonna go ahead and trust your cinematic savvy on this one. Brenda, by the way, still is capable of crying, and a single, perfect tear for her confused and creepy little brother winds its way slowly down her cheek. Billy finally absolves her of any guilt, and tells her that he’ll be happy as long as she is. It’s exactly what Brenda wanted to hear, which is why she hugs him so tightly, but it’s also why I wonder if the drugs have as much of an effect on his manipulative streak as they do on his emotions. Billy gives us one last Creepy Jesus glare, holding his sister and calling her beautiful. Bye-bye, Billy. You’ve done…questionable things, but we love you anyway.