Episode Report Card Niki: C | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT 'Til The One Day When The Lady Met This Fellow...
By Niki | Season 2 | Episode 15 | Aired on 03.13.2001
After dinner, Lily and Rick herd the offspring upstairs, telling them to evaluate the rooms and try to come up with ideas on how to make everyone comfortable. Lily tells them just to think of "the possibilities," as in nothing's carved in stone, and then she apologizes because some of the rooms need paint. Rick, looking like Ward Cleaver in his cardigan, throws up his arms and busts out, "Hey! We could have a painting day!" Zoe is the only one who thinks that sounds like fun.
The first room they hit is Zoe's, which is the bigger of the two kids' rooms. They're targeting it for Jessie. Lily points out that it's big enough for two beds. Then Rick says the magic words, "Maybe even bunk beds." Aw, swell! Just like on The Brady Bunch! Jessie tries to maintain, saying, "Shouldn't it be Zoe's decision?" in this strange high-pitched voice. Zoe opines that she thinks bunkbeds are cool. Then she asks what Jessie thinks. Jessie thinks she'd like to eat her own face, but she just forces a smile and a phony "yeah." With that settled, Lily leads the tour to its next stop: Grace's room. She's about to throw open the door, but Grace self-consciously throws herself in the way, telling Lily not to go in. And really, I don't see why anybody needs to anyway, since Jessie's bunking with Zoe, and Grace's room is the smaller one anyway. Oh wait: Eli. "I'm sharing the small room with Grace?" he asks with a suggestive grin. "Very funny," Grace retorts, but you know her stomach is flipping. Rick tells Eli that they figured they'd convert the garage for him. "So that you'll really have your own space," Lily adds with a warm smile, just so he doesn't think they're bundling him off with all the old newspapers and other useless junk. "Uh...great," Eli forces, along with his grin. ["I wish I had a converted garage of my own now. When I was seventeen, I'd have plotzed at an offer like that." -- Wing Chun] Next on the tour is Lily's and Rick's room. With everyone still gathered around them, Rick says, "Lil, I was thinking, since I get up so much in the night --" "You do?" Grace asks with wrinkled nose. Rick says he does, and continues saying that he figured he'd set up his drafting table in the living room, where her computer is now. That way he could work without waking her up. Lily struggles to keep her voice light, asking, "And where would my desk go?" Rick scrambles into action, gesturing toward a space in front of the bedroom fireplace. Zoe thinks he's crazy, apparently. "Well, do you use the fireplace?" Rick sweats. Lily's eyes are sporting daggers, but she sweetly answers, "No." Rick smiles, relieved, and says it's just one idea. The kids shuffle awkwardly in the background.