Episode Report Card Sobell: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Get out, Nate. Seriously.
By Sobell | Season 3 | Episode 7 | Aired on 04.12.2003
Brunchtime. Buckle your seatbelts, everyone -- it's going to be a very bumpy morning. David is greeted by the host with "Welcome to my humble a-baudelaire!" and there are air kisses all around. David apologizes for being late, and Hostess with the Mostess is all, "Oh, fuck that! You guys are the cavalry. Your timing is perfect." Introductions are made (but not so I can remember who this guy is, and I'm terrible with names), and then HwtM calls out, "Hey, everybody! It's David and Keith!" Around fifty identical men turn around and call out, "Hi!" in response. Keith understandably looks like he wants to flee; when he learns that he's not to look the little rat-dog Trixie in the eye, the "get me out of here now" vibe intensifies, but the coup de grace is when he and David get slapped on the back with name labels and told they're now playing "Leading Ladies." David has to explain the game to Keith, and then acts all supportive of his boyfriend's obvious discomfort with, "Come on. You can either decide to have a rotten time or you can decide to have fun." Keith correctly calls him on this with, "You sound like a camp counselor." Both of them need mimosas, stat. Keith tries to get into it by seeing who David got; when David turns around, he says gleefully, "Oh, that's gooood."
And now, the gentle poet of the memorial service is talking to Zhora and saying how he hoped the offering was okay, and he thinks Bern liked it. Zhora disabuses him of that notion, as well as any other cherished belief the man may have had about Bern liking him. Billy asks Zhora to knock it down a peg, and she defends herself with psychobabble: "Billy, your Uncle Marv is here for his own complicated reasons. He deserves to have his own complicated experience. Well now, thank you, Marv. It was a perfect poem, you did your duty, you can now get the fuck outta here." Billy tries to shush his mom. Again, I am agog at Billy becoming the steward of social etiquette. It's amazing what a season and a half of off-camera medication and institutionalization can do for a guy, huh?
After Marv leaves, Zhora says bitterly, "He never forgave your father for being a success. Or giving up Hannukah." (If the Hannukah thing was a sticking point, what about the cremation? We totally need Aaron to come in and clarify that one.) Anyway, Nate comes up wheeling an SUV-like stroller and descends on Zhora to work his grief mojo, somehow managing to say the right things. Zhora tells him, "Don't give me that funeral home shit. Did Brenda call you?" When Nate reveals that she did not, Zhora is impressed, and tells him how strange that is. Nate jumps from one awkward moment to another by shaking hands with Billy. Brenda, who's been watching Nate out of the corner of her eye, comes over. She's the only one Nate doesn't touch. Zhora invites Nate to the post-funeral family get-together that Billy's arranged. She turns back to Nate and quips, "Tragedy. It's the one thing our children are really good at. I mean, my children." Billy then asks if Nate can come on by, but Nate begs off. Brenda asks, "You can stick around for a little bit, though, huh?" The look on her face telegraphs how badly she wants to talk to him, and how she has no idea where to begin.