Episode Report Card Cate: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Dirty Laundry
By Cate | Season 4 | Episode 9 | Aired on 11.21.1999
Lucy's talking to her new popular friends in the hallway when Mary drags her away to apologize for being so down the night before. She goes on to say that it's probably all in her head that she and the other basketball players are being shunned by the school. The popular girls giggle on cue, and Mary looks over at them. "Okay, maybe people are shunning me," she realizes, but at least she still has her family. One of the popular girls chooses that particular moment to come over and say, to Lucy, "See you on Saturday. Party, party!" Lucy hems and haws about the party and finally says, "It's not like I got in trouble, right?" Mary lays on a big ole Dopey-style guilt trip when she says, "You did nothing. Except join a whole group of people who are trying to exclude me." Unfortunately, Lucy falls for it, watching uncomfortably as Mary stalks off in a huff.
Ew, I'd almost forgotten that Ruthie was on this show. She taps Sarah on the shoulder and offers the most perfunctory apology imaginable. Sarah doesn't think it's worth much either, because she asks, "Hello, that's it?" Ruthie says, "I apologized. Did you want something else?" Sarah thought maybe she and Ruthie could be friends. Ruthie can't imagine Sarah would want to be friends with her since she let her Troll friends make Sarah cry. Sarah says, "I wanna be your friend because I really don't think you like them." Ruthie says, "Yes, I am." Huh? Unlike everyone else in the universe, Sarah understands what Ruthie is saying there, because she responds, "Fine, then I don't wanna be your friend. I thought you were different." This makes Ruthie stop and think. I sense a Valuable Lesson coming on!
Oh, man, Dopey's back at the family trough again! Does he even buy any groceries on his own? What is the point of him living in his own place if he spends all his time at the Camdens' anyway? SuperMom just smiles at him, which causes him to hallucinate that she actually gives a shit about his stupid problems. He says, "Okay, if you wanna know so bad, I'll tell you." He launches into a tale of his relationship woes. I'll try to make it as painless as possible: Shana's pissed that Dopey talked to his roommate about their relationship troubles, and she refuses to seek counseling with him. ["'Counseling'?" -- Sars] SuperMom agrees to talk to Chickenhead herself.
RevCam is in his office talking to Henry Muranaka, an older Japanese man who is eager to help RevCam mainly because the Colonel (RevCam's father) has helped raise awareness of the regiment Henry fought with during WWII. It turns out Sachiko's brother fought in the same regiment. RevCam asks Henry for his opinion on reparation money. Henry has used the money to pay for operations for his grandson, who was born with unspecified physical ailments. He says, "I'm not saying the reparation money evens thing out or makes life fair. Life is not fair. Maybe I can present a different perspective to Sachiko." I'm sure Sachiko will be thrilled to know that RevCam has been discussing her problems with everyone in town.