Episode Report Card Niki: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT My Brilliant Career
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 20 | Aired on 04.09.2000
Suddenly, it's afternoon. Jake busy giving Grace a cooking lesson at the restaurant. He asks Grace why she likes Jared and she tells him that Jared's "perceptive about people." Jake says that's good, he likes that, because as "her dad, it's [his] job to make sure that all potential boyfriends demonstrate a clear understanding of her wonderfulness." I snicker in my dirty little mind as I think of Wing's patented definition for "wonderfulness" and the new spin the euphemism puts on Jake's speech. I am fully aware of my immaturity, thank you. Tiffany shows up and asks Jake if she can borrow Grace for a little while. Time for Grace to learn how to paint her face the right way.
Lily calls just as Grace is heading into the back room with Tiffany. Lily's busy making Crusty's tea while she talks, and everyone who comes into the lunchroom gags and expresses their disgust over the smell of that foul brew. Lily hears Tiffany call for Grace, and she asks whose voice that is. Reluctantly, Grace tells her it's "that friend of daddy's." Lily looks like she swallowed a bug. Crusty comes in search of her tea, and Lily hangs up with Grace. Crusty takes one sip, spits it out, proclaims it "vile," and tells Lily to throw it all out. She also tells Lily to "turn on a fan, 'cause..." and sweeps out of the room, too horrified to finish her sentence. Lily finally looks like she's getting tired of all the "flexibility" her job demands. She follows Crusty and asks if they can talk about the editing she did. Crusty says she gave the pages a look. "And?" "Lily, it isn't even in the ball-park," Crusty bitches, and spits, "I'm crazy right now and I just don't have the time to deal with it." Lily stands there looking like she just got clobbered.
Tiffany's busily painting all over Grace's face, and she mentions something about adding some glitter. Grace says she doesn't want to look like it's Halloween, and this comment prompts Tiffany to shuffle off down memory lane. She remembers that the first time she met Jake was at a Halloween party, and he was dressed as Bill Clinton. Take a moment here, just to appreciate that. Anyway, Grace's face freezes while Tiffany blabs on about the jokes people were making at the party, and how Jake wanted to make sure she knew that he was "lean and mean" under "all that padding." Grace says that Jake dressed as Clinton two Halloweens ago, while he and Lily were still married. Tiffany knows she flubbed and tries like mad to fix it, but Grace just gets up and walks away. She casts a horrified look over her shoulder as she goes. She staggers out to the bar, where she pauses to watch while Jake directs some workmen. She sits for a moment to gather her thoughts, and then quickly heads for the front exit.