Episode Report Card Niki: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Scarlet Letter Jacket
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 3 | Aired on 10.04.1999
Cut to a close-up of the dunk tank, replete with plastic floating lilies, being filled by a garden hose. "Need a hand?" Jake's disembodied voice asks. The camera pans up as Rick jumps, startled first by the offer, and then by the man who made it. He asks Jake to help him move part of the dunk tank's framework. As Rick fidgets over the thing with a wrench, Jake watches with a wry smile and finally holds out his hand, saying, "Jake Manning. I don't think we were actually introduced." (Remember, back in the pilot, when Jake and the girls caught Rick and Lily making out like a couple of horny teenagers on Lily's couch? Okay, that's what he's referring to.) Rick laughs and shakes his hand. I think we're supposed to notice the contrast between these two and Lily and Karen, and be impressed with how easily men get over things and bond with one another. It's because they're from Mars, you know.
Naomi the skunk, meanwhile, is trying to sneak past the balloon booth without being noticed. Karen spots her, though, and asks, "What do you mean, you're allergic to latex?" Naomi starts to sputter an excuse but falters, waving her hand as she makes her getaway. Karen stares after her, puzzled, as her ass-pole starts tingling with suspicion. Lily shrugs as if she has no idea why Naomi is acting so strangely.
The menfolk, of course, are getting along swimmingly as they bang and plunk away at the dunk tank's frame. Rick asks whether Jake has a kid at the school, which strikes me as an odd question, since he knows Grace. Whatever, we'll chalk it up to small talk. They're interrupted by a clatter form the neighboring booth, which is in the process of collapsing on the unfortunate student who's manning it. Jake and Rick rush to the kid's rescue, working in sixth-sense sync to MacGyver a new pole. As they work at it, Jake facetiously wonders, "So, I'm not supposed to threaten to kick your ass, or anything, am I?" Rick chuckles heartily and responds, "I was wondering about that." See? Mars.
Venus, meanwhile, bears a striking resemblance to hell. Lily and Karen talk about their kids, and Lily pretends not to know anything about Eli and Jessie. She hears raucous laughter and looks around for the source: her current lover and estranged husband slapping hands after successfully dunking their first victim in the tank.