Episode Report Card Cate: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Still Dopey after all these years
By Cate | Season 5 | Episode 17 | Aired on 04.15.2001
Simon mopes off to his room and closes the door. Lucy follows. Imagine my surprise when she doesn't knock but just walks right in. Simon tries to tell her that he doesn't need to talk to a woman; he needs to talk to someone about women. Lucy says something about being particularly qualified to understand her own gender. I think it's exactly the same line RevCam used a few shows back when he was giving Lucy advice on men, and it works, because Simon deigns to share his problem with Lucy. He wants to dump Sasha because she's too shallow. I find that a little hard to believe, but whatever. Lucy advises him to try the "not enough in common" line, but Simon shoots her down. Then she suggests that he lie and say his parents forbid him to date Sasha. By the way, this scene is littered with brief appearances by Annie, who keeps opening up the sliding doors from the twins' room and hissing at Lucy and Simon to be quiet. Simon is aghast at Lucy's suggestion that he lie. Good heavens! Lucy says that Simon could ask their parents to forbid him from seeing Sasha. That's pretty pointless. You know there aren't too many types of people I actively dislike, but those who think that following the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit of it absolves them of blame really work my nerves. Apparently, Annie doesn't agree, because she opens the doors again and forbids Simon to date Sasha. That's just one of the reasons I think Annie is a dumb-ass. The fact that she's obviously been eavesdropping on the kids' conversation is another.
At the hospital, RevCam asks a nurse about Dopey. She tells him Matt has the day off. A patient in a nearby room overhears her call Eric "Reverend." That was a rather unfortunate occurrence, because now this guy thinks Eric is qualified to advise him on spirituality. Harold, the patient, is upset because he's just been told by his doctor that he has only six weeks to live. Eric asks if the diagnosing physician has informed God of this.
It turns out that Ruthie has tricked Robbie into attending a meeting with her principal. The principal uses her keen powers of insight to deduce that Robbie is not Ruthie's father. The causes Robbie to embark on the narration of his life story in a way that was probably meant to be amusing, or charming, or something other than the annoyance that it actually is. The principal says that she will meet with Ruthie and Robbie rather than Ruthie and a CamRent, and that they will see how it goes. The problem is that Ruthie keeps missing homeroom, but she refuses to tell the principal where she is during that half hour every morning. Robbie pipes up with a defense of Ruthie, insisting that the little troll must be covering up for someone. The principal asks if this is true. Ruthie just shoots Robbie a dirty look. Because it's Ruthie, the dirty look is overdone. The principal leaves the two to discuss the situation. Robbie discovers that Ruthie is indeed protecting someone else by keeping quiet, but since I can't imagine there's anyone in the entire world who would give a shit about this subplot, we'll just move on now.