Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | 2137 USERS: C YOU GRADE IT Boom Goes The Dynamite?
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 18 | Aired on 2009.03.02
Lyle's playing a video game when Sandra, flanked by Claire and Alex, appears and in a businesslike tone asks him how he did on his history test. When he answers that he got a C-minus, she confiscates his driver's license, not that that stops him from playing his game for more than three seconds. Alex tries to stick up for the other male in the situation, saying the punishment is pretty harsh, but Sandra breezes that he's a terrible driver anyway. Heh. Cut to the kitchen, where Sandra is delicately replacing Lyle's photo with Alex's, even running the iron over it with a towel as a buffer in order to re-laminate it, and although I'm not sure this would work with as new a license as Lyle's because they don't have removable photographs anymore, Claire and I both approve of the evidence of Sandra's youth, particularly when she talks about how she made a fake ID when she was younger because she had to go see Def Leppard. Awesome. I could totally see Sandra pouring some sugar on herself. She then counsels Alex to change his looks, as the government is probably using "facial recognition algorithms" (she learned that from Bennet) and offers that there's a change of clothes upstairs. Alex expresses his gratitude, and when he's gone, Claire looks at the new license appreciatively before telling her mom she didn't mean to drag her into all this. Sandra, however, says it was going to happen one way or another, so she thought she might help. Aw. Claire apologizes for being the way she is, because it would make everything easier if she weren't, and maybe Sandra and Bennet would still be together. Well, you wouldn't be their daughter in that case, Claire, and I doubt either of them wants to change that, no matter how sassy you've gotten in the last couple years. Sandra says she and Bennet had issues before Claire came around, but she married him because she fell in love -- he was dangerous and handsome, and she accepted everything that went with that, but now, she's tired of being lied to. Claire asks if they're going to get a divorce, and Sandra smiles ruefully and says it's possible, but if they do, it has nothing to do with Claire. Ashley Crow rules this episode, I'm sure I don't even have to say. Claire nods and attempts a smile of her own.