Episode Report Card Sobell: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Get out, Nate. Seriously.
By Sobell | Season 3 | Episode 7 | Aired on 04.12.2003
We then see a vacuum working over the rug in the parlor. Ruth, still in her stalker chapeau, pops into the doorway to say hi. Arthur turns off the vacuum and says, cheerily as always, "Hi, Ruth. Did you have a good time stalking me this morning?" Ruth attempts to recover, but Arthur barrels on, "Oh, please. If you like following people so much, why don't you join the CIA? Or the Moonies? Or why don't you go to the actual fucking moon, and mind your own moon business?? YOU FREAK!" During the last few sentences, Arthur's come over, grabbed Ruth's hat, and hit her with it. Then we realize it's all Ruth's paranoid daydream as Arthur stops the vacuum to ask if she had a good morning, and she dithers through a reply before blurting, "My hair feels funny." Arthur feebly says goodbye.
Brunch. David agreeing with his choir friends that it's a miracle Keith came, and it's no surprise that he's not exactly the life of the party. We then get to see, up close, exactly how Keith's bombing out with the one-on-one conversation. To be fair, it's probably a point in Keith's favor that he doesn't know who Gretchen Mol is. However, this gap in his Vanity Fair cover knowledge does lead the woman he's chatting with to snap, "Are you really gay?" Way to be open-minded and nonjudgmental, lady.
Nate is waiting for Brenda on a rocky bench overlooking the Pacific. She comes over and stands near him, and asks, "Baby's first funeral?" Nate replies, "Hardly." "Yeah. I guess not," Brenda says. Nate asks how she's holding up, and Brenda expresses a fervent desire to talk about anything other than herself or her dead father, at least for thirty seconds. Fortunately, Nate can talk about himself. Or about Maya. Brenda crouches down to look at Maya, and comments on how beautiful she is. Nate says, "She discovered the telephone the other day. It's become, like, her favorite new toy." Brenda's relieved to have Nate talking, so she eggs him on, and he talks about how Maya accidentally speed-dialed his neurologist's office, freaking out the nurse on the other end of the line. Brenda looks uncomfortable with that story, and finally settles for telling Nate that she can't believe he hiked over his mountain of self-absorption to come support her at a funeral. Or something to that effect. Nate says simply, "Of course I came."
Back in the basement, Rico takes some time out from prepping a dead body to call Vanessa and see how she's doing. He digs for information about Nate's visit, and Vanessa -- who we see sitting in house that seems to have sunken into greater disarray -- tells him, "Don't tell him I said this, baby, but he seemed kind of out of it." Rico presses to make sure nothing else was going on, and Vanessa tells him Nate's only got first-child paranoia, and that's just the way it is. Rico's all, "So...um...so...you're feeling okay?" As a matter of fact, Vanessa's not. She tells Rico the kids are bouncing off the walls, while we see them in the background sitting and eating quietly. Liar! Liar! Liar!