Episode Report Card Cate: C | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Pathetic
By Cate | Season 6 | Episode 11 | Aired on 01.13.2002
It's Ronald, Robbie's brother -- not the Lance Bass brother, but some other guy who also made out with Lucy a few years ago. This Ronald guy looks like he's stupider than Dopey, Robbie, and Wilson put together. Or maybe it just seems that way because the actor playing him is wooden enough to make Jimmy Plywood look animated. Ronald explains that he's not on speaking terms with the Lance Bass brother because he made out with Lucy on the Promenade. The CamRents let it slip that Robbie has also made out with Lucy, so Ronald storms off to kick his brother's ass. It's a good thing that he informs us that he wants to kill Robbie. I'm not sure we would have guessed that otherwise, since his tone of voice hasn't changed one iota throughout this scene.
Unfortunately, the promised ass-kicking never materializes. After the commercial break, Ronald is sitting up in the girls' room with Ruthie. How he got there is never explained, and frankly, I can't imagine the CamRents letting this unbalanced freak spend time alone with their eleven-year-old daughter in her bedroom. Ruthie's trying hard to ignore him as he natters on about how he's in love with Lucy. Finally, Ruthie's had enough. She slams down her pen and explains that Lucy's not ready for a relationship, let alone marriage. Ronald is a little taken aback, I think -- it's hard to tell when someone has only one facial expression -- and says that he never mentioned marriage. Having grown up watching her sisters, poor Ruthie probably thinks it's normal for people to get engaged after a date or two. Ronald crassly explains that making out with Lucy inspired his songwriting, which makes a disgusted Ruthie ask, "So two years later you've come back to get another jolt of Lucy's make-out mojo?" Ruthie rolls her eyes and says she doesn't have time for Ronald, so he sighs and lies back down on whoever's bed he's lying on.
In the Hello Kitty room, Robbie asks Dopey why he's not at work. Dopey answers, "Because I don't have a car, moron." What a dumb statement, made even more regrettable by the fact that he just had to tack that insult on at the end. There must be about fifty other ways Dopey could get to work, but if he's too much of an idiot to figure that out, he's in no position to be casting aspersions on anybody else's character. Not that Robbie isn't a moron; I just don't think Dopey, of all people, has any business pointing it out. It's like this person who wrote me hate mail about my recaps and tried to call me stupid, but was unfortunate enough to misspell "stupid." Dopey subjects Robbie to another of his patented bossy lectures, claiming that Robbie caused the car accident on purpose. Robbie asks, "'Accident on purpose'? Does that even make any sense?" No, and I think Robbie's line may be the most intelligent thing I've ever heard on this show. Dopey switches from car issues to the fact that Robbie is letting his brother hang around Lucy when she's not stable. I wonder how, exactly, it is Robbie's responsibility if his brother wants to visit over-eighteen Lucy. And if he's really that bothered by it, can't Dopey just meddle in it himself, the way he always does? Realizing he's losing this battle, he resorts to that trademark move of sore losers everywhere: walking out of the fight before Robbie can point out how absurd his arguments are.