Episode Report Card DeAnn Welker: D | 387 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT The Circle of Life
By DeAnn Welker | Season 4 | Episode 4 | Aired on 2009.10.05
Over cereal, HRG asks Claire why she's there. She unconvincingly wonders if a daughter can't just drop in on her father unannounced. She admits she's worried about him, since he's all alone, and is living off cereal and Japanese takeout. He concedes the point, and says he'll order Italian tonight. Heh. She wonders about a job, but he says his particular skills aren't all that marketable. She says that's not true, since he was middle management at Primatech Paper for years. He says that job consisted of lying to his family, bagging and tagging, etc. She says, "At least you're a people person." Then she finds a job for lumber salesman, which he's perfect for. He's like, "You do realize that's a cover, right?" She wants to pretend she's interviewing him for the job, and asks what his greatest strength as a salesman is. He responds seriously, "If they don't buy something, I can always just shoot them." Neither of them laugh, but I thought it was amusing.
Nathan shows up at Millie's. She's surprised, especially when he asks about Kelly, since no one ever wants to talk to her about Kelly. He says he was going through some old stuff and got to thinking about Kelly, so wondered if Millie's heard from her. She says she wishes she could say yes, that she's been living in France, is an artist, has a daughter named Francois, but she doesn't know anything. He asks if she's ever wondered if Kelly didn't really run away, and she says she actually suspected Nathan knew more than he let on and she even hired a private investigator, but Kelly used her credit card to buy a one-way ticket to London and she hasn't heard from her since. He wonders if that's not what really happened, but Millie says Kelly was always willful and when you add to it that Millie wasn't the most attentive of mothers, it all adds up. Millie tells Nathan she has a hair, nail, and body-sculpting thing she doesn't want to be late for, so he can show himself out. He touches a statue by the pool and flashes back to a younger Nathan (played by a different actor, but wearing the tell-tale plain baseball cap) with Kelly. They're having fun by the pool, and Kelly's flirty and pressuring Nathan to take full advantage of her. They're drinking. She takes his cap and backs off. Then the flashback ends, so Nathan touches the diving board and sees her back teasingly away from young Nathan until she falls and hits her head, landing in the pool and bleeding. I guess that answers that question. Not that any of us ever knew or cared about it until now, so I can't really muster up any strong reaction either way. Especially since it was an accident.