Episode Report Card Niki: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Flirting with Disaster
By Niki | Season 2 | Episode 12 | Aired on 02.06.2001
Lily flies out to her desk and grabs her coat and purse in one swift motion. Her bag gets caught on a handle and she yanks it free with barely a backward glace and continues rushing out. The elevator can't get there fast enough, and Lily pounds on the button a few times to hurry it along. She looks nauseated. When it finally arrives, she dives into its refuge and leans wearily against the wall, sighing and wiping unconsciously at her mouth.
We return from commercial, and it's the next morning. Lily is snuggled in bed, looking miserable. Her alarm sounds, and she silences it and rolls over. Oh my god, she gets up at 6:30. I know a lot of people probably do, but man. I can't even conceive of it. She tosses around in the bed as Time Passes. Grace and Zoe come into her room and ask why she's not bugging them to get ready. Brushing her teeth, Grace asks if Lily's sick. Lily says she might be and asks if they can get themselves ready. Zoe clambers onto the bed, saying, "I know just how you feel. Sometimes, I don't want to go to school." Lily smiles and brushes the hair out of Zoe's eyes.
Soliloquy Lily voice-overs: "There's raising children, and then there's raising girls." What an odd statement, but I get what she means. We cut to a shot of Lily on the Stool, saying, "And if I ever dare to imagine anything happening to them, where a man tries to...More than anything, I want them to be strong."
Zoe asks if she can stay home with Lily. Lily plays with Zoe's braids and says that she has to "figure some stuff out." She tells Zoe to go get ready and then rolls over to reach for the cordless. She leaves a message for Crusty, apologizing and saying she thinks she's getting the flu. She really is naïve: she doesn't even try to sound sick.
Over at Karen's, it's already afternoon, and Jessie's busy doing homework on the coffee table, while Leo's slumped in an armchair tossing a tiny Nerf football into the air. The house has a Sunday feel. A Sunday-and-your-super-religious-grandparents-from-out-of-town-are-here kind of feel. Restless, Leo tries distracting Jessie. Karen watches the two of them goof around like a couple of siblings. Jessie's adamant about doing her homework, and goes off to seek the quiet of her room.
Left without a playmate, Leo ambles into the kitchen, where Karen is working away on her laptop. He stands behind Karen, who's obviously tired and stressed, and starts rubbing her neck. She looks thoughtful as he massages, and eventually asks, "What are we doing?" He answers that he's "touching [her] in strict accordance with the manual." She laughs a tiny laugh and puts her hand on his to stop it. "No, I mean, what are we really doing with each other?" Leo solemnly asks, "What kind of question is that?" She says it's "the kind of question everyone asks sooner or later." He wants to know why they can't "ask it later." He sits next to her at the table.