Episode Report Card Niki: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Unfinished Business
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 17 | Aired on 03.05.2000
Later that night, we see Lily diving across the bed to grab the ringing phone on her night stand. It's Ricky-pooh checking in and making sure everyone's all right -- Zoe answered the phone earlier and told him about the accident. He's pacing around, inexplicably holding a mini-basketball. He and Lily talk about how scary it is worrying about the people you love and thinking you could lose them and HEY -- that's more foreshadowing, just in case you missed it. Lily complains about how much she still has to do -- those damn synopses come up again -- and that now her dad will be moving in for another two weeks and will obviously try to take over her life. Rick suggests she let him.
The next morning, normal family chaos is unfolding in the Manning kitchen as the kids get ready for school and Lily's on the phone trying to locate her father in the hospital. While she waits on the line, she asks Grace if she's okay to go to school. Zoe says she wouldn't if it were her in the accident. Grace makes it clear they're both overreacting and, besides, she has to go to rehearsal. She's not kidding. Phil and Judy come tripping through the back door and Judy announces "He called me at six-thirty." She does not sound pleased. Phil wanted out of the hospital so badly, he's still wearing his gown. Even though he's on crutches with a broken ankle, he puts on the bravado, insisting he's going upstairs. They all point out that it's basically impossible, even for him, and insist that he sleep on the couch in the living room. Phil utters the obligatory "it doesn't matter where [they] put [him] -- [they] won't even know [he's] there." Somehow I doubt it, and I think they do too. Judy and Lily both have somewhere to be, but Judy's is more urgent so she wins and Lily's left papa-sitting. Lily tells Phil she'll be back in twenty minutes after dropping off the kids at school. He says he'll be fine and starts trying to make breakfast for himself. He rummages very clumsily in the fridge, his crutches clearly getting in the way, as Lily begs him to sit and wait. He drops something sloggy and wet all over the floor and she flips it. She says she'll make him breakfast and the kids will just have to be late for school. No one argues.
Cut to a small TV set tuned to the History Channel. The camera pans back, and we see we're in the living room, watching Phil watching TV. The doorbell rings, and Phil hobbles over to answer it. It's Rick, and they go through a ha-ha deja-vu of the last time they met. "So Rick Sammler, what are your intentions?" Phil asks, and Rickster the Trickster replies "Bad as ever, Phil." Ahh, those guys! Lily comes in the back door and looks pleasantly surprised to see Rick. They exchange some self-conscious affection in front of Phil, and then Lily tosses some magazines onto Phil's lap, reading out the titles one by one. "What, no Playboy?" he wants to know. The three of them make more warm and fuzzy conversation and then (insert ominous organ music here) Jake walks through the front door (insert sound of needle scratching vinyl here). Woohoo, confrontation! Not. Both men harumph and ahem and put on big fat fake smiles and shake hands vigorously. They make polite chit chat about the restaurant, and Jake even goes so far as to suggest that Rick and Lily come by some night to check it out. Ah, but they're not fooling anyone with their manly displays, least of all Lily.