Episode Report Card Cate: D+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Ay Carumba
By Cate | Season 6 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.18.2001
Lucy feeds her mother a pretty fake apology, but Annie accepts it, allowing Lucy back into her room. That hardly seems like a reward, when you see that Lucy is expected to share her old room with Mary. However, Lucy's obviously used the twenty-second walk up from the kitchen to decide that she is ready to forgive Mary. Recalling RevCam's sermon from last week, Lucy points out that it must be hard for Mary to be the prodigal son. Mary isn't buying the analogy, though. She thinks that Lucy is the prodigal son, since she left to find herself, while Mary was just thrown out of the house last year. Okay, but what about all the special attention Mary's been receiving from SuperMom since she returned? I suspect the ultimate lesson here is that RevCam's sermons are too boring and convoluted for his kids to pay any attention to them. After listening in last week, I can see why. Mary sidetracks the brainy theological debate to tell Lucy the story of how she got caught kissing a fireman, which caused Wilson to decide she wasn't ready for marriage. No shit. I laugh when Mary reveals that the Colonel booted her out of his house, too, though I have to wonder how Mary found the money to travel from "New York" to Glenoak on such short notice. Wouldn't the airfare be a couple thousand bucks? I guess working part-time in a homeless shelter in Buffalo pays much more than one would expect. I also laugh pretty hard when Mary calls herself stupid. Lucy is polite enough to refute her, but I don't think anyone's fooled.
Wait -- who's that skulking by the bedroom door? Why, it's SuperMom, shamelessly eavesdropping on her daughters' private conversation. She's just in time to hear Lucy note that Annie's been treating Mary's return like that of the prodigal son. Mary says it's been nice to be the "favourite" again. Lucy sadly says, "Yeah, it's always nice when that comes around." SuperMom's also in time to hear Mary's confession: "I am still crazy, irresponsible, bad Mary, and after all this time, I don't think I've learned squat." She asks Lucy how she's going to get her life in order. Lucy replies, "I don't know, but whatever it takes for all of us to get our lives in order, I'm pretty sure we can get it right here at home." I sincerely hope Annie feels like shit right now, hearing this from the daughter she's treated so shabbily. She leaves before Lucy and Mary start to laugh. I'd prefer to think they're laughing because they realize the black humour of Lucy's last statement. Obviously they're never going to get anything from Dysfunction Junction but terrible parenting and betrayal from their siblings.