Episode Report Card Kim: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Family Affairs
By Kim | Season 2 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.20.1999
Knoll sets the table to some Motown music. There is a knock at the door and it's Professor Sherman, a.k.a. Annie. Knoll is all uncomfortable and Annie ends up inviting herself in. Felicity's parents arrive and Knoll tells them to put their jackets in the bedroom. Knoll is a terrible host, by the way. He doesn't take their jackets for them, or offer them a drink, or food, or anything. Instead he says, "Felicity and Elena will be here any minute!" and then steps out into the hall to see if they are coming.
At Dean and Deluca, Sean is serving shrimp Smoothaise cocktail. Some guy takes a shrimp, and Sean urges him to "try the sauce." The guy does, and makes a face and puts the shrimp tail back on the platter. Julie appears out of nowhere and hands the guy a glass of water, which he gratefully gulps down. Ben comes up and asks how things are going. Julie says, "Gotta keep moving!" and does. Sean says that he thinks the party-goers' "palates are adjusting to the taste of the Smoothaise." The Husband gives a little speech about how they have reached their fund-raising goal, again to point out that he really is a good guy. Javier asks Ben to go in the back and get more dumplings because "they're a big hit!" Javier tells Sean, "You need to get moving, big boy, because the shrimp need to get to the people and not vice versa." Sean continues to stand there so Javier walks off while making a disgusted noise. Remember the Sean-loves-Julie storyline? What happened to that this week? There are no references to it that I can see. Maggie goes in back where Ben is getting the dumplings.
Ben takes some dumplings out of the oven rather clumsily and is surprised to see Maggie there. He points out that The Husband is right outside, and Maggie asks if he thinks she is going to throw him down right there. ["I'd just like to say that if I were the married woman in this scenario, I wouldn't be asking those kinds of questions, because we'd all know the answer." -- Wing Chun] Well, why else did she come back there, then? Ben says he should be getting back out there, but Maggie says it will be okay if they stay in back for a minute or two. While she says this, she comes very close to Ben and kind of nuzzles him. Just then, Julie walks in and suggests they go back out to the party because The Husband is looking for Maggie. Ben looks guilty some more because The Husband is such a swell guy, and they couldn't possibly be setting the viewers up for a fall, now could they?