Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Let's Spend The Night Together
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 2 | Aired on 09.27.1999
We join the pair outside the restaurant doors, where they're surrounded by little white fairy lights. Rick grabs her and they start kissing with a great deal of snurfing and slurping and oohing and ahhing. Rick pries himself off long enough to ask whether she really has to go home. She assures him that she does -- in seventeen minutes, to be precise -- and, realizing that their lips have been separated longer than ten seconds, they dive toward one another again.
We next see them clambering into Rick's truck, which is in the restaurant parking lot, to continue the gropefest. Lily protests weakly that people will see them. Rick assures her that there's nobody around and they resume their heavy breathing. Cue a laughing couple walking through the parking lot. Giggling, Lily breaks their lip-seal and says she has to be going anyway. She observes that they're like two kids with nowhere to go. Rick quips that his parents aren't home, but Lily can't go there because her parents are waiting for her. Rick says that her parents are really strict and Lily points out that they're "nine and fourteen." She worries that it's "bad" for her to leave, but Rick assures her that they're in the same boat. Lily tears herself away with a great deal of whimpering and backward glances, just so we're all clear that she doesn't want to leave. Rick watches her retreat with a big grin.
Rick returns to his darkened apartment. Clothing is strewn across the breakfast bar, a sight that surprises Rick. He calls out for Jessie and Eli, and half a beat later Eli appears at the top of the stairs with his shirt unbuttoned. Rick asks him whether everything is all right. If by that he means "are you getting it on?" the answer is a resounding "yes," I'd say. Eli assures him that things are fine, but asks that Rick not come upstairs for a few minutes. "Jennifer is really embarrassed," he admits. No! Rick looks utterly shell-shocked and has trouble putting his eyes on Eli. Looking at some spot on the wall, he tells the kid that he needs to talk to him downstairs for a few minutes. Eli protests that Jennifer is really upset and that he should get back to her. Don't get all mushy over his sensitivity, though, because I'm pretty sure he says this only to avoid talking to Rick. You'll see what I mean in a bit. For once, Rick's not going to let him off that easily, though, and he tells Eli that he should take Jennifer home and that they'll talk when he gets back.
A few seconds later, Eli scoots Jennifer past Rick, who's sorting through some mail in the kitchen. Rick hears them coming down the stairs and turns his back. I'm not sure if it's to save Jennifer the embarrassment, or himself. Maybe both. Jennifer bravely musters a "goodbye" and Rick returns it with forced bravado. He tries to sound as if he didn't just catch her naked with his son, but he's not very convincing. As the kiddies head out, Rick plays back his messages, and there's one from Lindsey. He never did return her call at the office as he'd said he would. She lets him off the hook in the message, saying she knows he's been "so busy." Too bad she doesn't know the half of it.