Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | 11 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Here's a Question For You
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 2007.08.10
Pete and Trudy are now at dinner preparing to hit up the other side of the family, but if Trudy's dad's appreciative comments about the allure of Pete's job are any indication, it's going to be an easier sell. After Trudy's mom breathlessly misinterprets Trudy's announcement of "great news" as "my daughter's baby-making parts are in working order," Trudy tells her parents about the apartment, sounding like she's upselling it, but I don't think it really needs it. Trudy's mom is all over it, but her dad feigns ambivalence as a joke for half a second before everyone laughs. I'm guessing Trudy never once missed getting something from her Christmas list. But actually, "everyone" didn't laugh -- Pete, in fact, is trying to torpedo his wife's efforts, although it's not totally clear why -- he could find the situation generally emasculating, or he might not want to face his family, given that it would be obvious that his wife was the one that came up with the money. Trudy's dad heartily tells Pete to call him either "Tom" or "Dad," and having a serious aversion to the latter, Pete goes with the former. He measuredly says he thinks they'd rather wait, but Tom says they should start their lives already. "Waiting's a bunch of bullshit." He goes on that it's an investment for him in Pete, and for an apartment on Park Avenue I think Pete could GET OVER HIMSELF. Trudy gives Pete a "That's enough, honey look, and he subsides.
Later, in a cab, Trudy is resting her head on Pete's shoulder as she contentedly sighs that she knew her parents would help them. Pete balefully says he knows she did, but he's not sure taking that kind of money is wise, and he's not sure what it means. Trudy: "It means we get the apartment." She's got an unexpected practicality to her. Basically, Pete is trying to position himself as upset that as the man, he didn't come through, but what is really bothering him is that Trudy has the sort of approval from her parents that he lacks and desperately wants. Trudy mollifies him eventually, however, and gets the cab to turn up Park so they can look at their new building. She then mentions the Armory, and asks, "When are they gonna tear that dinosaur down?" Heh -- that's a little nod to New Yorkers who know that that dinosaur is still alive and well and on Twenty-Sixth Street.