Episode Report Card Niki: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Unfinished Business
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 17 | Aired on 03.05.2000
Cut to the hallway outside his room, where Grace is refusing to leave with everyone else. Jake offers to come back later to pick her up, and despite being flat broke, Lily fishes some money out of her purse and insists that Grace get some dinner in the cafeteria. Grace makes a face in deference to the age-old tradition of knocking cafeteria food.
Back at the Manning house, Lily's trying to care for her Mom, but Mom is too distracted to register most of what she's saying.
Cut to a close-up of a bleeping monitor. Grace is sitting at Phil's bedside watching the blips move across the screen. Phil pipes up to get her attention and says "cack." Finally, Grace understands that he's trying to do Lear, and he wants her to say her lines. "[She] doesn't want to make [him] sicker than [he] is" she protests but then gives in. She starts again with a very rote recitation of the "Good my lord" bit.
Back at the Manning house, Lily is tucking in Zoe, and Zoe asks her if "Grandma is praying for Grandpa." Lily says she is, and Zoe wants to know who she's praying to, since Grandpa is Jewish and Grandma isn't. Lily reassures her that God listens to everybody and Zoe is put at ease. "That's good," she says and then asks, "Do[es Lily] think [she] can go to Meagan's party?" She proceeds to describe the dress she wants to wear, and Lily smiles at her innocence before giving her a big kiss goodnight.
Meanwhile, Grace has chugged through a good part of her lines and is now near the end of the play, when Cordelia is reunited with Lear. He's been broken by her sisters and she laments his fate. "O dear father! Restoration, hang they medicine on my lips, and let this kiss repair those violent crimes," Grace says, and we can see that, finally, Cordelia has clicked for her, as she brushes at strands of Phil's hair with tears in her eyes.
At the Manning house, Judy and Lily are camped out in the kitchen listening to their mother pacing the floor above them. They start going down the "what if" road but stop themselves. It's that same sense of superstition that stops any of us from saying horrible possibilities out loud. We get the sense of their helplessness, fear, and tension as they wait it out.
Grace is still doing her Cordelia, choking out the words through her tears. She puts her head on Phil's chest and he makes sounds like "thank-you."
Lily is upstairs in her bedroom checking on her mother. They're both sitting on the edge of the bed with their backs to the camera, and Lily offers to lay down with her for a while. Mom says that's fine but she's not very tired. She seems pretty distant, dealing with her stress and fear privately.