Episode Report Card Aaron: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Death be not proud
By Aaron | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 06.23.2001
Fade up on Nate being interrogated by a pair of detectives about last week's mysterious house fire. They inquire as to his activities at the "crime scene," and for some reason I'm overcome with a tingling sense that something here just isn't quite right. It's almost as though something incredibly important and powerful was missing from the scene. Something big. And scraggly. Hey, wait a sec! Peter Krause has shaved! Damn it! That body-hair stuff was my bread and butter. What the hell am I gonna make fun of him for now? Oh wait, the oral sex. Never mind. Anyway, we start cutting back and forth between Brenda and Nate, answering the same questions with the same detectives. Brenda shamelessly admits that they "fucked," whereas Nate will cop only to "making love." We're also informed that Nate possesses a particular talent for performing the aforementioned oral. Must be all the tongue exercise he got doing the Sorkin-style dialogue over on Sports Night. Brenda gets dismissed after offering up a few more sordid tidbits, and also basically leaving Nate to twist in the wind. Which he does, as the police proceed to ask about his connection to Kroehner and the "greedy Nazi fuck." Nate decides to ask if he needs a lawyer, but the police tell him he's free to go. Of course, before he does, they do drop the hint that Claire could be responsible, and Nate sorta looks as though he might agree.
And now it's time for one of this week's reader-submitted nicknames, as Perdita's Old McFisher's "Bought The" Farm transitions seamlessly into sorkinhead's Formaldehyde Fortress. Incidentally, keep those nicknames coming. Your challenge for this week is Ruth. After all, why should I be the one doing all the work around here? I mean, I'm the one on a deadline. Besides, I write the recaps, moderate the forums, provide untold hours of captivatingly witty free entertainment, and what have you people ever done for me? And it's not like we get paid all that much. Six grand a week don't buy what it used to. Unless you live near Canada, of course. Oh, come on! I'm just kidding, people. Not about Canada, though. Anyway, you know I'm not doing this for the money or the fame, and I think we've already established that it's not helping with the ladies. I do it just for you, and if I could, I'd give away all the cash and all the autograph hounds just to bring one more smile to your boring, crappy workday. Well, everything but the bonus plan, that is. And some of the groupies are kinda cute. Anyway, this isn't helping the whole speedy-recap concept, so I'll just move on. Formaldehyde Fortress. Right.
So David is whining that, despite having passed the health department inspection they made such a big deal out of last week, the ventilation system has broken down anyway. You'd think a fortress would have stronger duct-work, but I guess not. David and Mom chat for a bit about air-conditioning and its general lack of availability in most developing nations, and then Nate comes home and tells them he's a suspect in the arson case. He also mentions that Claire is a suspect as well, and only Ruth seems even mildly shocked by that news. Hmm. I wonder if we're supposed to think Claire did it? The air-conditioning repair guy informs them that it will take five days and $3,700 to get everything fixed, which leads to more exposition about the tenuous state of Fisher & Sons finances. Finally, the doorbell rings, and David and Nate rush off to their "ten o'clock." In addition to being clean-shaven, by the way, Nate has also put on a dark suit, and he makes a particular point of straightening his tie as he walks past the camera. Yeah. I. Do. Get it, by the way. Once her boys are gone, Ruth stares down the repair guy and demands he be finished in three days instead of five. He looks scared. He should be.