Episode Report Card Niki: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Baby Blues
By Niki | Season 2 | Episode 8 | Aired on 01.09.2001
Eli and Wannabe, meanwhile, are standing next to a locked truck, wondering where Coop is. They make a few jokes about Coop and then stand with their hands shoved awkwardly in their pockets. Eli asks whether it's true that Wannabe got kicked out of her old school. She laughs her little baboon laugh and moves toward the back of the truck saying, "Kinda…" She's mysterious. She hops up on the truck bed and Eli joins her. She asks if he's always been a jock, then proceeds to tell him that he doesn't seem like one. "Not that you don't look athletic," she says. "You have a good body." She explains that he doesn't seem to "need that label to feel good about" himself. Oh, whatever.
Back in Rick's truck, he's telling Grace to pull out any time she's ready. She takes a deep breath and proceeds to grind the gears. In his most soothing I-should-host-a-painting-show-on-public-access voice, Rick talks her through the steps. Grace promptly jerks the truck forward then manages to get it moving smoothly. Rick, somehow thinking that Grace suddenly knows all there is to know about mastering "the stick" (oh, stop it!), beings focusing his attention on Jessie in the backseat, asking her about Eli. The engine whines, and he tells Grace to shift gears. The truck cruises past Eli and Wannabe, comfortably chatting on the balk of the truck. Grace is transfixed. Rick is turned around talking to Jessie. Cue the crash in five…four…three…"Grace! Grace!" Rick shouts, having glanced out the windshield. And WHAM! They collide with something. A parked car maybe? Rick takes a second to collect himself, says "all right" a lot, and then asks if everyone is okay. He's trying to convince himself that that's the important thing. "It's just a…just a car," he says forlornly. Grace, I think, wishes the crunch had produced one fatality. Or, at the very least, had knocked her out.
After commercials, we find the crash survivors all congregated in Lily's kitchen, where she's trying to give Rick a check for the damages. He doesn't want to take it, saying it's just a dent. Grace says she should pay for part of it, too. Rick tells her not to be ridiculous. He and Lily back-and-forth a bit more, then he kisses Lily and tells her he's not taking her money, and he and Jessie have to go. Grace slumps on a stool, miserable. Before he goes, Rick scooches her shoulders and assures her that it's okay.
A little later, Lily's brushing her teeth when Grace comes in in her jammies to apologize again for the accident. Lily assures her that she knows it was an accident and that it's okay. Grace is still worried that Lily's mad. Lily isn't. Grace seems to accept this and moves to the other basin. "It's kind of his fault too," she says, explaining that Rick insisted she drive even after she told him she couldn't drive "stick." Lily's patience remains intact and she tells Grace again that it's okay. Grace finishes removing her lipstick and tosses the tissue at the garbage before saying goodnight. She notices that the tissue doesn't quite make it, and when she bends to retrieve it, spots the test in the garbage can. Oh, really smooth Lily. Way to be all covert operations and then leave the stupid thing in plain view. Grace looks like she's biting back the bile and asks if Lily's pregnant. Lily shakes her head. "Are you trying to get pregnant?" Grace asks next. Lily says no. Lily starts giving Grace the "when two people love each other" spiel, but Grace already knows all about the birds and bees thankyouohsomuch and doesn't need to think about her mother in the role of either.