Episode Report Card Niki: C | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT 'Til The One Day When The Lady Met This Fellow...
By Niki | Season 2 | Episode 15 | Aired on 03.13.2001
Cut to Rick in the passenger seat of his truck. Eli's driving, and Jessie's in the back seat, positioned so that she can see Eli's face in the rearview mirror. "I'm not going to share a bunkbed with a ten-year-old," she announces. Eli chimes in that Rick doesn't have to worry about converting the garage or anything, since Eli's not going to live there. He says it matter-of-factly, without any hint of a tantrum, and adds that he'll just get a place of his own or live with Karen. "Yeah, me too," Jessie says. "Listen, guys, we can make this work. I just need your help, okay? Will you stick with me?" Rick pleads. Eli glances at Jessie in the rearview mirror. She shoots back a guilty glance. No one says anything.
Cut to Lily on the phone, teasing Rick for bringing up bunkbeds. She asks what he was thinking. Rick says he wasn't thinking; he "was in fear for [his] life." Lily says she thought it went okay, overall, and he asks what she thinks of the desk idea. She hedges that "it's pretty big to fit in the room." He says they could try it and see, to which she further hedges that moving it all the way up the stairs, if it even fit on the staircase, would be so much work and it's so heavy, and if it didn't fit, it would all be for nothing. Rick tells her to let him worry about it, and St. Lily martyrs that it doesn't matter, she "can work anywhere." After a beat, she mutters, "I guess." Rick starts to cave, so she says they can try it. Or think about it. She says she has to go so that she can make room for him in her "ahmwah." Her French accent, she is not so good. Rick offhandedly says that they definitely need to get a bigger one, and Lily declares that she likes that ahmwah. Oh, grow up you two. They say goodnight, each with reservations sprouting in their mind.
After commercials, the Plucky Guitars of Fun are back, as Rick unloads his drafting table and stool from the back of his truck. He carts them up to the house, but gets stuck in the doorway. As he wrenches the stool free, he jerks the drafting table, which releases the collapsible legs and causes the table to become lodged in the doorway. Slapstick. Spencer and Grace pop up on the porch behind him. Grace asks whether the table's coming in or going out, and laughs. Spencer decides that it's a really convenient time to stick out his hand and wait for a shake. Rick struggles to free one of his hands and grips Spencer's, asking how it's "going with the whole...uh..." Spencer figures out that Rick's referring to the silly old ancient-history hostage taking and says it's fine. Then he and Grace laugh about the trauma counseling they're forced to endure. Call me crazy, but there's a whiff of something unhealthy here, in how well they're dealing with everything. I see some kind of mental breakdown in Grace's future. Rick fights with the legs of his drafting table, refusing Spencer's offer to help, but Spencer ignores him and gets in there anyway, managing to collapse the legs and carry off the table. Not before clipping Rick in the nuts with the corner, though. More slapstick. Grace pats his shoulder sympathetically, then moves into the foyer, depositing her placards on the bench. When Rick manages to straighten up, he spots the signs -- which say, "Down With Atlantor" -- and stops dead. Ah, home sweet home, eh Rick? He grits his teeth.