Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A+ | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Depression On A DVD, Part Two
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 07.27.1997
Keane Light visits Keane in his cell, and offers to braid his hair. I guess they made up, because Keane Light still looks as gay as the day is long. Keane declines at first, but can't resist this: "I'll make your hair look so nice they won't want to kill you." Keane laughs for the first time in memory. Aw. Keane Light tells Keane that he saw their father on TV the day before, and that he's sorry he's not who Keane wants him to be, but he likes being queer. A tear drops onto Keane's forehead, prompting Keane to look up and say, "I love you, Billie. Allah loves you." Keane Light says that their dad doesn't. Damn. I find Keane's extended storyline very moving. This season may be depression in a box set, but it's certainly beautifully written. McManus interrupts this touching scene, and his timing is as bad as Said's is good. Jerk. He tells the boys the news about their sister, and that she's waiting for a transplant, but organs are scarce. Keane immediately volunteers one of his kidneys, and charges McManus with making it happen. I'm actually rooting for Timbo to come through here. Shocking, isn't it?
Outside, Sister Pete is leading the protesters in cries of "No justice, no peace." McManus watches through an open window, and Glynn finds him to break the news that the Pernicious Peewee won't grant a stay of execution, as he thinks Keane is too dangerous to be released to a hospital. I think they need to hoist the Pernicious Peewee on his own public-opinion petard (alliteration, whee!), as it's one thing to execute criminals, but it's quite another to let an innocent person die because they couldn't wait an extra day or two to execute someone. McManus begs Glynn to fight, but Glynn says that if they go public, it'll only fuel the protesters, with which I frankly don't see the fucking problem. McManus says the PP thinks he's God. "Maybe it's time we got some help from the real one."
Cut to Mukada's office, where he incredulously parrots, "You want me to call the Cardinal to intercede?" McManus says yes. Mukada tries to tell him that the Cardinal is more conservative than Jesse Helms and Bill Buckley combined. Well, we'll see if you get invited to the Lido Deck the next time the Love Boat sails, mister! McManus tells him to make the call anyway, and this is one time his reputation as the bloodiest-hearted liberal is an asset, because if he doesn't have a problem with it, it's hard for anyone else to. Mukada gives us some of his own backstory, namely that he was a favorite of the Cardinal's until he worked in his office and asked a few too many questions. "I defied him instead of deifying him." McManus: "So Jefferson Keane's sister dies because you and the Cardinal had a tiff?" Well, Billie Keane got sent out of Em City because you were in a snit with his brother, McManus, so blow it out your self-righteous ass. And that's about as mild an insult as I can come up with for old Timbo, so you can tell I'm on his side here. Mukada says he'll make the call, but it probably won't do any good. Oh, I don't know about that. "Cardinal Stubing? Remember that night you plied me with just a few too many piña coladas in the hot tub? Well, I'm calling in that favor. No, not like that."