Episode Report Card Niki: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Losing You
By Niki | Season 3 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.07.2002
Cut to the kitchen of Manning Manor, where Lily is engaged in something at the counter. Bea is there with her. Zoe hovers in the doorway and asks if she can have some ice cream. Lily says sure. "She should have had her supper," Bea tsks to Lily. Lily says it's okay. "She eats too much junk food," Bea nags. Lily snaps, "Why do you keep talking about her like she's not even here?" Bea denies it. Zoe says Bea does. "Don't you dare take that tone with me, young lady," Bea warns Zoe. "What tone?" Zoe snarks. "That tone," Bea says. Zoe sasses that she'll use whatever tone she wants whenever she wants. "Zoe, that's enough," Lily says wearily. Judy comes in the back door just in time to hear Zoe grit, "I don't even know why you came here when all you do is criticize everyone." I was wondering that, too. Lily almost thinks about using something approaching a yell and tells Zoe to go to her room. Zoe leaves the ice cream on the counter and chokes out, "Gladly." She turns to Bea for one parting shot: "I don't even want to go to your stupid birthday party." Bea shoots Lily an accusatory look and complains, "I don't know what's come over that girl. She used to be so sweet." Gee, I wonder. Lily just stands there, mute, and shoots a look to Judy, who's lurking in the corner out of harm's way.
Cut to Lily's bedroom, where she and Judy are in front of her computer, reading up on Alzheimer's. Lily reads that there are "tangles that can form in certain regions of the brain." "Tangles," Judy echoes. Lily reads that "the hippocampus starts to shrink in the early part of the disease, and they need an MRI to see it, but basically they can't diagnose it 100% until they do an autopsy." Mention of an autopsy sends Judy out of her seat toward the keyboard, muttering that there must be some sort of treatment. Lily reads, "Treatment is about controlling the symptoms, which can include cognitive loss, verbal aggression, agitation, wandering, depression...." Judy shakes her head sadly and closes her eyes. She mutters that she can't take it, and throws herself into an armchair in the corner. Lily says that maybe this is "just what getting older is, and now we need some fancy name for it." Judy's not buying it; she doesn't think there's anything normal about what's happening to Bea. Lily reasons that it's people's way of dealing with it, so they can put relatives away without feeling bad about it. Judy wonders what the alternative is, and asks if Lily is going to want to take care of Barbara, because she doesn't. The weight of the situation and of Judy's guilt presses in on Lily, and she tears up.