Episode Report Card Kim: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT A Perfect Match
By Kim | Season 4 | Episode 11 | Aired on 12.18.2001
Noel works on the sporting goods store's website amidst a giant pile of discarded junk food wrappings. Sean comes over to check out his progress. Noel asks his opinion on moveable versus non-moveable interfaces, and don't even get me started on the poor usability of that website or we'll be here all night. I'm just saying that Noel needs to read something by Donald Normal, and soon. Sean is excited that Noel used his idea of having a little snowboarder guy go across the screen, and thinks that their partnership is going to work.
Ben and Felicity sit in the hospital cafeteria as The Tinkly Piano Of The Snowed-In Liver plays. Ben says that even if the two surgeries are a success, there's no guarantee that his father won't "do it again." Felicity wonders what Ben means, and Ben says that his father might treat his mother the way he used to, even after she has literally given him a part of herself. Felicity says that there are no guarantees, and that Ben needs to take a leap of faith. Felicity says, "Maybe that's what love is. Risking a part of yourself." Wow, it's almost like they're talking about their own relationship. Except they're also talking about cutting out a piece of your liver to prove your love, which is gross when you think about it. Writers, you can do so much better than this clumsy metaphor. Ben listens to the annoying piano music for a minute while Felicity stares at him. Enough of the fading from Felicity's face to Ben's face. Felicity suggests that they go back up, but Ben wants to stay there and think about it. Felicity promises to meet him upstairs, and takes off. Ben stares at the really ugly flowers on the cafeteria table.
Felicity finds Ben's mom sitting outside her husband's room. Felicity offers her some chamomile tea, and Ben's mom thanks her and asks after Ben. They sit there for a minute, and then Ben's mom says that Ben is hiding. Felicity says that Ben is worried. Ben's mom says that Ben wants to protect her, and always has. She remembers when Ben was ten years old, and his father threw a plate at her and hit her in the chin, and Ben's mom needed stitches. Ben was by his mother's side the whole time. Ben's mom kept telling him that it was okay so that he wouldn't be scared, but she thinks that what he heard was, "It's okay. This is what love is." Ben's mom knows that it isn't, but she thinks that her liver donation is different, and that Ben could see that. Ben's mom says sadly, "But I never taught him that, did I?" I know Ben and Felicity are pretty serious and all, but wouldn't you get kind of creeped out if your boyfriend's mom told you a story like that? Maybe I'm just too repressed, but that seems like a story that you would save for later. Anyway, it is interesting to get some more details on Ben's childhood, because it does explain a lot about the character.