Episode Report Card Cate: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Twelve Angry People
By Cate | Season 4 | Episode 17 | Aired on 02.27.2000
Ruthie is being tucked in by SuperMom. They're rehashing the haircutting thing once more for good measure. Ruthie says she's glad Sarah's mother doesn't think two wrongs make a right. We learn that if Sarah's mother had agreed that Ruthie should cut her hair, SuperMom would have made Ruthie do it. Not that there was ever much suspense, mind you, because it's hard to imagine what an ogre Sarah's mother would have had to be to agree to that proposal. SuperMom tries to wax philosophical about something or other, which can best be summarized by her statement that it is "pretty complicated." I would like to add that while it may be complicated, it's also pretty trite and not really worth sorting out. Ruthie says that "being good is a full-time job." Annie claims that's what she was trying to say before. When Ruthie stares at her blankly, SuperMom says, "Never mind." I'll take her up on that.
Mary and Lucy are arguing over whether Mary's prank of pretending to call Mr. Nayloss was funny. Obviously, Lucy thinks it was not. She says, "I told Andrew's nutty father that I wasn't ready to have sex." Finally Lucy agrees it was funny. Mary apologizes but says she also deserves to have some fun. Why Lucy would agree that Mary should have that fun at Lucy's expense is beyond me. Lucy does redeem herself somewhat when she says she called Robbie for Mary. She says she left a message saying, "Just because you wanted to fool around with my sister, and just because she didn't want to fool around, doesn't mean you're a totally bad guy. So call her." Lucy strings Mary along for a while as to whether she actually called Robbie. When Mary says she'll kill Lucy if she phoned, Lucy wants to know why. Mary gives a speech about wanting to find a good guy who won't get her in trouble and having the "freedom of living a guilt-free life." When Lucy says she didn't call Robbie, Mary is a little disappointed because she "kind of wanted to call him back and make that speech to him."
SuperMom is actually paying some attention to the twins when Simon walks in. She asks how his evening went, and he says, "I'm starting to realize that life is a lot of hard work, and it would be a whole lot easier if everyone would just do the right thing in the first place." That's obviously the main message of the week. Okay, we get it!
Dopey and Surly Guy are discussing statistics. Surly Guy is saying that stats can be manipulated to say almost anything you want. Duh! He says that the number "one" doesn't always sound so bad when it's used in statistics. Using RevCam's court case as an example, he says that with one murder victim among many thousands of people, the number "one" can actually sound good. However, it's not good, and "one matters." Okay, that's part of this week's special message to the viewers, in case you weren't paying attention the other twelve times that point was made already. Surly Guy goes on to relate this "one" concept to autism, and completely out of the blue we learn that Surly Guy has a child who's autistic. Surly Guy explains that his son's autism also affects Surly Guy and his wife. You know, this would have made a much better plot for today's show than the plot we actually got.