Episode Report Card Niki: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Two Makes a Home
By Niki | Season 3 | Episode 16 | Aired on 03.24.2002
Cut to Aaron's new apartment, which is empty and full of dust motes. He enters, and a fluffy gray cat scrambles out an open window with a screech. Aaron rushes into the space, excited that a cat was there. He turns from the window and hooks a thumb toward it, whispering in awe, "That was a cat." Rick smiles and says, "Definitely." Aaron excitedly surveys the new digs and leads the group -- Rick, Miriam, Judy, Grace, and Zoe -- into the next room.
Lily, meanwhile, is sitting in her bedroom, flipping through a box of old photos.
Aaron races around the kitchen, showing off his cupboards.
Soliloquy Lily remembers, "When my father heard Aaron wasn't going back to school, I remember him screaming, 'I don't care who the f--- she is, you're not getting married at nineteen years old!"
Aaron shows off the interior of his brown fridge, and immediately chokes on whatever ungodly smell bursts out of it. Rick laughs while everyone gags and exclaims over the stench.
Soliloquy Lily continues: "So, my father went down to Florida and just brought Aaron back. I don't even know how. I guess that's when he started to change."
The cat returns to Aaron's window, but can't get in. Aaron rushes over to look at it, and the startled cat disappears. Aaron instantly forgets the cat, transfixed as he is by the sun pouring in the window. He spreads his arms and lets the patch of light wash over him, closing his eyes and soaking it in. "And this is my sunlight," he breathes, delirious.
Lily stares at a high-school picture of Aaron with some girl. Soliloquy Lily voice-overs, "We didn't know that he was writing [Jaimie] five times a day and calling her all hours of the night and not going to class." The camera cuts to her, and she stares at us, unflinching. "I guess we should have known," she says.
The gang is helping Aaron get settled in. Rick lifts an old, dead plant off the top of the fridge and says, "Well, I gotta say, this seems like a great place, Aaron." Aaron beams and practically dances on the spot. Miriam hands Aaron a clock, and he rushes to a living-room wall, anxious to hang it with Miriam's help. Grace offers to give him a bunch of old dishes and cups and things the Manning-Sammlers aren't using, and Judy says she has a bunch of stuff, too. They turn to see what Aaron thinks of the offer, but he's on another wavelength. "Places need two people," he declares, clutching Miriam. He's got everyone's attention. "One person is a room, but two are a home." He waits a beat then asks, "Right?" Rick, touched, immediately agrees. Aaron jumps, remembering something. He fishes his page out of his pocket and asks Miriam to read it. She rhymes off, "Mailbox...doorbell...cat sounds...somebody calling out 'Supper!'...ice trays..." while Aaron giddily says "check" after each item.