Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Tempus Fuckit
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 4 | Aired on 06.26.2005
Ruth's knitting-circle session is just winding up, if you'll pardon the expression, and I wouldn't blame you if you didn't. Everyone but Ruth and the other knitter with lines gets up to leave. The teacher or store owner or whatever she is, a snooty-sitcom-mom type named Victoria, sits next to Ruth and the other woman and asks Ruth for "The George Report." Ruth says that George started another round of electroshock. Good thing we had that whole setup last week with George not wanting Ruth to know about that. Way to milk all kinds of drama out of that secret and its ultimate revelation. Ruth says George and Maggie think the ECT is working, but that "the days after the treatments are such a challenge for" Ruth. Which is what really matters, after all. Somebody's going through some shit? How does it affect the nearest Fisher, is what I always want to know. After enabling Ruth's self-pity for a bit, Victoria asks if Ruth is signed up for next week's class. Ruth says she'll try to make it, and gets up to go. "It's all good, right?" Victoria tips her a wink. The other ladies watch her go sympathetically. Once she's out on the sidewalk, she starts crying before walking off. Nice clear view of the store window, though, with the name and slogan clearly visible. That must be in exchange for all the yarn Ruth's always knitting with on the show.
"Lila was the most active person I ever met in my life," says an old lady in an old-lady suit and an Anaheim Angels ball cap. The combination makes her look like a nursing-home resident on a field trip. She's explaining to Rico and Nate about how her friend, the Corpse of the Week, ran a resort in Ojai where families came year after year, and then their kids, and then their kids. "No one in the neighborhood got more Christmas cards or visits than Lila," she says. Nate says it sounds like a good life. The old lady says this would have been Lila's 95th birthday, and Rico smiles and mentions that it's Nate's birthday as well. Nate says that he's forty. The old lady says that Nate doesn't look that old. Yeah, it's thanks to clean living. She asks if he's doing anything special, and he says that his wife and daughter are taking him to Big Sur the following weekend. The old lady emotionally says that it's beautiful up there. "I suppose I'll be gone soon, too," she adds quietly. "Aww," Rico begins, but she says, "That's okay. It happens." Nate doesn't disagree. I think he's pretty clear on the concept by now.