Episode Report Card Niki: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Booklovers
By Niki | Season 2 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.30.2000
It's a little later, but we're still at the restaurant. Judy and her friend are seated at the bar with wine, which is good, 'cause they're going to need it in three…two…one. Jake says that the review has really turned things around for the business, and Tiffany interrupts him to start yammering on in her little bubble voice that it wasn't the review at all -- Jake really had "this vision." Jake, chuckling uncomfortably, tries to shut her up by saying, "Heh, uh, I don't know if I'd say it was a 'vision,'" but Tiffany has her convictions and firmly tells him that she knows from visions. She had one at the Blind Melon concert, where she saw a dark cloud over the singer's head and then, like, a week later he was dead (from an overdose, for those of you who don't know). Ooh, she's otherworldly! Seriously, what planet is she from? And how can Jake (albeit, no shiny prize himself) stand to spend more than ten minutes with this overgrown child?
Cut to Crusty's office where she's on the phone, talking sweetly. It's a first. She hangs up, spitting, "Damn venture capitalists!" Lily walks in at that moment and asks if something is wrong. Crusty orders her to close the door. Crusty's all wound up and, pacing, explains to Lily that about two months ago, "they swore they'd do another round of financing, and now, it's all about bringing partners in and -- you know what? I am such an idiot. I actually thought we could stay independent." ["Guess what. You are an idiot. That's why you grow your webzine slowly and don't take money from venture capitalists. Not that I'd know." -- Wing Chun] Don't worry Crusty, Lily's got the solution: lunch! Crusty, disgusted, informs Lily that she can't eat. She goes on, saying that they want to bring in a Managing Editor to bring all the business aspects together. "But that could make your job easier," Lily says. "Oh, tons easier," Crusty snaps. "Like non-existent!" She drops onto the couch and stares petulantly at the wall. Lily's brimming with support now, giving Crusty a pep talk and saying that she "can hold [her] own against some --" "Don't you understand?" Crusty snaps. Well, since she's been your receptionist for all of, I don't know -- four months? -- I'd say that "no" is a safe answer here. Oh, it's okay, it was more of a rhetorical question anyway, as Crusty explains that she's "given [her] life to this magazine, and now [she] has no life." She adds that if she were seeing somebody, it would be easier to laugh the whole thing off, but she isn't. She picks at a corn chip in a bowl on the coffee table, then throws it back and sighs, "Actually, I do want lunch."