Episode Report Card Niki: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT A Dream Deferred
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 6 | Aired on 10.25.1999
Now Rick's at home, lying on his bed, and we're somehow hovering above him. Not a bad place to be, really. He's tossing and catching a football while Deep Thoughts-by-Jack-Handie music plays in the background. Rick sighs. He's troubled.
B/W Rick shares a little of his hero complex with us. I think it's meant to endear him to us, but personally I find it a little insulting. But I'll let you judge: "There is something about the idea of rescuing a woman..." As his voice trails, we cut to Lily, Queen of Helplessness, lying in her bed. Then quickly back to Rick's bedside phone. It's ringing. Lily's voice comes through the line: "Charles Dickens explained it all so perfectly." Somehow -- I guess because they're soulmates --- Rick knows exactly to which line, out of the thousands Dickens scribed, Lily is referring. "'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,'" he intones. "Exactly," Lily purrs. Rick then adds, "All Dickens had to deal with was revolutions and beheadings and stuff." Right...he had nothing on Lily and her broken-but-soon-to-be-replaced-by-a-brand-new-one washing-machine woes. Or, as Rick calls them, "the really important things." Lily immediately asks if she can see him the next day. Dependent, much?
The next morning, Jake strides into Lily's kitchen, where Lily's busy at the chopping board. In a chesty baritone, tells her that the mortgage is paid and the day is saved. He adds that he didn't take the extension because he knew she was worried. Lily takes a deep breath and blurts that she wants a formal financial agreement. Jake looks like someone just knocked him off that big white horse he rode in on. He tells her it's easier to just leave things as they are, but Lily stands firm. She points out that he's the one who complicated things in the first place. He barks that she threw him out. "And why did I do that?" Lily demands. Jake says that other marriages survive affairs and then tries to throw the onus back on Lily by suggesting that she just gets off on "being a victim." Lily retorts that, if that were the case, she'd still be with him. Ooh, burn! Jake's eyes bug, and his mouth gapes. He staggers around for a minute before regaining control of himself and saying that they can have an agreement, but NO LAWYERS. He turns and slams out the back door.
Cut to Lily standing in a park, looking off-screen like she's waiting for someone. Three guesses. Rick appears from the other side and sneaks up on her. They stand in front of one another with their hands shoved awkwardly in their pockets. Rick says he wants to apologize, but he doesn't feel sorry. Attaboy! He says that he wasn't busting his ass for her because he had nothing better to do; she asked him to help. Lily denies it. Rick says she was putting out "rescue me" signals all week "like a beacon flashing." Lily realizes there's some truth to what he's saying and looks upset. Rick assures her that there's nothing wrong with needing help, but she cuts him off to say that there is. She gets all huffy and explains, "All my life, people have always said this about me. That I'm manipulative. That I'm helpless. And I don't get it. [CLEARLY!] Because I don't try to do that." Fine, she doesn't mean to be needy and manipulative. I'm ready to forgive her, but then she goes on, "My face is my face. I can't help the way it looks." I really wish I could believe that she means she can't stop herself from looking sad or helpless, but I know she means she's just so damn beautiful that people want to do everything for her. So, Lily's a victim of her own beauty? Please. Number one, that statement is so arrogant I could puke, and number two, even though you can't help the way you look, you can certainly help the way you act. Or don't act, as the case may be. Anyway, Ricky-poo leaps at the bait and tells her, in this mushy-mush voice, "I like your face." "You do?" Lily pouts. "Every helpless inch of it," Rick says. Ugh. Lily laughs and throws her forehead against his chest, where she rests for a few seconds. She straightens up and announces that she's "let people take care of [her] too much, and [she] has to stop." Nice speech, but I'll believe it when I see it. Case in point: She asks Rick to ignore her if she seems to be asking for help. She asks him "not to get on that big white horse and come charging in." Again, putting the onus on someone else. Rick says he doesn't know if he can do that (his part is small enough already, after all). This exchange, complete with pleading looks and plaintive questions, continues a bit longer. Rick finally asks what he should do. "Just hold me," Lily answers. He does, and she clings to him like a barnacle. She gets misty and snuffles into his shoulder: "Judy might leave the store." Lily says she's afraid that if Rick finds out what a mess her life is, he'll "get back on that horse and ride in the opposite direction." Rick looks adoringly into her eyes before kissing her. He wraps his arm protectively around her shoulder as the scene fades.