Episode Report Card Niki: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Daddy's Girl
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 16 | Aired on 02.13.2000
Jake's little optimism dance hasn't put Grace's mind at ease. She's walking along the sidewalk with Zoe, and she's obviously thinking hard about something. Zoe wants to know what's wrong, but Grace just says, "Nothing." Something across the street catches her eye and she moves toward it. We see her looking through the window of a juice bar/café, where Jared is busy working behind the counter. She goes inside to get a smoothie, warning Zoe not to say anything, please.
Black-and-white Grace cuts in to ask, "Why is it so hard to tell what guys are thinking? I guess they don't want you to know. Like it would take away their power or something."
Grace sounds as if she's mocking the notion that boys have power, but then we see her acting like a simpering fool at the counter of the juice bar. Suddenly incapable of making a single stupid decision, like what kind of smoothie she wants, Grace tells Jared to pick everything for her. Which means she's getting a flavor she hates, as Zoe tries to point out before being shushed.
Black-and-white Grace is back for more commentary: "Sometimes it looks like they're not thinking anything at all. But that can't be right." Har. Her pseudo-naïveté is a bit much.
Back at the juice bar, Jared's friends have walked in just as he finishes blending Grace's smoothie. He tells her it'll be two-twenty-five, and for a second she's like a deer in headlights. Apparently she was so excited to see him that she overlooked the tiny fact that she has no money on her. Mortified, she asks Zoe if she has any money. "Oh, can I talk now?" Zoe asks. I don't blame her for being snotty. Jared looks like he's hearing this exchange but pretending not to. It gets pretty hard to ignore, though, when Zoe dumps the contents of her change purse on the counter. She starts counting aloud, and Jared's buddies chime in to count with her: "Twenty-five...fifty...seventy-five...a dollar," and so on. By the end, she's down to counting pennies, and one of his friends says, "I think she's a little short" before bursting out laughing. You know that Grace could just die. Zoe, however, looks pretty pleased with herself and shoves the pile of coins across the counter before Grace grabs her arm, says, "Bye," and gets the hell out of there.
Lily's at the bookstore with Judy, flipping through a book. Judy asks what she's reading, and Lily hands her The Divorce Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Divorce. Judy quips, "Maybe I should put this out next to the Valentines." Yeah, or you could give it to your new boyfriend. Remember him -- the married guy? Lily bitterly mentions that the last step is to hire a lawyer, who costs about five hundred times more than the book. "Are you okay?" Judy wants to know. "No, I'm definitely left of 'okay,'" Lily says, moving to the counter to grab a muffin. She tells Judy that she had to ask their dad for money, and Judy says, "Oh, Little Bit," like Lily's just admitted the most devastating thing in the world. Lily says she can't believe this is happening to her, that this isn't who she signed up to be, and that she's an utter failure. Judy disagrees, pointing out that the bookstore, however, is an utter failure. Which could be what prompts Lily to say that she needs a job, a real job, not part-time. Judy points out that she's raising her children "who do have a father, by the way." "Jake lives on another planet," Lily says, and it strikes me as a fair assessment. She goes on to tell Judy how Jake's been buying radio spots, and Judy wants to know where he got the money for them. Lily gives her a look like "where do you think?" and Judy almost spits, "That crook!" Lily says, "I know," and wants to know why it is that she's the one who feels like a criminal for hiring a lawyer. Judy has a particularly astute moment and says, "Because that's what narcissists do. They make you feel bad when all you're doing is having a rational response to their insanity." A customer walks in just then, and Judy expresses her astonishment at the sight. Lily asks her to hold down the fort.