Episode Report Card Potes: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT A Thousand Words By Friday
By Potes | Season 2 | Episode 13 | Aired on 01.23.2008
Betty enters and greets Mr. Roth, saying that she's there to interview him about his new book. He fills in the title for us: Tap That: How To Score With Hot Bitches. Sounds like a perfect Nathan Zuckerman vehicle to me! For the sake of the interview, Betty would like to refer to Tap That as Goodbye Columbus. Phil Roth is momentarily confused, but warms up as he tells Betty that men want to get laid, and he wants to help them. It's a noble mission. He has a simple three-step technique: approach, subdue, score. Yes, A.S.S. Most men think that complimenting a woman is the way to approach, but in fact would benefit from an E.K. -- esteem killer. The easiest way to bag a woman, he says, is to insult her. Just in time, Amanda enters and falls for it like a tree in the forest, making sounds of seduced submission. An offended Betty thinks she has what she needs, and ends the interview abruptly.
Meanwhile, Daniel is talking to a lonely Claire on the phone. He has dinner plans tonight, and Alexis has her transgendered support group, and what will Claire do other than march around in her turban sipping a dirty martini? Actually, that sounds like my ideal Friday night. Daniel thinks she should call some of her old friends, but as it turns out prison, murder, and temporary insanity are a turn-off to the country club set. It's not as refined as beating maids. Claire will spend the night cleaning Daniel's apartment, again, and continuing to find his smutty magazines. And, certainly, his copy of The Counterlife.
Daniel asks Betty to find a class or senior cruise or something to get Claire off his back. She agrees, and presents Daniel with her 1,000 words. However, it turns out this finished article is all about Hilda starting her own business. It's woman-positive, and Betty thinks the readers will respond. She explains the whole Phil/Philip mix-up, and how Phil Roth is a disgusting pig who writes a lot of misogynist garbage. Betty can't write objectively about a guy she can't even be in the same room with. Daniel tells her she's off the assignment, and adds that Phil Roth called and asked for another writer anyway. He felt Betty was a little close-minded. Hmm. Betty pounces on this new bit of information, and enthusiastically asks for a second chance at doing the interview. She'll even read Phil's stupid book, she says, because she's open-minded. I think Betty just got tapped.
Meanwhile, Daniel and Renee are about to do the nasty. They talk a lot about chicken, which is puzzling.