Episode Report Card Niki: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Kind Of Blue
By Niki | Season 3 | Episode 3 | Aired on 10.11.2001
I guess Judy does, since we cut to Sam's naked torso hovering behind a sketch pad and a very busy hand. Sam sketches and sketches and sketches. Judy strolls over in her little Chinese silk robe, clutching a mug, and trails a hand along his back. "You must be exhausted," she says. Sam doesn't look up as he responds, "Eh, you're not that good." Another shot of the naked man nipple, and the hand flying over the sketch pad. "Sam," Judy tentatively says. He doesn't look up.
Soliloquy Judy's still gripping a mug, but she's fully dressed, and musing, "Sometimes, when you love someone, you can talk to that person and they don't even hear you. And still, somehow, you're both there. When you love someone." Judy looks kind of sad, like maybe she's realizing Sam doesn't love her.
Back at the table of semi-undress, Judy perches her chin on her fist and gazes lovingly at Sam and his sketchbook. He finally looks up and remembers that she's there. Silently, he turns the book around to show her, sipping from a huge mug of coffee as he waits for her reaction. She looks at him over the top of the book, her eyes saying that she loves him. I mean, "it."
Cut to the front hall of the old hotel. From behind, we watch Rick pacing toward the staircase while Sam sings, "Friday evenin', Sunday in the afternoon, hey, hey." Rick stops and turns to find Sam slouched in a chair. Sam says, "See, what nobody remembers is that for a couple of weeks, a long time ago, it was actually Crosby, Stills, & Blue." Rick says, "And then came Nash." "There's always a Nash," Sam says. He adds that Fleisher is on his way. He climbs out of the chair and walks slowly toward Rick, saying, "And, it is a good idea, Ricky." Rick asks what he's talking about. Sam reminds Rick about the message he left on his machine, and his fear that their friendship would come "untied," and assures Rick that it could never happen. Sam says he won't let that happen because he needs Rick on this job. "As what? Resident ass-kicker?" Rick asks. Dude, please. That is one job you are definitely not qualified for. Sam strolls over to the staircase with his sketches, sarcastically letting Rick know that he's honored to be able to help someone he respects so much "out of the gutter." Rick chuckles and asks, "Because you knew I was in trouble?" "Because I knew I needed you," says Sam. "Because I'm amazingly good, even from the gutter?" Rick asks, settling next to Sam on the stairs. Sam agrees that it's part of it, but part of it also has to do with him hearing someone in his kitchen one night around 3 AM. Turns out it was Death, making a sandwich. Rick shares that, at his house, Death made soup. Maybe this would actually resonate with me if I were having a mid-life crisis. I assume that's what they're getting at, anyway. As it is, it just makes me hungry for a little grilled cheese. Now that the bonding session's over, Sam leans down and flips open his big leather portfolio, scattering his sketches across the floor. Rick looks intrigued and slips off the stairs to pick up the drawings for a closer look. "Well, what do you think?" Sam asks. "If you need a place to start, I can quote some of my reviews. 'Sam Blue's latest show is....'" Rick grabs one of the sketches and murmurs, "Tell me about this one." "That it's not good?" Sam asks. Rick emphatically says that he didn't say that. The camera pans back from the two friends huddled over the sketches.