Episode Report Card Niki: D | 1 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT Sneaky Feelings
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 14 | Aired on 01.30.2000
After commercials, Rick, Eli, Jessie, and Karen are gathered in the kitchen embroiled in a family discussion. Rick wants to know what's wrong with Jessie. She lifts her little face to look earnestly into his and says, "I won't stay in the same house as him. I won't. He's wretched." Eli wants to know how any of this is her business. "Dad, I can't be expected to live like this," Jessie pleads. Rick relents and says she can spend the night with him. "All right," she says, adding, "I have some English homework, if I can remember where I put it." She leaves, and Eli's hot on her trail, saying he has homework too. Alone, Karen tells Rick that "this isn't a solution." He agrees and wonders how "Eli's love life became a family crisis." "Because this is what Jessie wants," Karen says, "She wants us to be in the kitchen worrying about her." Rick says he doesn't think they can blame her for that, and Karen says they can't, but they shouldn't let the kids manipulate them. "I don't let them manipulate me," Rick says, slipping for an instant into some alternate reality. "Are you kidding?" Karen demands, "You told Eli exactly what he wanted to hear." Rick claims that he just encouraged Eli to make his own decision, but hey man, we were there, so there's no fooling us. Karen's no fool, either, telling him that he "completely absolved Eli of any responsibility. He thinks being sixteen means there are no consequences." Rick insists he's totally innocent of her accusations. I'm beginning to see where Eli gets his propensity to deny, deny, deny.
The phone rings and, true to the bad-timing principle that is a driving factor of so many scenes on this show, it's Leo. "I need to kiss you again," he tells Karen by way of hello. Stammering, Karen tries to cover, saying "I...I...I...I'll have to get back to you on that." "Do you want to kiss me?" Leo asks coyly. "We'll have to talk about that later," she responds. In the background, Rick's still yammering: "You can't expect him to be perfect just because..." Leo says, "I think we're the same height." "Okay," Karen says, "I'll have to get back to you," and hangs up. Rick's still going, saying, "I think you set impossible standards, and I think it's unfair to expect Eli to live up to them." Karen, however, is suddenly a lot less worried about the whole situation. She just smiles to herself and ignores Rick.
A little later, Karen takes a sandwich to Eli in his room, and he says he doesn't know how he'll face Jennifer. She tells him that he's on his own -- he needs to figure out what he wants and then handle the situation. Right, but what would she do, he wants to know. With a kiss to the forehead, she imparts the shocking truth that, contrary to popular belief, she does not, in fact, have all the answers. She then proceeds to blab in her usual over-compensatory manner until Eli breaks it to her that she's rambling.