Episode Report Card Cate: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Work
By Cate | Season 6 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.14.2001
At least I thought someone had put him in his place, but it seems the Dopester is unstoppable. He wastes some more of the clinic's time by going over to Gina and apologizing that his meddling in her business was so unsuccessful. When Gina thanks him and says that she will just wait her turn, Dopey says, "No, you won't. I'm gonna get you a doctor." Okaaay -- so are we supposed to admire that Dopey is somehow going to bump this patient ahead of all the others who have been waiting even longer than she has? Because then somebody from the show is going to have to explain to me why that would be a deed to admire. Really, I don't get it.
In the CamKitchen, RevCam is sharing his romantic dinner for two with Ruthie, the twins, and Happy. Hey, bad as that may be, it's probably a better time than he would have had with SuperMom. Ruthie tries to cheer him up by dissing his cooking. RevCam retaliates by pressuring her to consider becoming a minister.
Serena is delivering what may be the single most trite piece of advice I have ever heard on this show. She says, "That's the key: finding what makes you happy and doing it." You know, words like that truly belong on an inspirational fridge magnet. In fact, that's probably where she picked them up. Serena revises history by claiming that she's got a great relationship with her daughter, then goes on to joke about all the men she's seeing, including the odious James from last season. She rounds off the conversation with another platitude that is sure to change Annie's life: "You do so much for so many people; maybe you need to do just something for yourself." Thanks, Serena. The next time I need someone to state the obvious, I'll give you a call.
Mary receives a call from Rick, her supervisor at the firehouse. As he's telling her that he's been going over her file and that there may be a problem with her training, Mary's call waiting beeps. Like a dumb-ass, she actually answers it. Of course, it's slack-jawed Billy Campbell-wannabe Wilson, phoning to ream her out for not running his errands. Mary tells him she's talking to her supervisor and that she'll call Wilson back. After she hangs up on him, he stares dumbly at the phone. For some reason, Mary finds it necessary to tell her supervisor that it was her boyfriend on the other line, as if that somehow makes it all right that she'd cut Rick off to answer call waiting. When Rick starts to repeat that he's been going over her file, Mary cuts him off to say that she knows she hasn't been doing as well as her classmates, but she's been working very hard. How professional of her -- especially when she chooses to answer her call waiting again. Is she aware that just because someone else calls her, she's not required to pick up the phone? It's not like the phone will explode if you don't answer call waiting. Besides, how the hell could the person who's calling her be more important than her boss? Nevertheless, Mary interrupts Rick's call again. Of course, it's Wilson. Just what part of "I'll call you back later" did he not understand? Okay, okay, I realize that it's Wilson I'm talking about, and that he is a total tool. Mary cuts him off again to get back to a really annoyed-looking Rick, who tells her that if her skills don't improve within two weeks, he's going to drop her from the training program. Mary's answer is to sigh. There's an awful lot of that happening in this episode. Is it possible that the writers are already feeling burnt out and can't be bothered to write dialogue?