Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Strangers And Brothers
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 18 | Aired on 03.12.2000
Cut to the driveway, where Judy is speeding toward Lily's truck like a woman possessed. She slams the door and lets out a bloodcurdling scream.
Cut to Grace wheeling into the kitchen. She covers her mouth and screams. When she stops, she is startled to find Aaron sitting at the kitchen table. Grace apologizes, saying she didn't know anyone was there. She tells Aaron she thinks all these "boring old people are just [there] for the food." Looking down at the table, Aaron smiles. Grace asks if he's had any lunch, to which he replies "lunch sounds like a plan." Grace asks what he wants, and he replies "just no stew." He goes on to tell her that they've "been on a stew run" where he lives. He can make it, but he's getting pretty sick of it. But stew would be fine. Grace looks at him for a moment before saying they "just won't have stew, then." "Okay," Aaron says, looking infinitely pleased. When Grace turns away to lift a turkey off the counter, Aaron glances over at her. He looks away immediately when she turns back again. Grace reminds him of her name and then, worried she's insulted him, explains she just wants him to know that he can call her Grace if he wants. Aaron smiles at his plate. Grace then tells him about a guy at her school named Aaron, some guy who plays the trombone. She remembers that Aaron played an instrument and asks him about it. "Trumpet," he tells her. Grace says it would be nice to hear him play, and he says that the trouble is, his "fingers aren't necessarily [his] anymore." Grace says she sometimes feels that way, too, like "in some weird way, her extremities are borrowed." Aaron looks like this comment really clicks for him, and he looks directly at her for the first time. They then turn their attention to the food, but there's a new mood in the air -- things seem open and relaxed for the first time.
Cut to Lily in the driveway, heading for the truck where Judy's still hiding out. Both admit they had to get away. Both immediately start crying. Lily asks "Can [Judy] believe what [Barbara] said about shiksas in front of the girls?" Judy responds by stating that she hates Barbara. Then she asks Lily if she really meant what she said, about Barbara staying for a while. Lily says it surprised her, too, and then she sucks it up and leaves the truck to return to the front lines.
In the kitchen, Grace and Aaron have finished lunch, and Grace asks him if he remembers anything from before he got sick. He tells her he remembers "lots -- about Lily." He lights up as he recalls how she used to worry so much about being good, and if she could be good and pretty, which "of course, just made her prettier." He says he remembers "specific beaches" too. Grace asks if he likes the beach. "Of course, who wouldn't?" he replies, and Grace realizes what a dumb question it was -- he may have a mental illness, but he's still a living breathing person who can feel things. Aaron tells her that what he'd like to remember someday is having a job. He wants to feel necessary. Like Phil "used to say, a little too often for [his] personal preference: your plan is your road. And when [Phil] was [his] dad and [he] played the trumpet, the song was I can't get started." "Like yesterday," Grace says, and she puts her hand over Aaron's. He checks his impulse to pull away, looks at her hand for a moment, and then leans over to kiss it.