Episode Report Card Niki: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Losing You
By Niki | Season 3 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.07.2002
"You didn't breastfeed?" Tiffany asks, looking down at her own breast in full operation. Bea says that no one did. Intrigued, she leans forward and asks Tiffany if it hurts. Tiffany considers the question for a second and answers that it's a good hurt. Bea smiles warmly and says, "Babies change everything, don't they?" Tiffany agrees, adding that "nothing in [her] life made sense before [she] had Maddie." Bea watches Tiffany wistfully and says that she's going to make a good mother. Lily reappears in the doorway and leans against the frame, watching the scene as Tiffany gurgles and jokes with Maddie.
"Would you look at those gams?" Phil says, over Lily's shoulder. She spins around. "Hi, Daddy," she says, not at all startled by the sudden appearance of her dead father. Phil enthuses that Bea is still "one gorgeous broad." He exclaims over the changes to the restaurant and then tells Lily he likes the way she's wearing her hair. Me, too. Phil turns his attention back to Bea, murmuring that she doesn't change; he "look[s] at her and see[s] the girl [he] married." Lily's touched. He asks how Lily and her mother are getting along. Lily hedges. As the cords pop on her neck, he remarks that she seems tense. He says she needs to lighten up: "Everybody down here needs to lighten up." Lily whispers, "But Daddy, don't you think Mom seems a little bit out of it?" Before Phil can answer, Bea calls her name. Maybe she's wondering why in the hell Lily's standing in the doorway talking to the air. Lily turns at the sound, and when she turns back, Phil is gone. Bea says she thinks they should go: Maddie needs a nap, and so does she. Lily murmurs okay and turns again, checking the empty space around her.
Later, in the kitchen of Manning Manor, Lily, Judy, Bea, and the kids are all scrambling around the table as Rick doles out containers of Thai take-out. The phone rings, adding to the chaos. Zoe once again searches fruitlessly for the thing. Eli wanders in and joins the fray. Bea looks up, stone-faced, and asks, "And who are you?" Lily, startled, looks uncertainly from her mother to Eli, who's standing there chuckling nervously, waiting for her let him in on the joke. Finally, he stammers, "I'm...I'm still trying to figure that out, actually." This just delights Bea to no end, who seems to think he's the next Shecky Greene and not just some depressed pothead. Judy smiles, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes. She glances over at Lily, who's just sitting there, stricken. Lily plasters a smile on her face when Judy catches her eye.