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 Lily in the kitchen, pulling Phil's watch from his bag of belongings. Then we see her upstairs, in the doorway of her mother's bedroom. Barbara's packing, and she tells Lily she switched her ticket so she can leave the next morning. Phil made nine thousand friends in Florida, and she has to do something for them. Lily says again that Barbara can stay as long as she wants, and the conversation eventually turns to Grace and Zoe. Lily says they get so much stronger every day, and that it was Barbara who taught her how to raise strong daughters. She talks about how much her life has changed in the past year, and how she's found strength she never knew she had, and that it was Barbara who taught her to be strong, not Phil. Lily then tells her mother she's trusting Jake just because he's a man. She knows Jake has some wonderful qualities, but he doesn't care about her -- he cares about himself. Lily says she cares about her, and asks her mother to trust her. Barbara asks Lily to help close the suitcase, and for a second it looks like Lily's words have had no effect. When they shut the case, though, they look at each other with tears in their eyes.
Cut to Lily, approaching Jake in the restaurant kitchen. After as short preamble, Jake asks if this is it -- "no more shivas, good-bye Tannenbaums?" (Who are these people, and why does everyone dislike them so much?) Lily says her mother is leaving for Florida, but she talked to her. "Of course you did," Jake replies, bitterness creeping into his voice. Lily tells him Barbara gave her her proxy, and Jake hangs his head in defeat. Lily tells him she can fire him, she can fire him anytime (oh, yeah, she's enjoying this) -- but wait! -- she's "not going to fire him, now." Jake, like the rest of us, wants to know what the hell that's supposed to mean. It means she wants him to keep his promise and make the restaurant a success, for him and all of them. She also wants Aaron to be able to come by like he did with Phil. She wants the whole family to be able to come by, because it's their place. Then she pulls Phil's watch from her pocket, and handing it to him, tells him it was her father's and that she wants him to have it. Jake is genuinely touched -- the gesture seems to indicate that he still has a place, even if he's not married to her -- and he remembers Phil's habit of setting the watch fifteen minutes slow. He asks Lily, "What else?" like he's expecting the other shoe to drop, but she tells him there's "nothing else."