Episode Report Card Niki: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Baby Blues
By Niki | Season 2 | Episode 8 | Aired on 01.09.2001
Rick's slumped on the Soliloquy Stool, looking beaten and beleaguered. He's bemoaning the fact that he can't get through to Eli anymore, that he's powerless and Eli knows it.
The ponderous piano plays as he climbs into bed with Lily later that night. For anyone who's interested, the answer to that age-old question, in Rick's case, is "boxers." As he slides next to Lily, he asks how Grace is doing, and says he feels bad for what happened. Lily says the accident is now ancient history because Grace found the pregnancy test. "I'm the one who's supposed to be worried about her getting pregnant," she sighs. Rick mutters something unintelligible. "What?" Lily and I ask. He repeats it, and then explains that it's Hopi for "life out of balance." He sighs and leans back against the headboard, for once listing off his stresses: "Miles, Karen, Jess, Eli…" Lily's face is impassive on the pillow as she waits to hear her name. When she doesn't, she snarks, "Me?" Funny, but while she should be topping the list of stresses in his life, Rick doesn't count her as one. He didn't leave her out to be insulting; he left her out because she "doesn't have blue hair." Let's just pause for a second here, and really digest what just happened, kay? Rick finally started sharing some of his feelings with her, and she was just waiting to hear her own name in there. When she didn't, she got pissy and had to make it about her. I'm beginning to understand why she can't believe she's menopausal. After all, Lily is six.
Anyway, when Rick mentions the blue hair, Lily sits up and half-laughs, asking, "Eli has blue hair?" She asks if it doesn't clash with his uniform. "It might, if he was still on the team," Rick answers. Lily is surprised to hear that Eli quit the team and asks why. Rick lists a few reasons and concludes with, "Mostly, I think he just wants to piss me off. He loves basketball." "You love basketball," Lily corrects, because she loves it so much when people point out her shortcomings. They look at each other while her words sink in, and we fade to another soliloquy.
Rick's back on the Stool, remembering that he and Karen had sex maybe six times in the year after Jessie was born. Knowing Karen, I'm surprised that this number is meant to strike us as low.
Lily butts in with her own memory, saying that if she had to bet on when Jake started screwing around, it would be when she was pregnant with Zoe.
Back to Soliloquy Rick. He says it was a hard pregnancy, and then Jessie was colicky, and he and Karen just never found their way back to each other afterward.