Episode Report Card Sobell: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Get out, Nate. Seriously.
By Sobell | Season 3 | Episode 7 | Aired on 04.12.2003
And now, Nate's come back to Fisher & Diaz for that awkward "I don't trust your wife with my kid" conversation. Or, as Nate puts it, "What's up with Vanessa?" Rico claims there's nothing going on; when Nate presses, Rico admits, "She's been down in the dumps since her mom died, but other than that, why?" Nate stammers, "I don't know, Rico. I got there, and, uh, I don't know how to put this but she had this really intense energy going on, and there's no way I could have left Maya there." Of all the ways to broach the possibility of serious depression, that was in the bottom five. Nate had a conversation with Vanessa where she repeatedly talked about how tired and overwhelmed she was, and he can't think to pass that on? Oh, that's right -- that would have required Nate to take a break from his monumental self-absorption and actually listen when other people were talking. It's much easier to blither on in a Nate-centric cocoon and get Rico all riled up, like he's doing now. Fortunately, Arthur comes in just in time to get a face full of attitude from Rico. Since Arthur has not yet fallen prey to the communicable self-absorption that has claimed the rest of the Fisher house's regular occupants and visitors, he immediately offers to care for Maya. Nate does not take him up on that. Arthur attempts to sell himself as a qualified caregiver with, "I love infants. They smell so sweet." The way Arthur says that, it's easy to imagine him following up, "But really, I've discovered they're actually more savory, like gamecock. Maybe it's the sauce I'm using." Rico is giving Arthur the what the hell? look at this point. Nate stammers a refusal, and Arthur says in a hushed tone that he obviously thinks is calming, "Never hesitate to ask. I used to watch my cousins all the time, and they were Mormons." By this point, both Nate and Rico honestly have no idea how to react to Arthur. Heh. I like Arthur for that reason alone.
Time has presumably elapsed, since we're now at a seaside memorial service in Malibu. Bern's urn is there, as is a small podium from which someone is reading, "So let it be said of me when I am gone, he lived by the light of the ten thousand things / his heart with starry sparks was thus sustained / and love and meaning passed through him and fled / to carry joy from dark to dark was joy enough for him / the man is dead." This is where Zhora breaks out in laughter. It's a totally understandable impulse -- there she is, probably thinking that Bern would have hated either the poem or the speaker, she's imagining his reaction, and off she goes. Brenda and Billy, however, are a little mortified. What is the world coming to when they are the guardians of propriety in a social setting? Eventually Zhora composes herself, and Billy tags in on the podium. He pulls out a few photographs and explains their contents: "I just have some pictures. This first one is of Dad and me in the backyard, standing next to my hole to China. I was five years old, trying to dig a hole to China. He never, ever told me I couldn't actually get to China. He just kept digging with me until I got bored. That was a good day. The second one is of the whole family with Dad at the APA conference in 1984. They gave him an award, and he got up there and made all these jokes about Jimmy Carter needing Adlerian therapy. I didn't get the jokes, but I was proud of him that night. I was proud that he was my dad. This last one..." Billy trails off, and it's anyone's guess what the last photo will be. Brenda slips right back into her old role and murmurs, "Come on, Billy." Billy finishes, "It's just a really good picture." The string quartet the Chenowiths hired for the occasion kicks in, and Billy makes his way back to his seat. Brenda hugs him.