Episode Report Card Cate: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Forget Me Not
By Cate | Season 4 | Episode 11 | Aired on 12.12.1999
SuperMom and Ginger are in the kitchen when the phone rings. Annie answers it with, "Hello, Dad, is that you?" I hope that the caller turns out to be a telemarketer who will play a prank on her by saying, "Why, yes, sweetheart, it is your daddy." Instead, it just turns out to really be her father -- damn! He's calling from a phone booth on the road to Glenoak. He claims that when he saw a sign for the motel he used to stay at with Annie's mother during their fishing trips, he "couldn't resist the impulse to take a little trip down memory lane." When he got to the motel, he was tired, so he just stayed the night. When Annie asks him where he is now, he says he doesn't know, so Annie says she'll send Eric to retrieve him. I don't know how Eric's going to find him if Charles doesn't even know where he is, but never mind that now. Charles says that while he doesn't know what city he's in, he does know how to get to Glenoak from there. Then he just hangs up the phone -- without saying goodbye, of course, but at least he has the courtesy to say he'll see her soon. Ginger is relieved, but Annie looks disturbed. She's disconcerted by the fact that Charles sounded "so normal, like he always does." Well, Alzheimer's aside, he seemed a little weird and eccentric to me, but then, I don't know him. Ginger and Annie hug.
When we return from our commercial break, Charles is walking through the front door of the CamPound. After the requisite group hug, SuperMom asks to speak to Charles alone. She says that Ginger has told her about the Alzheimer's. Charles says, "I'm surprised she said anything. I mean, she's had a hard time even accepting the fact that she had it!" At this point, I was starting to think that maybe they both have Alzheimer's, but then I realized that plot would have been way too funny. Not that there's anything even remotely humorous about a real person having Alzheimer's, mind you. But these are the Camdens, c'mon! So Charles is going on about how Ginger's been forgetting things and misplacing stuff. Annie looks a little skeptical as she say, "You just up and left Phoenix. Ginger didn't misplace you, did she?" Charles argues that he'd told Ginger about the trip two weeks ago and "she just forgot." He clinches the deal by saying that he was able to find the sentimental motel he'd stayed at last night: "Now, could a man with Alzheimer's do that? I don't think so." Sorry, Charlie, he could. But you can tell Annie really wants to believe him, so she does.
Simon's over at Dopey's place, doing the "guy stuff" he was talking about earlier, except in this case, the "guy stuff" turns out to be Dopey morosely staring into space, thinking about Chickenhead. He can't go out in case she calls; he won't watch TV because it reminds him of her. I think this is all supposed to be funny, but trust me, it's not. John makes a brief appearance, gets creeped out by Dopey, and leaves again. Let's take a cue from John, shall we?