Episode Report Card Deborah: A | 3 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT "But What's Puzzling You / Is The Nature Of My Game"
By Deborah | Season 2 | Episode 22 | Aired on 04.21.2005
After the commercials, Will arrives home, finding Joan sitting on the stairs. He's surprised, given how late it is. She walks along with him as he asks how Grace is. (Note: apparently there was a scene, which was cut for time, involving Grace and father gathering in the Girardis' kitchen and discussing the attacks on houses of worship. Joan twigs that Ryan could be responsible. Grace's father talks about how his father built that synagogue; he and Will decide to go back there. Helen and Joan go to make up a room for Grace, and Grace bursts into tears when she's finally alone with Luke. If so, I'm really bummed that that was cut, and I think there could have been a little less time spent on shots of the wind machine effects that follow Ryan around. There actually isn't a lot of other fat in this episode to cut. I don't know if this was shot or only scripted, but if it was shot, I join many posters in the hope that it makes it onto the Season Two DVD. Thanks to HeadCase for this info.) Anyway. Joan tells Will that Grace is snoring, but her mind is obviously on something else. Will sighs, saying it's good that she can sleep. Joan is wearing some kind of baggy, dingy-looking pyjamas that suggest some kind of camo wear. They look like they what Ted Nugent would sleep in.
Joan tries to tell her father that she thinks Ryan might have been the one who torched the temple. Will looks very disturbed. She says she had the weirdest feeling about him that night, and she's seen him since, and they talked: "And he…has this thing…with God." Will: "He told you this?" Joan: "He thinks he's smarter than God. He thinks it's some kind of game. You just have to trust me on this." Will: "Joan, a lot of people think they're smarter than God. A lot of people have big problems in this area. I'm one of them. I don't burn down religious institutions." Joan insists Ryan is different: "I know it, and don't ask me how I know, I just do, so please, for once in our lives, trust that I might know something that you don't." You can see Will would like to believe her, and believe that his daughter isn't crazy, but he's also the sort of person who needs something more than "weird feelings" and unexplained insistence to go on. Will tells her about Ryan being on the citizen's watchdog committee and how he works with the police. And yet, even with twenty years as a cop, Will can be incredibly naïve. Did Lucyfer teach him nothing? Will puts his hands on her upper arms and says, "I appreciate you wanting to help, but…you need to leave this to me. Okay, sweetie?" He kisses her forehead. "You just take care of your friend." Joan says nothing to all this; she just looks troubled and dismayed that she's not believed. He tells her gently to go back to bed. Aw. So patronizingly sweet. She stands there, thinking about Ryan's game, and his strategy of insinuating himself into her life, gaining the trust of everyone she loves, one by one. How's she supposed to counter that?
At the church -- which is fabulously cleaned up and restored, I must say -- Lily's spreading a red cloth over one of the tables as Kevin wheels in, saying, "Place looks better." She doesn't say anything. Kevin tells her he's been thinking about what she said: "Um, I just wanted you to know…it's okay. Um, I can't compete with God. On the other hand, I don't feel so slighted, losing out to him." Lily doesn't say anything; she just keeps working at arranging the cloth. But she's clearly listening. Kevin: "I, uh…appreciate you…taking me seriously and giving me a chance." He swallows. "It could have been fun." Lily: "Father Ken said that if I think I somehow had something to do with the church getting destroyed, then I'm making myself too important and I have to pray for humility." Yeah, I wouldn't argue with that. She continues fussing with the cloth, not looking at Kevin: "He also says that I'm feeling this way because it's the first time I've really ever confronted the fact that I'm…that I could…" She starts to tear up. She looks at him: "That you are…" She looks down again, humiliated by her difficulty in expressing this. Kevin smiles patiently at her, but she doesn't see it. She tries again: "That we might…" Kevin smiles more, and kind of taps his torso, almost as if to keep himself from welling up. Lily: "You were the first guy who ever made me…" Kevin: "Speechless?" (Alternately: "Taller?" TM WolfDad.) Lily relents a little at that, and smiles. She walks slowly toward him, trying again: "So, because you make me feel so…whatever…I should probably figure out what this…whatever it is, because I can't hide from myself. Because according to Saint Augustine, 'to know yourself is to know God.'" Kevin: "I like this Augustine. And Father Ken." Lily chuckles, and then sits in Kevin's lap. Frink: "It's a pew for two." They look at each other like they want to kiss, and Kevin says, "It's wrong to make out in a church," but he says it like it really wouldn't be difficult to change his mind. Lily gives him a huge smile. Kevin: "Just checking." She suggests they get out of there, and they walk/roll down the aisle together, and it's hard not to picture them in wedding gear doing the same thing. Whoever's in charge of the money on this show needs to take it away from the CGI people and the wind machine people and use it to keep Constance Zimmer. (The overuse of cheesy effects is another reason this didn't get an A+.) I wonder if I can arrange with Ryan to make sure the pilot of her other show flops? (I mean, if this one's coming back. Otherwise, good luck to her. ["I just saw her in a short film over the weekend, and while the film was poorly written, she really did well with bad material. Free Constance!" -- Sars])