Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT All Aboard The Crazy Train
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 2 | Aired on 06.11.2005
Speaking of taking care of crazy people, Ma Chenowith is over at Nate and Brenda's remonstrating with her daughter about Brenda's decision to do her internship at a free clinic. No shocks here; Ma's a snob, Brenda wants to feel altruistic, Ma offers to get her out of it by making some calls to set her up with another internship: "I hate to let the fact that I've slept with half of Southern California's psychiatric academia to go to waste." I wonder which half? She wants to know how Brenda's going to be able to help crackheads anyway. Brenda says, "Because I've had my own struggles with addiction, and because we're all human." "Oh, honey," says Ma, "we're not. That's what you're going to learn." Enter Nate and Maya, presumably fresh from day care. "Hi, Mommy," Maya hollers, and somewhere in a desolate, unmarked, shallow hole in the desert, Lisa spins fast enough to power most of the West Coast for a month. "Look at you and your happy little family," Ma condescends to Nate. Brenda tells Nate that her mom thinks she's making a mistake. Nate shows his support, which earns a withering "Yes, let's all save the world" from Ma. She thinks Nate and Brenda are both being naïve. "Sometimes that's not such a bad thing," Brenda says. I don't see why I have to come up with a snappy ending for this paragraph if the writers won't come up with one for the scene.
You know what is a bad thing, though? Watching Rico make out. He's climbing all over Sharon the dental hygienist in the Fisher living room. I think I'd feel self-conscious about making out with a dental hygienist, like she'd be able to taste how often I floss or something. When Rico comes up for air, he invites her up to his room. She looks like she's about to agree, which of course is when George wanders in, asking, "Am I interrupting anything?" Rico looks back and forth between his de facto landlord and the chick beneath him with her skirt hiked up to her waist, and says, "No, of course not. It's your house." Rico, you big wuss. He climbs off of his date. "My wife's, actually," says George, but he doesn't go anywhere. Rico re-introduces Sharon, and George doesn't need much prompting before he seems to remember meeting her at the wedding. And he needs even less prompting (i.e., none) to join them on the sofa to watch TV. Sharon decides this is a good time to take her leave, giving every sign that she's suddenly over Rico. The fact that he's short and dorky and until recently smelled of formaldehyde was fine, but apparently George is a deal-breaker. Not that Rico is taking the hint. For some reason, Sharon pretends to agree to have lunch with Rico the next day. Yeah, right. Don't skip breakfast, Rico.