Episode Report Card Aaron: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Death takes a holiday
By Aaron | Season 1 | Episode 10 | Aired on 08.04.2001
Cut to later, as Brenda and Nate wander around looking at the pictures. Nate acknowledges that Billy does in fact have some talent, but then they notice the next picture, and hilarity is about to ensue. It's a heavily Photoshopped shot of Nate pissing against a brick wall, and of course, the Rectangle Head has to freak out about it. When Billy joins them, Nate accuses him of being a stalker, to which Billy replies, "Wow. You really think the world revolves around you, don't you?" I think it's pretty clear that the world revolves around me, but that's a story for a different recap. Nate stalks off in anger, and Billy is heartbroken when Brenda takes Nate's side and runs off after him. And then, finally, Nikolai and Ruth show up to end the scene, with Nikolai giggling madly at the picture of Nate. Heh. I swear to God, I could die a happy man if Begley never returned. Nikolai is way funnier.
Back at Brenda's Brotherfucking Boudoir, Nate is still pissed about, well, the pissing picture. Brenda drearily tells him not to make everything about him, and then proceeds to make everything about her by justifying Billy's behavior. There's more fighting and psychobabble as Nate wonders if Billy has ever done anything "weird" or dangerous. This whole thing is just a set-up for Brenda to exposit a story about Billy attempting to kill himself when she was eighteen. Apparently, Brenda went to Europe for the summer, and when she got back, Zhora met her at the airport to tell her that Billy had committed suicide. Except Mom meant to say that Billy had tried to commit suicide. That's one hell of a Freudian slip, don't you think? Anyway, Brenda spent the whole summer at the hospital caring for her brother, and gave up a college scholarship at Yale to be with him. I guess that's also supposed to explain what a girl with an IQ of 185 is doing giving massages, instead of, oh, say, running an incredibly popular and profitable website about TV. Anyway, just remember this story later on in the episode, when the plot holes start to get big enough to drive trucks through.
After the mandatory fifteen-minute-mark fade to white, we return to the Formaldehyde Fortress, where the Fishers are all sitting down to breakfast. Claire asks her brother if he's peed on any walls lately. Heh. Marry me, Lauren. She's even got cute pajamas. Nate needles his mom about her date with Nikolai, and then turns to ask David, "What happened to that…person you were seeing?" Everyone, Ruth included, perks their ears up at Nate's near miscue. David admits that the "person" (read: "Ho") is no longer in the picture, and Nate then proceeds to start grilling Claire about her love life as well. Instead of admitting to having an illicit affair with a world-famous TV critic, she simply says that she's just been "hanging out" with someone. Ruth and David head off to church, and the scene ends.