Episode Report Card Cate: F | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Bowling For Eric
By Cate | Season 7 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.06.2002
After Annie leaves, Ruthie speculates annoyingly about the meeting to come, wondering if it's being held because of something Simon did. Simon delivers a long overdue speech when he tells her, "You have no idea what my life is like, so just knock off the accusations and stay out of my personal life." He looks genuinely pissed off when he says it, which makes me laugh. Perhaps he doesn't realize, though, that without the "meddling sibling" crap that masquerades as plot, there really wouldn't be any show at all.
When Annie informs Lucy about the big family meeting, Lucy rudely tells her that she's too busy working on homework to attend. That Lucy -- she's such an intellectual. Her current assignment is to write an outline for her autobiography. The outline is supposed to contain her "greatest accomplishments." Couldn't she have knocked that one off in the time it's taken you to read this paragraph? I think she's really hit the nail on the head when she calls the assignment "creative writing." Annie kindly tries to convince the girl that she's "achieved a lot in [her] life." I have to give Lucy some credit here for realizing that her mom's just humoring her and that her current existence certainly doesn't enrich the planet in any way. She says, "It's not like I gave up my only begotten son so that man could have eternal life." True, but you, like, made out with some guys who weren't totally ugly, and, um...well, didn't you say something intelligent and helpful to somebody once? You see? I care. Upon further reflection, Annie realizes that she may have stretched the truth a little too far, so she tries to salvage the situation by advising Lucy to "make something up." Hey, does anyone remember how Lucy used to be relatively cool and smart in earlier seasons? I do too, and I'd love to see her go back to being studious and intelligent again, but I'm not exactly holding my breath. You probably shouldn't either.
Eric is walking up to the CamPound, talking to himself. He's repeating some of the cheerful clichés he exchanged with Doc earlier. He asks God if he's really going to be all right, but God's not answering. I wonder why Brenda didn't hire some guest star to play God. I'm pretty sure Carrot Top would jump at the chance, and I'll bet he's just the kind of casting choice Brenda would make anyway.
While RevCam keeps waiting for God to get back to him, Robbie waylays Kevin in the front hallway to show off his new traffic ticket. He whines about how unfair it is because he really didn't run a stop sign. What a loser. And I was just starting to like him again. That sure was short-lived, wasn't it? When Kevin suggests he fight the ticket, Robbie tries to get him to "get rid" of it instead. It's pretty cool when Kevin refuses to do so, but then he has to go and ruin it all by pompously saying, "Now, if you don't mind, I have a family meeting to go to." I hope he's talking about his real family, since that would take him across the country, but I'm afraid he means his pretend family, the CamDolts.