Episode Report Card Niki: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT There Be Dragons
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 5 | Aired on 10.18.1999
"Thank-you for humiliating me in front of my friends," Jessie chokes out, trying to hold back tears as Rick pulls up in front of Karen's house. Rick asks what's going on with her, but she just stares straight ahead with her jaw set. His expression softens, and he reaches over to tussle her hair, but Jessie pulls away. "Hey!" he exclaims, flashing his anger again. He asks what is wrong with her. Jessie snaps: "What's wrong? That's all anybody's been asking [her] lately! Nothing's wrong - [she] loves [her] life!" Rick says he knows she's been going through some big changes and, exasperated, she says that it isn't about her period. "Okay. Meeting Lily," he says, "I know I haven't really told you who she is--" "I don't care who she is! All I know is, she ruined our whole weekend. If she hadn't come over, none of this would have happened." Jessie flies out of the truck and slams the door. Karen, of course, is in the doorway waiting for her (wasn't she supposed to be downtown working on a deposition?). Jessie blows by her, and Karen looks questioningly at Rick. He sighs.
Cut to Jessie in her room, locking the door.
B/W Jessie picks up where she left off earlier: "[Rick] even started to cry a little. He hugged [her] for, like, an hour. And his shirt smelled like the fire."
In her room, Jessie slides to the floor, bawling.
B/W Jessie's crying, too. She wonders, "What if they hadn't gone to the lake that day? Or she hadn't fought with Eli over the bathroom? Maybe then, just maybe..."
Cut to Rick walking up to the porch. Karen's standing with her hands on her hips and informs him that Jessie's locked herself in her room. She asks if he'd "like to tell [her] what's going on," like she's his mother or something. Rick tells her Jessie wasn't where she was supposed to be when he picked her up. After a pause, he says he knows Karen blames him for "all of this, because he introduced [Jessie] to Lily." Karen sits on the steps and looks at him. He points out that it's not as if Lily is the first woman he's introduced to Jessie, and it's been three years since their divorce. Karen says Jessie's "not stupid. She senses something." "What? I mean, meeting Lily for like five minutes..." Looking like she's trying to swallow a really jagged potato chip, Karen snaps "Oh God! You are so dense! Anyone with half a brain can see that you're..." Rick asks her to finish. Sighing in disgust, Karen says, "Don't make me be the first one to say it," and storms into the house, slamming the door behind her. Is it just me, or has there been a lot of sighing and slamming in this episode?