Episode Report Card Cate: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Family Secrets
By Cate | Season 1 | Episode 2 | Aired on 09.22.1996
RevCam is working in his home office when he has a visitor. It's a guy claiming to be the father of Renee's child, but it's not the guy Eric spoke to earlier. That was this guy's older brother and -- oh, never mind. Suffice it to say that the father of Renee's baby did get the job down at the pool hall. Not that we'll ever see him there again. RevCam tries to trick him into coming to church on Sunday. That doesn't sound very Christian to me.
Lucy's lying on her bed reading Sassy while Mary gets ready for her date with Jeff, boasting all the time. Finally she notices that Lucy is crying. Lucy is upset because she thinks she made a fool of herself in front of Jimmy Moon. Mary does point out that if Jimmy doesn't like her, then he's the foolish one. It's a nice scene, though I can't say I care at all about Lucy's loathsome romantic woes. Still, it's good to see that Mary was, at one point, a nice character.
Annie and Dopey are folding laundry together when Annie suggests that he call his grandmother. He's not sure what to say, but he does go to call. RevCam walks in as Dopey's leaving and tries to get him to talk about Grandma, but Dopey shrugs him off. Eric complains to Annie about how Dopey never confides in him. With the caliber of advice RevCam dispenses, he's surprised that nobody wants it?
Simon comes in and unveils his super-duper plan to make enough money to support Happy's shoe-chewing habit: he will run a lemonade stand. What a terrible idea. RevCam backs me up on that, pointing out that Simon has run lemonade stands before and never made even enough money to pay for the ingredients. He suggests that Simon think of a community service he could perform in lieu of replacing Eric's shoes. Simon comes up with another plan that sucks: he wants to give the lemonade away for free between Sunday school and the church service, "and then maybe so many people won't go home." That was sort of funny, I guess. Annie certainly thought so.
Mary is helping Lucy by convincing her to call Jimmy and tell him that when he questioned her earlier, she didn't know what to say and may have given him the wrong impression. Lucy takes the phone and repeats what Mary just told her. She claims she got the answering machine, even though there wasn't even enough time for a machine to have picked up and played an outgoing message. I'm not sure if Lucy's lying or if this scene was just poorly directed.
It's a cozy domestic scene in the CamPound living room. Annie is reading to Ruthie while RevCam types something on his laptop. He's surfing porn, I assume. Dopey comes in and asks if he can go to the library. RevCam is skeptical because it's Friday night. He says Dopey can't go anywhere for another three weeks, although he will make an exception if Dopey wants to join him for a game of pool. Dopey says he's not that desperate. Hee hee. The doorbell rings, and the whole CamClan of busybodies congregates at the front door, thinking it's Mary's date. Oh, gross -- it's that lackluster Jimmy Moon dude, looking a little intimidated by an entire houseful of Camdens staring at him. Dopey, who suffers from the delusion that Lucy's dating life is in some way his business, shakes his head at RevCam. Lucy waves weakly at Jimmy.