Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Cat-In-Hat
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 19 | Aired on 04.02.2000
Eli and Creep slide into the bar on their fake IDs just as the band wraps up its first set. Eli, the bar-band virgin, thinks they've missed the show, but Creep fills him in -- the band's just taking a break. Creep heads for the bar to get a beer while Eli says he's going to find the washrooms. Creep sidles up to some girl and starts leering and drooling. Yeah, that's exactly how you impress the ladies, stud. Eli walks through the billiard room where his mother and Leo are locked in a frantic make-out session. Some girl he knows says, "Hey Eli," and somehow Karen hears it and looks up. BUSTED!
Cut to Karen storming angrily after Eli through the bar. Creep comes rushing up holding a beer. Nice one. Karen and Eli have a big scene, and he goes for her weak spot, pointing out that "[she's] a little out of place." She takes away his fake ID and sends him home to Daddy, telling him she'll be calling in an hour to make sure he's there. Leo comes up behind them, and stands there smirking at the boys and remembering when he was a sparky young lad. After the boys slink out, Karen tells Leo she's got to leave, but he doesn't see why. She says it should be obvious, but he thinks she's overreacting. He tries to calm her down by telling her it's not a big deal, they both did worse things when they were young. She says she didn't. I rewind to make sure I heard her correctly. ["I don't know. She is a rotater, after all. I bet she really didn't do worse things when she was a kid." -- Wing Chun] He basically says it sucks to be her and she flips out and breaks up with him on the spot. She can't "handle this."
The next morning, Rick's sitting in his kitchen calmly reading the paper when Eli comes in and starts rummaging around in the fridge. He thanks Rick for not freaking out on him -- is he really dumb enough to think he's off the hook? Apparently he is, because he gets pissed off when Rick says he's just waiting for Karen to get there so they can talk to him together. When Karen arrives, they launch into the lecture, telling Eli that "it's getting old" the way he plays them off one another all the time. Then they take away his care privileges for a month. Eli says he "can't believe this." Me neither. He can't drive for a month? Big deal, he's not even grounded or anything, so I don't know what he's crying about. Jessie comes downstairs, and Karen tells her she brought her tae kwon do uniform. Jessie says she doesn't want to go, and Rick told her she doesn't have to. Karen asks why, what's going on, and keeps needling and needling until Jessie flips. She says she just doesn't want to go. Eli jumps in to defend her, telling Karen to back off and leave her alone. He says her expectations are too high, that she wants them to be perfect and Karen gets all defensive and tells Eli she's not going to take any of his crap. He storms out of the apartment and Jessie heads upstairs. Karen's all defensive with Rick, who's just standing there innocently drinking coffee from his Krispy Kreme mug. I'm beginning to suspect that Krispy Kreme is actually some kind of cult hell-bent on world domination. It's everywhere, everywhere! Except where I live. So maybe I'm just bitter, having never tasted one of those delectable hot donuts everyone's always raving about. ["Dude, next time you go to New York City, get you some Krispy Kreme. They really are as good as everyone says." -- Wing Chun] But I digress. Rick reassures her that the kids won't always be like this, and that one day they'll turn on him instead. I doubt it -- how do you get mad at Mr. Rogers? But Karen seems placated and tells him to enjoy it while he can.