Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B- | 1293 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT Ice To See You
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 16 | Aired on 2009.02.16
The Bennets are having a rare family breakfast, and Sandra, her wary side-eyes showing that she's more clued into the room temperature than last time, awkwardly says she hopes Bennet's new job will keep him around more. Lyle asks what a consultant does, exactly, and I've often wondered that over the years, but the best answer I can give you is "get paid." Actually, though, the consultants I've known travel, like, a lot, so while it's probably a good cover for Bennet it does seem like he's humoring Sandra here, not that that's a surprise either. I'd bet right before we joined the scene, he was telling her how they're eating the best waffles anyone has ever had in the history of time. Anyway, Bennet gives an uncharacteristic and unnecessary look to his disapproving daughter before explaining his fake job to his son, but Claire's busy reading another text from Rebel, which reads, "Need your help. Must warn target." Claire writes back that she can't, and then Sandra asks about her trip. Bennet says her name with a clear subtext of "Lie to your mother like a good little girl," and Claire plasters on a fake smile and says there isn't much to tell. Well aware that most girls Claire's age would not shut up about their college visits if you nailed their tongue to the table in front of them, Sandra smells a rat, though not the one she thinks, and asks, "Which ones did you like, Noah?" Bennet gives Claire another look as he says he liked Brown, but Claire is not interested in having this ersatz conversation anymore, and bolts for points upstairs. When she's gone, Bennet "gently" tells his wife that maybe community college would be a better fit for Claire for now, and after Claire just blew up his spot there, I'm pretty sure that's all he's going to pay for. He volunteers to go talk to her...
...and then we cut to her room, wherein he's asking what the hell that display just was. Claire says she can't lie to Sandra anymore, but Bennet says she'll be safer not knowing. Claire: "You've been telling me that since I was fifteen." Seems like longer. Bennet points out that Federal agents are dead because of her (not exactly, but that does seem to be what Danko thinks, which is what's important, I guess) and because of that he's being watched, and if the both of them don't toe the line, they are in some real trouble indeed, even if Guantanamo is closing. He then informs her that she'll be starting classes on Monday at Costa Verde Community, as she's already enrolled. "And come Monday morning, you'd better be parked in that front row with a sharp Number Two pencil or there is going to be hell to pay." Not knowing that a sharp pencil really can mean the difference between life and death, Claire looks pissed, so when she gets a text instructing her to warn "Alex" at Sam's Comics on Buford, she gets a look on her face that tells us she's out of there.