Episode Report Card Niki: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Unfinished Business
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 17 | Aired on 03.05.2000
Jake comes into Phil's room and tries to pick up Grace, who's asleep with her head on Phil's chest. Realizing she's too big for that now, he wakes her up and she kisses Phil good-bye.
Cut to Lily and her Mom spooning. A second later, Lily is coming down the stairs and she heads into the living room where Judy is asleep on the couch. After announcing that their mother grinds her teeth, Lily squeezes onto the couch next to Judy, who comments that "the sofa smells like [Phil]." Later, in the kitchen, Lily tells Judy that she had a fight with Phil just before his stroke. Sarcastically, Judy says "I guess that's why it happened," which effectively cuts Lily's motor before she can start off on her guilt trip. Lily notices the message light flashing on the answering machine and discovers a message from Idiot, who says they "were all intrigued by the work [Lily] did" and she wants Lily to come in that afternoon to discuss it. Lily's freaked out -- how can she take a new job now? How can she go to an interview today? "Why not?" Judy wants to know, "It's not like [Phil's] going anywhere." She tells Lily to go to the interview and come to the hospital afterward.
Cut to Idiot, who's holding a latte, the prop of choice for hip young things. Her hair is in pigtails. Yes. Pigtails. She tells Lily that "magazines don't really sound like that, anymore." She says they "try to give [their] writing a little more" and she struggles and searches really hard in that big empty head for just the right word. You know, that buzzword, the one that EVERYONE uses so much it's basically become meaningless jargon? "EDGE" the Idiot finally says, much to my annoyance. But she adds that Lily's work shows promise. Encouraged, Lily says she just needs some time with the staff to get into the magazine's voice. "Staff?" Idiot asks. A dim little bulb lights up over her head, and she clues in that Lily thought the job was for an assistant editor. Amazingly, she musters enough brain cells to find a socially appropriate response. Embarrassed, she explains to Lily that the job is assistant to the editor. The job is being Idiot's personal assistant. Ech. I shudder to think what horrors such a position would entail.
Cut to Lily walking in a hospital corridor, saying to her cell phone, "assistant to a child?" She says it pays only a little better than the bookstore, but she feels like there's a chance for something more. As she turns the corner, we see Jake and Judy standing with a guy in a suit, looking very grim. Phil had another stroke while Lily was at the interview, and the situation doesn't look good.