Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | 490 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT Giving Up The Ghost
By Couch Baron | Season 5 | Episode 13 | Aired on 2012.06.10
When they're alone, Beth tells Pete that she's glad he came, but she knows she doesn't have a brother. He tells it was the only way he could get in, but although it doesn't become clear for a few moments, soon the reality sinks in -- she doesn't know who Pete is. Shaken, he gets up to go, saying he's in the wrong room, but she encourages him to visit with her anyway. He protests that he's there to see a friend, but she prevails upon him to stay and he reluctantly accedes. Not knowing Pete just made that up on the spot (and ignoring the fact that Pete randomly ending up in her room while searching for his male "friend" makes no sense), Beth brightly (she's certainly chipper enough, at least) asks what's wrong with Pete's friend and Pete takes a long moment before telling her that the friend got involved with another man's wife and the attendant "complications" put him in the hospital. Unsurprisingly not quite understanding, Beth nevertheless asks why he did it, so Pete tells her it was for "all the regular reasons" -- he needed to let off some steam, to feel some adventure, to feel handsome again. "He needed to feel that he knew something, that all this aging was worth something. He probably thought it would be like having a few tall drinks and feeling very very good, and that he would go back to his life and say, 'That was nice.'" Beth, still valiantly trying to follow along, asks if then he got sick, so Pete tells her that when his "friend's" paramour went away, he was heartbroken, and he realized everything he already had wasn't right either. "And that was why it had happened at all. And that his life with his family was some temporary bandage on a permanent wound." Well, if nothing else, Pete, your writing is getting better. Beth takes a moment to process all this, but kindly takes his hand and assures him that the hospital will fix his friend up and Pete stares at her for a moment like he's tempted to see about that, but then puts a brave face on and assures her "he'll" be fine. Before he leaves, though, he turns back to tell her it was nice to meet her, and she sincerely but unconcernedly wishes him good luck with his friend. And I can think of one person who called Pete's unhappiness some time ago, although he thought the source of it was suburban living. Still: Well observed, Ben Hargrove!