Episode Report Card Ragdoll: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Is There Life After Basketball?
By Ragdoll | Season 1 | Episode 11 | Aired on 01.26.2004
The next day at Karen's Café, Deb serves Keith some breakfast. It's eggs, pancakes, and bacon. Keith cracks, "Well, for the diet special, that looks pretty damn tasty." Deb looks confused for a minute, and then apologizes, giving the extra sitting at the other end of the counter his breakfast, only instead of giving him the syrup, she just puts it back on the shelf. Strange. You'd think he'd want the syrup, but whatever. Keith says, "Things have worked out pretty well, huh? Karen's Café gets to stay open and I get to see a little more of my sister-in-law." You know, Keith rocks. He adds, "So how are you doing with things?" Deb says, "Dan and I had our first counselling session yesterday." Keith jokes, "Dan at a counselling session -- it's kind of like Hannibal Lecter at a salad bar." Deb laughs. Keith tells her that if she thinks it would help, he'd be happy to talk to Nathan. Deb smiles and replies that she thinks he'd like that. See, the functional side of the Scott family -- but wait, I spoke to soon, because who walks into the café, but Captain Dysfunction himself. He makes a horribly snide and completely ridiculous comment before even saying hello to his wife or brother: "I know you like my women, Keith, but come on, Deb's still my wife." Keith bites back: "Won't be for long if you keep this up." See, when Keith made that joke about Hannibal Dan and the salad bar, it was kind of witty and funny, even if a tad acerbic; when Dan shows up and insults Keith in front of Deb, it's not at all humorous, but driven by rage and insecurity -- how messed-up is that man? Deb walks over to the cash register and starts fiddling with receipts; it's the international gesture for "I don't really want to deal with you," jackass. He leans onto the counter and states: "I'm taking Nathan to dinner tonight. Do you have a problem with that?" Deb quickly replies, "Yeah, he needs a break from you." Dan insists, "You can't stop me from seeing my own son." Deb replies, "Oh, actually I can, by telling you nicely or by calling a lawyer. Your choice." Dan cockily says, "Tell him I'll pick him up at 7." Deb turns around and looks at Keith with a kind of helpless smile on her face. Keith says, "Tell Nathan to come see me, I'll do what I can." Deb nods. She needs all the healthy Scott she can handle.
Okay, so two weeks of passed since Luke made his choice, and things have healed between him and Peyton so much that he's just dropping by her house before school? They're that good friends? And what happened to Haley? Has she been replaced? And holy crap do kids in this town get up early, because there's no way any normal teenager would have enough time to walk casually by a quasi-friend's house just to hang out before school. At least I never did, because I was usually asleep. You know that thing that you do in your mid-to-late teens? Sleep in whenever and wherever you can? Anyway, Luke saunters up to Peyton's house and notices that the door's ajar. Knowing that Peyton's alone for the most part, he is concerned. He peeks his head in through the slightly open doorway, hears things crashing inside, and calls out, "Peyton?" When she doesn't reply, he grabs the closest thing to a weapon he can find on the porch -- a rake -- and brandishes it on his way into the house. Well, do you think that Peyton actually rakes anything? Does she take care of the house to the extent that garden instruments are lounging on the porch looking like they've just been used? What freaking ever -- she spends all of her time either brooding or drawing. But that doesn't matter, we're not being logical at this moment, and I've just gotten a nice firm smack across the face from my disbelief. So, Luke enters the house holding the rake in attack position. He calls out for Peyton once more before finding himself in the kitchen. He sees a tall, dark-haired man fiddling about in the kitchen. Luke taps on the table with the end of the rake and sternly demands, "Where's Peyton?" "Dressing for school's my guess," the man replies. And then he goes back about his business. Heh. Luke says, "Who are you?" The man replies, "I'm the guy who is about to take that rake from you and beat your scrawny ass." Pause. "I'm her dad. Who are you?" Heh. Luke slides the rake down from attack mode, and mumbles, "Oh, sorry. The front door was open and I thought -- Lucas." He leans forward and shakes Peyton's dad's hand; Peyton's father introduces himself as Larry Sawyer.