Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Strangers And Brothers
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 18 | Aired on 03.12.2000
Later that evening, Barbara and Lily are fiddling around in the kitchen when Judy returns from dropping Aaron back at the home. "He's okay," she tells Lily. As she walks past her mother, Judy says "He's okay, not that anybody asked." Barbara follows her into the dining room, angrily asking her what she just said. "Did you just ask me why I don't treat my son right?" she demands. Judy says simply that Aaron is Barbara's son. Offended, Barbara tells Judy she knows nothing about it, about "the years of [her] life in that boy." Lily tries to intervene yet again, but her mother turns on her, too, saying that neither she nor Judy knows anything about her. She accuses them of being just like Phil and remembers the "thousands of times [she's] gone into a room" only to have the conversation and laughter stop. She tells them they shut her out. Judy tells Barbara they loved her but she was hard to get close to -- she always had a "right way" of doing everything. Barbara is hurt by this, reminding them she never punished or belittled them, they had no reason to protect themselves from her. Lamely, Lily tells her they're "here for [her] now. [They] see [her] now." The phrase "too little too late" comes to mind. Barbara tells them she's terrified, and Lily reassures her that she and Judy are behind her. Incredulous, Barbara says "I'm supposed to count on you now?" She says she needs help, and "all [she] can say is thank God for Jake!" KAPOW. Lily looks like the wind's been knocked out of her. Barbara says Jake talked to her and promised he'd take care of everything. Lily makes the rather obvious point that Jake should not have been talking to Barbara. Barbara responds that Jake wants to take care of her in a way that Phil would understand. Lily reminds her mother that she's divorcing Jake, he's no longer her husband, and he's out of her life. "Where does that leave me?" is all Barbara wants to know.
We next see Lily and Judy heading for the refuge of the truck. Some of what their mother said got through, and they realize they never made a big enough effort. With an evil smile, Lily says she was thinking that Barbara could move in with Judy. Sure, Judy responds, she could use a roommate, they can double-date. They laugh. Eew, on so many levels. Thankfully, they're both struck by the comment and start crying almost immediately after they laugh. Lily's cellphone rings, and it's Rick. He tells her that he saw Jake when he left earlier, and "he's never seen anyone look so sad." He says "it's like Jake became real to [him] for the first time, what he's lost." Upon hearing this, Lily looks sad, too, and has no response.