Episode Report Card Aaron: A | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Dead End
By Aaron | Season 2 | Episode 13 | Aired on 06.01.2002
Oy. You know, Claire's giggling just made me realize that I've only cracked like two jokes in like three pages here. I'm sorry, but this is some pretty heavy shit this week. And besides, now that the Season One reruns are on, you've got thirteen whole recaps just chock-full of witty Aaronisms to peruse. Check out the one for "The Will." That one's my favorite.
And now we quickly head back to the International House of Mancakes (which incidentally is located in the same strip mall as John & Walter's House of Pies, Clark & Lex's Chicken 'n' Waffles, and Angel & Wesley's Hair Force One salon), where a sweaty and naked David and Keith are basking in the afterglow on their living room floor. For the love of God, people, don't these two own a bed? Before I can spend too much time wondering about that, however, we fade to white, and whatever relationship resolution these two might find will have to wait until next season.
Fade back up on the Promiscuity Palace, as Brenda packs up the last of her belongings. And then we cut to the Formaldehyde Fortress, where Nate is packing up, well, me. He slides the box of my cremains onto that shelf in the basement, and as Mark Snow's Sad Music Of Begging For Another Job plays in the background, Nate closes the door forever on my ashes. Sniff. Oh, and to hell with Lauren's plastic leg. That box is REALLY the souvenir that I want. If anyone from the show is reading this, email me, and we can make a deal. Anyway, Nate wanders around the Fortress for a while, examining the various empty rooms, until he eventually comes across a picture of himself, David, and The Late Nate in happier times. He looks around, as if expecting to see his dad, but there's no one there. Hmm. Do you think that might be symbolic?
Nate finally wanders into the den, where Ruth is already waiting for him. He mentions that it's time to head to the hospital, and Ruth is typically maternal when she asks if he's had anything to eat. Unfortunately, she also chooses this time to get upset at him for telling David and Claire about his illness long before he told her. "I just didn't want to worry you," he explains, but that's the one thing she didn't want to hear. "You're not supposed to protect me," she cries, "I'm supposed to protect you…that's what a mother does. She tries to protect you and most of the time she fails, but it's the trying that makes you feel loved. How are you going to feel loved if you don't ever let me try?" And now Nate is crying as well, sobbing that he doesn't want to go in for the operation, and as she holds him in her arms and rocks him slowly back and forth, Ruth finally gets the intimacy she's always wanted. And to think it only took two years and twenty-six episodes to get it.