Episode Report Card Niki: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT A Dream Deferred
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 6 | Aired on 10.25.1999
The scene fades into the next one: Lily and Zoe sitting in the breakfast nook and eating cereal. Zoe asks if they'll have to move. She relates the story of a girl in her class, whose parents divorced. The girl and her brother had to move into a tiny apartment with bugs, and a roach crawled right into her ear one night. Lily asks where she heard that. "It's true," Zoe assures her solemnly. Lily promises her that they're not moving and there won't be any roaches. "How 'bout rats?" Zoe asks. Not unless Uncle Marty drops by, I assure her silently. Her ears are sticking out through her hair, which I find adorable. I like Zoe. They banter back and forth for a little while, until Zoe innocently drops a mood-kill. She asks why "daddy didn't pay the mortgage." Lily tells her that she doesn't have to worry about these things, that they're very safe in the house, and they won't have to move. The phone rings. "Why didn't you call back?" Lily snaps into the receiver. She tells Zoe to stay put and then moves into another room so she can chew Jake out privately. Jake assures her that things are "taken care of." Apparently, Lily doesn't hear him, because she tells him that she needs to know he's taking care of what he's supposed to. He asks whether they've ever had a problem with that. A reluctant silence. "No," Lily finally says, grudgingly.
B/W Lily says that her father loved money, and Jake loved money because he loved spending it. Between them, money was never something she had to worry about. I pick myself up off the floor, stunned by this revelation. Thank you, once again, for the confessional because I don't think I'd have figured that one out on my own.
Cut to Grace and Judy at an outdoor café. Grace is dismayed to hear that Rick may be helping with the coffee bar. Judy says that's unfair, since Grace has never really met him. "You have and you don't like him," Grace retorts. Judy looks surprised. Yeah, Judy, it showed. Judy denies disliking Rick and points out that, if Lily cares so much about him, he must be something special. The pair walks out onto the sidewalk. Grace asks if Rick is going to be at the store all the time, and Judy assures her that he won't. Some guy calls out Judy's name. We see lights and cameras and trailers on the next block. Someone's filming something. The guy's voice calls Judy over to the set. Grace says she'll just wait.
When Judy and Grace return to Lily's house, Grace tells Lily that they saw a commercial being filmed, and the "director's in love with Judy." Judy explains that it was a guy she went to college with, who now makes cheap commercials for cable TV. He asked Judy to help with the next one. Lily's excited for her, but Judy pooh-poohs the idea. Lily reminds Judy that film school was her dream, in case she forgot. Judy says that she had a lot of dreams. "Yeah, about one a week," Lily says bitchily before walking away. Why the hell is she taking it so personally? Judy looks stung.