Episode Report Card Al Lowe: A | 0 USERS: N/A YOU GRADE IT The UnRelenting
By Al Lowe | Season 6 | Episode 3 | Aired on 2005.09.27
Cut directly to Rory and what now appears to be her backup band, The Road Crew. We won't find this out until late in the hour, but apparently a few months have passed since we saw her last, and in those few months, Rory has gotten a handle on her fight face. She's not so mad anymore. As a matter of fact, she's turned these people into a bunch of sweet and tender hooligans only Morrissey could love. She's the head lawbreaker now, apparently, walking among them, encouraging their progress. She's even got ol' rockstar Liza, with whom we saw Rory pushing and shoving last week, on a smoking-cessation program. Liza begs for a fix, but Rory stays firm: "No: we agreed, not until the end of your shift." Liza laments that, in spite of wearing, like, nine nicotine patches at once, she's still jonesing. Rory tells her to sit down and drink some water, and then consults with the crew supervisor, who clearly regards Rory as the one in charge. She gives him a funny rundown of the crew members' needs, including my favorite: "Sanderson got a little grumpy towards the end of the day, but it's just because he wants to be noticed, and he is by far our best spearman." Now, I do not mind at all that Rory is handing out orders. She comes by the pushiness quite naturally, after all, and I'm just glad to see the character doing anything with confidence, rather than making all kinds of missteps based on her own self-doubt. So, yeah, it's annoying that she's seemingly Everybody's Favorite All-American of Community Service, but what makes Rory a good character (when she is good, and not irritating) is that she does the whole lemons-to-lemonade equation better than most. As the chain gang breaks for the day, Liza asks Rory if she'd like to join "the girls" for pizza. A floppy-haired dude strolling by says he'll go, but is shot down for not being a girl. Rory also has to decline: she has a three-hour shift at the nursing home. Liza can't believe how much community service Rory got stuck with: "What the hell'd you do?" (If they're all palsy by now, wouldn't this have already come up?) Rory: "I shot a man in Reno." Awesome. I'd shoot T.J. just to watch him die, so I appreciate the reference.