Episode Report Card Niki: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Chaos Theory
By Niki | Season 3 | Episode 7 | Aired on 11.22.2001
Karen, meanwhile, gets a visit from The Ghost Of Thanksgiving Past. She wanders into the dining room on her way to the kitchen, but stops abruptly, staring around the still, drawn room. She turns to walk back out of the room, pursing her lips, but stops when she hears voices and laughter echoing behind her. She pauses in the doorway and watches as a bright Thanksgiving scene, bathed in golden light, unfolds. A shaggy Rick entertains a pint-sized Eli and Jessie, while Karen, sporting a peasant blouse, carves the turkey. Nightie Karen wanders into the flashback, glowing at the sight of her young children. She stops when she gets to her old self, laughing and staring adoringly at Shaggy Rick.
Soliloquy Karen hops on the Stool to voice the doubt she's clearly feeling as she watches her old self. "Have I ever really been happy? Or was I just making sure that everyone else was happy?"
Karen's snapped out of her flashback when a car door slams outside. The golden light fades quickly to a harsh gray. Karen clutches her nightie and peeks out behind the drawn blinds. Eli and his buddies are hauling music equipment out of a van. Karen glances around the room and then down at herself, realizes what it must look like, and rushes upstairs.
Eli bounds up the porch stairs and comes through the front door as Karen races down the stairs, pulling her robe around herself. Eli's surprised to find her at home, and explains he thought the band could rehearse there while she was at her friends' place for dinner. Karen stammers that she has a headache. Eli apologizes, and pops out to the porch to call off the rehearsal. Karen waits, looking guilty. Eli comes back inside to get his guitar, and Karen apologizes, saying she didn't know what he'd planned.
Soliloquy Karen tells us, "I always felt so responsible for everything. I come from a long line of worriers. If you didn't do your job, the sky would fall down, and the world would collapse."
Karen stands in the hallway, watching Eli cart his guitar toward the door. Feeling awkward, she asks whether the band has somewhere else to rehearse. Eli assures her they do, and Karen apologizes one more time. Eli studies her face and asks if she's okay. Karen makes her voice light and says she's fine. She opens the door for him and wishes him a happy Thanksgiving. Looking concerned, he kisses her cheek and leaves.
Meanwhile, over at Manning Manor, the Post-It notes are multiplying like rabbits. They're threatening to overtake Lily's shirt entirely. She studies each one carefully, as Zoe slowly sets the dining room table. "How you doing in there, Raoul?" Lily bellows. He calls back that the gravy is almost done. "I meant the sink!" Lily yells. Zoe sniggers. Grace throws open the front door and barges in, followed by the rest of her castmates. They're all still in their lame-ass costumes. "Mom? Mom, it's a nightmare," Grace whines. She gripes that "they" closed the auditorium on them and wouldn't even let them change out of their costumes. Lily asks why. "The janitor wanted to be with his family or something," Grace says contemptuously. Yeah, how dare he think his family holiday is more important than some crappy, folksy high-school production of Shakespeare? Lily surveys the assembled cast and asks where Jessie is. "She's coming...with someone," Grace lies, and quickly changes the subject by introducing Lily to the kids. Where the hell is Tad? Wasn't he in this train wreck, too? Creepitri stops staring at the house long enough to push forward through the students to introduce himself as "the evil August Dimitri." He asks if they "could just use [Lily's] living room," and tells her just to kick them out whenever she's ready for dinner.