Episode Report Card Heathen: C- | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Makemba
By Heathen | Season 10 | Episode 10 | Aired on 12.10.2003
Across the room, Gallant fires up Neela's new CD and they start to boogie down to a song that I'm fairly sure was used in Bend It Like Beckham. It's really cute, Gallant is grinning and Neela's smiling and getting her groove on, and it makes me warm inside. Pratt wanders over, all impressed and interested and asking about the music. "Sikh rap," Gallant replies. He spies his sister Valerie and asks if she's ready to leave, but Valerie's enjoying the show and is all, "Keep gyrating, 'cause she's good, and well, you need it."
Finally, we go back to Abby, who shakes off her surprise at a gift from Carter and glumly toddles off to change her shoes. Luka watches her, worried, because he notices that she's left the gift behind. He even picks it up so that we can see she's ditched it, because he knows somehow that the director won't have called for a shot that includes the box in frame.
Cut to a tree in Africa, inside a small room belonging to one John Carter, The Lost Bee Gee. His hair's overgrown in a 1970s kind of way and he's got a beard that swallows up his face, and any second now he's going to throw out his hip and point a finger in the air and shake his groin until someone gets him his night fever medication. Carter picks up a little present and carries it back to the bed. "Don't you shake it," cautions a laughing Thandie Newton, looking as luminous as someone can when she's supposed to be living a simple life in Africa. As Carter opens it, Thandie reaches out and strokes his hair, and I'm impressed that she infused such natural affection into the gesture. It looked almost like a reflex. Carter unwraps a box of medicine and laughs, "Mebendazole! How romantic." He cracks open the box and tips out a bracelet, cradling it with awe. Thandie says it was her father's, and that she wants Carter to have it. Moved, he wraps it around his wrist and she fastens it, whispering, "Wow. It suits you." Then she threads her fingers with his and smiles at him affectionately. Man. If Thandie Newton can have chemistry with a Bee Gee, she can pretty much light anything on fire. They kiss, and then she giggles and asks what he got for her. Carter, who can't go five seconds without turning somber, shuffles over to a corner and picks up a box that he deposits on the bed. Eagerly she opens it, jokingly shaking it and hearing a metallic clink before pulling out a silver rattle, spoon, and cup. "They were mine when I was little," he explains. She lifts them to her lips and pecks them. Gamma is spinning like the Tazmanian Devil in her grave, because one of the servants clearly didn't polish them in anticipation of a smooch. Then Carter directs her to a plane ticket jacket, which she picks up confusedly. "I want you to come back to the States with me," he says quietly. "I want our baby to be born in America." We smash to the credits wondering why, sweet heaven why, Carter's sperm had to come into play.