Episode Report Card Niki: D | 1 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT Sneaky Feelings
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 14 | Aired on 01.30.2000
Take a moment, now. Seriously. Just think about it. Rick and Karen. Too weird for words, isn't it?
Back in the basement, Eli and Jennifer stop their little grope-fest as they remember that they have an audience. Jennifer tells Jessie that she'll hang out with her later. Jessie smirks knowingly and disappears.
B/W Jessie picks up where she left off. She and Eli "could hear them completely." Grinning, Jessie says, "This is so embarrassing...It was so loud. [She] couldn't believe it was [Karen]."
As if on cue, Karen the sex machine steps out of an elevator in full-length beige, apparently doing her best to embody the old "It's always the quiet ones" cliché. She's with Lloyd, and she thanks him for lunch. Lloyd sees it as his cue to ramble at length about his love for dim sum, but Karen's not listening. She's being barraged by the reality of her office as her assistant flies past reminding her of the people she needs to see and the things she needs to do. Lloyd knows that Karen's not paying any attention to him, but he overlooks it, and firms up their plans for that evening. He goes to kiss her, and she flinches so that his lips awkwardly connect with her cheek. "Oh, we missed," he says lightly. Right, except that "missed" would imply it was an accident and, dude, it didn't look like one from where I was sitting. Karen looks as though the pole in her ass has just shifted into a particularly sensitive spot. She apologizes, saying, "It's just a little weird around here."
B/W Karen shocks us with the admission that she didn't date much after the divorce. She thought she should concentrate on other things, and the kids took up most of her time. She rushes to add that it's how she wanted it that way, it's what she decided. And she's not being overly defensive at all. No way. Just back off, all right?
In her office, she's seated across from her associate, Craig, and they're going over their strategy for a case. A ride-to-hell type cyclist strolls in with his bike, because of course there are no bike racks outside an office building in downtown Chicago, and says, "Hi," very loudly over their conversation. Karen offers a tentative hello, but it's clear she has no idea who the guy is. Her associate is unfazed, however, and asks her for details on a point she just mentioned. Ride-to-Hell pulls off his helmet and plunks it on the table while eavesdropping. RTH interrupts Karen to tell her the idea "will take too much time" while casually rubbing a hand over his flattened helmet-hair. For some reason, Karen asks what he means, instead of asking who the hell he is and why he's shedding gear in her office. RTH launches into a tirade against "you guys," referring to lawyers, and describing them essentially as parasites who make their homes in other people's hip pockets and don't do much of anything besides waste time. As he postulates, he tugs his windbreaker over his head, and accidentally pulls his shirt with it. It gets stuck over his head, but that doesn't stop him from talking. He goes right on attacking lawyers and their essential lack of character and finally punctuates his little speech with, "No offense." Craig assures him there's none taken, but Karen looks like she wants to put a fist through his head. She pushes herself up behind her desk and, with a tight smile, introduces herself. Her associate apologizes for not having introduced them, and tells Karen that RTF is actually a doctor named Leo Fischer, and that he's the client they've just been discussing. He's trying to get housing built for his AIDs patients, and he needs the lawyers to find a way around the by-laws and other red tape that's stopping him. Karen starts to say that she didn't realize, but Leo cuts her off, sniping, "You thought I was a bike courier?" Then he asks her to continue, saying he doesn't have a lot of time. He sits down and starts pulling crap out of his knapsack, including notebooks and a bagged lunch. As Karen resumes talking, Leo wrestles noisily with a bag of chips and unwraps his sandwich, managing to dump half of it all over the papers on Karen's desk which, naturally, sends Karen's ass-pole into fits of chafing and splintering. She does not look amused.