Episode Report Card Sara M: D+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Honor Thy Agent
By Sara M | Season 9 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.24.2005
Kevin and Ben go to the Promenade for all of their film-buying needs. If I were them, I would have just made the church van service go out and buy it for me, and then deliver it to my doorstep. Kevin's anxious to get back home, but Ben wants to talk for a while away from the Camdens. Silly Ben! There is no "away from the Camdens" unless you visit one of the forty-five states whose existence is not acknowledged in the CamVerse. There were forty-six until Texas was unfortunate enough to come into existence earlier this episode.
Predictably, the dinner talk has not gone well, as Ruthie is crying. Vincent says he wasn't expecting her to be so emotional. "How did you expect me to react?" Ruthie says, her crying voice sounding a lot like that weird old French woman voice she had in the musical episode (no, I will not link to it, because there is the chance that someone might click on the link and then read about the musical episode, and no one should have to read about it, let alone watch it). Vincent tries to console Ruthie by saying that she, like he, will have other boyfriends. "I hope not!" Ruthie says. Vincent gives up and offers to take her home. Ruthie says she doesn't want to go home, because she missed her dead grandma's birthday dinner to be with him. "I've never even heard you mention [Grandma Jenny]," Vincent says. "That's because she's DEAD!" says Ruthie.
Annie tells Lucy how grateful she is for the flowers and all the "trouble" Lucy went to to get them. Lucy takes all the favorite daughter vibes in, then "casually" mentions that Savannah is currently wearing the sweater that Grandma Jenny made for baby Lucy. And Lucy is wearing Grandma Jenny's locket. SamVid asks what Grandma Jenny gave them. "Well, she gave you and all of us…Mom," Lucy answers. I'll never complain about getting a crappy present again.
RevCam walks into the kitchen, talking on the phone. He tells his caller that he knows "everyone in the Emergency Room," and he will "make sure [the caller is] taken care of." This may sound strange, but you have to remember that RevCam has had, like, five heart attacks, and Annie's given birth to seven children and made countless off-camera suicide attempts. So, between the two of them, they have to be very well-acquainted with the Emergency Room staff. I do find it alarming, however, that by virtue of knowing RevCam, this caller will now apparently be given access to better medical care. One wonders if PaulSmith would have survived had the Glenoak EMTs tended to his wounds BEFORE applying Band-Aids and Neosporin to Simon's. Anyway, while RevCam tries to calm down his obviously upset caller, Annie actually has the audacity to interrupt and ask if that is Melissa Gilbert on the phone. RevCam replies that it is, and Nurse Ratched was just admitted to the ER for angina and a possible heart attack. Annie grabs the phone away. "Hi, it's Annie!" she begins, as if this is an acceptable introduction to someone who is in the hospital with her mother and has never met you, let alone asked to talk to you. Annie tells Melissa to "hang in there, okay? It's gonna be fine." And how does Annie know that? When her own mother faced a health crisis, she DIED! That wasn't fine at all! And now, nine years later, Annie still hasn't gotten over it. Not that you every could completely get over something like that, or that a 75th birthday remembrance dinner is a bad thing to do, but I think it's obvious that Annie has some real issues when it comes to dealing with this stuff. Unless by "hang in there," Annie literally meant that Melissa should try to hang herself, which would make much more sense.