Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Cat-In-Hat
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 19 | Aired on 04.02.2000
Karen comes into Jessie's room to talk. Jessie tells her she's sorry for letting her down. Karen says she's proud of Jessie, but Jessie's suspicious since she hasn't done anything. Karen tells her she doesn't have to do anything -- she's proud of her because she's so much stronger and more confident that she ever was. Jessie asks Karen if she ever had boyfriends, since she was shy and not very popular. Karen tells her about a boy in high school she had a crush on. She ran against him for student council because it was something she really wanted and knew she'd be good at it. She got to know people as she campaigned, and it looked like she had a chance at winning, but when the time came for the big debate in front of the school, she blew it. Jessie asks if she lost on purpose. Karen says she's not sure, maybe. Jessie says, "That's so lame, you can't let a boy do that to you."
Turned around by her mother's story, Jessie decides to take her test.
Black-and-white Karen offers us a bit more of the psychology behind her anal-retentiveness. Her mother was a fear junkie, and she instilled it in her kids. Her whole life was fueled by fear, and it didn't stop until she was finally diagnosed with cancer. Since her worst fears had finally come true, she had nothing to fear anymore, and it was like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She became another person. Karen's sorry she couldn't just be that person all along.
Jessie, meanwhile, is flying through her test. She wins her sparring match and earns her black belt while Karen and Rick beam with pride.
Black-and-white Karen wonders what happens to people, why they become so afraid to be who they really are.
We then see her at Leo's door. She's shown up unexpectedly, showing us that maybe she can be spontaneous after all. Leo flops onto the couch and waits to hear what's going on. She tells him she's not sure why she's there, she just knows that she wants to be. She nervously straightens up papers and books while she talks. He wants to know what she's doing. She sinks onto the coffee table, and tells him she's not sure he's the right person for her. He says that's not exactly what he was hoping to hear. She says he's everything she's not looking for in her life. He gets offended. She tells him that he makes her laugh, though, and question who she is. "That's a good thing, right?" he wants to know. Karen says she thinks she wants to try again. He asks if she thinks she can "handle it." She says she doesn't know. Good thing, too. I was starting to worry the show'd finish out the hour without any of the characters displaying some personal growth. Karen and Leo wind up smooching on the couch.