Episode Report Card Niki: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Experience Is The Teacher
By Niki | Season 3 | Episode 17 | Aired on 03.31.2002
Meanwhile, Grace arrives at Creepitri's. She waits outside his sliding glass door, looking nervous. She taps and he calls out from the sink -- where he's up to his elbows in suds -- that the door's open. He apologetically says that he just wants to finish up the dishes before they go, and Grace says it's no problem -- she's early. She peels off her jacket oh-so-casually and reveals a skin-tight blue sweater and a black pleather miniskirt. It's tarty. It's trashy. It's painful. He asks if she's hungry. Oh, she's hungry, all right. She says no, but throws open the door to his fridge anyway, which strikes me as a very familiar thing to do. She oh-so-casually informs him that Lisa and Russell can't come to the movie, so it looks like it's just the two of them. She steals a glance to catch his reaction. He doesn't really have one. He changes the subject to her story, but Grace isn't listening. She wrinkles her nose and pulls something from his fridge, disgustedly saying that he should throw it out. He tells her to go ahead, and finishes putting away the last of his dishes. He dries his hands on the dishtowel and wanders over to hand it to her, so she can wipe hers clean. He says he has a great idea for the ending of her story. She says she already sent it out to a magazine, and he counters, "So what? Does that mean you have to stop working on it?" She says that she likes the ending already; she's happy with the way everything ties together. He suggests that its neatness might be the problem. She catches him looking closely at her face and, forcing a little air into her lungs, nervously asks what he's looking at. He peers a little more closely and says that her eye makeup is smudged. "Oh. Shoot," she says weakly.
Grace turns and heads toward a doorway. He asks where she's going. Without turning around, she stops and says that she's just going to fix her makeup. He tells her there's a mirror in his car and tries to hurry her along. Grace turns and steels herself, saying she just realized that she's never seen the rest of his house. He pulls on his jacket and says that she has. "But I've never seen where you sleep," Grace blurts. The sentence hangs in the air for a few seconds. She fiddles with her hands. "Grace," he says, trying to sound stern. She stammers that she hasn't, and she really wants to. He registers this with an open mouth and a slow blink. She stares at the floor and warns, "If you laugh at me right now, I swear I will never speak to you again." He closes his eyes to keep the room from spinning and slowly says that he's not laughing. Grace takes a couple of tentative steps toward him and asks softly, "So, can we just...not go to the movies?" Creepitri looks at her hard for a second, cocking his head better to hear the devil on his shoulder. The angel on his other shoulder senses the weakness and twists Creepitri's ear, hard. Creepitri shakes his head sadly, and says that they can't. Grace actually begs. She pleads, "I know I'm doing this really stupidly..." He wryly assures her that she's doing it "alarmingly well," and adds that he's "honored" by the offer. She cringes and begs him not to say that. She starts lobbing another pitch, but Creepitri cuts her off, saying that they really have to go to the movie. He says, "It's a groundbreaking movie, and it's part of your education." He explains that the director, Akira Kurosawa, showed an event (it's a rape and murder, by the way) from four different perspectives, to show how each person has his or her own version of what happened. Grace couldn't give a crap. "I made a fool of myself just now, didn't I?" she croaks, her voice straining to hold back tears. He emphatically tells her that's not how he sees it. He helps her on with her jacket and asks if she's ready to go. She complains that she's a little hungry. He promises to buy her popcorn.