Episode Report Card Sara M: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Electric Van-Aid Acid Test
By Sara M | Season 4 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.10.1999
Timmy wakes up from his surgery and presses the call button. Enter Nurse. Timmy asks if he's had any visitors. She says that "practically the entire hospital" has been there. That's cool, but where are Timmy's parents? Does he even have parents? There's a whole sad backstory there we'll never get to hear. Nurse says Timmy has a visitor outside, and opens his window. There's Matt, sitting in a tree and pretending to read a book. Dopey says he's been in the tree all day (way to show that HR lady that you deserve a promotion!) and he's finally figured out what he wants to do with his life. Timmy laughs the hollow laugh of a child with no parents and only a total idiot and a slightly obsessed nurse for friends. John enters the room and says he thought he heard Matt's voice, but is confused because Matt isn't in the room. That wasn't a contrived reason to give the token character some lines or anything. Timmy tells John to go get Matt out of the tree before he gets fired. John looks out the window and sees Matt, who grins and waves. John runs out of the room. Matt laughs, then looks down to see an angry security guard climbing the tree. Matt makes an "oh shit" expression, and this sets Timmy off on another round of laughter. Way to make the kid's stitches burst, Matt. Oh, and I hope we aren't supposed to think that what Matt did here was a good thing, because all I saw was someone climbing a tree right in the face of someone who wants to climb trees more than anything, but can't. Maybe the HR lady will sneak Timmy in a ladder later. She seems like a sensible woman.
Mary and Lucy are in the kitchen, all excited because the new car has arrived. They call Annie down, who enters with Simon and the twins. "We're coming!" Mary bellows in her most mannish manner. The group checks out the new car, which is actually a van. Never before has anyone been so excited about a van. "Start her up, let's take her for a spin!" Annie shrieks. Ruthie says the car is started up, but the engine is really quiet. That's because it's an electric van! Everyone congratulates Ruthie on her choice of vehicle, and piles into the car. Mary pronounces Ruthie's choice "smart," which is like a glacier calling a snail "speedy." I mean, damn, an electric van has got to be the most impractical thing Ruthie could have picked out, perhaps even more so than that convertible. I mean, at least the convertible can drive more than ten miles without needing five hours of recharge. If only the van ran on the Camdens' sense of self-satisfaction, like co-star Ed Begley Jr.'s (tm The Simpsons).