Episode Report Card Sars: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Lady Stays Vanished
By Sars | Season 3 | Episode 11 | Aired on 05.10.2003
Ruth warms up a bottle for Maya and tells David that she has a feeling everything is going to turn out fine, and "I've always been right about my feelings." "Mom," David wearily points out, "they found her car." Ruth can think of "a hundred explanations" for that, and when David tries to counter that and prepare her for the worst, she flames out and shouts that she's "sick of hearing that! I will not be prepared! And neither should anyone else." Maya, upset by the shouting, starts to whimper as Ruth says that she refuses to believe anything is wrong. "I have to trust my feelings," she says, sitting down with Maya and the bottle. "Right now they're all I have." I would have found that more poignant if I hadn't gotten distracted by the provenance of the bottle. Did they just switch Maya over to formula? Did Lisa pump a few bottles before leaving? Anyway, Ruth closes her eyes as Maya takes the bottle, and David stares at them sadly.
Rico lets himself in the front door and sees the kids watching TV. But not just any TV -- a gigantic big-screen TV. The camera pans over to a refrigerator box sitting in the doorway of the breakfast nook. "What the hell is all of this?" he demands. Angelica, unperturbed: "What?" Rico stomps over to the TV and says, well, the TV and the refrigerator. Angelica is still all blasé, telling him that the delivery guys couldn't get the fridge through the kitchen door, so they'll have to take out the cabinets to fit it in there. Rico manages to sandbag The Tsunami Of Short-Man Rage and herd the kids out of the room before asking where Vanessa is; she's napping, Angelica reports. "We have a dance lesson tonight," Rico grunts, and Angelica bitch-faces that he can wake her if he wants, "but if I were you, I would let her sleep."
That does it -- Rico snaps off the TV and starts to bitch Angelica out. She tells him not to start with her, and when he says they can't afford the TV and the fridge, Angelica calls bullshit: "You are a partner, okay -- you have the money, and she wanted them!" Clearly relishing the opportunity to get all self-righteous on Rico's ass, Angelica goes on that Vanessa "never" gets anything new or anything for herself, but Rico interrupts that they have a rule -- if they want to spend more than $100 on the credit card, they check in each other first. Oy…shades of the "problem purchases" conversation between Lisa and Nate. "She knew you'd be pissed," Angelica chuckles smugly. "That's right, I am pissed!" the mouse roars. Angelica gets up from the couch, stink-eye a-blazing: "She takes care of your kids. Every single day. And works a full-time job on top of that. Look at this place. No wonder she's depressed." Rico looks around all "what…what's wrong with it?" as Angelica adds that so what if Vanessa bought a new TV and a new fridge: "They were both on sale. Give her a fucking break, Rico -- she deserves it!" Finished, Angelica gives him an indescribably snotty look, sits down on the couch, and crosses her legs. Rico storms out the front door.