Episode Report Card Niki: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Wake Up, Little Susie
By Niki | Season 2 | Episode 1 | Aired on 10.23.2000
Cut to Rick's living room, where Eli is in the midst of a very important conversation about some girl. Jessie interrupts him to ask a math question, but he blows her off. "Dammit!" Jessie shrieks. Eli hangs up and asks her what is the problem. Jessie's feeling overwhelmed by the math, which is way harder than in grade seven. Okay. Seriously. What the hell happened to grade eight? Where are those effing confessionals when you really need one, huh? Eli suggests they talk about it when Rick gets home. He senses Jessie doesn't want to talk to Rick, but he can't get her to say why. She retreats to her room, seemingly on the verge of tears, while Eli looks confused.
Later, when Rick is home, Eli starts shoveling take-out Chinese onto his plate, along with a side of foreshadowing. Rick tells him to call Jessie. Eli says she's not hungry. He adds that she's never hungry. Rick wants to know if Jessie's told him anything about what's been going on. Eli says Jessie thinks that Grace hates her. Rick heads upstairs for a little damage control.
In Jessie's room, Rick settles in and tries to get her talking. Jessie gets choked up and finally tells him the deal. She's basically helpless, as all the changes Rick has implemented in his life have had huge effects on her, and she's had nothing to do but accept it. And now she's being forced to deal with a third house, and with people who don't like her, "and [she] didn't ask for any of it, but [she] has to do it because it's what [he] want[s]." She's fully crying now. Rick is thoughtful for a moment and admits that she's right. Getting teary himself (and looking very haggard -- Billy Campbell should get some sleep or something), he tells her that he's focused on her for the four years since the divorce, and he's been lonely, and now Lily is there and her loves her and needs to be with her, and Jessie is going to pay somewhat of a price for that. He says that he's sorry, and he wishes there were some way he could change his life without changing Jessie's, but there isn't. He wishes he could make her understand how important it is to him to be her dad, and to make sure she gets everything she needs and not ever let her down. He says she just has to trust him, but he thinks she'll also get something out of all the changes eventually, even if she can't see it now. "I don't want you to be lonely," she says softly, when he's finished.
B/W Jessie tells us that she wants to have a big ranch in Wyoming when she's older, where she can just be free. And where there are no people around, I think is the unspoken attraction.