Episode Report Card Heathen: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Falling In Place
By Heathen | Season 3 | Episode 13 | Aired on 03.03.2002
Later, Rick rifles frantically through a bunch of paperwork strewn around the bedroom. Lily enters and watches, amused, as she goes about whatever business brought her into the room. "Stage business," I think it's called. Rick mutters that he can't find a specific form Karen needs. "Maybe it's in this pile," Lily suggests. "No, it's not in that pile," Rick snaps. "I looked already." Lily's all, "Oookay, Dick Sammler." Rick shrugs on his jacket and explains to an inquisitive Lily that he's going to Karen's house to pick up a bunch of stuff. "Isn't that something her assistant could do?" Lily asks. I appreciate that she senses his agitation and wants him to sit down and relax, but come on. It's his ex-wife. Of fourteen years. Let him do what he has to do. (That's my polite way of saying, "Go stick your nose in the long-distance bill where it belongs, Lily.") But Rick, because his spine's as stiff as water, plops onto the bed and agrees with Lily. He confesses to being overly obsessed with helping Karen, to the point that he's too involved. "It's understandable," Lily coos, slinking toward him. But Rick thinks it's weird. Lily kneels before him and quietly avers that it IS normal, because he and Karen shared a life together and he'd be inhuman not to be adversely affected by Karen's accident. "Just try to do whatever you can to help," Lily insists. Then why was she telling him to fob off some errands on Karen's assistant? Whatever, babe. Both sides of your mouth are talking. Shut one of them up. Rick brokenly admits that he still cares about Karen. "I know you do," Lily says passionately. "You're not betraying me." Tearfully, Rick says he was scared Karen would die. "I don't know why I thought maybe it wasn't..." Rick begins. Lily silences him with a kiss. I don't quite understand that exchange, but I'm going to guess that Rick was scared his feelings of concern meant his relationship with Lily was somehow flawed. Lily pulls away for a breath, then shrugs off her blue shirt and goes back in for a tonsil suck.
The sheath of blue fabric transitions us to the hospital, where Jessie has just taken off her light blue winter coat. Jessie proudly hands Karen a bag of cookies, and although Karen doesn't remember asking for them, she warmly accepts them. "I must've been dreaming about that little Italian bakery on Sullivan Street," she grins, sniffing the cookies. Jessie's face falls as Karen goes on and on about the fresh cookies there. "Eli knows the place," Karen says dreamily, not noticing that she's just kicked her daughter in the gut. "Those aren't the right ones?" Jessie asks, crushed. "These look great," Karen says happily, putting the cookies on her bedside table and eagerly asking Jessie about Eli. "I thought he was coming with you," Karen says. Jessie uncomfortably shares that Eli didn't show up to pick her up from her therapy session. Karen can't hide her disappointment. I get the sense she's eager to reach out to Eli, and not to play favorites, however unwittingly. Jessie tries not to look hurt. Karen scolds her very properly for walking instead of calling somebody else to ask for a ride. Karen then sends her daughter to the cafeteria to get some food for herself. As Jessie leaves, the nurse enters, so Jessie hangs around long enough to overhear that Karen's about to use a bedpan. She's freaked and still pretty emotional, and it's probably worth noting that we never do see her go down to the cafeteria.