Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Amour-ticians
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 3 | Aired on 06.19.2005
George, Ruth, and Nate sit in the Fisher kitchen, where it's currently as quiet as a funeral home. I can't believe this is my fourth recap of this show and that's the first time I've ever used that joke. George reads the paper. Ruth knits an ugly scarf. Nate sips his coffee. When all the awkwardness becomes too much, Nate announces that he's off to run some errands: "Anybody need anything?" Ruth says she has to go to the market anyway, and George offers to take care of it, as does Nate. Ruth says it's just little stuff she has in her head, and the men suggest she make a list. "I'm looking forward to the produce section," Ruth says Ruthly, and George announces that he's going. Nate gives him a look and gets up too, saying he's got things to do in that direction, so he can go with. As George heads upstairs to get dressed, Ruth sighs that she'll make the list. Nate's alarmed that Ruth is going to let George go alone. Ruth says that George'll be fine: "It's one of his good days." Nate disagrees, and cites George's attempted funeral attire from earlier as evidence. Nate says he just wants George to be safe. Instead of answering, Ruth goes back to her list and hopes Nate won't realize that she's thinking there are worse things than George getting behind the wheel mistaking the Pacific Ocean for the 101.
Wondering how Brenda's internship is going? Too bad, you're going to find out anyway. Brenda's having an appointment with one of the troubled college students on the campus, who doesn't think Brenda's ready for her. Brenda encourages her to go on anyway. "I'm a very complex person," lies the generic blonde sitting opposite Brenda, and tries to spook her with tales about her various hospital visits. Brenda looks unimpressed until the patient's hand comes away from her head with a ragged lock tangled in her fingers. "And I keep pulling my hair out," she adds. She finally breaks down about the pressure to be normal, and says that nobody understands. "I think I do," says Brenda. Funny, I care about both of these people equally.
Her work done, Brenda and her boss Jackie are walking across the quad for some al fresco lunch while Brenda expresses her amazement that every young woman who's come to see her has body image issues. They swap stories about their anorexic patients, and Brenda asks, "Do their families not notice that their daughters are emaciated?" Coming from these two, who combined probably weigh less than I do, that's kind of rich. Jackie admits that she used to be "a fat girl." Brenda's shocked to hear that Jackie used to weigh 204 pounds. Huh, I'd like to get down to that. "Why do you think I have so much compassion?" Jackie says. Brenda gets her to confess that she took off the weight by using speed. "You're a fine example," Brenda says. "Hey, it's fucking hard to be a fat girl," Jackie protests. Interesting conversation, given that they're walking and eating at the same time. I also would have liked to see some kind of transition between Jackie's hating Brenda for her very existence and becoming her best bud. But for that we would have had to see at least one scene of Brenda being pleasant to be around, and that's just too much of a strain on our credulity.