Episode Report Card Niki: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Booklovers
By Niki | Season 2 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.30.2000
Back to the patio, where Will asks, "What assumption?" He looks like maybe he doesn't want to hear the answer. Judy says, "Oh, god. That you hadn't read Franny and Zooey." Will's busy winding his cord. "Oh. Well, I'm not much of a reader," he says, letting her off the hook with a smile. Judy fumbles around, saying he could have read it in high school (D'oh! We collectively groan…) since that's when everyone does. "I didn't exactly finish high school," Will says to the cord, turning away quickly. He grabs his box of tools and is about to head for his truck when he stops and asks her if her teeth still feel funny. She looks at him with something close to marvel. He says he heard her talking about it and proceeds to describe the very sensation that everyone else has been dismissing as Judy's insanity. She smiles widely, relieved at having found someone who can understand her problem. "It's a strange feeling," Will says by way of wrap-up, exhaling loudly and turning to go. "Does Gluck really mean…happiness?" Judy asks, as a means of stopping him. He shrugs, "Got me!" Judy's looking at him like Judy li-i-ikes. Before he goes, Will says, "Good luck with everything. I hope everyone meets their match." And he's sincere; it's not just something to say! Man, I love me some Will Gluck. I'm almost swooning right now.
Back inside the bookstore, things are going full-tilt. Jake enters, and as the camera frames him in the background, Karen fills the screen in the foreground. No, they don't get together. They don't even meet one another. So if ABC tries to tell you otherwise in the next round of teasers, you just pay them no attention, you hear? Karen actually turns around and comes face-to-face with Lloyd, however. She seems afraid that he'll mistake her presence as a sign that she's available, and quickly explains that she's just there as a friend to Judy. Which is fine, because Deborah comes up holding the suicide hotline book she'd gone to fetch. She and Lloyd are buying one another their books. Looks like they hit it off. And, hey, it looks like Judy's plan to drum up business is working too.
Across the store, Jake's chatting up some young blonde thing about his restaurant, telling her she should come in sometime. He neglects to add, "So you can meet my girlfriend." He leaves to get her a drink, and the camera wanders over to David. I'm amazed his skin's not blistering and peeling in the presence of all these books. He strolls up to Crusty, who's leaning against a bookshelf, and he leans in to read her nametag. It's the moment we've all been waiting for…and, drum roll please…exactly nothing happens. "The Rules," he says, reading her tag. Knowing he's about to ask, Crusty offers, "You mean, because I like science fiction?" She reads his tag, which bears his recommendation for some obscure work on concrete. Just so he has a reason to tell all the ladies he's an architect. He smugly admits that no one's heard of his book. Crusty, in a beautiful move that makes up for all the Cindy Brady pigtails in the world, says, "Oh, I've heard of it." David expresses his surprise. "Oh, yeah," she says. "I read it in college. In one night." David deliberately downs his drink in a gulp and then finishes the guzzle in a black-and-white shot, where he says bluntly, "Not beautiful enough." Because, as I think I've already pointed out, David should be dating a supermodel. Or so he thinks. Pig. But that's okay, because Crusty has this to say, in her black-and-white clip: "Gay." Wow. That one little word, so many levels. I think I just officially became the president of the Crusty fan club. David gestures with his empty cup and begs off to go to the bar, but he doesn't offer to get her anything. Crusty is not worried at all. In fact, the very next hunka hunka that passes by manages to snag her attention, and she's off in hot pursuit.