Episode Report Card Cate: F | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Virgin
By Cate | Season 5 | Episode 19 | Aired on 04.29.2001
Simon walks into the kitchen with Happy. The writers abandon any attempt to make the dialogue sound natural and unforced as they have Eric whiningly ask about dinner and Simon describing it in great detail. What we learn from this -- other than how not to write dialogue -- is that Annie encouraged everyone to have seconds and not save any food for RevCam. RevCam leaves to grab a burger. As he walks out the door, he hangs his head. I feel his pain. I'd be embarrassed too if I'd just acted in a scene like this one.
In the CamKitchen, Dopey and Simon have a good old-fashioned gossip session. Matt asks why RevCam wasn't at dinner, but Simon doesn't know. Next, Dopey wants to know all about Simon and Sasha's break-up. In return, he tells Simon that Annie's been socializing with Sasha's mom. Ruthie joins them to explain that RevCam had been laughing with a woman in his office earlier. Strangely enough, the trio don't speculate on that ad nauseam. Instead, Dopey tries to hustle Simon and Ruthie out of the room, patronizingly telling them to "run along and go to bed now." His hair looks disconcertingly like John Ritter's circa Three's Company. Ruthie and Simon refuse to leave. They want to know why Dopey's trying to get them to leave. This results in one of those vile, nonsensical speeches Dopey makes when he's lying about something but isn't bright enough to cover it up properly. He's speaking English, but it might as well be Russian, because I don't understand what the hell he's trying to say. Simon understands, though, that Dopey wants to make a phone call in private, and he points out that Matt doesn't need to make his call from the kitchen; the cordless phone he's been holding throughout the scene should work from anywhere in the house. Dopey is overjoyed to learn this, and he happily points at the phone before trotting off to make his call. Ruthie speculates as to why Matt wants to make a call in private, but she's cut off by Simon, who warns her not to snoop. That can't be right. I replay the tape, and sure enough, Simon is telling Ruthie to mind her own business. I'm sure this is just a brief rebellious phase he's going through and that soon he'll embrace his family's values once more.
Simon leaves and Lucy comes in. She wants to know what RevCam's doing. Now, that's more like it! Ruthie laments that she has no friends. Lucy asks about tertiary characters who briefly played friends of Ruthie's earlier in the season, but I guess those actors have moved on to other projects by now. Ruthie claims that part of the problem is that the Camdens are poor, and she says she doesn't want to be friends with snobs. It's a sad day when Ruthie is one of the most intelligent voices on the show, but it's been happening more and more lately. Lucy points out that a third of the students are on scholarship, just like Ruthie, but Ruthie says there's no way of finding out which girls are poor. That sounds unlikely to me, but whatever. Ruthie resolves to become friends with the girl to whom she was giving her lunches a few episodes back. She leaves.