Episode Report Card Niki: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Experience Is The Teacher
By Niki | Season 3 | Episode 17 | Aired on 03.31.2002
Meanwhile, back at the Manor...everyone but Grace is gathered in the kitchen, eating pizza, when Lily comes in the back door. She asks where Grace is. Jessie squirms, "I don't know. Do you want me to check her room?" Eli hedges that he thinks she said something about going to the library. Lily's already got steam pouring out of her ears when Rick tries to calm her down. She steams past him, fuming, "She's not at the library!"
Cut to Grace's room, where Lily's ransacking it for anything incriminating. She rifles through the dresser, scattering stuff everywhere, including a trashy paperback romance called Princess. Rick appears in the doorway, and she snaps, "How could you let her leave?" Rick says that he didn't "let" Grace do anything; he just got home ten minutes ago. Lily moves on to the bedside table and starts emptying the contents of the drawers on Grace's bed. "Lily, you don't want to be doing this," Rick says. She shoves her hand under the mattress and says, "Yes I do, because I want to know the truth." Gasping, she pulls out the book of Chekhov stories. She flips it open and stares at the inscription. "What, what is it?" Rick asks, taking a few steps into the room.
"Oh, my god!" Soliloquy Lily despairs.
"What are you doing? Get out of my room!" Grace wails, jolting Lily back from her Soliloquy Self to her Snooping Self. Grace flies into the room and claws at the book, ordering Lily to give it to her. She tells Lily that it's private. "So I see," Lily grits. Grace makes another grab for the book, but Lily wrenches it away. She reminds Grace that they had an agreement. Grace says she never promised anything. Lily says Grace agreed to check in with her before going anywhere. "I'm sorry, I couldn't keep that promise," Grace says glibly. She adds, "Actually, I'm not even sorry." Lily shows far more restraint than I would. She just stares at Grace, her eyes sparking with silent fury. Rick wisely ducks out of the room. Grace tries to hold Lily's gaze with a defiant stare of her own, but she can't. She lowers her eyes and her voice, saying, "Mom, give me back my book, please." Lily flips open the book and reads scornfully, "For the girl with the loveliest eyes." Grace pleads with her to stop. She doesn't: "Love always, August." Lily slaps her hand against the book and says Creepitri shouldn't be writing things like that to Grace. Grace gets all weepy and wants to know why not. Lily says she knows why not. Grace whispers, "Please Mom, just give me back my book." Lily obliges. Grace says, "And it's not 'the girl with the loveliest eyes.' It's 'the girl with the loneliest eyes.' You read it wrong." She turns and storms out, leaving Lily to think about how many more things she read wrong.