Episode Report Card Niki: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Aaron's Gettin' Better
By Niki | Season 2 | Episode 16 | Aired on 03.20.2001
When we return, it's the next day. Aaron is huddled on a bench in the garden, fiddling with another package of red licorice. He's wearing the earflaps hat again and looks like an overgrown child. Lily watches him from an upstairs window. Soliloquy Lily tells us, "In the last picture I have of Aaron, he's about eighteen. And the face I see now is that face -- or close enough." Well, bipolar disorder isn't leprosy, for crying out loud. ["I thought he was schizophrenic. Hearing voices suggests that." -- Wing Chun] I guess she just means she finally sees his personality in it again.
Aaron spots her in the window, and smiles while chewing his licorice. She smiles back.
On the Stool, she clarifies, "I guess I...I see my brother again." She puts her hand over her heart at the thought.
Back at the window, Lily's got the cordless. She calls Rick, who asks, "You naked?" Oh, brother. Fully clothed (which is good, since she's been standing in front of the window staring at her brother), she says, "Of course!" and then gets to the real reason she's calling. She wants Rick and the kids to come for dinner that night. He asks if she's sure she wants the kids. "Of course!" she exclaims again. She flops on her bed and looks really pleased when he agrees.
Cut to Grace entering a bustling café, where she cranes her neck in search of someone. Spotting Spencer, she bounds up to his table and says, "Hey!" to the back of his head, just as he's about to sip from his cappuccino. Startled, he ends up with foam on the end of his nose. Which Grace is more than happy to dab off for him. He seems uncomfortable at the attention. She asks how he is, and he jokes that he's "swallowing, without any awareness of the act itself at all, so..." Grace jumps into he seat opposite him and eagerly gets down to business. She pulls out a notebook and says that she finished the article she was talking about. "Only it's weird," she says, "It started being all about me, and..." "And what?" Spencer asks, polishing his glasses. "And it ended up being...all about you," Grace finishes. Spencer sets his glasses back on his nose and looks stunned. He struggles for something to say while Grace blathers that she "felt" him, and she "knew" him. Spencer cuts her off: "Grace! Please stop." Grace looks at him quizzically, with a half smile, and says, "Okaaaay." Spencer's not smiling. He looks over her shoulder, and then glances at her face, but his eyes can't stay there. He drops his gaze to the table, looking up at her only with brief, nervous glances. "Maybe I shouldn't say this," he says quietly, and -- oh my god, Grace, Spencer's about to turn on an industrial heat lamp and melt all your snow, girl! But she doesn't notice that he's fiddling with the cord and jiggling the switch. She just quips, "Well, that hasn't stopped you before." Spencer chuckles half-heartedly, flips on the lamp, and says, "See, I've never...I've never had a girlfriend Grace." She smiles at him and asks, "Is that what I am?" Spencer turns the lamp to its highest setting: "No, no I just meant, we've been um..." Grace pats his hand and says it's okay -- that lots of people haven't had a girlfriend. Spencer's making puddles, fast: "And you say you know me, but -- comic books! See, take comic books. I love 'em, and you don't. And Japanese anime, which I also love, and --" Grace cuts in to ask what he's getting at. Man, here comes the big thaw: "I've never had a girlfriend. And if I ever had, or if I ever do...I don't think it would be you."