Nice episode title, huh? Especially when the dreaded episode in question begins with ol' Dopey "acting" nervous by running around all sweaty and disheveled. Oops, my bad. That's not sweat; it's just the grease on his hair. And as for disheveled, well, have you ever seen him looking anything other than dirty and rumpled? Okay, so why is Matt so highly strung? Could it be sexual frustration? Probably, but he's blaming it on the fact that, as part of the med-school application process, he must undergo a one-hour psychiatric evaluation. Aw man, just think how the shrink is gonna feel. I'd imagine spending an hour listening to Dopey wax lyrical about his thought or two would feel much like being trapped in an elevator with a yappy little dog. Well, at least Dopey wouldn't take a leak on your leg. He wouldn't, would he? Hmm, probably not. So Matt is complaining to SuperMom about the evaluation. The writers appear to be trying to replicate the nonsensical, non-humorous shtick that Dopey and RevCam usually share whenever they interact, except Catherine Hicks isn't doing a very good job of hiding her disgust over the stupid excuse for dialogue. And hey -- speaking of stupid, Dopey is anxious to speak to Lucy's vile little friend Mike Pierce. Apparently, Matt thinks that Mike's attempted suicide and subsequent bouts with therapy -- not to mention that crazy mother of his -- make Mike an expert on the whole psychiatry thing. More importantly, I'm sure that having all that trauma in his background would make Mike just love to be the token crazy dude who gets quizzed about all things sanity-related. Yep, that's exactly the kind of sensitivity I've come to expect from the 7H crew.
As SuperMom attempts to calm Dopey, Mike and Lucy walk into the kitchen. Matt drags Mike off into the living room to talk. He's acting hyper in a way that's supposed to be funny, but isn't. Lucy smirks in a way that's supposed to convey surprise, but doesn't. I can't help but feel sorry for everyone involved in this painful scene. Well, except for maybe Barry Watson because he's so annoying.
Out in the living room, Dopey is subjecting Mike to the same old dumb-ass hyper shtick. Mike tries to help, but he's looking pretty vexed. That's nothing compared to how irritated I'm getting by now, though. I'm envisioning an hour chock-full of Dopeyness, and it's not appealing. I never thought I'd say this, but I almost wish they'd go back to focusing on the sexual attraction between RevCam and Robbie. Mike gives Matt a pretty interesting explanation of what therapy is supposed to be about, but the Dopester is too thick to understand it. Matt just wants to know how to "pass" the evaluation, and he's pissed because he thinks Mike doesn't want to "help" him. Mike gets him to take deep breaths, thus opening the door to some excruciatingly irksome "funny" face-making from Matt.
RevCam walks into the kitchen and demonstrates his plot-enabling abilities by immediately asking about Mike, whose car he saw outside. When Eric hears that Matt is "terrified," he offers to help. Mike comes into the kitchen and, with a straight face, agrees that RevCam could help, since he's a professional and all. See, the only problem there is that Matt's situation has nothing to do with stalking, and stalking really is where RevCam excels. I'm just not sure if offering to counsel Matt on non-stalking issues is going to help anybody. RevCam leaves to give it a shot anyway, and as he goes, Mike looks after him and does that index finger twirling around the ear gesture that's supposed to signify craziness. It's almost as funny as it was the last time I saw someone use that gesture, which was probably in the fifth grade. I'm not sure if Mike's trying to imply that RevCam or Dopey is the crazy one, but I'm not going to get worked up about it. That would be like trying to figure out who sucks harder: Celine Dion or Michael Bolton. At the end of the day, it just doesn't matter.
In the living room, Dopey is telling his father, "I'd rather have hot needles poked into my eyes." Now, I know it's possible the writer could have come up with that phrase in some other way, but I prefer to think that he or she lifted it from one of my recaps. Hey, thanks for the shout-out! Dopey's worried that "a stranger will know all the sordid details of [his] life." Yuck. I know that's supposed to be a joke, considering that Dopey has no life, but now I have this really unfortunate idea in my head that they're referring to some bizarre hobbies or fetishes he practices instead of sex. I'm sorry, I hope you're not eating while you're reading this.
Over at the hospital, Dopey paces the hallway for a while. Then he starts banging his head against the wall. Oh-ho, isn't it great how they play those mental-health issues for laughs? Everyone knows that insanity provides a veritable treasure trove of comedy! Dopey sits down. As the opening credits draw to a close, a tweedy-looking man walks into the office to where Matt is sitting. Matt takes a few dorky deep breaths, then walks into the office the man just entered. You didn't honestly think he'd be polite enough to knock first, did you? He is a Camden, after all, so he's had plenty of experience barging in where he's not expected. The tweedy guy just stares at him as Dopey launches into some nervous patter before finally sitting down. The guy wants to be called Doc. It is decided that Doc will ask Dopey a few questions to get him started. Doc's first question makes me wonder if he frequents MBTV: "What's with the hair?" That may be the funniest intentionally funny thing ever said on this show. Doc refuses to be pinned down to an answer on whether or not he likes Dopey's hair, but he says he thought the hospital had a policy mandating that staff members' hair had to be clean. Heh. Dopey explains that he puts product into his clean hair to make it look dirty. Well, duh -- Gwen and I were talking about that months ago in the forums. Doc endears himself to me totally when he remarks that Dopey can't be wearing his "best look." This makes Dopey defensive. That's unfortunate, because when Dopey gets defensive, he gets really chatty. He rambles on about Lucy and Mike Pierce for a while -- to Doc's intense boredom, no doubt. Maybe that's why Doc decides to liven things up a bit by playing a prank on Dopey, telling him to talk to a chair as if it were Lucy. Dopey doesn't fall for this trick, saying he'd feel foolish. And he doesn't already feel foolish sporting that stupid soul patch? Doc claims that one can learn a lot by not being afraid to be foolish, but Dopey still won't talk to the chair. If Doc really wants Dopey to talk to inanimate objects, maybe he should get him a mirror, like the one Matt talks to in the opening credits. Dopey wonders if he can be evaluated by someone else. Doc does that weird body-language thing where he answers that it's "entirely possible," but he's shaking his head at the same time. Matt's suggestion that they "start over" is met with what really is a very logical question: "Now, how would we do that?" Oh yeah, Doc has the whole quirky thing going on, in spades. So has everyone else already figured out that Doc is not really a doctor, that he's just some guy who wandered into the psychiatrist's office? This becomes even more evident when Dopey says, "I know nothing about anything," and Doc compliments him for it. The homage to J.D. Salinger would work better for me if Doc weren't so damn annoying.
Robbie runs into Lucy in the upstairs CamPound hallway. He wants to know where SuperMom is so he can ask her permission to drive Ruthie back to school. Lucy tries to tell him it's okay, but as an über-Camden, The Amazing Robbie needs to hear it straight from SuperMom. I can sort of understand, but it's not like he's taking Ruthie with him to knock over a 7-11; he's just bringing her to school. How much nerdier could he get? Someone has attempted that zigzag part trick on Lucy's scalp, but it's a pretty sad effort that just makes her look exceedingly dorky. I'd feel sorrier for her if she weren't so damn annoying. SuperMom comes into the hallway and shushes the kids, telling Robbie to take Ruthie to school. Of course, he complies. Simon asks Lucy about Matt's whereabouts; he claims it's because he needs advice about women. I wonder who this "Matt" is. Is he some recurring character who has the same name as Dopey? Because obviously they can't be talking about the Dopester. If I needed advice about women, I'd ask just about anybody else first -- and that includes all the gay guys I know. Hell, I would probably ask the Pope before I'd approach Dopey. I'd feel sorrier for Simon if he weren't so damn annoying.
Simon mopes off to his room and closes the door. Lucy follows. Imagine my surprise when she doesn't knock but just walks right in. Simon tries to tell her that he doesn't need to talk to a woman; he needs to talk to someone about women. Lucy says something about being particularly qualified to understand her own gender. I think it's exactly the same line RevCam used a few shows back when he was giving Lucy advice on men, and it works, because Simon deigns to share his problem with Lucy. He wants to dump Sasha because she's too shallow. I find that a little hard to believe, but whatever. Lucy advises him to try the "not enough in common" line, but Simon shoots her down. Then she suggests that he lie and say his parents forbid him to date Sasha. By the way, this scene is littered with brief appearances by Annie, who keeps opening up the sliding doors from the twins' room and hissing at Lucy and Simon to be quiet. Simon is aghast at Lucy's suggestion that he lie. Good heavens! Lucy says that Simon could ask their parents to forbid him from seeing Sasha. That's pretty pointless. You know there aren't too many types of people I actively dislike, but those who think that following the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit of it absolves them of blame really work my nerves. Apparently, Annie doesn't agree, because she opens the doors again and forbids Simon to date Sasha. That's just one of the reasons I think Annie is a dumb-ass. The fact that she's obviously been eavesdropping on the kids' conversation is another.
At the hospital, RevCam asks a nurse about Dopey. She tells him Matt has the day off. A patient in a nearby room overhears her call Eric "Reverend." That was a rather unfortunate occurrence, because now this guy thinks Eric is qualified to advise him on spirituality. Harold, the patient, is upset because he's just been told by his doctor that he has only six weeks to live. Eric asks if the diagnosing physician has informed God of this.
It turns out that Ruthie has tricked Robbie into attending a meeting with her principal. The principal uses her keen powers of insight to deduce that Robbie is not Ruthie's father. The causes Robbie to embark on the narration of his life story in a way that was probably meant to be amusing, or charming, or something other than the annoyance that it actually is. The principal says that she will meet with Ruthie and Robbie rather than Ruthie and a CamRent, and that they will see how it goes. The problem is that Ruthie keeps missing homeroom, but she refuses to tell the principal where she is during that half hour every morning. Robbie pipes up with a defense of Ruthie, insisting that the little troll must be covering up for someone. The principal asks if this is true. Ruthie just shoots Robbie a dirty look. Because it's Ruthie, the dirty look is overdone. The principal leaves the two to discuss the situation. Robbie discovers that Ruthie is indeed protecting someone else by keeping quiet, but since I can't imagine there's anyone in the entire world who would give a shit about this subplot, we'll just move on now.
Dopey's in the middle of his evaluation, and at least he's turned the hyper nervousness attitude down a notch or two. He says that sometimes he wonders if he should shoot for a job that requires no education or training. I'll bet he'd make a good lawn jockey, though he may need some instruction on how to hold up a lamp properly. Doc tries to convince him that there's nothing wrong with being an orderly, and that he can always do something else when he tires of it. Dopey insists he wants to be a doctor, but he's just not sure if he can get through nine years of school while trying to live the rest of his life. He insists that he actually has a life to live, even though I can't see how stalking his siblings and moralizing at all and sundry are of any value to society. Dopey goes on to emphasize how confused he is. Then the writers give me an early birthday present by having Matt call himself an idiot. I'm already laughing pretty hard, but when Doc looks at Dopey's file and notes that he is ranked third in his class, I just about lose it. Either Doc is celebrating April Fool's Day a little late or he's holding the class ranking sheet upside down. Dopey is thrilled, though a bit surprised by the notion that he has a good chance of getting into med school. Doc points out that it depends on how well the psychiatric evaluation goes. Dopey stammers out, "It's not going that well, is it?" I'd say that's a pretty apt meta-statement for the entire episode.
After a welcome commercial respite, we see Eric hassling Harold's doctor at the hospital. When the doctor asks RevCam, "Do you have a problem with me?" Eric responds, "I have a problem with you telling your patient when to die." Yo Eric, could you do everyone a favour and shut up now? I have my own issues with Western-style medicine, but that doesn't mean I go picking fights with doctors who are just doing their jobs they way they see fit. RevCam's antagonism causes Harold's doctor to freeze up and walk away. A nurse who has been standing to them hisses at Eric to "do something." RevCam asks her to repeat herself, but she won't since it's a conflict of interest. Before Eric can pursue that and hassle the hell out of her, he sees Dopey and Doc walk by. In passing, Dopey says that he's being evaluated. This sets off RevCam's busybody alarm, and he asks the nurse who Doc is. The nurse says she's never seen him before.
Doc invites Dopey down to the Promenade. I wonder if they'll end up at Flicks.
Annie walks into the living room to ask Lucy if Robbie and Ruthie are back yet. Lucy answers that Ruthie probably talked him into taking her out for ice cream. Annie smiles and comments that Ruthie is a "funny kid" because "she's always up to something but she's never up to anything really bad." She stops smiling, though when Lucy says, "There's always a first time." Lucy says this because she's been reading an article in one of Annie's parenting magazines that says that "sometimes kids who are comedians turn into criminals." Okay, first of all, why the hell is Lucy reading a parenting magazine? And secondly, who considers Ruthie a comedian? I sure don't. This may be the stupidest excuse for a subplot yet. Can I skip recapping the rest of this story line and just say that Annie becomes convinced that Ruthie is going to turn into a criminal? Okay, thanks. Annie grabs the magazine from Lucy and scuttles off with it. This leaves Lucy with nothing to read. She reaches down to the coffee table and picks up another magazine. We don't see the title, but I'll bet it's scary. I'm picturing something called Stalker's Monthly or Sucky Nerds. RevCam would probably keep his stalking magazine in his office, though, and I'll bet Simon's upstairs right now reading Lucy's copy of Sucky Nerds.
Back in the principal's office, Robbie says he will call SuperMom down, but even such a dire threat doesn't get much reaction from Ruthie. Robbie leaves for the outer office to talk with the principal. She comments that parenting is hard, which is probably true but doesn't have much relevance to Robbie's life, seeing as how he's not a parent or anything. Dumb-ass Robbie comments that the Camdens are good parents, and that's why he should call them down to Ruthie's school now. The principal tells him that's she's already spoken to Annie, who told her to let Robbie handle this situation. That makes Robbie more than a little nervous, but the principal lets him know that if he can't handle the situation, she will handle it herself. Robbie goes back into the inner office alone to talk to Ruthie some more. I'd feel sorrier for him if he weren't so damn annoying. He's still trying to get Ruthie to tell him the big secret of where she goes during homeroom, but Ruthie is standing her ground. I'd find this a whole lot more commendable if it weren't for the fact that I probably care less about this so-called mystery than I have ever cared about anything in my life.
Oh, look -- it's Simon and his hot eighteen-year-old girlfriend Sasha. Looking at her hair reminds me that I have to pick up some Frizz-Ease later. Simon's making himself look like a goof by telling Sasha that his mommy won't let them date anymore. Sasha claims that she and Simon are "eternal," whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. I think it may be some religious joke that I just don't understand because I'm agnostic. In any case, Sasha is not pleased. She rolls her eyes and leaves. Lucy scurries over to ask Simon how the break-up went. Not a lot of privacy in the Camden household, is there?
RevCam is busy chastising another medical professional -- I imagine it's probably Harold's doctor's boss. They're having a debate over the ethics of giving patients a prognosis of imminent death. At least RevCam is treating this guy politely, but the two end up agreeing to disagree.
Oh no, it's more of Ruthie and Robbie in the principal's office. Ruthie has spilled the beans to Robbie, but he won't let the principal -- or us -- in on the secret. The suspense is killing me. What kind of tea should I make to stay awake: Irish Breakfast, Earl Grey, or Bancha? Er-- I mean, what could Ruthie possibly be doing between 8:00 and 8:30 every morning? The principal decides to trust Ruthie and says that she will inform her homeroom teacher that Ruthie will not be in homeroom until further notice. Ruthie and Robbie look pretty surprised by this as they leave. The teacher just continues smiling blandly. I'm not knocking her, though. While I have some doubts about her methods, I wish I'd had someone like that running my high school. I still remember when I had knee surgery and my asshole homeroom teacher Mr. Rini used to give me detentions for not hobbling to homeroom on time. Dickhead.
Sasha and SuperMom are having a cozy tete-a-tete in the kitchen. Annie expresses her misgivings about the age difference between Simon and Sasha and basically asks Sasha if she's easy. Sasha pretty much answers yes to that one, which is a bit of a surprise. I'm not sure how comfortable I'd feel about discussing my sex life with my mother-in-law, but to each her own. Besides, I'm sure that we viewers are about to be treated to another "no sex outside marriage" lecture any minute now. Yup, there it is. Sasha argues that guys like a woman who will sleep with them. Guess what Annie has to say about that. I'm disappointed that there's no mention of my favourite phrase: "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" There's something to be said for both points of view, but this whole conversation is getting entirely too Rules-y for me, so I'm going to gloss a little. Annie is appalled by some of the advice Sasha's mother has given Sasha. She offers to set the girl straight about sex, but tells her to get her mother's permission first.
Sasha trots off to call her mom just as Robbie and Ruthie walk in. They explain to SuperMom that Ruthie's principal, Mrs. Mackoul, was very understanding and that Ruthie does not have to attend homeroom. Ruthie thanks Annie for her help and leaves. Annie tries to get Robbie to tell her what Ruthie's been up to, but he refuses. SuperMom says she just wants to know if Ruthie's doing anything criminal. ["I assume they aren't counting her 'acting.'" -- Sars]
There's a brief interlude where Simon confronts Sasha in the kitchen. She reassures him that she may be able to convince Annie to let them date again. Simon dons a look of horror and excuses himself. As he turns to leave, his earring flashes very visibly in the light. A small part of me wants to know why he's wearing the earring when he was expressly forbidden to do so not very long ago. It's just a very small part of me, mind you.
Robbie and Annie are continuing their standoff in the hallway when Simon comes up and drags SuperMom away. He wants to know if Annie is going to let him date Sasha again, but she assures him she won't. She gets a little hysterical about Ruthie, but I'll just pretend I never saw it. Fortunately, it's a short scene.
That brings us back to Dopey and Doc, who are sitting in a restaurant that may be the pizza place where Mary used to work. Doc is spewing some nonsense about how Matt is conflicted, "like every other human being on Earth." That's nice of you to say, Doc, but trust me, Dopey is not normal.
RevCam drops in on Harold to let him know that he'll continue meddling in Harold's business as soon as he finds Dopey. It's mainly an excuse for RevCam to mention that Dopey missed his evaluation, and that someone had seen him leaving the hospital with a patient. Thanks for the exposition, but I think most of us already figured that out a while back.
Dopey tells Doc that he thinks of him as some sort of holy man. Doc smiles. Or maybe he's just trying not to laugh at how stupid Dopey is.
When we return from commercial, Sasha is busy giving SuperMom a lengthy technical description of how two people can breathe through each other's noses while kissing. Now, I'll admit that I'm way geekier than the person. I mean, I'm the only childless adult I know who used to have a membership to the Ontario Science Centre, and I'm always willing to listen to explanations of scientific things, no matter how obscure, but I have to agree with Annie that this just isn't something I want to hear about. When Sasha is done explaining, I'm even more sure I didn't need to hear it. Annie, on the other hand, seems to be turned on once she hears the explanation, and when RevCam wanders in, she tells him that there's something she wants to try later. Okay, must not think of CamRent sex life, must not think of CamRent sex life. Aauurgghhh, too late! Damn you, stupid Camdens! Annie shares her asinine fears about Ruthie "conning" her teacher, and RevCam lets her know that Dopey missed his psychiatric evaluation. When Eric leaves, Sasha shares some more with Annie. She mentions that her father is a "professional con artist," because he has some shady-sounding job related to corporate buy-outs. I could tell you about how Annie starts quizzing Sasha about whether her father was funny as a child, but then you, too, will be embarrassed to be a member of the same species as the writers.
Matt drops Doc off at the hospital and tells him how much he appreciated their talk. Doc pretends that the time he's in the building, he will look up Matt for another chat. Hee hee -- I'm sure that'll happen. He leaves Dopey with some convoluted advice that's probably not worth the time it would take for me to decipher. As he's walking into the hospital, Doc brushes his hand across his own ass but tries to play it off like he was going to adjust his belt.
Speaking of asses, RevCam's attempting some problem-solving again. He's explaining to Ruthie and Robbie that Annie is worried about Ruthie growing up to become a criminal. Frankly, I don't think she needs to worry. Ruthie's just not that funny. Big surprise -- it turns out the article in the parenting magazine that fueled this half-witted story line was written by a stand-up comic who was being sarcastic. This was explained at the end the article, but the CamRents never made it that far. It's a little weird that Annie would get so up in arms about an issue and then couldn't even be bothered to finish reading the article on it, but maybe the writers were feeling even lazier than usual this week and just couldn't be bothered coming up with a more credible plot. RevCam makes another plea to Ruthie to tell her parents what she does every morning, but she refuses, though she phrases it well. RevCam tells her he loves her and then leaves. Robbie and Ruthie discuss the fact that Eric seemed depressed.
Gross -- it's Mike Pierce again. He knows how to fit right into the nosy CamClan, telling Lucy that he's come by to see how Matt's evaluation went. He's interrupted by Simon, who wants to discuss the Sasha situation in a loud voice, even though Sasha is just down the hall in the kitchen. Simon and Mike band together and bust on Lucy for a while, denigrating her advice to Simon to lie about the CamRents forbidding him to date Sasha. I would have rolled my eyes and left the room, but Lucy defends herself, challenging the junior Promise Keepers to demonstrate how they would have handled the situation. Simon's response is a cloddish, "I don't want to go out with you anymore. Sorry." Mike turns on the smarm, but he can't come up with anything better. When Lucy laughs at him, he goes on the defensive, telling her, "I didn't have any problems breaking up with you, did I?" Ouch. Lucy points out that Mike has been hanging around more since Jeremy left town.
Fortunately, this pointless and annoying argument is interrupted by Sasha, who wants to speak to Simon. She says that Annie made her realize that she was only dating Simon because he wouldn't pressure her for sex. Annie also convinced her to date guys her own age, but not have sex with them. Chalk one up for the Camden abstinence campaign. But if Sasha wants to date guys closer to her own age who don't want to have sex, maybe she should consider Dopey. Their utter stupidity would give them something in common right off the bat, even though Sasha is trying to pretend that she's not shallow. She closes her woodenly delivered speech by telling Simon that he's nice but she doesn't want to go out with him anymore. With a chaste little kiss on his cheek, she's out of there. Simon is pretty dumb -- I mean, "dumbfounded."
Lucy and Mike walk back into the living room, and Simon asks if they heard what just transpired. Duh, of course they did. Lucy's a Camden, isn't she? Simon leaves, and Mike comments that he "told [Sasha] the truth." Lucy asks Mike to tell her the truth about him and Elaina. Remember her? She was the girl with whom Mike wanted to have dozens of children. Now we find out he ditched her because she accepted dates from other guys and Mike wants a relationship. Without prompting, Lucy tells him that she doesn't want a relationship right now because she's on the rebound from Jeremy. Jeez, wasn't he only on for, like, one episode? Mike says something about how he still has "feelings" for Lucy, although he knows she doesn't feel that way about him. I just can't keep track of all this. A few episodes ago, she did have feelings for Mike and he wanted to date Elaina. Now...ah, fuck it. I'll bet the writers can't even keep it straight, so why should anybody else bother.
As Mike is leaving the CamPound, Dopey walks up and gives him a big hug, thanking him for encouraging him to attend the psychiatric evaluation. Barry Watson is using pretty much the same hyper acting style he used when Dopey was freaking out before the session, even though now Dopey is supposed to be happy. Mike wants to know the name of the shrink Dopey saw so that he can pay a visit himself, but selfish Dopey just brushes him off.
Inside the CamPound, RevCam is waiting to find out why Dopey ditched his psychiatric evaluation. Matt claims he showed up and spent the entire afternoon with the guy. RevCam informs him that Doc was a patient, not a psychiatrist. But Dopey already knows this, so why did he just claim that he spent the afternoon with the person who was supposed to do his evaluation? When there are consistency errors within a scene, you know you're in trouble. It turns out that Doc got a terminal diagnosis twelve years ago, which made him experience an epiphany. This is pretty convenient for RevCam, given his subplot for this episode. I have to snicker when Dopey talks about how he used to think he was responsible for life and death, but now he realizes he's not. Actually, Matt, if you become a doctor, there could be many, many situations in which you will find yourself responsible for life and death. And given that you can't even seem to muster up the responsibility to get a decent haircut and grooming routine, I'm not sure how well you'll fare in medicine.
Annie apologizes to Ruthie for not trusting her. Great. That whole subplot really went nowhere, but at least we can be glad that it's almost over.
Annie goes upstairs, where RevCam is bringing out the twins for this week's three-second appearance. She thanks Eric for keeping her "sane," emphasizing the word, since this episode is called "Crazy." Wasn't that clever of them? No, I didn't think so either. Annie disses Sasha's mom for giving her daughter bad advice. Then, with a straight face, Eric suggests that maybe Sasha's mom gives bad advice because she doesn't have anyone to talk to, since Sasha's father doesn't sound like "a tower of ethics." No, really, he says it. This, from the guy who regularly commits ethical, and even legal, crimes against his own family members. I'd like to think this is dark humour on the part of the writers, but I suspect it's just cluelessness.
How lovely -- it's Dopey talking some more about wanting to be a doctor. This time he's sucking up to the psychiatrist who was supposed to perform his evaluation. Dopey and the good doctor praise "Doc" for a while. Dopey pretends to be an authority on life by parroting everything Doc told him.
Oh criminy, it's time for more of that heinous Ruthie subplot. She's at school, and since there are only a few minutes left of this episode, I guess we're about to learn the answer to the vital question of where she goes during homeroom every morning. Ready? Okay, she's been going to what looks like a broom closet to share her lunches with some little poor girl. Why she needs to stay there for half an hour and watch the girl eat is another mystery. Let's leave it that way, though, okay?
Not content simply to meddle in Sasha's life, Annie apparently feels the need to foist her advice on Sasha's mom as well. She's invited Rita over to the CamPound, and for reasons never explained, Rita accepted the invitation. She's kind of flashy-looking, but friendly and nice. The writers save themselves the trouble of having Annie cut her down by making Rita launch right into a flighty speech about how hard parenting is and how she "can't quite get the hang of it." Annie's minimally polite about it all, but you can tell we're supposed to be comparing her favourably to Rita. Well, I'm not doing that, but I think the writers would like me to.
I've got good news and bad news. First, the bad news: Doc has resurfaced to spread his special brand of sharing and caring on that sick Harold guy. He explains all about the epiphany thing, and Harold gets a chance to voice his doubts about the future. Doc gives him a little pep talk about making the most of his time since only God can decide when it will be over. He encourages Harold to leave the hospital and join him for a pizza.
Oh, and the good news? That was the last scene of the episode.