Simon is looking for an available seat on a city bus. After making flirtatious eye contact with a pretty blonde who must have borrowed Annie's hair for the day, he sits down to the girl. Her name is Sally, and she is sixteen years old. She says she's attending "tech school," studying to be a nurse. After this soul-baring forty-two-second-long conversation, Sally announces that her stop is coming up. Before she gets off the bus, though, she takes out a giant, ugly, pink pen and scribbles down her phone number for Simon. It's cool that the female is the one to ask for a date this time, though I can't say much for her choice in men. As Sally stands up, the camera closes in on her belly, and we see that she is pregnant. Simon gawks at her as she's walking away. Just in case you'd already drifted off and missed the fact that Sally is pregnant, we get another long shot of her in profile. Are you shocked and appalled? Me neither. It looks like Simon is, though. He stares thoughtfully at the piece of paper with Sally's number on it for a while before crumpling it up. Are you feeling sympathetic for anyone yet?
The opening song is followed by a commercial for Maalox. Expect sales of Maalox to soar this week.
So what do the writers have planned as the traditional time-wasting background scenes for tonight's guest-star credits? It's not nearly as bad as it usually is. Annie is sitting at the CamKitchen table, her chin propped on her hands while she stares morosely into space. At least she looks good, and there's a pretty shot of a window box filled with flowers. How sad, though, that this will probably be the high point of the show. Various CamKids walk through the kitchen, and SuperMom almost psychically reminds them to pick up objects they will need for their day's activities. Her newfound extrasensory perception must be one of the lesser-known side effects of menopause. We see Ruthie standing in the upstairs hallway, waiting to leer at Robbie leaving the bathroom after his morning shower. His scrawny, naked chest is not something I need to see in the morning -- or at any other time of day, really. There's a shot of Lucy walking downstairs to the CamKitchen. She must have put on Ruthie's shirt by mistake. I say this not because it's one of the uglier garments I've ever encountered, but because it's about four sizes too small for her. Annie just says, "Counter," indicating that the car keys Lucy needs are on the counter. In case you haven't already derived enough gleeful entertainment from seeing how the CamPound operates like a well-oiled machine in the mornings, now you can howl with delight as Annie looks at her watch and starts to call out to Eric -- exactly at the same moment he bellows out her name. Even though he's not experiencing menopause yet, Robbie's got the whole psychic thing going on too, as he deduces that Eric is looking for outfits for the twins. But then, Robbie and Eric have always had a certain magic between them.
Annie lets Robbie know that he can rent out the room she's building over the garage. If RevCam is upset that he'll no longer be able to see Robbie getting out of the shower in the mornings, he hides it well. He chooses instead to focus on the building of the room itself, leading to the CamRents' first fight of the day. That didn't take long. RevCam seems to have an incredible talent for simultaneously sucking up to Annie, yet managing to stick his foot in his mouth at every turn. This fight is not worth describing, since we've heard it countless times since Annie went crazy -- I mean, "embarked on her menopause story arc." I wish the CamRents would just get divorced already, or at least take their marital problems to a counselor. Yes, I know RevCam is supposed to be such a counselor himself, but I actually meant that they should take their problems to someone competent. Moving out of fight mode, Annie slides back down into the dumps, lamenting that all her children will probably leave Glenoak soon -- Dopey to med school, Lucy to New York, Simon away to college. Okay, just quit it, SuperMom. You know none of these people are ever going to go anywhere, so don't even torment me with your empty promises. Stephen Collins and Catherine Hicks put their acting skills to the test by claiming, with straight faces, that they would like Mary to come back home. That made me feel sympathetic for them, though probably not in quite the way the writers intended.
In "New York," slack-jawed Billy Campbell-wannabe Wilson is taking his son's temperature with one of those ear thermometers. When he reports that little Billy's temperature has gone down, Billy says, "Yeah, in my ear. Why don't you try a thermometer that goes in my mouth? My mouth might have a fever." Good God -- if this is the kind of cutesy shit we can expect to endure this season, then even I will argue that Mary should move back to the CamPound. Ah, speaking of the lovely and talented Mary, she arrives at Wilson's place and start giving him shit for taking Billy swimming the night before. In fact, Mary seems to be totally following in SuperMom's shoes with her tendency to go completely overboard in the worry department. I think this scene is supposed to be one of those "slice of life" things. But when someone's life is so incredibly boring, why bother? Wilson leaves and Mary stays behind with Billy, who earnestly tells Mary that he wants to call her "Mommy," since he's never had a mommy and he wants one. Are you feeling sympathetic yet? I'm not, though I am feeling kind of sorry for myself, and for anyone else who was watching. It's so irritating to see trite bullshit masquerading as a moving scene.
I'm pleased to report that someone from the 7th Heaven staff must have taken Continuity 101 over the summer. One of the bullies from last week -- the one with the hideous facial hair on his chin, to be exact -- is back this week. And he even alludes to the episode, saying he owes Simon "for getting the kid with the gun kicked out of school." After taking a moment to piously remind the bully, Sean, not to tease people, Simon asks him for advice. Why he would think someone as vile and nasty as Sean is the person to go to for counsel is beyond me. Oh, right -- With Eric "Bad Idea Jeans" Camden as his father, I guess he just doesn't know any better. Simon asks the bully if he should date the pregnant girl he met on the bus. His confidence in Sean's wisdom is rewarded with this helpful insight: "At least you know you can't get her in trouble. Ha ha." It's kind of funny, though, when Simon calls Sean a bully and Sean reprimands him, asking, "Weren't you the one who instituted the 'zero tolerance on name-calling' policy?" He's right. Burn on you, Simple Simon. Simon stands up for Sally when Sean calls her an "unwed mother." He uses Wilson as an example, saying, "My sister happens to date an unwed father, and no one calls him that. In fact, no one says anything bad about him at all." I beg to differ on the last part, though Simon does make a good point about labels. He says, "Thanks, Sean. I just got my answer," then walks away shaking his head. How cryptic.
Annie is taking clothes out of the dryer while the twins "help." I know I used to joke about how the kids only got three seconds of airtime per episode last year, but now that I've seen what happens when they do get more airtime, I'm sorry for ever complaining. SuperMom leaves them to play alone around a major appliance when Lucy comes in, complaining about not getting a job through the employment agency she was at. Considering the unprofessional shirt she wore there, how can she be surprised? I snicker, too, at her expectation that she would have been sent on two or three interviews already. She does tell Annie she found a carpenter who could help build the room above the garage. You remember the room above the garage? You know, the one they're trying desperately to turn into a subplot? Well, Lucy's geeky, aw-shucks new carpenter friend, Ray, shows up and practically begs Annie for work, though SuperMom is firm about the fact that they can't afford to hire a carpenter. She does allow him to go take a look at the project, saying that she will join him when she finishes taking out the laundry. Lucy offers to pay more rent than Robbie if she can live in the extra room, but Annie points out that Lucy does not have a job. Completely out of the blue, Lucy turns bitchy and sulky, whining, "Right, I don't have anything." She storms off, and Annie rewards her brattiness by calling after her.
Robbie has gone down to the clinic to let Dopey know that he will be moving into the garage apartment, and that Dopey will have his privacy back soon. Since none of the Camdens seems to possess even a sliver of politeness, Dopey starts bitching that he wants his privacy in the garage apartment. Honestly, what an asshole. When Robbie kindly offers to pay rent, yet let Matt take the garage apartment, Dopey smugly says, "You're a good guy, you know? I almost feel badly I'm dating your old girlfriend." Robbie says, "No, you don't," to which Dopey replies, "No, I don't. But you know, it's not healthy to feel sorry for people." Ugh, what a terrible scene. First of all, it's not overly healthy to feel sorry for yourself, but to have no sympathy for other people strikes me as pretty insensitive. Secondly, in order to make a joke here, the writers have made Dopey look like a total dickhead. Granted, that's not hard to do, but isn't he supposed to be a character we like? You know, because of his family values and all? And finally, if you're going to sacrifice someone's character to make a joke, shouldn't the joke be at least marginally funny?
In the CamGarage, Ray is climbing down a ladder. When he gets about six inches from the ground, he falls, pulling the ladder down on top of him. He grabs his elbow and groans for a while, then grabs his ankle and groans some more. It's some of the worst acting I've ever seen on this show, and that's saying a lot. Ray demands an ambulance. The only thing more fake than his "pain" is when the twins say "uh-oh" in perfect unison. The twin on the left may actually be speaking, but the twin on the right just looks like he's yawning.
RevCam is in his church office, talking to SuperMom on the phone. She's telling him about Ray being taken to the hospital. RevCam is pissed when he asks Annie, "What were you thinking?" Because Annie is menopausal, and all menopausal women are crazy as loons, she shrieks, "I guess I was thinking you weren't going to help me and this nice man would!" For once, it's nice to see RevCam hang up the phone on her, though for all I know, maybe he was just ending the conversation in the way everyone ends a phone conversation in Glenoak: by hanging up the phone without even saying goodbye. SuperMom seems to think he hung up because he was mad at her, though, so she calls him back to insult his building skills and to order him to go to the hospital to see Ray. So are you feeling any sympathy for any of these characters yet?
Upstairs, Lucy is feeling guilty about inviting Ray to the CamPound. Instead of trying to make her feel better, Ruthie tries to manipulate her into moving into the garage apartment. I have to ask, is there a single character on this show who is not vile, nasty, and brutish? Why would anyone, anywhere, want to hold them up as role models? No, really, I'm genuinely mystified. Lucy whines, "My fiancé and I broke up. I had no place to live, so I had to give up college and come home. I have nothing, not even your sympathy?" That's interesting. Never having lived in New York City, I didn't realize that Jeremy's parents' place was the only location where one could reside. By extension, I suppose that everyone I know who lives in NY must live with Jeremy's parents. That must get awfully crowded. ["And don't get me started on the wait for the bathroom." -- Sars] Ruthie invites Lucy to see "where sympathy gets you." Apparently, "it gets you a guy who sustains injuries on your property." Well, there you go. All my life I've thought that having sympathy for others was a good thing -- you know, giving to charity, being kind to people when they're down on their luck or just feeling down. But now I'm learning the error of my ways, thanks to the wisdom of little Ruthie. No wonder all the characters on this show are so despicable. It's so we won't feel any evil sympathy for them. And that somehow makes them role models? Right? Is that it? Oh, help me, Brenda -- I'm so confused!
Robbie calls Lucy down for a good old-fashioned tongue-lashing. He's mad that she and the other little women let a strange man into the house, "especially when no one's home." And by "no one," I assume he means a man, like fifteen-year-old Simon or his own scrawny self. While that's pretty bad, it's even worse to see Lucy try to elicit Robbie's sympathy so that he will give her the garage apartment. It takes him a while to figure this out, but eventually he does, and tells Lucy, "Shame on you!" I'm sure we're supposed to infer from this scene that, once again, sympathy is a bad thing -- even though this scene has nothing to do with genuine sympathy and everything to do with awful people behaving deceitfully.
Simon must sense Robbie's wise, patriarchal vibes, because he goes to him for advice on whether to date Sally. He doesn't mention that Sally is pregnant, though, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of asking for advice in this case. Robbie, who has been trying so hard to fit into the family that he really should have his name legally changed to Camden, uses his magical spying sense to discern that there's more to Simon's dilemma than Simon is letting on. The Amazing Robbo even guesses that Sally is pregnant. And now Sympathy rears its ugly head again. Without even knowing anything else about the situation, Robbie insists that Simon would only be dating Sally because he feels sorry for her. It doesn't matter that Simon has described her as "nice" and "pretty." No, The Amazing Robbo knows all. He also insists that Simon not date Sally. Simon plays the Mary-dating-Wilson card, which makes Robbie tear up. Now that I know that sympathy is such a bad thing, I won't feel any guilt when I laugh cruelly at him.
Over in "New York," Mary is petting little Billy's head while she should be letting him sleep. Wilson comes home, and Mary tells him that she called the pediatrician's office for advice. She also says she told them that she was Wilson's mother. I'd assume the office would already know that Billy's mother is dead. My head hurts too much for me to put up a fight, though. But don't give me any sympathy. I know better than to want that now.
RevCam comes home and tells SuperMom that Ray is planning to sue them for the hairline fracture he sustained on his ankle while at the CamPound, as well as the for the mental depression the injury has caused him. Annie insists that Ray is faking. I agree with her assessment, though not with her stupid decision to go down to the hospital to talk to Ray. Does she have any idea at all how lawsuits work? She walks out the door, slamming it behind her. RevCam mutters, "Why don't you just take your hormones and go right down there and drive someone else crazy besides me!" Even though Annie was already outside the house and at least ten feet away, she apparently heard what he was saying, since she comes back in to screech, "I heard that!" Is it just me, or is this, all around, the most offensive show on the air right now?
The scene is certainly offensive in its stupidity. We're supposed to believe that Sally has an appointment at Dopey's clinic, and that even though he's just an orderly, she's talking to him about her medical problems. Then, on top of that, she tells him that she has a date with someone named Simon Camden. The time I watch Three's Company, I'm going to check the credits to see if Brenda Hampton was involved in any way.
RevCam is in the CamKitchen, pounding shots of low-fat milk. At least no one did any stupid product placement jokes by putting Brenda's name on the milk carton. We can hear Simon and Robbie yelling at each other as they come down the stairs. Robbie should know by now that there's no such thing as privacy in the CamPound, but he's still yelling, "You don't care if she's pregnant?" RevCam's just about to get into it with Simon when the phone rings. Obviously, it's Dopey calling, and he's looking for Simon. RevCam says, "Wait your turn," and rudely hangs up on his ass. Great hilarity ensues as Dopey keeps calling back and RevCam keeps hanging up on him. It's even more screamingly funny when they try to out-trump each other's qualifications to be the one to discuss Simon's love life with him. It's particularly pathetic when Dopey thinks that being an orderly makes him somehow qualified to counsel Simon.
At the hospital, Annie gets past Ray's lawyer, who's guarding the door, by telling him she's Ray's mother. Of course, the lawyer watches over her shoulder as she starts yelling at Ray, calling him a "faker." When the lawyer calls for security officers, Annie just stares at Ray creepily.
I guess RevCam won out in the battle over which patriarchal loser would get to tell Simon not to date a pregnant girl. He asks, "Are you sure you're not going out with her because you feel sorry for her?" Why would anyone think that anyway -- if it weren't the theme of tonight's episode, that is. Throughout this scene, Lucy and Ruthie eavesdrop from the front stair landing. This beautiful tableau is interrupted by a phone call for RevCam, who answers and says, "She's where?" This is followed by another totally fake, synchronized "uh-oh" from the twins. It wasn't remotely funny the first time, and it's no funnier now.
RevCam leads SuperMom into the CamKitchen. I assume he just brought her back from the hospital, though I'm not sure that was necessary. Didn't she drive herself over? It's not like RevCam was springing her from jail or anything. It's just a hospital's security office. I guess I'm just forgetting how important it is for men to take care of their little ladies. Annie sees the kids eating pizza and asks why they didn't eat the dinner she left in the oven. Ew, how many hours ago did she do that? It doesn't sound like a very hygienic situation to me. Much amusement is derived from the fact that none of the kids could tell what the dinner was supposed to be, and that's why they ordered a pizza. It turns out that dinner was a tofu dish. Judging from the looks on everyone's faces, you'd think Annie had said it was a meal comprised of bird droppings and old tires. Come on, people, tofu's not that exotic. The kids leave, and Annie tries to force-feed her tofu casserole to RevCam, who won't eat it. This sends SuperMom off on another fucking crying jag. Then she goes back to berating RevCam some more: "The problem is that you feel sorry for yourself, and the person you should be feeling sorry for is me!" She goes through a list of the horrible things that have happened to her today, even though half of them are of her own doing. So what are we supposed to take away from this, exactly? I think that a person who does stupid things, like threatening someone who's suing her, should not be asking for sympathy for her bad decisions. But I'm sure what I'm supposed to think here is that sympathy is bad. Bad sympathy -- bad, bad, bad.
RevCam gets on the phone to talk to someone from the church about Ray's lawsuit. He's grinding the anti-sympathy message into our brains some more by explaining how Lucy's and Annie's sympathy for Ray was the cause of this fiasco, when Annie comes in to berate him for allowing Simon to go on a date with a pregnant girl. He tries to distract Annie by asking for some tofu. In a sea of worthy candidates, I think this episode may qualify as the worst I have ever seen. Quite frankly, I feel dirty just writing about it.
This must be an extra-special date for Simon, since he gets to have it on the pizza parlour set. Because there are only two restaurant sets in Glenoak, Bully Sean -- oh, I'm sorry, I'm name-calling again. Sean is at the table, leering at Sally. Simon and Sally get on with their date. Sally wants to know if Dopey has access to any of her medical charts at the clinic. Simon doesn't think he does, and he adds, "But [Dopey's] very professional. He'd never disclose anything confidential." Even a great joke like that can't raise my spirits much by this point, though.
The scene tests my will to live. Mary calls to rebuke Wilson some more for taking Billy swimming and to say things like, "I hate being away from [Billy] when he's sick." The only remotely interesting thing about this scene is that Mary is looking at a note from her grandfather, I assume, even though the handwriting is a little feminine. The note says, "Have some wonderful news for you. See you at Breakfast [sic]. 7 a.m. sharp. C." Does "C" stand for "Colonel"?
RevCam is having a deep and meaningful discussion with Happy over the things he's sorry about. Since they're all totally dull, I won't elaborate. When Happy wearily puts her head down on her paws in boredom, RevCam takes that as a sign that she wants to pray. Okay, I guess we always knew he was delusional anyway. Eric prays: "Dear Lord, please don't let me lose my mind when I need it the most." Annie interrupts him rudely to add, "And if it's too late for that, if he's already lost it, please help him to just be quiet about it and stop feeling sorry for himself." Damn, that was just nasty!
Robbie goes into the girls' room to tell them he's going out. Ruthie immediately guesses that Robbie is planning to spy on Simon. I'd give her more credit, but it's not exactly a difficult conclusion to jump to. Lucy and Ruthie offer to come along on the spying trip. When Ruthie tells SuperMom that they're going out, Annie says, "Take a picture. I'd like to see her myself." So is Annie psychic or psycho? The lovely family spying trip apparently gives Annie the idea to go out herself, so she does. RevCam looks forlorn as he tells Happy, "I guess they've left us out of whatever little adventure they've gone on now." Trust me, Eric, that gives you the chance to maintain a tiny particle of dignity. Judging from the rest of his actions throughout this episode, though, it's probably much too late for that.
Sally is apologizing to Simon for cutting their date short. She says she has to get home because she has two other kids. Even though no one's asking, she feels compelled to explain, sort of, how the other two kids came about. She says, "See, the first one, I was feeling kind of sorry for this guy, and he wanted a girlfriend." Ooh, evil sympathy. Sally continues, "And then the second one, I was feeling kind of sorry for myself, since that first guy didn't stick around." All right, well, that clinches it. I hope it's a lesson to any young girls out there who were hoping to cheer up some guy by, um, bearing his child. Don't do it! Thanks for that very timely and useful PSA, Brenda Hampton! And what about the third pregnancy? "This time I don't really know what happened. It's kind of complicated." I'd love to check in with her again in about three years' time to see what happened with her fourth, fifth, and sixth pregnancies, but I'm hoping 7th Heaven will be cancelled by then. I won't get into a discussion of teen pregnancy here, but it does seem like Sally is much too stupid to be having kids, period. Why, the thing you know, she'll be accidentally hooking up her breast pump to a keg or something.
So you knew Annie would be going down to the hospital to harangue Ray some more, right? After saying exactly the same things she said to him the last time she harassed him, she asks, "It's an old injury, isn't it, Ray?" Ray just shrugs. He definitely is a scumbucket, but I'm not sure what Annie's trying to accomplish here. She subjects Ray to some more of her armchair psychology: "You are lazy, You do not want to work. You want to appear to want to work, but you do not really want to work." Whoa, Annie! Are you sure that's not one of your speeches from week's episode? That one is going to be called "Work," after all. If you use up one of your "work" speeches now, there may only be ninety-nine speeches left for week, and we might not fully understand the "work" theme the writers will so subtly be putting out there. Ray understandably chooses to call for a security officer at this point. I guess the security dude was eavesdropping outside the door, since he arrives in under two seconds. He seems extremely annoyed to be dealing with Annie again.
RevCam is sharing a fun-filled evening with the twins, who were allegedly in bed hours ago. Maybe someone started, but never actually finished, that Continuity 101 course. Dopey comes in and demands that RevCam justify his actions in allowing Simon to date a pregnant girl. RevCam wisely demurs. He does, however, say, "After years of success in the parent and husbandry business, I find I'm completely incompetent as a parent and a husband." I think that's a slightly harsh assessment, but apparently Dopey doesn't, because he busts out laughing. If I were RevCam, I'd toss the ungrateful hellspawn out on his ear. Dopey tries to mitigate his perfectly revolting reaction slightly by saying, "I feel sorry for you, I do," but he's not very sincere. His selfish ass does get upset, though, when RevCam tells him that the garage apartment will never be completed. As Eric is launching into the Ray story, the writers have the good sense to cut it short with a phone call. As you would expect, the security office from the hospital is calling, asking RevCam to pick up his little woman. Since the stalking trio took the one car, and I assume Annie drove the other to the hospital, I'm not sure how RevCam's going to get down to the hospital. Walk? Take the bus? I do know, however, that it's very important that Annie not be released from the security office until there is a wise patriarch to take responsibility for her. It's a Glenoak thing. We wouldn't understand.
By an incredible stroke of luck -- good or bad, you decide -- the StalkMobile pulls up to the exact bus Simon is on. Ruthie notices him and starts shouting to get his attention. It's amazing that Simon hears her, because the bus window looks completely closed, and if the bus is anything like the ones in Toronto, it would be incredibly noisy even while standing still. But since superhuman hearing is something the Camdens would need to assist them in their stalking endeavours, obviously natural selection has played a part in their evolution. In any case, Simon does look over at the StalkMobile, to find his siblings shouting at him to get off at the stop. He seems hugely embarrassed by their unseemly display.
At the hospital, Annie is complaining about the security office calling her husband to come get her. She is also complaining about Ray, although she finally realizes that it was stupid for her to confront him. RevCam makes some stupid crack about her inflicting herself on someone but him, yet, amazingly, Annie doesn't clock him. She just smiles, which makes RevCam think it's a good time to have a heart-to-heart. I think that's what he's trying to do, anyway. See if you can crack the code: "I find it funny that I'm having so much trouble adjusting to your adjusting, because we're both just adjusting to you being you." RevCam doesn't provide a translation, but he does go on to compliment Annie for being outspoken, just the way she was when they first married. Unfortunately, he does end up implying that she was totally lame between that time and now, but Annie must be sick of fighting him, so she just pretends to be happy with RevCam instead.
It's time for another whack from the theme hammer as Robbie tells Lucy, Simon, and Ruthie, "You guys really need to be careful about who you feel sorry for." Ruthie tries to tell him that he's the one who felt sorry for Dopey, and that's why he offered him the garage apartment. Lucy pipes up that the reason Robbie feels sorry for the lout is because Matt will be going to med school year, and Robbie's kind of taken over his place in the family. I did hear something about Barry Watson planning to leave the show, but then, Jessica Biel tried that, and look how far it got her. When Ruthie tells Robbie that all the Camdens feel sorry for him because of Mary, Robbie just stands there for about the forty minutes with his mouth open.
Back in "New York," Mary is overprotecting little Billy some more when Wilson walks into the room, asking if they would like to have breakfast in the park. Mary tells Billy to get his coat, so she can help him put it on. How old is this kid anyway that he can't put on his own coat? When Billy leaves, Mary tells Wilson about how the Colonel pulled some strings to get her into the fire department training courses, which means that she may have a chance to be a firefighter after all. She still has a little trouble remembering not to call herself a "firewoman." Wilson goes off on some long, stupid spiel about how he thinks Mary feels sorry for little Billy and obviously thinks he won't be taken care of unless Mary does it herself. I don't know if Wilson's right about that, but obviously the writers had to try to slip in one last "sympathy" reference. Mary feels that Wilson doesn't want her to become a firefighter. He insists that's not so, saying, "I don't want to get in the way of your dream." Dream? Dream? Didn't she just decide to become a firefighter on a whim of the Colonel's? Wilson continues, "Just tell me that you realize that there are obstacles in pursuing your dream, or you will mess this up." That doesn't sound very nice. Actually, it doesn't make much sense either, but that might be asking too much of the writers. Wilson explains that firefighting is a really big commitment, and that his definition of "obstacles" are things like the long hours and the danger. He says, "If you don't see the obstacles in the road, then you can't overcome them." I'm still not entirely sure what he's talking about, but at this point, I can't say I care. Mary practically begs Wilson for the chance to pursue her "dream," and finally, he agrees. I guess the man's permission is all that matters in the long run. Billy comes back into the room so that three of the most annoying people on the planet can give each other a group hug.