In the CamPound living room, Robbie is kicking back on the couch while watching his own private dance party. It's being thrown by his new girlfriend, Joy, and his no-doubt soon-to-be-girlfriend, Ruthie. Joy is still wearing her dreadful, shiny pink pants, and her face is all glittery. To match the pants? I don't care what Seventeen magazine says -- don't these people know that makeup is for making your face not look shiny? Joy's dancing suggestively, but in a G-rated girly Popstars way, and lip-synching very badly to one of her own songs. Joy is, of course, played by not-very-fabulous singing sensation Joy Enriquez. What? You've never heard of her? Me neither. Her music is not bad, but it's nothing special -- just your average, serviceable light pop. Of course, I'm not an eleven-year-old girl, so maybe I should reserve judgment. Ruthie is an eleven-year-old girl, and she's right into Joy's music. She's trying to dance seductively for Robbie, too, and I can only be grateful that she's too untalented a dancer to pull it off. Her facial expressions are hilarious. It looks like she's trying to emulate Joy's suggestiveness, but the only thing it suggests in Ruthie is a serious case of digestive upset. Robbie's obviously enjoying himself, though.
Not so, Mary and Lucy. They're staring at this scene balefully from the front hallway when Dopey comes along. He's anxious to see the floor show close up, but Lucy tries to stop him, reminding him that he is banished to the Garage Treehouse, "except for meals and bathroom breaks." Hmm, last week Annie distinctly said that the kids weren't allowed in the kitchen when she meted out their punishment. I wonder how many thousands of viewer complaints the WB received after last week's episode. I also wonder if that's what forced them to make this revision. Honestly, I still don't know how Brenda Hampton gets away with it, though, unless it's that the WB's lawyers find the show too excruciatingly dull to stay awake through, causing them to miss things like Annie's illegal and heinous abuse of her children. Or maybe once a show has developed such a reputation for being clean-cut, nobody pays attention, and Brenda can get away with anything she wants. I wouldn't be surprised if we see an episode about gerbiling before this season is out. Dopey slips past the girls into the living room, and Mary refers to Robbie's new woman, asking, "What was her name again?" Lucy spits out, "Miss Tight Pants or Miss Sexy or something." Her bitter facial expression is oddly reminiscent of a Cabbage Patch Kid.
In the living room, Ruthie keeps trying to gyrate, while Joy proudly tells her that she is the singer of the forgettable song they're dancing to. Guess what, Joy? Nobody cares.
Meanwhile, Lucy and Mary continue shouting at each other in the hall, even though Robbie is sitting about ten feet away and must be able to hear every word. Mary is rubbing it in that Robbie moved on so quickly after dating Lucy. Lucy's rejoinder is, "They say if a widower remarries soon after his wife dies, that means that he was happily married." Right, and applying that to Lucy and Robbie making out by the trashcans for a week doesn't strain credibility or anything. Mary points out to Lucy, "You're not dead!" ["Is no one going to mention the part where they weren't married, either? 'Cause that was a creepy analogy on so many levels." -- Wing Chun] Indicating Robbie, Mary adds, "But you know, you might as well be." The argument descends into absurdity when the girls start fighting over who has more right to be jealous of Robbie's new girlfriend. Simon tries to put a stop to it with the stern patriarchal admonition that Lucy and Mary are both being ridiculous. He further demonstrates his manly wisdom by refusing to go in to the den of iniquity that is the Camden living room: "I'd go in there, but a man's gotta know his limitations." Okay, that's great, but if he mentions his raging hormones, I'm out of here.
Simon leaves, and Mary and Lucy pick right up where they left off. The writers make things easier on themselves by having the girls throw exactly the same insults at each other. Hey, that's 50% less crappy dialogue they have to churn out. I'm sure it's a big timesaver. Finally, Lucy mentions the real reason she's so pissed off: "I'm just angry that you've shown up and expect to be treated like royalty or something." Ooh, that's grounds for a catfight! You'd think, because this is the WB, it would be all exploitative, but don't forget what show you're watching. Neither girl is working very hard at this fight, which makes me wish the producers had removed the G rating for this episode and let us see Lucy pummel the shit out of Mary. In further deference to the G rating, the fight moves behind the sofa, but nobody's paying any attention to it until Annie comes in and orders her offspring back into the Treehouse. Lucy asks whether SuperMom is planning to punish Mary for fighting. What a silly question! I'll bet Mary could sneak out to the Treehouse and burn it down in the middle of the night, and Annie would just smile and prepare her another pot roast and some apple pie. After everyone's gone, Joy tries to look uncomfortable. At least, I think that's what she's doing. She's really not a good enough actress to nail it, so it's hard to tell.
After prudently hitting the mute button on my TV, I give the opening credits another try, to see whether anything's changed. I don't make it very far, though, since one of the first things I see is Dopey sitting on a chair and reaching for his groin. He pulls out a stuffed animal from somewhere around his crotchal region. I've always suspected that's what resides there. Still, I'm queasy enough to fast-forward through the rest. Maybe you can just watch the opening credits on your own some time, okay?
This week's Guest Star Credits Timewaster is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Robbie and Joy take turns kissing each other's fingertips. It's shot in tacky slo-mo, with lots of fades, meant to evoke either low-rent movies from the '70s or porno. I'm going to be generous this week and assume that someone wanted it to look this way as a joke, and not that they thought it was a beautiful and tender depiction of teen love. Joy is looking forward to introducing Robbie to her parents at dinner tonight. Her way of preparing them for this meeting is to tell them that she is in love with Robbie. Remember -- she's been dating him for less than a week, so I'm sure that won't come as a great surprise or anything. She hasn't told them about Robbie being in love with her, though, since she expects Robbie to tell them himself. Why would anyone think this is a good idea? What parents wouldn't be scared as hell to hear that some loser has fallen in love with their daughter in under a week's time? Not Joy's parents. Apparently, they want every man she dates to be "serious," with the "intention of marriage." At least she'll fit right into the Camden family, whose members regularly get engaged after a few weeks of dating. I guess that's just one of those "family values" things it would take me about a million years to understand. I don't understand this bit, either: Joy says her parents want her to have "a long, long courtship and even longer engagement." Okay, all fine so far. But Joy doesn't want all that for herself; she wants "to sing and dance and have a good time." Robbie seems to understand that Joy's desire to sing her crappy songs somehow correlates with her parents wanting "that other stuff," but I can't say that I see any connection. If you can figure it out, please pick up your Nobel prize at the door.
The banished kids are all studying in the Treehouse when Lucy tries to get Ruthie to go into the CamPound and fetch something for her. Dopey and Simon chime in their own requests. Ruthie has the good sense to stand up for herself and refuse. That makes me like her for, literally, two seconds, until she starts blaming the rest of the kids for getting in trouble, as if she hadn't joined them willingly. Vile Ruthie tries to talk the others into apologizing to Annie and Mary so that they can go back to staying in the CamPound, leaving the Treehouse to Ruthie. Ruthie compounds the inanity by likening their situation to a game of Survivor, in which the last one left in the Treehouse will get to keep the apartment. She sure has some imagination, unlike the 7th Heaven writers, who can't come up with anything original and have to resort to ripping off ideas from another network's show.
In the CamKitchen, the twins smear food all over their faces in a way which the show's writers probably thought was cute. How wrong they are. RevCam is delivering a mini-PSA about heart disease, which the writers have helpfully dumbed down for two-year-olds. Psycho Annie comes into the kitchen starts hassling RevCam about his lack of support for her abandonment of their children. I want to point out, though, that while Eric has not exactly been praising her to the heavens, he has been supporting her by not doing the right thing and, say, getting a social worker involved. But that's not good enough for SuperMom, who is pissed that RevCam is still skeptical of Mary's alleged improvement. Annie makes a little speech about not judging people -- which I normally would support -- but since Annie has just banished her children to an unfinished garage, I don't know if I'll ever be able to take seriously anything she says from now on. She starts to walk up the stairs, but unfortunately, she comes back down again when RevCam mutters something about it having been a mistake to attempt to point out her mistakes. She says something about the stairwell being a "tunnel of sound," which must be extremely convenient for all the family members who eavesdrop there on a daily basis. Annie pretends to be interested in RevCam's opinion on her mistakes, and when he tells her that he thinks Mary has some problems, she belligerently demands to know what they are. RevCam confines himself to listing only a few, pointing out that Mary is "irresponsible, self-centered, and inconsiderate to other family members." Annie offers excuses for all these flaws, and even tries to throw them back on RevCam by accusing him and the rest of the family of being "inconsiderate of her and her needs at this time." It's slightly gratifying to see RevCam roll his eyes at this bullshit, though it really would be so much better to see him stand up for himself now and again. In a totally vile non sequitur, Annie tells him that he's wrong, just like he was wrong about wishing Nixon had apologized. I'm not exactly a fan of Richard Nixon, but I'm sure even he never threw his underage children into an unfinished garage.
Up in the Treehouse, Lucy says she is going out to get a breath of fresh air. Ruthie is smart enough to correctly interpret that Lucy really wants to spy on Robbie and Joy, but dumb enough to start talking about that Survivor thing again. She says that if Lucy's not around to protect her territory, she doesn't know "what will happen to it." Lucy wearily asks, "Don't we have it hard enough without turning on each other?" Her question is greeted with silence from the others. I'm sure Ruthie's joke that Lucy "is the weakest link" was met with the same silence by viewers everywhere. It sure was in our household, anyway.
Lucy runs after Robbie to ask him where his "friend" is. Robbie's not sure whether she means Joy or Mary. Once again, I'm genuinely amazed that his limited brain capacity even allows him to breathe properly. Lucy is inordinately gratified to hear that he considers her a friend, though she's not so pleased at his cheerful request for outfit suggestions to wear when telling Joy's parents that he plans to marry their daughter. Mary chooses this moment to walk out of the house. She's sporting some way-ugly sparkly pink jeans, along with a tank top and a jean jacket. Hey, it's almost identical to Joy's outfit! She walks by Robbie, but he doesn't even notice what she's wearing. Ha! She made an idiot of herself for nothing! Lucy notices, though. She takes a running leap at Mary, knocking her to the ground, while I start cheering her on. It's a little like the time we took my brother-in-law to Medieval Times for a birthday dinner. We were feeling particularly immature, so when the jousting came on, I amused myself by trying to freak out the people around us, shouting things like, "Yeah, all right, kill him! KILL HIM!" Except this time I'm serious. I'm a little disappointed when a commercial break prevents us from seeing their fight, but I'm comforted by the fact that their fight surely would have sucked anyway. At least this way I can imagine that Lucy's busy pushing Mary's face into the mud. Repeatedly.
When Lucy goes back to the Treehouse, her hair is totally disheveled. Oddly enough, it looks better than her usual ghastly hairdon'ts. Her siblings have voted her out of the Treehouse. I see Annie's shitty parenting skills have set the example for the kids that it's all right to boot each other out of the garage. Annie's also made Lucy feel so powerless that the girl feels compelled to give in to this psychotic Survivor plan and leave the Treehouse. But, as the show suggests, these are good things, amusing things.
Lucy carries her laundry basket full of belongings into the CamKitchen, where RevCam is rooting around in the cupboards for aspirin. Too late -- I probably finished off the bottle after last week's episode. She tells Eric that she is ready to apologize. What for? "For questioning my mother's wisdom, for being so selfish, and for not being nicer to Mary," she says. She lets RevCam know that these are lies, though. He starts to lecture her, but she cuts him off by asking, "Do you ever apologize to Mom when you know you're right and she's wrong?" Since he does that on an hourly basis, I guess he feels he doesn't have any right to stop Lucy from doing the same.
Lucy feeds her mother a pretty fake apology, but Annie accepts it, allowing Lucy back into her room. That hardly seems like a reward, when you see that Lucy is expected to share her old room with Mary. However, Lucy's obviously used the twenty-second walk up from the kitchen to decide that she is ready to forgive Mary. Recalling RevCam's sermon from last week, Lucy points out that it must be hard for Mary to be the prodigal son. Mary isn't buying the analogy, though. She thinks that Lucy is the prodigal son, since she left to find herself, while Mary was just thrown out of the house last year. Okay, but what about all the special attention Mary's been receiving from SuperMom since she returned? I suspect the ultimate lesson here is that RevCam's sermons are too boring and convoluted for his kids to pay any attention to them. After listening in last week, I can see why. Mary sidetracks the brainy theological debate to tell Lucy the story of how she got caught kissing a fireman, which caused Wilson to decide she wasn't ready for marriage. No shit. I laugh when Mary reveals that the Colonel booted her out of his house, too, though I have to wonder how Mary found the money to travel from "New York" to Glenoak on such short notice. Wouldn't the airfare be a couple thousand bucks? I guess working part-time in a homeless shelter in Buffalo pays much more than one would expect. I also laugh pretty hard when Mary calls herself stupid. Lucy is polite enough to refute her, but I don't think anyone's fooled.
Wait -- who's that skulking by the bedroom door? Why, it's SuperMom, shamelessly eavesdropping on her daughters' private conversation. She's just in time to hear Lucy note that Annie's been treating Mary's return like that of the prodigal son. Mary says it's been nice to be the "favourite" again. Lucy sadly says, "Yeah, it's always nice when that comes around." SuperMom's also in time to hear Mary's confession: "I am still crazy, irresponsible, bad Mary, and after all this time, I don't think I've learned squat." She asks Lucy how she's going to get her life in order. Lucy replies, "I don't know, but whatever it takes for all of us to get our lives in order, I'm pretty sure we can get it right here at home." I sincerely hope Annie feels like shit right now, hearing this from the daughter she's treated so shabbily. She leaves before Lucy and Mary start to laugh. I'd prefer to think they're laughing because they realize the black humour of Lucy's last statement. Obviously they're never going to get anything from Dysfunction Junction but terrible parenting and betrayal from their siblings.
But that's not all. The girls will also get to see an example of one of the worst marriages in history. It looks like RevCam's been giving some thought to Lucy's false apologies and decided that her way is the way to go. He apologizes to Annie, using phrases like "hoisting myself on my own petard." How old is Brenda Hampton, anyway? About a hundred and twelve? Has anyone actually used the word "petard" unironically in the past century? And why does RevCam roll the "r" in "petard" so he sounds Scottish? For that matter, why the hell is apologizing to the woman who kicked his under-eighteen children out of his house? What is wrong with him? Eric offers to take Annie and Mary out to dinner. Once the words are out of his mouth, he seems to realize what a foolish thing he's done, and he quickly offers to baby-sit instead, so that Annie and Mary can dine alone and "catch up on everything in each other's lives." After rewarding Eric's subservience by calling him "the best husband on the face of the earth," Annie tells him he will be having dinner with her alone instead. RevCam keeps his face absolutely devoid of expression while saying, "Dinner alone? I feel like crying." I prefer to think of it as a shout-out to all us more cynical viewers.
Robbie walks into the hallway, wearing a jacket made out of the shiniest leather I have ever seen. It's so bright that RevCam has to blink from the glare. After hearing that the CamRents like Joy a lot, Robbie leaves. RevCam says, "I hope her family likes him for, oh, so many reasons." Annie realizes he's referring to Lucy and Mary and their insane jealousy. Right, and that's turning out to be such a great subplot.
In the Treehouse, the remaining "survivors" are deciding to pool their allowances to buy a bucket of chicken. I can't believe Dopey still gets an allowance. Isn't he in his twenties by now? And why isn't he using the pay from his job to get an apartment, instead of living in this hellhole with his siblings? Maybe Annie has beaten his self-esteem down so far that he can't even see any other options. The fact that Ruthie's theft of his and Simon's wallets convinces them not to vote her out of the Treehouse does not say much for them. At least Simon has a shred of self respect left. He is sounding a little frantic, though, as he says, "I have to get out. I have to get out to survive! And once I do, unlike you and Mary, that's it for me. I'm never coming back." Dopey is skeptical, but I really hope he makes it out okay. Godspeed, Simon!
Joy lives in a beautiful Tudor-style mansion, complete with a caricature of a stuffy butler. Robbie's already inside, sputtering as he asks if he's in the right place. He seems so rudely taken aback by the fact that she's rich. Is it because he thought that anyone who dressed as skankily as Joy couldn't possibly be rich? Wealth doesn't guarantee good taste, you know. Witness that ugly pastel print chair Joy's dad gets up from. Dad says, "Sit down. We'll talk. Then I'll let you know if you're in the right place." Robbie gives the room a not-at-all covert once-over.
Joy's father, Ramon, starts the grilling -- and I'm not talking about a barbecue. He asks Robbie about smoking, drinking, drugs, and past girlfriends. Robbie admits that he may have had a drink or two, but that he's given it up. I seem to recall him being a boozehound at one point, but like so many things on this show, that's been revised. Let's hope he has enough sense not to tell Ramon about dating two of the Camden sisters, one of whom he broke up with just a week ago. He says he doesn't care about his past girlfriends breaking up with him. You can tell he's trying to work up to the part about being in love with Joy but can't quite find the courage. I sympathize with him. Really, I do. Joy is listening in from the doorway, prodding Robbie to do the deed. She's wearing a hideous ruffled half-shirt, which was most likely sewn up from an old kitchen curtain. Robbie earnestly explains that he wants to prove his love for Joy by "respectfully pursuing" a relationship with her. Ramon seems happy with the no-sex rule, especially since these two crazy kids have known each other "a whole week." At least somebody on this show can see that a week really is not enough time to decide on a life partner. Ramon gives his blessing, though he says he wants to see if Robbie's "word is good." Wow, finally! A normal parent. Joy waits until her father is out of the room, then hops into Robbie's lap. He jumps up, unceremoniously dumping Joy onto the floor. Ramon walks back in and wrecks all my respect for him by nodding approvingly and saying, "Good man." I guess I can see his point, but it's still disturbing to see that he's not bothered by seeing his daughter on the floor like that. Maybe he really is a patriarchal jerk like all the other men on this show. Sadly, Joy's not looking too embarrassed about being on the floor either. At least that will help her out if she marries into a family who behave so embarrassingly on such a regular basis. Not that I think this marriage will ever take place, mind you.
Down on the Promenade, Annie finally apologizes to RevCam. Is she apologizing for the Treehouse thing? No, but at least she is admitting she was wrong to treat Mary with such favouritism. She doesn't dwell long on that, though, preferring to congratulate herself and Eric on sending Mary away to the Colonel's before she could hit rock bottom. Mary may be a loser and all, but I hardly think drinking half a beer constitutes hitting rock bottom. SuperMom goes on to make a whole bunch of excuses for Mary, pretty much negating her favouritism apology from thirty seconds ago. RevCam acts like he's not exactly thrilled by all this. Who can blame him? Annie herself claims that this is "a lecture couched in an apology." Lovely. Drunk on self-aggrandizement, Annie claims that Mary can improve herself if "surrounded by love" and guided by the CamRents' "genius." I don't think she's kidding about that last part, and quite frankly, that scares me. SuperMom is even hopeful that Mary "will contribute something to the world." I'm not sure about that, but I know Jessica Biel already provided a bunch of, um, fantasy material for teenage boys with her topless Gear photos last year.
Back in the CamPound, Mary and Lucy are discussing Robbie's love life. Lucy is taken aback to find out that Robbie considers Joy to be "the love of his life." She points out that he's only known Joy a week. Mary notes that if Robbie fell in love so quickly, "he can fall out of love just like that." I'd like to think she was making a wise comment on human nature, but since I've never heard her do anything like that before, I'm more inclined to think she's going to suggest some wacky plan to break up the young lovers. I, for one, can't wait to find out what it is. Don't keep us in suspense, Mary! She's moved on to talk about the odious Wilson, though. She says, "He's handsome, he's sexy, he's smart, he's considerate, he's responsible. I mean, he's perfect!" Oh, Mary, quit it! My sides are hurting from laughing so hard. After some trite advice from Lucy about forgiving oneself for making mistakes, Mary gives a sincere-sounding apology for being such a fuck-up last year. It's a pretty nice scene, and even her ridiculous promises to make it up to the family somehow don't quite ruin the moment.
There's no saving the scene, though, as Ruthie, Simon, and Dopey fight over who to vote out of the Treehouse. I really hope the Survivor people sue this show out of existence. I do. Ruthie bribes Dopey with half a slice of gluey apple pie from Burger King. What? No "Brenda's Pie"? Because it's just so funny when they put Brenda Hampton's name on fake-o products. No, really. I just laugh and laugh for hours every time they do that! Like a good little boy, Simon gathers up his stuff and leaves. Ruthie and Dopey may think they voted him off, but I'll bet he's just irritated beyond by belief by them, and anxious to get away. At least if he offers Annie a sincere-sounding apology, he can retire to his own room, where he won't have to look at these two for a while. When Ruthie says that she will find a way to get Dopey out of the Treehouse, he looks terrified. Really, for an eleven-year-old girl to get rid of a twenty-something man who is that overwhelmingly stupid, all she has to do is dare him to walk in front of a moving bus, and I'm sure he'll comply.
As he's walking back to the CamPound, Simon runs into Mary. It's time for another of her apologies. Boy, these writers sure are making her subjugate herself a lot lately. They must be really pissed about how she tried to leave the show and then came crawling back. I'm not sure why she volunteers any information about her breakup with Wilson. It's not like her family members had any right to badger her about her personal business in the first place.
As Dopey finishes off his pie, he asks Ruthie whether she laced it with a laxative or something. Really, Dopey, the time to ask that question would have been before you started eating it. This engaging conversation is interrupted by Mary, who has come upstairs to offer yet another round of apologies and info about The Big Split. This wins over Ruthie and Dopey, who offer her the Treehouse -- not that it's theirs to give. If there's any winner in this whole stupid Survivor rip-off game -- and really, how could there be? -- I'd have to say it's Lucy, who no longer has to share a room with Mary. Everyone starts down the stairs, but as soon as Dopey and Mary are out of the Treehouse, Ruthie hurries back up and closes the trap door, bolting it shut. She's really excited to be the last one in the Treehouse. Has she forgotten that there are no toilet facilities up there?
Dopey sits Mary down for some Helpful Patriarchal Correction. Ah, she must have really missed that while she was in "New York," even though she did receive her fair share of it from her younger cousin George. What's that? You don't think George is in any way qualified to give people advice? Of course he is, silly. He has a penis, you know. At least I assume he does. Dopey feels the need to chastise Mary for kissing someone other than Wilson. Okay, duly noted, jerk. He also wants to tell her that he thinks she made the wrong decision when she chose Wilson over Robbie. Is he going to suggest he arrange her marriage to Robbie? Or that he punish her for shaming the family by cheating on Wilson? I'm sure I wasn't the only viewer made highly uncomfortable by this scene.
Robbie and Joy walk into a nightclub, which turns out to be owned by Joy's father, who is an entertainment lawyer. In Glenoak? Whatever. Robbie's all nervous about not being twenty-one and about the fact that he doesn't drink. Believe it or not, Robbie, bars don't actually force you to consume alcohol. It's just there if you want to order it. Joy takes off her jacket, and the band starts to play, right on cue, as she walks onstage. I'm sure that's how all the big rock stars do it. The club is called the Conga Room. I'm not sure, but I think "Conga" is Spanish for "crappy music." As Joy launches into one of her forgettable tunes, I just hit the mute button and count my lucky stars that there will be less senseless dialogue for me to recap.
The CamRents come home from their date to receive another apology from Mary. Oh, enough already! I like to see Mary down on her knees as much as the person (no, not in that way, though I'll bet her Penthouse shoot is not far off -- after all, she is leaving the show year and will most likely have no career), but I think we've seen enough of her groveling for one evening. But no. her apology goes on for at least three or four decades before she offers up a cheque for the car payments the CamRents made for her last year. She's even added interest. Okay, now I really want to know where she's getting all this money. Between shelling out for an expensive plane ticket and throwing away money on those hideous, sparkly pink jeans, shouldn't the parents be questioning the source of her income? The girl works part-time in a homeless shelter, for crying out loud. Instead of questioning, Annie is smugly beaming, as if this belated action of Mary's somehow vindicates SuperMom for all her psycho behaviour of the past two episodes. She even forces Eric to apologize to his daughter. As Mary leaves, RevCam and Annie start dancing in the kitchen while he hums something tuneless. It's probably one of Joy's songs.
Upstairs, Simon offers Mary a half-assed apology. Newly saintly Mary says it's not necessary. She flounces off, all secure in her virtue. Annie comes up to receive her apology. I have to say her tough and mean facial expression is more than a little off-putting, but Simon muddles his way through his request for absolution anyway. Dopey's turn is . We're still waiting for Annie's apology to any of these people for banishing them to the Treehouse. I'm not holding my breath, though.
Eric pays a visit to Ruthie in the treehouse, congratulating her on her win. Ruthie explains that she is fully ready to apologize to Mommy Dearest for expecting to receive the basic necessities of life to which the law entitles her, although Brenda Hampton makes her phrase it in a way that implies that Ruthie is being presumptuous. Ah, Brenda. I know the hazards of assuming that a writer is being autobiographical when creating a character, but I really hope Ms. Hampton does not identify with Annie in any way. In light of recent storylines, that could get scary. RevCam tries to coax Ruthie back into the house, but she's decided to wait up for Robbie so that she can badger him about his date with Joy. Hey, she can do whatever she wants, as long as I don't have to watch her shake her moneymaker for him again. RevCam asks her what she thinks will happen with Robbie and Joy. Ruthie opines that if the two of them should decide to get married, "things around here are gonna get really interesting." I sincerely doubt that.
Back in the Conga Room, Joy finishes her set, which consisted of exactly one song. Presumably, the rest of the band will keep singing the background vocals to this song until the lead singer arrives. Extras are paid to applaud for Joy, as she shimmies offstage and onto her boy toy's lap. At least he doesn't dump her down onto the floor this time. That's probably because he's expecting a lapdance. The scene fades out before we can see it, though. Sometimes a G rating is not that bad a thing at all.