Episode Report Card Lady Lola: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Smoke & Minors
By Lady Lola | Season 1 | Episode 2 | Aired on 01.25.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Cate is in a tizzy about an impending visit from Lux's caseworker to determine whether she and Baze are fit to be parents. Baze, on the other hand, is in the sauce. He and Cate spend much of the episode negotiating Lux's carpool schedule to school and sniping at each other for this, that and the other. All in a day's work with you two-time one-night stand-slash-baby-makin' partners, right? To his discredit, Baze makes several monumentally dumb calls, from leaving a lamp made out of a bong in his apartment to allowing unlicensed Lux to drive his car. And, you know, living above a bar. Where's there's booze. For her part, Cate makes a horrendous call by toeing the company line at work and reading a producer-mandated statement on-air that she doesn't in fact have a 16-year-old kid.
Hearing Cate's denial and observing the general discontent between her bioparents goes a long way in convincing Lux that she should have stuck with the harebrained scheme she and her besty from the orphanage made to get emancipated and use her savings to move in with their boyfriends. Before Cate betrayed her before an audience of -- I don't know -- thousands, Lux had told her buddy that she wanted to stay with Cate and see about this new life. Feeling betrayed, Lux's friend does everything possible to throw a wrench in Lux's idyllic new existence, including but not limited to stealing Cate's engagement ring and being a first-class bitch. In the end, though, the sticky-fingered ragamuffin makes good and urges Cate to see things through. Baze, too, gets a much needed pep talk from -- of all people -- Math, who tells him to stop being such a frigging coward. Ryan closes out the trifecta by telling Lux that she really is wanted and to give this new arrangement a little time. He seals the deal by showing Lux her very own decked-out-by-Delia*s bedroom he's been constructing in Cate's attic, complete with a Spin Doctors poster to put horrible images in Lux's mind as she goes to sleep at night.
Things end on a mostly positive note. The only hitch: Cate receives primary custody, meaning Lux can't live with Baze. He seems a bit disheartened, and I'm certain it will create issues later, but for now it's all sunshine and flowers. Except for those flowers that Lux plowed down in Baze's truck. Whoops!
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously: Nobody wanted serial foster kid Lux, so she had to track down her birth parents -- bar owner Baze and radio personality Cate -- to secure her freedom from leering ginger foster brothers. Portland's meanest judge called Lux out on a technicality. Lux found herself homeless, and Cate (who is engaged to her co-host Ryan) literally stumbled upon her after a shamefully reminiscent one-night stand with Baze. Cate decided to make things right and took Lux in. There was birthday cake. Everybody wins!
Dreary Portland. Cate takes her daily 5 a.m. run. The cellulite isn't going to keep itself at bay, you know. Meanwhile, Baze and his buddies play beer pong. Cate cooks and bakes and does all things domestic. Those clichés aren't going to manifest themselves, you know. Baze kicks ass at beer pong. Cate fails at making French toast... which I made successfully (many times) in my seventh grade Home Ec class. Seriously? We learn that Cate is in a Frenchy frenzy because Lux's caseworker is coming tomorrow. She worries that her inability to bake will disqualify her from getting the "MOM" stamp of approval. Well, not having a flaming home probably goes a bit farther than foiled attempts at cookie making... so there's that. Ryan mercifully tries to pacify her, but she finds something new to worry about -- that ol' good-for-naught, baby-makin', beer-swillin' Baze. He has to get the stamp of approval, too. Ryan deflects her anxiety by teasing her about her "hot soccer mom" hair. He thinks the stability in her life from their engagement will also help with the caseworker. Not satisfied to have even a second that isn't utterly uptight, she moans that the dynamic of their show doesn't lend itself to their getting married. Speaking of the show, they need to head to the station. Cate rouses Lux to say goodbye. Cate has all the bases covered -- except she's forgotten to secure Lux a ride to school.
Cut to Baze's bar. He picks up his phone and gives an entirely too enthusiastic (read: drunk) "Heeeeeey!" Cate asks for a ride, which Baze is more than happy to give... just not today. Cate immediately starts talking shit about him to Ryan, all of which he hears but will probably be too drunk to remember anyway. Hey, I have an idea! Let's have the drunk guy drive a 16-year-old to school! Cate is on board, y'all. So Baze hems and haws about how hard he's been "working" and how he has to get ready for the social worker's visit. Of course he doesn't even have the day right. It's today, not tomorrow. Even his wasted bros know that. Cate takes it to the serious place, telling Baze he needs to get his bidness together, starting with the lotion on the nightstand. She says there is no way they're losing Lux over his fuckery. Baze pulls it together. For now. By which I mean he's cognizant enough to know that his ex, Jogger Bra Tracy, is completely unwilling to help with his 16-year-old screw-up and to ask if anyone is sober enough to drive Lux to school. Cut to several hours later. Lux is waiting on Cate's front porch like poor little Manny in Modern Family, but with snazzier shoelaces. Moments later Baze and his bro show up in a cab, screaming like football hooligans.