By Lady Lola
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Bug's need for employment serves as catalyst for many of the underpinning arcs of this week's pretty fan-frickin'-tastic episode. It all starts when he takes a job handing out flyers at a nightclub. Good gf Lux sneaks out of the loft to offer moral support. Long story short, she's 16 and shouldn't be outside da club at two in the morning. The caseworker calls Baze and Cate to the police station to discuss what's up. She spots the bucketfuls of angst roiling beneath the surface and decides to move up the date to review whether our hapless bioparents are fit to serve as Lux's guardians.
The foolish trio naïvely attempt to resolve their issues in the few days allotted. Naturally, the old college try is subverted by the fact that a.) Lux refuses to forgive Cate about Tasha, b.) Baze is actively deceiving Cate by sleeping with her sister, which Lux knows, and c.) the 'rents aren't all that supportive of Lux's relationship with Bug (despite Cate trying and Baze succeeding in giving Bug a job at their respective workplaces). Failing actual unity, they decide to lie through their teeth. That plan goes down in fuh-lames. Without all that much digging, the social worker gets to the bottom of things: Lux doesn't think Cate is there for her. That wound opened, Lux unloads about being hospitalized all alone for the first three years of her life, only to be placed with abusive and hideous fosters parents for the 13. Through tears, she says she will never forgive Cate for giving her up like she was nothing. She walks out of the session, but the caseworker sees her revelation as a sign that she's ready to commit to the family. She allows Cate and Baze to remain Lux's guardians and urges them to follow up on formalizing their adoption.
Since Lux is still on the lam, Cate turns to Ryan because he is the only person that Lux will listen to these days. He's more than hesitant to keep being pulled back in, but Cate finally opens up. She tells him she never held Lux when she was born because she knew she'd want to keep her. She pushed Lux away and has been pushing people (including him) away ever since then. Only since Lux came back has she changed how she views the world. She needs Ryan to talk to Lux because she's Cate's only chance to evolve into a person who's not scared of living and loving. Ryan takes her words to heart, finally putting himself in Cate's place when things went to Hell in a hand basket. He seeks out Lux and convinces her to return home to Cate's, with the added bonus that he's coming with her.
Also? Baze decides to stop acting like a walking boner and give monogamy a shot. Who's the lucky lady? Cate's sister Abby. What? You didn't expect him to actually learn anything, did you? Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously: Blah, blah, bastard child, blah, blah, infidelity, blah, blah, broken hearts, blah, blah, ragamuffin rejections, blah, blah, Baze is a manwhore, blah, blah.
Radio station. Cate and Ryan ponder sleeping together in a non-sexual way intercut with a shot of a blissful Lux and Bug versus a kicking-pushing-bed-falling-off shot of Baze and Cate's sister Abby. The tension remains palpable and Ryan bitches about Cate's cold feet, and she slips in that she "stopped putting [her] feet on [him] weeks ago." He confesses that he has phantom cold feet dreams.
Loft. Abby and Baze morning-after chat about all the sexy sex they had last night. Baze offers to make her some breakfast along with Lux's, but Abby says she saw Lux leaving earlier that morning. As we know, Lux is with Bug, who is begging her to stay a little longer. No dice, she's off to school, but she jokes that she's going to implant a LoJack in him in case he ever leaves again. Bug touchés that Baze could probably use one for her. She says he's too busy schtupping Abby to notice her comings and goings, so to speak. Bug says he's looking for a job to make her proud (and pay rent). That evening he's handing out flyers at a local nightclub. He thinks it's lame, but she promises to tag along for moral support.
That evening, Baze offers Lux some stanky tempeh dogs as a peace offering. She snits that they smell better than Abby's patchouli perfume. He notices the hostility, and she reminds him just a few of the many reasons (sneaky sex, date bribing, accusations aplenty) that she's not happy with him at present. Baze promises not to butt into Lux's love life anymore and asks what he can do to get back on her good side. She tells him to stop dating Abby. He tries to barter her down so she'll stop dating Bug, too. She spits out a flippant, "Whatever," which he somehow construes as victory. Not five seconds after he leaves the room, Lux sneaks out. He really is the shittier parent. Or just a typical oblivious, over-reactive dad.
Cate's. The phone wakes her up at 1:58 a.m. It's about Lux. Cate freaks out and says she'll be right there. Cut to the Portland PD, where Lux's social worker is chastising Cate and Baze for not knowing Lux's whereabouts. Baze says he thought she said she'd stop seeing Bug (she didn't) and points out that the little hoodlum has brought him down to this police station twice now (fair point). Cate tells Baze that Lux is his responsibility as long as she's living with him. This opens up a whole can of worms with the social worker as to whether they're actually sharing custody. That in turn opens up the whole can of worms about Tasha. The social worker heartily disapproves of their haphazard situation and decides to move up their family evaluation to Monday. Cate wonders what the criteria for evaluation are. The social worker firmly says Lux needs guardians she respects, and obviously biological parenthood doesn't guarantee that Cate and Baze are equipped to take on that role. Something perhaps the damn judge who started this whole thing should have considered all those months ago, no? Credits.