It's night-time when the show opens, and the voices of Lily and Rick are coming to us from Rick's truck, which is parked under a tree. Lily's waxing ecstatic, saying that she "needed this." Rick gasps that he feels "so much closer to [her]," to which she replies that she "can't go very long without doing this." Oooh, naughty! Any bets as to what's going on inside that motorized den of iniquity? The camera zooms in on the truck and cuts to an interior shot where, lo and behold, the two are in the throes of passionately inhaling take-out burgers. Not at all what I expected. I had my money squarely on ice cream. Anyway, it seems Lily and Rick have officially taken their relationship to the magical level -- he's discovered that she doesn't, in fact, "eat like a bird." As the two bond over their beef, Lily asks to hear a "Jessie story" and Rick proceeds to regale her with the tale of Jessie's latest book report, which she refused to write because the subject was The Diary of Anne Frank. After all, the plucky youngster reasoned, "Anne's diary was 'for her eyes only' and she'd be humiliated to know that it had been translated into thirty languages." Lily doesn't bother swallowing her mouthful of half-chewed food before exclaiming that Jessie "sounds totally adorable!" Rick says he wishes she could meet Jessie but Lily feels that it's too soon. Rick concocts a devious little plan whereby Lily can drop by his apartment the morning, when he and Jessie will be preparing to leave on their annual autumn hike. She can use the pretense of returning a book so that the meeting won't seem like such a big deal.
Cut to Rick returning home, where he finds Jessie propped in front of the television even though it's after midnight. They indulge in some warm-and-fuzzy "it's way past your bedtime" banter while Rick throws her over his shoulder and carries her upstairs to bed. In case you missed it: Jessie is Daddy's Little Girl.
Meanwhile, Lily's at home in front of the bathroom mirror, looking thoughtful while she takes off her eye make-up.
B/W Lily pops in to muse about when to officially consider herself "middle-aged." According to her sister, "it's when you go from 'looking good' to 'looking good for your age.'" I'm tempted to mock it, but secretly, I know that when the time comes, that comment is going to sting like a thousand angry bees.
The phone interrupts her philosophizing. It's Jake, who's sitting on his couch bathed in the flickering glow of a television. He insincerely blows through an apology for calling so late and then informs her that Zoe has a cough. Waving around a set of chopsticks, he wants to know if it's a cold that's coming or going. Lily tells him where to find Zoe's decongestant.
B/W Lily is back again, expanding on her definition of middle-aged. She says she thinks "it's when you spend more time thinking about the bad things that have happened instead of all the good things that might." Interesting that "bad things" should pop into her head just as she's on the phone with Jake.
Cut back to Jake, looking very uncomfortable. He sputters that, sick child aside, he's been meaning to call Lily anyway. He wants to talk, but not on the phone. Lily is naturally suspicious and wants to know what's up with all the mystery. He asks to buy her a drink the night at Pete's and, after establishing that both kids will be tucked away somewhere safe, Lily acquiesces. Jake looks as though it's the first time he's breathed in about four minutes.
The morning, we find Jessie shooting hoops in Rick's kitchen while providing herself with a running commentary. Rick's all decked out in his man-of-the-great-outdoors gear -- the requisite red flannel shirt -- and is busy packing food for their hike. Anxiously, he asks Eli what time it is. Eli and Jessie start wrestling over the basketball, and Rick asks Jessie if her hiking boots are ready. When she says she can't find them, Rick places both hands under her jaw and then lifts her up to his level. I can't imagine this being comfortable. He asks if she wants him to go look for them, to which she replies, "Okay Mr. Grouch Head," before heading off to search her room again. After Jessie leaves, Rick asks Eli for the time again. Eli responds that it's "ten-thirty-ONE" -- about one minute since the last time Rick asked. Jessie calls to Rick from upstairs.
Jessie's in the bathroom with the door closed. Rick asks what's up, and we cut to Jessie, who's sitting on the bathroom counter hugging her knees. "I think I just got my period," she tells him. Cut to Rick, who takes an exaggeratedly deep breath while his eyes almost pop out. "Honey...honey, that's...that's great...that's wonderful," he stammers weakly, "Do you need...sh-should we...do you want to go to a drugstore? Or do you want to go to Mom's?" Oh please, oh please... Rick's silent prayer is answered when Jessie says she thinks they should go to Karen's.
Here's B/W Jessie to talk about what life was like B.D. -- Before the Divorce. She remembers that Saturday was always "pancake day" -- they'd let Karen sleep late and Rick would make these "tiny pancakes and [she'd] see how high [she] could stack them." Her face falls as she says, "Now we just don't do that anymore."
Cut to Rick and Jessie walking up to Karen's house. Like magic, Karen opens the door before they reach it, and Jessie's beaming face looks up at her. "Guess what?" Jessie asks, and of course, Karen just knows. She gushes how wonderful it is and then tells her where to find the "stuff" she needs in the bathroom. Rick and Karen stand in the doorway, swelling with pride as they watch her go. Karen calls out that she's "so proud" of Jessie. Karen suggests that Jessie spend some time with her, but Rick says they've got their hike all lined up. Disappointed, Karen says she'd always "planned this day for her." Does Hallmark make a card for getting your first period? Because I'm starting to think they're missing out on a big market. Jessie returns, and Karen tells her she wants to "celebrate with [her] somehow." Jessie suggests they go for a smoothie the day. Wow, this is all so frank and well-adjusted I can't stand it. I cried like a baby when I entered the "wonderful world of womanhood" because, at the time, I didn't think the joy of being able to have kids outweighed the serious pain-in-the-ass I'd have to deal with every month for the thirty to forty years. I also sensed somehow that being an adult wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
When they get back to Rick's apartment, he proclaims, "I will start the sandwiches," in a weird, strangled voice that I think is meant to be silly. Jessie remembers that she left her backpack in the truck, and turns around to go and get it. As she opens the door, though, Lily's standing there about to knock. Jessie says, "You're Lily," and the two smile at one another. Rick comes from the kitchen and tries to act surprised to see Lily. Everyone smiles awkwardly and Rick invites Lily inside. Suddenly, Jessie doesn't need her backpack anymore but instead follows Rick and Lily into the kitchen. As Rick gets back to making sandwiches, he explains the tradition of this hike to Lily -- every autumn, he and Jessie go for a hike to see the changing leaves. Eli comes bounding in at that point to tell Rick he needs some money, and stops dead when he sees Lily there. Rick says, "You know Lily, right? Grace's mom?" Hello, Rick? That's not exactly a selling point. Rick, Eli, and Jessie bustle around the kitchen on various missions, and we get to see that Lily's pretty much in the way. Jessie heads off to her room for a minute to look for her knapsack there, and while she's gone, Rick pulls it out from under a pile of stuff on the counter. He removes a Tupperware container from it, and there's a collective groan and gaggy faces all around as they examine the contents. Jessie returns from her room in time to identify the remains as a turkey sandwich. She then looks at Lily and asks, point-blank, how old she is. Lily answers, "Forty. How old are you?" "Twelve," is the matter-of-fact response. The two look at each other in an appraising, yet not unfriendly, way. Lily then says she'd better go, but Rick asks her to stay. He goes back to slicing tomatoes and asks Jessie if she wants some on her sandwich. Jessie tells him she just wants an apple, but he tells her that she needs to eat more than that and then informs Lily again about the big hike they're going on. He's going a little overboard trying to convince Jessie that he and Lily are really just buddies and Lily hasn't already heard all about this trip. Jessie tells Lily that Rick's really into "this outward-bound thing. He'd like it best if we were helicoptered in and left in the middle of nowhere with three matches and a knife." Rick ha-ha-very-funny's this comment and then says, "Lily, do you like to hike?" He says it in this really staged, exaggerated way, as if he were talking to his puppet sidekick on some kids' morning show. He says that if she does, maybe all of them can go hiking together sometime...
She doesn't get a chance to respond, however, because Rick's so busy looking at her, that he slices his finger instead of the tomato. They don't show it, but the sound effects are really gross -- squishy, juicy, squirty sounds. Of course, it could be the tomatoes.
"Daddy!" Jessie gasps, covering her mouth. She tells them she saw this very thing on 911 and they have to find the other part of his finger. Lily waves her hands back and forth like tiny wings, but that doesn't help things, so she moves to look for a towel. Rick assures Jessie that his finger is exactly where it should be, and he just needs a towel. Eli comes charging into the room and yanks a wad of paper towels from the rack just before Lily locates a dishtowel in one of the drawers. Jessie's still frantically rambling, but now she's onto the topic of ice. Eli informs her that she's hysterical, and with a cracking voice she cries that she's not. Lily says they should have the cut looked at, just to be safe, and Eli offers to get the car. He asks if he can go through all the red lights. Inexplicably, Rick says yes. He and Lily exchange looks to let us know that this wasn't supposed to happen.
After commercials, we return to find Lily and Jessie camped out in the waiting room. Lily rummages through her enormous bag looking for mints, while recounting how her mother would always give her mints that tasted like perfume at the weirdest times, like funerals. Not that this is anything like a funeral, she quickly adds. Right, thanks for the update. Jessie tells her how squeamish Rick is about blood by sharing the story of how they ran over a rabbit, and she had to pick it up because he couldn't. They took it to the vet but it died. Jessie then asks if Lily thinks God has a good personality. Lily answers that she doesn't think God controls death, if that's what Jessie means. Then, borrowing a few tips from the Keanu school of philosophy, she says she thinks it's "all about cycles, you know? Like nature?"
Fade to a new view of the waiting room, which lets us know that time has passed. Now we're looking at Eli, sitting sideways in the chair with his legs draped over the one to him. He's such a little rebel. The camera pans over to Lily and Jessie, where the bonding continues. Lily's saying that she didn't really get into school -- she just couldn't wait for it to be over so she could get on with her life. Jessie imparts one of Rick's observations: "If you're popular in high school, it's practically guaranteed the rest of your life will be a mess." This view seems to have replaced the "it's the best time of your life" cliché as the prevailing view of high school, but I'm not sure how true either of them is. Okay, I know the second one is total crap. As if to confirm the truth of the observation, though, we hear Eli the golden boy complaining that "this thing only gets, like, one channel." We then see him fiddling with the television mounted on the waiting room ceiling.
Just then, Rick and his doctor come through the doors, and the kids rush over to him. Lily's a little slower to get up, so the three are already walking away from the doctor by the time she joins them. The doctor gives Lily extra instructions on how to care for Rick and then adds, "You've got some cute kids." Lily doesn't correct her.
Cut to Rick's living room, where everyone fusses over Rick as he settles onto the couch. The phone's ringing, and Eli figures it's his friend and makes to leave. Lily heads into the kitchen to put an ice pack in the freezer, leaving Jessie and Rick alone for a moment. Jessie leans in and tells Rick that she likes "how [Lily's] not all flustery." Rick agrees. He tells Jessie they're still on for their hike, but she solemnly insists that his "body's been through a trauma. [He] needs to rest." Lily returns from the kitchen, and Jessie gets up to make tea, leaving Rick and Lily alone for a moment. Lily tells Rick that Jessie's "just incredible." Rick says he's glad Lily's there, and she observes that it's "just the medication talking. If [she] hadn't been there, none of it would have happened." Well, that makes sense, but Rick doesn't seem to care. They kissy-kiss-kiss and then Lily says she'd better go, but not before they kiss one more time. She spins around to get up and finds Jessie standing in the doorway watching them. Lily's smile falters a little, but she decides to act like nothing happened and tells Rick that he's "in really good hands here" before telling "Jessica" that it was really nice to meet her. "Jessie," the kid says. Lily apologizes and makes her getaway.
Jessie seems shaken and glances after Lily a couple of times while dunking Rick's teabag. The wheels are turning full-speed, and you know she's thinking, "Friend, my ass." Rick starts talking about the hike again, but now the painkillers have kicked in and he's groggily slurring his words. He says the only thing she'll remember about being twelve is missing this trip. "I don't think so," Jessie says with a little smile. Right, there was that little thing about getting your first period this morning, wasn't there? I doubt you'll forget that anytime soon. Sleepily, Rick asks if it was terrible waiting for him at the hospital. He hates...hospitals...they're so...in...hospitable. And then he drifts off on that sweet, sweet cloud of drug-induced oblivion.
Cut to Jessie lying on her bed and drilling the basketball at the wall. Eli pokes his head in the door to ask if she's okay. Thump, catch, thump, catch. She's fine. "If you say so," Eli says, unconvinced. Thump, catch, thump, catch, "This is what fine looks like," she snarks, and hurls the ball for emphasis. Eli asks what she thinks of Rick's "new girlfriend." Jessie says she's okay and then asks how he knows that Lily is Rick's girlfriend. "How many of them have you met?" Eli asks, and looks at her meaningfully before leaving. Jessie continues throwing the ball at the wall.
Cut to Lily waiting inside Pete's for Jake to show up. He comes up behind and taps her on the shoulder, startling her. Ah, she's on edge. Jake awkwardly ushers her to the bar area. After ordering drinks, they make small talk and it's clear that Lily's guard is up.
B/W Lily interrupts to reminisce about the first time she saw Jake. He was wearing "this beautiful blue shirt." Fascinating.
Back at the bar, Lily and Jake clink glasses and he tells her she looks good. "For an old broad?" she adds, sipping her wine.
B/W Lily continues the trip down Memory Lane. She says she sensed immediately that he wore the shirt on purpose, because he knew it made his eyes look striking. Somehow, her cheese radar didn't sound, though, and she remained attracted to ol' blue eyes.
Jake tells Lily she looks "better than any mother [he] knows." Amazingly, she doesn't ooze off her stool and form a quivering puddle under her bar stool, but instead asks dryly, "Why aren't I thrilled by that compliment?" "Probably because you were never any good at taking one," Jake suggests. Or, it could be that you're not much good at giving them, Slick. "Jake," Lily says with a warning note in her voice. He puts up his hands in surrender, saying, "No, you know, you're right," and then rubs his hands together before diving right in to tell her the good news: "[He's] been thinking and, [she] won't believe this, but [he's] even thought about some therapy." Stunned, Lily asks "You?" just to be sure she heard things right. Jake says no, he was actually thinking of therapy for them. Lily rolls her eyes.
B/W Lily continues trying to explain the unexplainable: Her attraction to Jake. She says that she knew he was trouble right way, but he wasn't like all the other guys she'd dated. So she fell victim to the old bad boy/dangerous thrill thing. Hey, it happens to the best of us.
Noticing Lily's reaction, Jake says, "You're not going to make this easy, are you?" Then he catches himself and apologizes, saying he knows "[he doesn't] get to say that." Lily reminds him that he's seeing someone anyway, and he shoots back that she is too. She's not the one who wanted to talk, she points out. With a little admiration, Jake observes that she's "gotten feistier." "No, just smarter," Lily replies as she gathers her stuff off the bar. She tells him that he doesn't "get to do this" and makes to leave. He puts his hand on her arm to stop her, looks at her for a few seconds, and makes this guttural "mmmm" sound that, frankly, makes me blush. What a creep. He blurts out that he misses her, he misses them. Lily wants to know what all this is - "[he] broke up [their] home and now that the kids are finally getting adjusted, [he]..." She leaves without finishing her statement, but not before knocking his drink into his lap. By accident, I'm pretty sure.
B/W Lily keeps dragging us, kicking and screaming, into that terrifying bizarro place where Jake was desirable. Without any warning she tells us that they slept together twelve hours after they met. Wowza. That takes me a moment to digest. All the obvious horrors aside, isn't she the one who's always judging Judy as some kind of loose hosebag because she sleeps with guys too soon? Little bit of the old pot calling the kettle black, isn't it?
Despite the bourbon and water soaking though his pants, Jake holds Lily still for a moment and gives her a hungry look. She's found the strength she lacked so sorely all those years ago, though, and beats a path to the exit.
B/W Lily starts to say something more but seems justifiably overcome with embarrassment over the last detail she shared. Thankfully, she covers her face with her hands and shuts the hell up.
Cut to Rick, who's still passed out on his couch. Jessie comes into the room and looks at him for a moment. We see her looking through the stuff on his dresser: cufflink, tape measure, pocket knife. Nothing worth stealing, but I don't think that's why she's there, anyway. B/W Jessie starts to tell us about her summers as a kid, which were always spent at her grandparents' cottage on the lake.
Back in Rick's room, Jessie picks up an old family photo from one of these summers. She studies it carefully.
B/W Jessie continues remembering the cottage, and how they didn't do anything special there. They played cards, worked on puzzles, and "other stupid stuff."
The phone rings, and Jessie lays the picture face-down on the table before answering. It's Karen, checking up on her. Jessie tells her they didn't go hiking because Rick had a little accident with his finger and they had to go to the emergency room. Karen asks why they didn't call her, and Jessie says that Lily drove them. Karen looks like she smells something foul and repeats, "Lily?" Jessie explains that Lily was there when Rick cut himself. Karen tries to make her voice sound light, as if she doesn't care that Lily was there, and Jessie says that Lily just stopped by for a minute. Karen closes her eyes, shakes her head, and looks like she's trying not to vomit. She reminds Jessie that she can always call if she needs anything. Translation: you don't let that other woman anywhere near you. As they're about to hang up, Jessie blurts out, "Mom!" as if she's got something more to say, but then she just says, "See you tomorrow." Karen's finely tuned mother's intuition (the same one that always lets her open the door about two seconds before the kid gets there) senses that something is awry, and she asks if anything is wrong. Jessie says, "It's nothing," but she's not very convincing. Karen hangs up looking unimpressed, still thinking about Lily no doubt. You just know that Rick's going to get it time she sees him.
Back at Rick's place, the phone rings again, but this time it's Lily. She asks after Rick, who's still sleeping, and then she asks how Jessie is. Jessie says she's fine and that's basically that. The call itself isn't important. It's the fact that Lily's making her presence known.
B/W Jessie gets back to talking about the grandparents' cottage, saying that they stopped going there after her grandfather died. She says she doesn't know why, but she's "been thinking about that place a lot." Insert your own pop psychology interpretation here. Hint: It was a happy place in her safe, perfect childhood.
Jessie goes into the living room, sits on the coffee table, and watches as Rick sleeps.
After commercials, we return to find that it's the morning. Jessie's in her room packing her knapsack. Rick comes in wearing his robe and pajamas, and observes that she's "up early." She reminds him about the birthday party she's going to that afternoon, and tells him she's got homework to do beforehand. Rick says he forgot about the party -- he'd been hoping they could go for their hike. She says she's go too much to do, and he offers to at least make her breakfast - pancakes! (Get it?) "Dad, I'm late," she replies shortly, and then remarks that "the leaves will still change, even if we're not the first to see them. It's just a hike." year, Rick promises, but he's clearly disappointed. She leaves him sitting on her bed, looking bewildered. When they get to Karen's (where she, of course, opens the door two seconds before Jessie reaches it), Jessie rushes off to do her homework. Karen asks about his finger, and he says it's okay. "I guess I should thank Lily for driving," Karen says. Meowza. It's probably not a good time to point out that she really doesn't need to thank Lily for anything, since she's Rick's ex-wife. Rick doesn't pick up on the hostility, though, and tells her that "it was one of those things" but "everything's fine." She asks if he's sure, but he doesn't know what she's getting at. She tells him she got a weird vibe from Jessie the night before, and Rick mentions something about her period. Karen points out that Jessie's "got a lot going on" and then dubiously demands, "But everything is perfect between the two of you, right?" Rick shrugs, "What's perfect when you're twelve?" Karen changes gears and asks if Rick can pick up Jessie after the party because she's got a deposition to finish and has to go downtown. Rick is peeved that she didn't give him more notice.
Meanwhile, Jessie's been hanging out around the corner eavesdropping on them the whole time. She cuts in to stop their bickering by reminding Karen that they still have to get a present so they should leave now. Karen says she thought Jessie had homework, and Jessie says it wasn't as much as she had thought. Karen basically tells her to scram so that she can finish "talking" to Rick. She then starts running down the itinerary of the party, but Rick cuts her off by snapping that he knows what time the party ends and he'll be there.
B/W Jessie gives us the story behind the picture she'd been looking at earlier. They'd been out on the lake when a storm rolled in and it got really cold. They raced back to the cottage and lit a fire and roasted marshmallows -- in the house!
Cut to Jessie brushing her hair in front of a mirror. Karen stops outside the doorway to prod Jessie into getting ready. They have a short tussle over what Jessie's going to wear, with Jessie rejecting the dress Karen's laid out on the bed for her because "it's so ten minutes ago." Karen reminds her it was also "forty-five dollars ago." And people wonder why I don't have kids.
Back to B/W Jessie and the tale of the summer storm: She recalls thinking it was like a holiday, everything was so perfect. The look on her face as she recalls that day is pure wistfulness.
Jessie tells Karen she doesn't want to go to the party, and Karen starts in on a nag: "You know that when you make a commitment--" "--you always follow through," Jessie finishes, and adds, "but sometimes you just can't," thinking, no doubt, about her parents' divorce. Karen wisely changes the subject by suggesting they go for that "hooray-you-got-your-period" smoothie before the party. After she leaves, Jessie returns to brushing her hair, shaking her head sadly as she looks at her reflection in the mirror.
B/W Jessie picks up where she left off: She remembers that she fell asleep in front of the fire and woke up shivering. She wandered into the kitchen and found Rick sitting there, drinking coffee even though it wasn't even light outside.
"Jess, what's wrong?" one of her young friends asks, interrupting the reverie. They're at the cinema, approaching the candy counter where the birthday girl's mother is doling out the popcorn. "My mother," Jessie responds, which satisfies the girl, whose name is Bailey. Chrissy, the birthday girl, is just ahead of them saying emphatically "So I told her I want a Kate Spade bag. It's, like, a goal." Again, people wonder why I'm in no hurry for kids. Bailey quite rightly points out that "wanting a Kate Spade bag is not a goal -- world peace is a goal." You tell her, my sage little friend. Chrissy haughtily snarks, "I'm not having a Zen birthday. Do you mind?" As the little fashion victims walk away, Jessie and Bailey hang back a little. Jessie says she doesn't really want to see the movie so she's going to go for a walk instead, and she asks Bailey to cover for her. Bailey asks if she's okay, and Jessie says she just wants to be alone.
Cut to Jessie strolling through the mall, intently observing all things womanly: a display in a lingerie-shop window; a young woman making out with her boyfriend on a bench; a new mother lifting her infant and kissing it.
B/W Jessie says "It was weird. [Rick] never let [her] drink coffee before, but that morning [he] poured her a cup, and [they] just sat there for the longest time."
Jessie bumps shoulders with an older teenaged guy traveling in a herd. He and his friends turn and smile at her backside more than once, the perverts. Welcome to womanhood, kiddo.
B/W Jessie continues: "Then [Karen] came in, and they told [her] that they were getting divorced, and [she] was like...'What?'" Her eyes tear over as she remembers the bombshell.
Cut to Jessie standing in front of a bank of televisions showing the same smiling woman in a commercial. The two sets in the center are hooked up to a video camera, so that Jessie sees herself in them, surrounded by the giddy model. She stares at herself and adjusts her hair, then lets her arms fall to her sides. She stands there transfixed as the camera pans back. She gets smaller as more and more TVs fill the screen with that laughing woman.
Cut to Lily juggling grocery bags and preparing to unlock her front door. It swings open, and she gasps as Jake stands there smiling at her. "Hi. I'm your husband. Well, sort of." Yeah, tell it to the cops, pal. "What are you doing here?" she snaps. In the kitchen, she plunks the bags on the counter and Jake plucks a carton of milk from one of them. He asks if he can "steal it" since he and the kids ran out. He moves to unload more of the groceries, but Lily raises her hands. "Please. Don't help me," she says. Then she sighs and asks what he wants. He arranges his face into a boyishly wide-eyed expression before answering that he wants her. She sighs again and turns her face away from him, but he reaches out and grabs her face with both hands. Turning her to look at him, he plants a big wet smacker on her until she pulls away. She sighs again. He snatches the milk off the counter and then heads for the back door, lightly calling, "Thanks!" over his shoulder. I'm not sure what he's thanking her for -- the milk, the lip service, or both.
Cut to the mall, where the girls are emerging from the cineplex and approaching their respective rides. Rick asks Bailey where Jessie is, and she stalls, trying to cover for her. It doesn't take long for the truth to spill out, and Rick rushes into the mall. Synthesizers set to "panic" heighten the tension as Rick speeds down the escalator, scans every face in the crowd and, ultimately, almost grabs the wrong girl. Finally, he spots Jessie sitting serenely on a bench. Angrily, he snatches her arm and orders her to the truck.
"Thank-you for humiliating me in front of my friends," Jessie chokes out, trying to hold back tears as Rick pulls up in front of Karen's house. Rick asks what's going on with her, but she just stares straight ahead with her jaw set. His expression softens, and he reaches over to tussle her hair, but Jessie pulls away. "Hey!" he exclaims, flashing his anger again. He asks what is wrong with her. Jessie snaps: "What's wrong? That's all anybody's been asking [her] lately! Nothing's wrong - [she] loves [her] life!" Rick says he knows she's been going through some big changes and, exasperated, she says that it isn't about her period. "Okay. Meeting Lily," he says, "I know I haven't really told you who she is--" "I don't care who she is! All I know is, she ruined our whole weekend. If she hadn't come over, none of this would have happened." Jessie flies out of the truck and slams the door. Karen, of course, is in the doorway waiting for her (wasn't she supposed to be downtown working on a deposition?). Jessie blows by her, and Karen looks questioningly at Rick. He sighs.
Cut to Jessie in her room, locking the door.
B/W Jessie picks up where she left off earlier: "[Rick] even started to cry a little. He hugged [her] for, like, an hour. And his shirt smelled like the fire."
In her room, Jessie slides to the floor, bawling.
B/W Jessie's crying, too. She wonders, "What if they hadn't gone to the lake that day? Or she hadn't fought with Eli over the bathroom? Maybe then, just maybe..."
Cut to Rick walking up to the porch. Karen's standing with her hands on her hips and informs him that Jessie's locked herself in her room. She asks if he'd "like to tell [her] what's going on," like she's his mother or something. Rick tells her Jessie wasn't where she was supposed to be when he picked her up. After a pause, he says he knows Karen blames him for "all of this, because he introduced [Jessie] to Lily." Karen sits on the steps and looks at him. He points out that it's not as if Lily is the first woman he's introduced to Jessie, and it's been three years since their divorce. Karen says Jessie's "not stupid. She senses something." "What? I mean, meeting Lily for like five minutes..." Looking like she's trying to swallow a really jagged potato chip, Karen snaps "Oh God! You are so dense! Anyone with half a brain can see that you're..." Rick asks her to finish. Sighing in disgust, Karen says, "Don't make me be the first one to say it," and storms into the house, slamming the door behind her. Is it just me, or has there been a lot of sighing and slamming in this episode?
Cut to Lily's kitchen, where she's chopping away at some vegetables when Zoe, Grace, and Jake come through the back door. After the girls head upstairs, Jake looks at her for a second and then says, "Well, I'll see ya." He's almost out the door when Lily tells him to wait.
B/W Lily's back to tell us even more things we never wanted to know. Such as, "Jake always wanted me. Day or night. When we were fighting. Even when we weren't speaking, he wanted me." I see many, many sleep aids in my future.
Lily asks Jake if he's just going to act like nothing happened. "Why? What happened?" he wants to know. Um, duh-- "You kissed me, remember?" Lily says. She then tells him that he "can't just kiss people like that and expect to get away with it." Sadly, she doesn't launch into an ass-kicking series of flips and jumps à la Mission Impossible. Then again, this isn't a Sprint commercial. Instead she just stands there looking indignant. Jake tells her he's always been attracted to her (okay, except maybe when he was in the midst of it with that other young thing named Tiffany), and he still is. He asks if that's so terrible. "YES!" I scream, but no one's listening. Jake just goes on, slickly apologizing for being attracted to her, and asking, "Is that better?" She tells him he has "no right, and [he knows] it." Jake replies that, "All [he] knows is what [he] feels." He doesn't actually say "baby" out loud, but you know it's implied.
B/W Lily offers her support, saying that Jake "never really wanted [her], the [person she] really was." She finally figured out that, the more she talked, the more things fell apart, and the less he wanted her.
Lily tells Jake that he never considers who his "feelings" are liable to hurt. He looks at her with an acidic smile, saying, "You're going to throw it in my face for the rest of my life, aren't you?" "You bet," she retorts. "We're not done, yet. You know it, and I know it." What is that, a threat? They're taking this whole secret agent/villain thing a little far, aren't they? I'm half expecting him to tie her up and throw her into the shark tank. But he just leaves.
The morning, Rick spots Lily dropping off Grace at school, and he hops in her truck. They talk about what happened on Saturday, and Rick realizes that Jessie's been harboring a secret hope that he and Karen would get back together. Of course, "meeting [Lily] blew that right out of the water." Lily tells him Jake's going through exactly the same thing after meeting Rick. "But he's not twelve," Rick says. Drum roll, please..."Really?" Ba-dum-dum. When the hilarity wears off, the situation begins to impact on Rick. "He wants you back?" he asks. "For the moment, which is all he lives in," Lily replies. While she prattles on about it, Rick's face falls lower and lower until it acquires that hang-dog quality of which everyone's so fond. Lily notices that he's troubled and apologizes. He says it's all right, he knows what it's like. She asks if he and Karen were able to break it off neatly, and he says no. "I'm sorry," she says again, touching his face lightly. Maybe you should try telling him he's got nothing to worry about? Instead, she steers the subject back to Jessie. With tears in his eyes, he tells her that, according to Karen, Jessie doesn't want to talk about it with him. "Oh, yes she does," Lily says, "Girls always want to talk about it, trust me."
That night, Jessie's in her room, doing science homework at her desk when Rick pops his head in the doorway. She's distant with him as he talks about science and astronomy, in particular. He uses it as a launching point to talk about life, how "sometimes, it's an exciting thing, not knowing." Jessie cuts the crap and asks the big heavy question: Are they ever going to be a family again? Rick takes a deep breath and looks at her for a second before breaking it to her. "No, not the same way, we aren't," he says finally. Both are misty but trying to swallow their tears. Jessie says she hates that everything is different now. Rick says things aren't so different. "You are," she tells him, "You're always excited or singing or whistling and getting ready to go out." She says she's happy that he's happy now, but when he was sad, she really felt like she could help him.
B/W Jessie's onto a new memory now. She recalls that, when she was six, all she wanted to do was learn to ride her bike without training wheels.
Rick points out that Jessie's changed too. She's staying up late, running around the mall by herself, and pretty soon, boys will be calling her.
B/W Jessie remembers that Rick would always help her practice by holding the bike's seat for her.
Rick says he's not sure either one of them wants things to stay the same, and to illustrate that some changes are good, explains that she "changed [his] whole universe" when she was born.
B/W Jessie says that, one day, she was going so fast she couldn't believe it...
Rick continues with the Hallmark moment, saying that "maybe that's what love does to you -- it keeps opening you up, and changing you, and you keep finding out that there's always more." They hug, framed in her bedroom window, as the camera pans back.
...and when she looked over, Rick wasn't holding onto her seat anymore. She "was free."
Out on the driveway, the camera pans back from Jessie and Rick shooting hoops and laughing under a star-filled sky.