The show opens with a shot of the phone in the foreground. The answering machine's just picked up, and Lily's voice is telling the caller that she and the girls can't take the call. Rick's voice comes on, and Lily, in the middle of brushing her teeth, comes running out of the bathroom to grab the phone. "Screening your calls?" Rick asks. "No...yes, actually...from some nice people at the collection agency." Uh-oh. Well, that's no way to start a conversation, so they decide to start again. Rick says he's calling her about a date for Valentine's Day. Lily says, "oh" in a flat voice. She explains that she can't do anything with Rick because she already promised to take the girls to the re-opening of Jake's restaurant. Rick says, "Ah, I get it" in a soft voice, and Lily immediately jumps in to assure him that she just doesn't want to disappoint the girls. Rick says that he's really okay, and they end the conversation with some banter about other obscure holidays, on which Lily's schedule is wide open.
Cut to Lily at the grocery store, grabbing a few things off the shelf. At the checkout, she tries to charge the twenty-nine dollars to her credit card, but it's maxed out. She's shocked. And embarrassed, since there are about five people in line behind her watching her get denied and giving her the stink-eye. I feel her pain. She declines the clerk's offer to use another credit card (since she doesn't have one), glances at the people in line behind her, and basically looks like she wants to die. Needless to say, she makes a hasty exit.
We see her slamming through the front door of her home and going straight for the phone in the kitchen. She asks to speak with Jake, and while she's waiting she asks Zoe, sitting in the breakfast nook, to give her some privacy. She doesn't get Jake, though, so she leaves a message and says it's very important that he call her back. Zoe's still in the kitchen, and she asks Lily why she's so mad. Lily says she's not, but Zoe points out that she looks mad. "Angry," Lily clarifies, "'Angry' is the word. 'Mad' means insane."
The doorbell rings, and Lily opens the door to find her friend Naomi standing there. Lily says, "Hey" and looks pretty blank until Naomi reminds her that Lily invited her for dinner. Lily apologizes profusely and Naomi is very understanding, saying that it just means Lily's "floppy disk is full." Lily wonders aloud whether she even has any food in the house, and Zoe overhears this as she's heading upstairs, and remarks, "Oh that's okay. Grace and I ate Wheat Thins." I'm not sure if this remark is meant to be sarcastic since little kids have weird ideas about what makes for a good dinner. But still, we get the idea that things are pretty tight around the Manning household.
Alone in the kitchen, Naomi and Lily get down to some grown-up talk. Naomi's already figured out that things aren't quite right, and she asks about it. Lily says that nothing's wrong, other than the fact that "Jake just maxed out the only credit card" Lily has. Naomi is shocked to hear that Jake would pull such a juvenile, selfish, irresponsible, thoughtless stunt (okay, that's my own description) since she thought they went over all the financial stuff during mediation. Lily says of course they did, and that they agreed to keep their accounts separate; she even has it in writing. "Meatloaf or lasagna?" she wants to know. Naomi sensibly chooses the lasagna and then points out that Lily and Jake may not be the best candidates for mediation. Lily looks at her like "thanks for the update." Naomi points out that for mediation to work, both parties have to be rational, implying that Jake clearly isn't. Rational, schmational -- Jake "always has a legitimate excuse," Lily says. Naomi sees that Lily has to wake up and realize that Jake can't be trusted, so she tells her the tale of her cousin, Gwen, who was married to a guy in the shoe business. When they got divorced, he had no money to speak of: "Or so they thought. He'd been taking money and hiding it in the shoes! Listen to me. The restaurant is a cash business. He may not even be reporting all of it." Why, not our Jake! He's such an upstanding guy. Lily can't believe it, either, exclaiming, "But that's illegal!" "Hel-lo? You need to protect yourself and your kids. You need a lawyer." Naomi goes on to point out that a lawyer will work only for Lily and make sure she doesn't get screwed. Lily's not thrilled with the idea, though, since they've already got a mediator that they can't afford. "Look how well that's going," Naomi remarks, ever the voice of reason. Lily's clearly agitated as she slams the fridge and sighs, "There's just so much going on right now. Re-opening the restaurant on Valentine's Day, and my father's coming out here tomorrow." Naomi, thankfully, lets her make her excuses but writes out the number of a divorce attorney nonetheless.
Cut to Grace sitting in a classroom. The teacher is walking around handing back assignments, and Grace obviously did well on hers because she smiles wide when she sees her grade. The teacher mentions that a few people still don't have their camp deposits in and he needs them. He then sits on his desk and starts to read aloud from of one of the essays. It's about how free writers are because they work within the endless bounds of the imagination. As he's reading, Grace turns to look at the boy beside her and then turns back and smiles to herself. The bell rings, and she and the boy glance at one another as they pack up their stuff. On her way out, the teacher makes a point of reminding her that he needs her deposit soon, and he'd hate to see her lose her spot.
At her locker, Grace sees the boy walking in her direction. "I like what you wrote," she says as he passes. Surprised, he turns and asks, "How'd you know?" "I just knew," Grace replies. "I don't know." The boy introduces himself -- his name is Jared (I think -- or is it Ray? I'm having these damn auditory problems). When Grace tells him her name, he chuckles and says, "Amazing Grace. You probably get that all the time." "No, not really," Grace says, and some pages fall from her notebook. He picks them up for her, glancing at one before she can grab it from him. "I write poetry too," he says. They look at each other for a moment, but then Grace's friend Annie rushes up and interrupts. Grace abruptly says "Okay. Bye." He watches her leave, and she turns to look back at him. Hmm. Mutual interest?
Black-and-white Grace pops up. Oh good, I was wondering when she'd make an appearance. She explains that "by junior high you sort of know which way you're going to go," and she starts ticking off girly categories on her fingers: "There's cute, suicidal, student council, and then there's this other category which would be...I don't know...uh, different...from that. I figured I'd go for funny. And I really don't think I found my category yet." Hmm, you don't say. The funny thing is that she looks like she's going to cry as she admits this.
Cut to the foyer of Lily's house. The doorbell is ringing and Lily runs to answer it, and squeals, "Daddy!" He says he knows he's early, and mutters something about going to visit her brother but he's in some kind of new [something completely unintelligible]. A moment of warm family hysteria ensues as he's interrupted by Zoe, who runs down the stairs screaming, "Grandpa!" She's closely followed by Grace, who takes the cake (literally -- he brought them one) while Zoe leads him into the kitchen to show him a card trick. At the table, Grandpa mentions the opening and how excited they must be. He's leading up to a little fishing expedition: "So I guess Jake's at the restaurant?" Lily quickly quashes any hopes he may have by saying, "I have no idea where Jake is." Grandpa then gets busy with a bowl of nuts on the table and asks Grace about camp. She tells him, "It's pretty cool. You take these courses about writing and a lot of the teachers are published." Grandpa is surprised -- a camp where you write? Grace assures him that it's true and proceeds to rattle on about it, basically making it known how excited she is about it. Zoe butts in to guess which card Grandpa picked.
Meanwhile, Lily's on the phone in the kitchen, asking, "Well, did you tell him I really need to speak with him?" She leaves another message. Jake's obviously blowing her off, and she's not too happy about it.
Cut to Lily at the table with the calculator and a stack of bills, when the girls rush in waving flyers for the re-opening. They don't notice that Lily could give a rat's ass. She asks whether Jake mentioned where he was going, and Grace tells her he was going to "the restaurant" before blathering on about how he's hired this "outrageous band, Average Joe" to play at the opening. "What?!" Lily asks, looking like she's going to blow her nut. Zoe stops rummaging in the fridge long enough to mention that she "just love[s] Average Joe" which prompts Grace into her agitated-older-sister mode. "You don't even know who they are," Grace says with disgust. Lily repeats her question: "What do you mean he's hired a band?" But Grace is oblivious to her mother's obvious irritation and wants to know if Lily's had her dress dry-cleaned so that she can wear it to the opening. Uh, dry-cleaning costs money, right? "Not yet," Lily says.
The phone rings and Zoe cuts in to tell Lily that "it's Mr. Richardson something from financial something..." Uh-oh. Mr. Richarson sounds more like Mr. Bill Collector to me. Lily's thinking on her feet, though. She tells Zoe to say she's not home, even though the kid's been standing there talking to her with the receiver in her hand. Zoe's not well trained in this art form, though, and comes off exactly like a kid covering her mother's ass. Grace, meanwhile, has started up again about the dress. Lily looks like she'd love a bullet in the head right about now, and astute as always, Grace changes the subject. To her camp deposit. Can you send it in, Mom, can you, huh, huh? "YES, honey, yes!" Lily snaps, but she quickly restrains herself and asks, "What is it? Four hundred?" "Yeah" Grace says quietly. She's finally figured out that something is bothering her mother. Lily breathes a sigh like all the life is being sucked out of her, and starts punching away at the calculator. Well, after subtracting the camp deposit, she's left with a whopping twenty-five dollars. In a shaky voice, Lily tells Grace that she needs to run out for a few seconds. Grace watches her go and then peeks at the calculator.
Cut to the restaurant, where Jake is in the foreground handling bottles of wine, and some woman is prattling on about the surprising fact that ice sculptures are back. "Maybe a whale or dolphin?" she suggests. Meanwhile, Lily is tearing a path straight for Jake and interrupts the ice queen mid-blather. Jake is taken aback for a second, but then catches himself and introduces the insipid woman, who says, "I love your coat," like Lily cares. Lily tells Jake she needs to talk to him alone, turns around, and takes a few steps away. Icy makes a face like "what's her problem?" before leaving them alone. Jake nonchalantly asks, "What's up?" Lily snaps, "What's up? My only credit card is maxed out, which you swore you wouldn't use. I've got bill collectors calling me at home..." This is all too much for poor Jake to process, so he cuts her off, saying, "Whoa, whoa! Okay, I'm sorry. You've got no idea how crazed I've been with this opening..." Yeah, tell that to the dry cleaner and the bill collector and the grocery store and Grace's camp and...Wait a minute. How come he doesn't have money for them, but he's got money for "hiring bands and...and...dolphins" is what Lily wants to know.
So Jake gives her a quick lesson in managing personal finances. See, credit card juggling is like a game. If you play it right, you never actually have to pay anything off; you just keep charging and flipping the balances onto new cards. It's simple. Heck, he'll even get her another card today! "What are you talking about?" Lily wants to know. I think she suspects he's insane. Relax, Lily, he does it all the time. Doesn't it make you feel better to know that your future is riding in this man's capable hands? Jake asks her for just three more days, until after the opening, and he'll have some money for her then. She asks what they're supposed to do in the meantime, especially since Grace's camp check is already overdue. He promises to write her a check to cover it the day. As she's leaving, she turns to remind him that he hasn't put any money in the account and they don't even have enough for dry cleaning or groceries. You can tell how scary and humiliating this situation is for her. Jake reaches into his pockets, pulls out a few crumpled bills, and holds them out for her. The bills crackle as she swats at his hands, but the money's still in them as she walks away, apparently upset with this paltry gesture. He looks down at the bills in surprise, and then turns to get back to work. He tries to look unaffected, but the scene has clearly rattled him.
Cut to Lily outside, stabbing at the keypad of her cell phone. She's calling the lawyer. Attagirl, let him have it!
We see her sitting in the lawyer's office with a folder of stuff and explaining that mediation isn't working, basically because Jake is such an ass. ["And the lawyer is played by Caroline Aaron, who kicks ass! Yay!" -- Wing Chun] Just as she's gathering steam, the lawyer, Toby, jumps in to tell her to slow down since she's not charging Lily by the hour.
A little while later, they're sitting at a table with a pot of tea, and Toby is giving Lily her take on the situation. She explains that the way things stand, Lily is on the hook along with Jake if anything goes wrong with the restaurant. Toby suggests that Lily needs to protect herself, her kids, and her share in the restaurant by putting it into receivership and maybe freezing their accounts until the trial. Lily, looking stunned and uncomfortable, is reluctant. Toby lays it out in simple terms: "If the restaurant goes down, you go down with it." Well, enough said. Lily wants to know what everything is going to cost. Toby "only" needs a retainer of five thousand dollars, but hey, if that's a problem, she can go ahead with half that. To drive home that her services represent good value for money, she bluntly states, "In most divorces, men get angry and women get poor."
Cut to a paper cup getting filled in a vending machine. Jared is in the hallway at school waiting for it. Grace appears and gets a coffee too.
Black-and-white Grace cuts in to let us know how socially awkward it is to be a teenager. "In books you know. Everything slows down so you get to notice all the details, like the way light makes someone...glow. But in real life you never have enough time because you have to figure out what to say, like, immediately."
Back at the coffee machine, Jared invites Grace to sit down somewhere. We see students moving up and down a staircase between classes and hear Grace say that sometimes she just watches herself. The camera pans to a window on the landing, where she and Jared are sitting. She says that she "just goes up and looks down on [her]self," something she calls "helicoptering." Jared laughs and looks charmed, which causes Grace to become self-conscious and say, "It's stupid." Jared disagrees and they talk about how hard it is to relate to other people, and how phony other people can be. Jared tells Grace she "really see[s] inside people...the part that everybody hides." They share a look and hey, here's black-and-white Grace again, looking positively girlish as she smiles and covers her mouth with her hand. Aw, shucks. Back in colour, Jared's friends appear on the landing above them, telling him to come on. They give him a hard time when he tells them to wait a minute. Grace looks uncomfortable and says she has to go anyway because it's her dad's day to pick her up. Jared knowingly asks her, "How long have they been divorced?" Grace replies, "They're not. Well, they are...sort of." Jared then shares his own divorce experience with her, saying that it's weird because now, suddenly, he has to take care of his mom. Grace says, "Yeah" like she knows all about it. As they get up to leave, Jared asks her about her soccer plans and makes it clear he's noticed her before because he's been to a few of her games. Grace starts backing slowly down the stairs, still talking to him, but her attempt at a cool getaway is ruined when she stumbles. (I really feel for her at this moment, having fallen down not just one, but every single staircase in my high school. ["Ah, memories." -- Wing Chun]) Jared's friends nearly bust a gut, but somehow Jared maintains, telling them to shut up as he walks up to meet them. Grace overcomes her embarrassment pretty quickly, and is smiling by the time she reaches the bottom of the stairs.
Cut to Lily's dad having a nice nap with a newspaper spread on his chest. He is awakened by the doorbell, which rings a couple of times. He grumbles the requisite "coming, coming" and pulls the door open to find Rick. At last, the two finally meet. Rick looks stunned for a second, but manages to introduce himself. Lily's dad cuts him off, though, saying, "Rick. I know. I saw you skulking around the garbage cans on Thanksgiving. That was some night, let me tell you." He doesn't sound impressed. Rick is still standing on the step, looking pained. Dad invites him in, assuring him that Lily will be back any minute. After offering him a drink, Dad cuts to the chase by asking "So, Rick Sammler, what are your intentions?" as if they're heading to the prom. "Only the noblest...uh, sir," Rick mumbles. Dad says, "You've got a daughter, right? Yeah, you'll see...they grow up so fast. I just love her so much." Rick replies, "Well, you're not alone in that." Woo-hoo, score one for the Rick-man. Dad looks suitably impressed, and at that moment, the front door opens. Grace walks in, and both men are clearly relieved at the distraction. Rick asks her how she liked the book he brought for her, but she doesn't know what he's talking about. He reminds her it was a book on the U.S. women's soccer team, and that he peeked at the pictures and they looked pretty good. He looks so hopeful and is trying so hard, it's absolutely adorable. "Oh, that book. Yeah. Really good," says Grace, giving a piss-poor imitation of sincerity. Rick's face falls and I wish I could slap her. Just once.
Later on, in the kitchen, Lily is getting dinner ready while Zoe entertains her grandpa with yet another card trick. Lily asks whether Jake dropped anything off, and she's clearly pissed off when she hears that he didn't. Her father mentions that Rick "seemed like a nice fella." "Yeah, he's...he's all right," Lily understates, with the biggest smile she's had all episode. Dad takes over the cooking, and from the joke she makes, it's apparent that taking over for her is a bit of a trend in their relationship. Lily asks Grace to help her set the table, but Grace doesn't hear her because she's too busy staring at her reflection in the toaster. She's actually holding the appliance in both hands, which is pretty bizarre. Don't most people try to disguise the fact that they're checking themselves out, especially when they're self-conscious teenagers? When she finally snaps out of her little trance, Grace brings up the damn camp thing again. I know she's only, like, fourteen, and it's typical of people that age to be totally oblivious to the needs of anyone else around them, but I just want to yell shut up already! God, I'll write her the damn check myself if she'll just leave her mother alone. But there's no need, since Lily finally writes the check herself, looking all the while like she's signing away her soul.
Just as the Mannings are sitting down to eat, a commercial comes on the radio; it's for the restaurant's re-opening. Lily is shocked and wants to know where Jake got the money for radio air time. She's the only pooper at this party, though, as Zoe excitedly announces that her father is famous and Grace and Dad high-five in Jake's honor. For some reason, Grace announces that she's not hungry. Please tell me they're not going to give her an eating disorder. I say that only because they made such a point of showing her checking herself out before dinner, and I suspect it may have been a set-up for later episodes. But I digress. Zoe says that she's not hungry either. Lily snaps so hard I'm surprised you can't hear it. She grabs their plates and dumps the food down the disposal while everyone watches her in stunned silence.
Cut to Lily and her dad walking outside the grocery store. Did he spring for the groceries? She asks about life in Florida and he talks about how much he loves it, saying he doesn't miss the restaurant but he's glad that it's there for her: "This is your bread-and-butter, honey." Not surprisingly, she looks bitter when she hears this and then blurts out that she's hired an attorney. He's really disappointed that "it's come to that" and Lily says she feels like she's committed a felony -- not because she hired a lawyer, but because she wrote a bad check to cover Grace's camp deposit. She's freaking out because she knows there's not enough money to cover it, and "people go to jail for that." Her dad wants to know why she didn't come to him for help. "Okay, I'm asking for help -- help!" she chokes, trying not to bawl. She says she feels like she's drowning, that she can't even afford to pay the attorney. Dad shines up the old armor and asks how much she needs, and then tells her to consider it done. She hugs him like he's a life preserver and promises she'll pay back every penny.
Cut to the restaurant kitchen, where Zoe is checking things out with Jake. She's oohing and ahhing when Grace joins them and adds her approval. Jake sends Zoe off to string some lights across the bar, and Grace takes the opportunity to ask him what's happening with him and Lily. "Oh, your mom's a little tense. We're strapped for cash, that's all," he says with a smile, and then he assures her that everything will work out after the opening. He goes on about how Grace doesn't see the big picture (like how everything they have is riding on the success of this restaurant, you mean? like if it fails they don't have anything to fall back on? yeah, she's pretty blind, all right). He mocks her for thinking that the restaurant will "just magically" do well without his putting any money into it. "You know how she gets about money," he says, belittling Lily's fear and anger over their tenuous financial situation. Hello, she doesn't even have money for food, thanks to your wonderful planning, jackass. I restrain myself, with great effort, from pitching the remote at his smug, fat head. Grace isn't exactly reassured: "But the opening will be a big success, right?" Jake flippantly replies that they can't expect to make money as soon as the place opens. Hey wait, hasn't he been blowing Lily off until after the opening, implying that he'll immediately have money for her then? And Grace raises a good point: "But you're spending all this money..." So Jake gives her another one of his financial lessons: The first rule of business is that you've got to spend money to make money. Okay, I understand that and it's true to a degree, but really, did he have to spend every penny they had on the place? I'm totally backing Lily on this one; it seems pretty irresponsible not to keep aside some "what if" money when you have two kids depending on you.
Jake's little optimism dance hasn't put Grace's mind at ease. She's walking along the sidewalk with Zoe, and she's obviously thinking hard about something. Zoe wants to know what's wrong, but Grace just says, "Nothing." Something across the street catches her eye and she moves toward it. We see her looking through the window of a juice bar/café, where Jared is busy working behind the counter. She goes inside to get a smoothie, warning Zoe not to say anything, please.
Black-and-white Grace cuts in to ask, "Why is it so hard to tell what guys are thinking? I guess they don't want you to know. Like it would take away their power or something."
Grace sounds as if she's mocking the notion that boys have power, but then we see her acting like a simpering fool at the counter of the juice bar. Suddenly incapable of making a single stupid decision, like what kind of smoothie she wants, Grace tells Jared to pick everything for her. Which means she's getting a flavor she hates, as Zoe tries to point out before being shushed.
Black-and-white Grace is back for more commentary: "Sometimes it looks like they're not thinking anything at all. But that can't be right." Har. Her pseudo-naïveté is a bit much.
Back at the juice bar, Jared's friends have walked in just as he finishes blending Grace's smoothie. He tells her it'll be two-twenty-five, and for a second she's like a deer in headlights. Apparently she was so excited to see him that she overlooked the tiny fact that she has no money on her. Mortified, she asks Zoe if she has any money. "Oh, can I talk now?" Zoe asks. I don't blame her for being snotty. Jared looks like he's hearing this exchange but pretending not to. It gets pretty hard to ignore, though, when Zoe dumps the contents of her change purse on the counter. She starts counting aloud, and Jared's buddies chime in to count with her: "Twenty-five...fifty...seventy-five...a dollar," and so on. By the end, she's down to counting pennies, and one of his friends says, "I think she's a little short" before bursting out laughing. You know that Grace could just die. Zoe, however, looks pretty pleased with herself and shoves the pile of coins across the counter before Grace grabs her arm, says, "Bye," and gets the hell out of there.
Lily's at the bookstore with Judy, flipping through a book. Judy asks what she's reading, and Lily hands her The Divorce Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Divorce. Judy quips, "Maybe I should put this out to the Valentines." Yeah, or you could give it to your new boyfriend. Remember him -- the married guy? Lily bitterly mentions that the last step is to hire a lawyer, who costs about five hundred times more than the book. "Are you okay?" Judy wants to know. "No, I'm definitely left of 'okay,'" Lily says, moving to the counter to grab a muffin. She tells Judy that she had to ask their dad for money, and Judy says, "Oh, Little Bit," like Lily's just admitted the most devastating thing in the world. Lily says she can't believe this is happening to her, that this isn't who she signed up to be, and that she's an utter failure. Judy disagrees, pointing out that the bookstore, however, is an utter failure. Which could be what prompts Lily to say that she needs a job, a real job, not part-time. Judy points out that she's raising her children "who do have a father, by the way." "Jake lives on another planet," Lily says, and it strikes me as a fair assessment. She goes on to tell Judy how Jake's been buying radio spots, and Judy wants to know where he got the money for them. Lily gives her a look like "where do you think?" and Judy almost spits, "That crook!" Lily says, "I know," and wants to know why it is that she's the one who feels like a criminal for hiring a lawyer. Judy has a particularly astute moment and says, "Because that's what narcissists do. They make you feel bad when all you're doing is having a rational response to their insanity." A customer walks in just then, and Judy expresses her astonishment at the sight. Lily asks her to hold down the fort.
We see Lily in her lawyer's office, and she's decided to go forward. Toby, her attorney, says that they should messenger a legal letter to Jake today outlining their intentions to seek receivership. Lily looks reluctant, but only because she knows the kids are at the restaurant with him. She asks the lawyer to send it after six. Hee.
Cut to Lily at home, playing with her bills again. Grace comes up, clearly wanting to talk about something. She wants to know whether Lily happened to pull the book Rick gave her from the garbage. Lily reaches into a desk drawer and hands her the book. Grace admits that throwing it away was a horrible thing and she doesn't know why she does stupid things sometimes. Lily reassures her that everyone does, and they share a moment. Wow, what pulled Grace's head from her ass? Did she recognize some common humanity when Rick looked so sad earlier, or is her interest in this new boy sparking some self-scrutinizing? Whatever the reason, it's nice to see.
Later that night, Zoe is in bed with Lily as we hear the front door opening and keys jangling. Lily wakes with a start and goes to see who's in the house. She creeps down the darkened stairs and says, "Jake!" He turns and asks, "Are you trying to bury me?" He's holding the letter in his hands and muttering that she's burying herself too, but she interrupts him to point out that he can't just barge in like this. "I still pay the bills on this damn house!" he shouts. "Since when?" Lily demands. Yeah, you tell him. "You left me no choice," she says, and he responds, "Oh, that is such crap!" Not surprisingly, his little temper tantrum has awakened other people in the house, and we see Grace lying in bed listening to the argument. He's so thoughtful, that Jake. Nothing like giving your kids a heart attack in the middle of the night. "I told you to wait, just for a few more days, until after the opening," Jake is saying to Lily, but she sticks to her guns: "When? What happened to Grace's check for camp? Do you even know what kind of camp it is, or how much it means to her?" We see Grace creeping closer to her doorway, eavesdropping on what an ass her father is. Jake's response is to ignore the question and the mention of his daughter, and to keep the conversation squarely fixed on himself: "I'm trying to make a living the only way I know how. I'm forty-one years old -- what do you want me to do, start over?" No, but you could have skipped the ice dolphin and sent your kid to camp. I don't know, I'm just saying...Lily, thank goodness, does not appear to be caving: "Jake, please. I haven't hurt anything. A neutral third party is going to go over our accounts and give us a reality check." From his reaction, I don't think Jake knows what a reality check is. He tells her to admit that she just doesn't trust him. Now call me crazy, but I think I'd have trouble trusting someone who maxed out my credit card behind my back, who left me standing humiliated in the checkout line like some kind of pauper. But I digress.
Jake whines on about how she never trusted him and she asks, "Do you know why?" But he's not interested in hearing it, saying, "It doesn't matter anymore." Lily plows ahead anyway, telling him that it's because he lied -- he sat there at the mediator's and lied that there was no money. He lied as easily about money as he did about everything in their marriage, Lily tells him through gritted teeth. "I did it for us!" he bellows and Lily reminds him, "there is no us." Lily's dad comes down the stairs to see what the hell the commotion is about, but Lily tries to keep him out of it. He insists that if it's about the restaurant he has a right to know what's going on. He admits that he knows that Jake can't pay off the loan, which surprises Lily. It appears that her Dad has been kept in the loop about things more than she has. She reminds her dad that it's his life savings on the line, but he insists that the restaurant will work out and that everything will be fine. Lily pauses for a second before saying, "To hell with the restaurant." After a split second, she adds that Jake and her father can go to hell too, and then she storms upstairs.
The morning, Rick is standing outside Lily's front door holding a little bag covered with hearts. "Happy Valentine's Day!" he exclaims when she opens the door. D'oh! She completely blanked out about Valentine's Day, she says apologetically. They sit on the bench in the foyer and he hands her the bag. She tells him she didn't get him anything and then, in a particularly callous attempt at a joke says, "I actually didn't think you'd want any more surprises from me." Nice one. Why don't you just poke him in the eye and kick him in the shins while you're at it? Astonishingly, Rick takes it in stride and recaps the situation: It's Valentine's Day but they're not going out because she has to go to her ex's opening. Is he the most impossibly patient person on the planet, or what? He doesn't seem the least bit upset as he goes on to describe an epiphany he had that day. He now understands why guys his age go out with younger women -- "aside from the obvious." Life is just so much less complicated with them. Lily then opens her gift and squeals when she looks into the box. It's not a squeal of delight, however, but something closer to horror. It turns out there's a cricket inside the box. "Yes, it's alive," Rick explains, describing a Chinese custom of keeping a cricket in the house for good luck. He says he knows she'll be going places -- difficult places -- in the while, and he won't always be able to go with her, so the cricket is a way of keeping him close and protecting her. Beats the hell out of roses, if you ask me. Lily says she wishes her life weren't so complicated, and Rick says, "If everything works out the way I want, life's going to get even more complicated." Hmm. When Lily registers this, she says it's very sweet and they kiss for a while. Cue the cricket.
Cut to the school library, where the camera follows Jared through a busy main area to the stacks. Grace is sitting there against one of the bookshelves, and they discover that they have the same secret spot. He sits to her and asks what she's reading. "Jane Eyre," she replies, because she finds it calming. She recounts the basic plot, which of course isn't calming at all, and then explains it's not the story that soothes her, but the pace. She likes that things take so much longer to happen. She catches herself and grows self-conscious, but the awkward moment is broken by a stereotypically owlish librarian shushing her. They laugh about it and then Grace gets serious, telling Jared that she's not going to camp but she doesn't want to say why. She gets up and informs him, "I'm not together in any way. I just think you should know," but he disagrees. She says she's not like other girls, as if he needs her to point that out. He's glad she's different and tells her that he thinks she's "amazing, truly. Like the way a lake is amazing. Or snow. You don't have to doanything." Wow, this guy's good. Why weren't boys like this when I was in high school? And if they were, where the hell were they hiding? Grace is suitably impressed: "Whoa. That's good." No, not the line, the sentiment. It's "good because [she] never knows what it is that [she's] supposed to be doing."
Oh good, here's black-and-white Grace to put her spin on things, saying, "I think they should invent a new word -- a word that describes how you feel before you kiss someone." Well I guess we can see where this is going...
Yep. They kiss. A very sweet, innocent first kiss.
And then black-and-white Grace is back. She's continuing her thread and says, "I think it's like when a bird decides that it can fly." Hey, that's nice.
Cut to Grace in her room sitting in front of her computer. Black-and-white Grace talks about the way writing helps her sort out her life, especially when it starts moving too fast. Lily comes to the door to see whether Grace is almost ready to go to the re-opening. Grace tells her she's not going, that the situation with Lily and Jake and the restaurant is just too weird for her to deal with. Lily tells her how much it would mean to Jake to have her there, but Grace obviously feels caught in the middle. Lily explains that Grace's relationship with Jake is her own and that Lily has nothing to do with it. She insists that Grace should decide for herself whether she wants to go.
Cut to Lily at her bathroom mirror as the girls burst into her room. Lily oohs and ahhs about how great they look, and her dad comes in and does the same. When he points out that Lily's not close to being ready, she looks hesitant. He sends the kids downstairs to wait for him, and Lily tells him how good he looks. She sounds surprised and a little worried at how much weight he's lost. (Could this be a hint toward health problems?) Lily then tells him she's not going to the party, mainly because she put the restaurant into receivership. Her Dad gets very upset, saying that she's going to destroy the business and that she can't humiliate a man (Jake) that way. Lily's incredulous that he's worried about Jake's ego because there are clearly larger issues at hand. Her father's attachment to the restaurant becomes clear, and he understandably resents its being put into receivership, as he points out that it was the restaurant that provided for her all along. Even though she had no interest in working there, the restaurant still provided her with everything -- nice clothes, summer camp, riding lessons -- without her ever having to worry about where they came from. She "just expected it to be there and [she] expected Jake to take care of [her] the same way...well, thank God he was a good boy and he did," her father says. Lily blows up at this: "All right, I get it, I get it. I'm a weak, spoiled, dependent little girl!" Her father's words have struck a chord, and Lily is crying as she tells him that standing on her own now is the hardest thing she's had to do, and she asks him to try and respect her, to let her earn his respect. She's doing what she has to do to protect herself and her kids, she insists. Her father offers his support and they hug. Lily sends him on his way, saying that there's something more important she needs to do.
Cut to the party, which looks to be in full swing. Lily's father raises his glass to Jake across the room, and Jake returns the gesture.
Lily, meanwhile, has set herself up in front of the fireplace with a newspaper and a red marker. She's scanning the want ads and circling an unbelievable number (two, I think) of jobs for writers and editors. Many of us English grads/writers/editors have already grumbled over this fantastic bounty in the forum.
At the party, Jake is dancing with Grace and asking her how things are going. She starts to tell him that she's changed her mind about camp, but he says it's already taken care of. The big fat liar. Somebody, please, torch those pants already. He tells her that he and Lily handled it last week. The dumb-ass -- she knows he's lying, because she overheard them fighting about it the night before. Ever the hero, Jake launches into his "daddy's little girl" spiel, telling Grace that "Daddy will always take care of [her]. Okay? Remember that." I think he's the one who needs to remember that, the putz.
Lily's moved to her computer, now, where she's busily composing a résumé. The cricket is chirping away in the background. She looks up and smiles at the sound, clearly thinking about Rick. So why doesn't she call him, is what I want to know. I think the résumé can wait until the day after Valentine's Day. But then, I know what writers make and she's still so optimistic, the poor dear.