So the last episode was called "Kafelnikov," and I had no idea why, since the name Kafelnikov was not mentioned once during the whole show. And the name rang a bell with me, but I couldn't place it, so I figured Sorkin was dropping in an obscure reference because maybe one of the plotlines mirrored a plot from a Dostoyevsky novel that I haven't read (which is, I guess, all of them except Crime and Punishment, and the guy in that one is Raskolnikov) or something so I didn't worry too much more about it. Then, the day after I send it to Sars, I'm watching the episode where Dan has trouble pronouncing the name "Yevgeny Kafelnikov" and I said, "Of course! Yevgeny!" and I have to get in touch with Sars because I figured I got mixed up on the episode guide and put the wrong title on the recap. But getting in touch with Sars is a major deal because I have to set up the computer because she's got like this video phone thing and I have to set up my computer camera too, which means I have to shave and put on a tie just to talk to her. And of course she's really busy and irritated to hear from me, like, "What is it this time, Daniel?" kind of like how Reverend Lovejoy responds to Ned Flanders, and I explain the problem and she sighs and we figure out that this episode, where Dan has the pronunciation problem, is called "Shane" which makes sense since Casey's plotline revolves around a ball player named Shane. So "Kafelnikov" is the right title for the last episode but why it's called that I don't know. And of course Sars is irritated that I wasted her time and she never forgets these things, like months from now if I make a mistake in a recap and need her to change it, she'll say, "Is this like the Kafelnikov thing?" Anyway, thanks a lot, Sorkin, for being all cryptic and sloppy with your titles; now my boss is pissed at me. ["Not least because she has to hear about it again in the recap. Let it go, MacEachern. Jesus." -- Sars]
At Anthony's, Abby is further blurring the date/appointment distinction, since she's having a drink with Dan, but he's talking about his family. I know you do that on the first few dates anyway, but the thing with Abby is she asks questions that I know would have me paranoid that she was cataloguing and analyzing everything I say. We already know about Dan's dead younger brother, and we learn he also has an older brother named Dave. "And what about the cafeteria?" says Abby, and Dan is confused, and she reminds him he said something about how "after Sam" (presumably meaning after Sam died) he would get nervous with people. "I would walk up to a table in the cafeteria, and these would be people I like, and I'd be good for two or three minutes before I'd have to leave. My friends called me 'Hit-and-Run Danny.'" Abby wants to know what happened after he left. Dan says "nothing." Abby doesn't really seem to buy it. "You actually do that on the telephone too," she says. Dan says he's not that good on the phone. Abby asks if he's not that good at a table, or on a phone, where is he good? and I was worried Dan was going to say "the bedroom" but he says, "I'm good on TV." "I'll say," says Abby. He asks her if she watched the show today. She did. Did she like it? She did. Dan says he's won awards, but then admits he's just been nominated. Abby says she's sure he'll win one. Dan keeps asking her if she liked the show and wants to make sure she isn't just saying that, because of his insecurity, obviously, and Abby reassures him she liked it. "You look great tonight," says Dan. She does, too. Abby thanks him. "You're beautiful and charming," he says, and she thanks him again, but this time she sounds like she's wondering where he's going with this. "You see how I said that without being solicited?" he says. She did see that. He asks if she wants another drink and she asks if he's being Hit-and-Run Danny right now. Uh, sounds like he's being Courteous Drinking Companion Danny right now (I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he's not being Get Her Drunk Danny).
Meanwhile, in another part of the bar, Jeremy and Casey are getting food from some sort of buffet. Casey asks if he mentioned his Close-Up interview to Jeremy yet. "Several times," says Jeremy. "Well, bear with me because the audience has to hear it," says Casey. He explains that he's interviewing "Mr." Shane McArnold, who Jeremy says is a twit. "How about a lifetime .303 batting average, how about 348 home runs, how about back-to-back 30/30 seasons?" says Casey. I admit those are good numbers; unless I'm mistaken, only Tony Womack, Jeff Bagwell and the highly underrated Raul Mondesi had 30/30 seasons in 1999, but how sad is it that Casey offers a person's ability to swing a bit as proof of his intelligence? "How about the fact that he's a twit?" says Jeremy. Touché. "He happens to be a friend of mine," says Casey. "He also happens to be a twit," says Jeremy. Once again, Jeremy, well played. They are sitting down at a table, and Casey childishly tells Jeremy he's not speaking to him anymore and shifts his focus to Natalie, lucky her. She's too engrossed in the paper, though. She's reading a story about the Vatican saying hell isn't a place; instead, it's a state. Yeah! New Jersey! ["First the Kafelnikov thing, and now you insult my home state? You're on a roll today, Jobless Mahoney." -- Sars] Jeremy says the fact that there's no hell takes a load of his mind, I guess because he's such a bad-ass. Casey reads my mind and says, "I shouldn't be here with you people."
Danny is now asking Nurse Ratched if this is a date. "It's a drink," she says. "I'll take it," he says, and they clink glasses. Then she prods him to tell her more about what would happen after he'd leave the table. Dan says, "Nothing!" a little too overzealously. "Wouldn't you shake sometimes?" Dan admits it. "And you start to sweat?" Dan says, "I thought this wasn't a therapy session," but Abby cuts him off and asks if he sometimes had to go someplace and throw up. Dan gets quiet and says "yeah." "And there's no reason to talk in the past tense, right?" says Abby. Dan probably realizes he's going to be billed for this session and may be regretting buying the drinks. Dan admits it still happens today. "Recently it's been worse, right?" Dan wants to know how she knows all this. "Danny, you have to get hip to the fact I didn't get my licence in the Virgin Islands," says Abby, and I'm sure there's a virgin joke in there somewhere but I'm so very tired. Now, after Abby has obliterated Danny, she thanks him for the drinks and says she has to go. Danny offers to take her, but she says she'll get a cab. I knew it. Dan bought the drinks. Hit-and-Run Abby leaves. Commercials.
The day, Casey is explaining to Shane that the interview is being taped, not live, so it's okay if Shane has a coughing fit or needs to go to the bathroom, like maybe Shane has never been interviewed before. Shane claps Casey on the shoulder and says they should hook up now that Shane is in town. They sit down in chairs on the Close-Up interview set. "Hey, Jeremy," says Casey loudly. "Shane McArnold just asked me out." "He's a twit," says Jeremy into Casey's mic. Casey puts a finger to his earphone and says to Shane, "He says he's your number one fan." "Thanks!" says Shane, even giving Jeremy a cheesy thumbs-up. We hear Jeremy's voice coming into the studio, "You bet!" all enthusiastic, and Jeremy is forgiven for the whole Y2K annoyance. Then the TCs start rolling tape and the interview starts. "Shane, after eleven years with the Kansas City Royals [eleven years in Kansas City? The Vatican is wrong] ["Is this the wrong time to mention that the one famous person to come out of my hometown, Willie Wilson, played most of his career with the Royals?" -- Sars], you opted for free agency, signed with the New York Yankees. Let me be the first to say welcome to town. How do you feel?" In the control room Jeremy says, "Whoa, tough one from Casey."
But Natalie is suddenly spazzing because she's still upset about this "hell is a state" business and can't believe no one else is upset by this, and let me say, with the authority of someone schooled in fine Catholic institutions, I am more surprised that someone could be at all surprised that the Vatican might change its mind on whatever it arbitrarily decides to, unless it has to do with really important matters, such as birth control. Furthermore, I don't see this being any major revelation, since I always figured it was common understanding that hell was no more a physical place than heaven is, but Natalie is acting like she really thought if you dug a hole deep enough you would enter hell with its lakes of fire and blankets of maggots and all that stuff. Since Kim wasn't in the bar the night before, Natalie has to explain that there's no hell, which isn't even really what the Vatican said, but whatever, Natalie. "There's no hell? Cool!" says Kim. She smiles. I for one cannot wait to see what Kim does with no fear of having to pay penance for her sins. Natalie whines about the sisters who used to beat her at Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow. "They beat you?" says Jeremy. Natalie admits that they only yelled at her. "Why?" I can take a wild guess. "So I wouldn't go to hell!" she says. Man, Catholic school apparently messed up Natalie more than it did me. Even as a kid I knew that getting into trouble for fighting or talking back or whatever didn't absolve me of my sins. I had to go to confession and say Hail Marys for that, and I found it kind of cool that no matter what I did, I could confess it and be forgiven for it, and once I even hit someone who was bugging a friend of mine, largely because I was aware we were going to confession that afternoon, which I guess was an eight-year-old's version of the same thought process that allows the Mafia to be so devoutly Catholic. Jeremy suggests that Natalie wasn't taught by the world's happiest nuns, but concedes that the "Perpetual Sorrow" ought to have been a giveaway.
Dana comes into the control room and wants to know if Jeremy is listening. "Listening to what?" he says. "The interview you're producing," says Dana. Jeremy, instead of taking the hint, laughs and says, "I'm producing the segment, my contract doesn't say anything about my having to pay attention to it." Dana says Shane said he doesn't like New York. Jeremy starts paying attention. Dana looks happy.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be playing for a contender," Shane is saying. He holds up both hands and says, "Ten fingers, no rings. You know what I'm saying? This city is a pigsty. The garbage, the noise, the traffic, the muggings..." Dana leans into her microphone and says, "Ask him if he's seen The Lion King yet." Jeremy says, "This is too much. Casey, throw him a rope." "Don't throw him a rope, Casey!" says Dana. Shane is saying, "You guys speak like, what, fourteen different languages or something?" and why anyone would see that as a bad thing is a mystery to me, and this is getting eerily close to the John Rocker anti-New York tirade, but this episode was broadcast less than a month before the Rocker interview appeared in Sports Illustrated. Aaron Sorkin is like the Jules Verne of television writing, apparently. Casey tosses him another softball question about how he's "gotta be excited" about playing at Yankee Stadium. Dana gets pissed off: "He threw him a rope!" Shane says, "Not really." Jeremy says, "And he's wrapping it around his neck." "I am in such a good mood right now," says Dana.
Casey wraps up the interview. After the camera stops rolling, Shane says, "I thought that was pretty good." Casey gives a less-than-enthusiastic "yeah." "You didn't like it," says Shane. Casey puts his arm on Shane's shoulders and leads him off the set and says it's not a good idea to insult everybody his first week in New York. "Who did I insult?" says Shane, genuinely bewildered. "Well, everyone," says Casey. "You mean everyone in New York," says Shane. "Well, we got a bit of a population here," says Casey. Shane protests that he hears New Yorkers say those things all the time. Casey says, "You ever heard the expression 'Nobody hits my little brother but me'?" Shane says "no" and "what does it mean?" Casey, realizing that Shane is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, says, "Doesn't matter. I'll fix it." "You'd do that for me?" "No problem." "You're the best, Casey." Shane's leaving and says, "We're going to hook up tonight?" and Casey says, "We are going to throw DOWN!" "You'll edit the tape?" reminds Shane. "Oh yeah, I'll just see Dana," confirms Casey. Then they high-five, Shane leaves, and Casey's smile disappears at the prospect of seeing Dana.
In Dana's office, "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves is playing full blast while Dan jiggles and shimmies and watches a tape of the interview. Casey walks in and laughs at this. "I'm giddy as a schoolgirl, Casey, I'm a cat with kittens," and I don't even know what that means. "Pretty happy with the interview?" says no-duh Casey. "This is found gold!" squeals Dana. "And who has it besides us? Hmmm. Nobody!" and dances her way over to Casey and, um, she's kind of turning me on. She calls it her Dance of Joy. "Let's watch it again!" she says. Exactly what I was thinking. Casey asks her how she would feel about him editing out the part where Shane doesn't like New York. Dana abruptly stops the Dance of Joy. "Is the tape damaged?" she asks, breathlessly. "No," says Casey. "Is your brain on fire?" she asks. Now there's a plotline for Sorkin to consider. "No," says Casey. "Then what the hell are you talking about?" she says. "I know the guy," says Casey, and now it's Dana's turn to say "no," despite Casey also saying, "We go back" and "He screwed up!" Finally, he plays his trump card and says, "We're throwin' down tonight." Dana pauses, appears to consider this, says "no," and begins the Dance of Joy again. Casey says "okey-doke" and leaves her office. More bouncing from Dana.
In a production room, Jeremy and Dan are taping a teaser. Jeremy sets up the tape, and Dan does that thing from countless bad eighties videos that featured clips of the singer in the studio with their hands on their headphones. "Tonight on Sports Night, we'll check out Herman Moore and the Lions' new-look offence, and Rob Blake and the Kings' old-school defence. We'll go back to the future at Florida State and touch down in Monte Carlo as Yegevny Kafelnikov...." but Jeremy cuts him off because it's "Yevgeny" and not "Yegevny." So they try it again, but Dan does the exact same thing. Jeremy says they could change the tease and make it about Pete Sampras, but Dan says he can do it. "Rafter's an easy name to pronounce," says Jeremy, but Dan says "roll tape." Before they get started, Casey busts in and pulls Dan out of the production room.
"I'm in a spot of trouble," says Casey. "Me too," says Dan. "McArnold committed a bit of a Big-Apple faux pas and Dana won't let me cut it." Dan sees Casey's problem and raises him an imminent nervous collapse. "All right, so we're probably on our own today," says Casey. "Yeah, see ya," says Dan and goes back in the production room while Casey zips off somewhere. Commercials.
When we come back, Jeremy is setting up the tape for the teaser again. "Let's call it take five," says Jeremy, like this is the Dave Brubeck Quartet all of a sudden. "'Let's call it take five'?" says Dan. "What is it really?" "We're up in the thirties now," says Jeremy. Danny does the teaser again and this time he nails "Yevgeny." "I did it!" says Dan and he bumps fists with Jeremy, who then says, "Let's roll tape." "What?" says Dan, who is distressed to learn that they weren't rolling, that Jeremy only pretended to hit "record" because Isaac doesn't like to waste tape. "Dry run, dry run!" says Jeremy encouragingly and waves Danny back to the microphone, but you can tell Dan's going to flub it because he seems mighty nervous. Besides, this time when he does the teaser he sounds like he's on some kind of cocaine high. He can't even say "Yevgeny" or "Yegevny" or anything this time. "I'm out of here," says Dan, muttering he has to see someone. Jeremy says Bubba Smith and Chipper Jones would work fine on the teaser, then realizes he's all by himself and decides to record himself singing over top of old Frank Sinatra songs. Don't laugh. I've done that.
Casey strolls into Isaac's office and plunks his ass down on Isaac's desk and says he has a problem. "Imagine my surprise!" says Isaac. Casey explains that some years ago Shane McArnold gave him an interview when Casey needed a break. "So far I'm not at all interested," says Isaac, maintaining his perfect balance of compassion and cantankerism. "He was my Close-Up interview this morning," says Casey. "How'd he do?" asks Isaac. Casey says it went great, that they got feet and feet of footage, but there was this one small part where it might be possibly to interpret Shane's remarks that he's implying he doesn't like New York. "How?" says Isaac. "By saying he doesn't like New York," says Casey. "Wow," says Isaac, "he's screwed," and "wow" again. Casey asks him how he feels about Casey editing out that section. "Well, since it's news and it's good television, I wouldn't feel very good about it." At this point, Dana comes into the office, but Casey doesn't see her. "How do you think Dana would feel about it?" says Isaac, all Machiavellian setting up Casey. "Ah, who knows with Dana," says Casey. "One day she's up, another day she's down. That girl's nuttier than a squirrel's cheeks in October. The point is, she's standing right behind me, right?" Dana flips out that Casey went over her head. "I can explain this," says Casey. "How?" says Dana. "I went over your head." Sigh. Dana also turns on Isaac: "And you just sat there?" "It's my desk," protests Isaac. Dana orders Casey outside. "Good talking to ya, Case!" says Isaac, cracking me up as Dana shoves Casey out the door.
Casey does his best at damage control and explains about Shane giving him a break. "I can see you're upset because I went over your head." "Well, you never know with me, do you, Casey? One day I'm up, one day I'm down." Man, they fight like a couple, they might as well date. Wait, maybe I shouldn't say anything. The Dating Plan hasn't been mentioned once this episode, I shouldn't jinx that. Or jinks it, even. Casey starts to get a little ticked. "First of all...sorry about that. Second of all, he's a good guy. He gave me my start and I owe him one." They're in the newsroom now. Dana says it's sweet that he's that loyal, it says a lot about him. Yeah, and so does his willingness to compromise his ethics. But Dana's not done: "It's almost hard to choke back the tears while I say no!" and walks away. Casey wants to argue further, but Dana chooses to address the newsroom so she can announce that Casey's "adolescent and pathetic hero-worship of professional athletes has reached the point where he's willing to compromise journalistic integrity." "Like we're Edward R. Murrow," says Casey, but I'm not sure if he meant sports journalists in general or Sports Night in particular. Doesn't really matter, I guess. Either way, it's a pretty sad retort. Dana says McArnold just signed a $91 million contract, she's pretty sure he'll get over it. "Yeah. He makes a lot more money than we do, so let's look for every opportunity to blow him out of the water," says Casey sarcastically. Hey, Casey, ever hear of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable? Dana points out that Shane knew he was being recorded for broadcast. "Tell me how we're blowing him out of the water," she says. "It's just not necessary," says Casey. "Neither is sports," says Dana, and tells him not to go to Isaac behind her back again. I thought it was over her head. Casey realizes he can't win, so the scene ends.
Wait a minute. "Nuttier than a squirrel's cheeks in October"? Is Casey writing for the Farmer's Almanac or something?
Danny is pacing outside Abby's office door, which has a little sign that says, "Session in progress." He presses his ear to the door. Then he knocks. Abby flings open the door, looking angry. "Danny," she says. Dan says he's sorry but he's having a problem. "So's my patient, Danny, so I'll talk to you later," and starts to close the door, but the patient recognizes Danny and says he loves the show. You'd think that would solve Dan's problem, but it doesn't. Dan says, "I'm sorry, but you weren't in the middle of a breakthrough or anything, were you?" "Hey!" says Abby. "You need a minute?" says the patient. "You're the best," says Dan, and the guy grabs his coat and walks into the waiting room. Abby is furious and calls what he did absolutely off-the-charts out of line. Dan frantically tells her it's an emergency. "I can't say 'Yevgeny Kafelnikov.'" "What?" says Abby, understandably confused. Dan explains how he was doing a teaser but kept messing up Kafelnikov's name. His tone of voice is usually reserved for patients who tell their doctor they've found a lump, so Abby's a little ticked that he interrupted her session for this. "I need to know why!" says Danny. "How the hell should I know?" she says, like give the guy a break, maybe when Dan was a kid Kafelnikov killed his dog or something. "Enough of this already, just fix me, would you?" "Fix you?" sputters Abby. "Okay." She flicks her hands in his face. "All done." Heh. I like Abby. Dan, a little calmer, says, "Okay, I don't think you did anything just then." Abby informs him that of all the problems Dan has, "and they are myriad," not being able to pronounce "Yevgeny Kafelnikov" isn't one of them. Dan wants to know why then he can't do it. "It's a hard name to pronounce," says Abby and points out that this is really unfair to her client. "Look, something is going wrong with me [really?] and I know you can fix it and frankly, and I'm sorry if this is abrupt, but I think the only reason you're stringing me around like this is that you're afraid if I get over this, I won't have a reason to see you." Wow. Remind me to try that line if I ever have a hot therapist. "Danny, you're in pain, and it doesn't take a genius to see that." Dan oddly insists he's perfectly fine.
Abby starts running through some true/false statements. True or false: Dan's only really comfortable with people when he's talking to them on television. Dan says it's untrue, Abby moves on. True or false: Dan feels responsible for his brother's death. Dan doesn't answer that one. True or false: Dan's convinced his parents blame him as well. Dan stops protesting and looks at Abby. "This is starting to get a little personal, Abby." Um, it's therapy, Dan. Abby says, "Fine, go back to work," and walks over to the door. Dan sits down as the poignant music swells. He buries his face in his hands. "Why is this happening now?" he says. "I don't know," says Abby. "You do know," says Dan. "I honestly don't," says Abby, but she says a lot of things could have triggered it: seeing a picture, hearing a song, missing a birthday. Whatever the reason, she suggest it just might be time for Dan's mind to deal with it. "Now, does this sound like something I could just fix with a prescription?" "So what do I do?" asks Dan. "You get therapy. For real." "With you?" "If you like," says Abby, who looks a little less than enthused at that. "The thing is, there may be a problem there." "You have a crush on me," says Dr. Conceited, but Dan admits it. "That's natural," she says. "I guess, 'cause you're the healer and you're playing the role of confessor as well," says Dan. "I meant 'cause I'm a babe." If I ever have a self-image problem, I'm going straight to Dr. Babe here. "You're going to be fine," she says. "Doesn't feel that way," he says. "I know. Have a good show," says Dr. Babe, and walks over to the door. Dan walks out into the office and thanks Abby's client, who says, "I love watching you on television," and goes back into Abby's office. Dan thinks for a moment, no doubt wondering why, if he wasn't really in therapy before, what all that interrogation in the bar before about "Hit-and-Run Danny" was for.
Jeremy and Natalie are at Anthony's; Natalie is staring at a spoon, which she says she's going to steal because she doesn't think she's going to be punished. "When did people start eating a lot of hummus?" says Jeremy, like he's George Costanza all of a sudden. But Natalie is STILL working over this hell business. She outlines a scenario in which she gets hauled down to the station house after stealing the spoon, loses her job, has no money. "You'd get another job," says Jeremy. "Not with my rap sheet," says Natalie. That was kind of funny, despite the overarching annoyingness of this. "Today it's a spoon, tomorrow it's a bank," she says. "You're going to steal a bank?" Okay, that was funny, too, but Natalie gets annoyed and says loudly, "I'm going to ROB a bank," startling all the nearby extras. Jeremy turns to them and says, "She's actually not going to rob a bank. This is just sort of a hypothetical flight of fancy. Resume your late-night socializing." Jeremy apparently decides enough is enough and decides to get stern with her. I hope this doesn't turn her on or anything. He says that fear of punishment has never kept her from committing crimes, instead, she knows it's wrong. "So hell isn't a Hieronymus Bosch painting. What do you care? You weren't going there anyway." Natalie says, "Okay." What? That's it? Problem solved! Dan should drop Abby and get therapy from Jeremy.
Hey, that kind of rhymes. "Therapy from Jeremy." Dig it.
Up by the bar, Casey sees Shane come into the bar. Shane says, "You suck, man, you know that?" So I'm guessing the interview has aired. Casey tries to explain, but Shane asks him if it was fun for him to mess with him like that. Dana strolls up behind Casey. "I should never have made that promise," says Casey. "Truth is, I don't have that kind of authority on the show and I pretended like I did." He offers to buy Shane a beer. Uh, $91 million, Casey -- he can buy his own beer. Not that a pro athlete should be expected to pick up the tab all the time, but I was having beers with Sheldon Souray (with the New Jersey Devils at the time, traded to the Montreal Canadiens last year) and a few other guys, and Sheldon picked up the first couple of rounds and I thought that wasn't fair, that I'd hate it if I were a professional athlete and people automatically expected me to pick up the tab, so when the round came I tried to get it, but Sheldon wouldn't let me. And I argued about it but he said, "No, I have to do it." And it impressed me. It wasn't a show-off thing at all; it was like he felt slightly embarrassed about it (making as much money as he does), and picking up a $12 round of drinks whenever he can helps him feel less guilty about it. Or something. I think I would be much the same way if I made an NHL salary. ["Ohhhh, so now we're complaining about the pay at MBTV? Fine. No, that's fine." -- Sars]
Anyway, Shane says, "I should kick your ass!" "Kick his ass, Casey!" says Dana, who evidently has still not let go of her biker chick personality from a few episodes ago. Casey turns around and says, "You're not making this any easier." "Well, that's what I was trying to do," she mutters. Shane tells Casey to stay out of his face and to stay out of his locker room. Yeah, I'm sure the new free agent in town can ban Casey from the Yankee clubhouse. "We're out of here," says Shane to his entourage. So he brought all these people here just so he could tell off Casey? Sounds rather...dramatic, I guess. Casey says, "Shane. You're going to wear Yankee pinstripes. You're going to roam the same piece of ground as Gehrig and DiMaggio and Mantle. Your salary's going to be paid by people who work hard and like baseball. And if you can't get excited about that, I think the very least you can do is fake it." Well, the least he could do would be nothing. Shane, although he appeared to be listening, shakes his head and leaves. Elliot walks over and gives Casey a "way to go, buddy" slap but doesn't even get a line. Dan walks in and asks Casey what happened. "Just taking care of business," says Casey in a shout-out to Bachman Turner Overdrive. "Where you been?" he asks Dan. Dan lies and says he was at the office but can't come up with a reason why he was there, so Casey looks a little suspicious. Casey asks him if there's anything he wants to talk about. Dan looks kind of scared but shakes his head. He asks Casey if it's okay if he just sits down for a while. "Of course it's okay, what's going on?" "There may be periods of time in the conversation where I don't say anything funny. There may be periods of time where I don't say..." "Danny..." Pause. "I'm fine." "I'm right here." "I know." Casey puts his arm on Dan's shoulder and walks him over to the table. The show ends kind of blurry.