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This show isn't moving any faster. Hugo and Jamie have some more sex, and then they split up again over her inability to trust him. Let's hope the breakup lasts this time. Carolyn and Palek try again to conceive, and it seems like a lot more work than fun. And then a minor meltdown in therapy the day results in Carolyn confessing to Palek that she already got tested. Palek wonders what they'll do if they learn his little guys aren't up to scratch, and Carolyn refuses to answer the question, as though she hadn't already asked about donor sperm during her secret ultrasound. We also meet Carolyn's younger sister Mason, who, in the little we've seen of her, seems almost as horrible as Carolyn. Katie and Dave have some more not-sex, as Katie continues to go to couples therapy alone and Dave continues to stress out over it. Somehow in the course of his constant picking at her, they seem to be getting closer together, but they're taking their sweet time, just like everything else that happens on this show. Katie tries to have herself a little "me time" while she's working at home alone, but can't seem to pull it off. And something's up with May outside the office; she's got an old friend we never meet who's named John, who apparently lost a loved one a year ago, and of whom May's husband is for some reason suspicious, and for whom May leaves a long, rambling voice mail whose main purpose seems to be to pad out the running time. Just let us know when we're supposed to care. I'm not saying we will, but it can't hurt to have a timetable. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Jamie and Hugo are touring what looks like their new house or apartment. Everything's clean and white, which is why you know they haven't actually moved in yet. The sparkling surroundings only serve to make Hugo look more homeless than ever, in a white T-shirt and green fatigue jacket that really set off his four-day beard and the hair that makes the bold fashion statement, "I was recently used to unclog a drain." Seriously, an off-his-meds Billy Chenoweth is watching this going, "Dude, pull yourself together." Jamie talks about wanting white window shades, and Hugo wants a coffee maker with a timer, which Jamie is sure one of their parents' friends will buy them for their wedding. Because apparently all they get from their own friends -- like someone named Julian, for example -- is drugs. To demonstrate this last, Hugo waves around a little slip of paper whose meaning I am far too square and law-abiding to understand. Seemingly out of nowhere, Jamie tells Hugo it was nice of him to buy breakfast. Hugo makes a nervous joke about being an overpaid teacher, and they make out for a bit, and then Jamie accuses him of only picking up the tab so that he could flirt with the waitress. Hugo denies it; he insists, "I really fucking love you"; and he begs her not to go there. And then they have sex. Right there on the bare floor of a place they don't live in yet. And in the middle of it, in a conversational tone, Jamie says, "Just be honest with me. Tell me you were flirting." "What?" Hugo yelps, his erection disappearing so fast that Jamie's skull nearly collapses. "I hate it when you lie to me," she whines. Hey, Jamie, you know what I bet Hugo hates? Having hot sex with his girlfriend one second, and then just being half-naked and all tangled up with a crazy woman on a cold floor the .
Katie and Dave are at the supermarket, shopping for school supplies. They make it look like a whole big stressful deal, just like they do with everything else. Dave looks away for a minute and finds Katie gone. He goes right into panic mode like one of the ants in A Bug's Life, asking the kids where she is and hollering her name out to the store at large. She returns from her unauthorized expedition to the aisle, wondering what he's yelling about, and Dave stresses at her to stay close. She rattles off a list of stuff he was supposed to be getting in the aisle he's still in, and he just stares at her blankly. About here is where I realize that every time Katie looks at Dave, her expression can be rated on a continuum of one to ten, with one being "standard baseline irritation" and ten being "just caught him masturbating." Now, with a long-suffering look that rates about a four, Katie goes back and grabs what they need with no effort whatsoever. Dave tries to ass-kiss his way out of trouble, comparing this to a military operation where she's the captain, responsible for keeping them all alive. The sad thing is that he thinks he's exaggerating. Katie returns the stuff Dave did manage to put in his cart and herds the kids off toward the checkout line. Dave sneaks one of the contraband items back and follows, shushing Josh (yes, we have a name for the boy!) like it's their little secret. Man, they made that tiny little scene look like such a nightmare that for the first time I'm seriously considering home schooling.
Carolyn's back in one of the spots where we first saw her in the premiere, i.e., perched on the terlet. But this time, whatever the pee-stick is telling her makes her smile. She trots out to the balcony over the living room and excitedly calls to Palek over the railing, "I'm surging! I'm estrogenic!" And completely ignorant of basic hygiene, as once again, she neglected to wash her hands after handling her own urine. "Okay," Palek mutters over his shoulder, not even putting down the TV remote. He's in the middle of an exciting TiVo'd football game, after all. So Carolyn heads into the bedroom to wait for him. She's going to be waiting a while, as Palek digs into a huge sandwich on the coffee table in front of him. Carolyn takes off her completely-out-of-character denim miniskirt and lies back on the bed in her underwear, looking boredly out the ginormous bedroom window, unaware that we're all just as bored looking back in. Downstairs, Palek turns off the tube, puts down the remote, takes another big bite of sandwich (lots of horseradish on there, I hope), wipes his mouth with a cloth napkin -- pretty fancy for a meal on the coffee table -- and heads to the bedroom, pausing for his own contemplative look out the window, as though he's a condemned man.
Hugo and Jamie are having their fight again, or still, or whatever. I don't know if they finished having sex, or just stopped, but either way it isn't happening now. Jamie complains about his flirting, and she mentions some trip to Austin (of course they've been to Austin -- it's like a hipster hajj) when Hugo went and got himself a beer without offering Jamie one and then "got one for the girl with the long arms and talked to her for twenty minutes while I stood there like a retard wondering how my boyfriend could abandon me." Ooh, I have a theory! Could it be that Jamie's voice is so piercingly shrill even in normal circumstances that trying to have a conversation with her over the noise of the band at Stubb's or whatever would be completely intolerable? "I don't want to be with someone who's sitting in a corner sulking because I'm not there," Hugo sulks at her. Well, if you 're not there, you're not with her, are you? Sounds self-solving to me. He says she's changed. Jamie sarcastically says it's her own fault and she'll deal with it. You know who I feel really bad for? That girl in Austin with the long arms, having to talk to Hugo all that time. Jamie decides that she just wants to go get a drink now. Me, too! Please understand, I'm not taking the side of either one of them. I think they're both miserable assholes, and the sooner they write each other off the happier they'll be. And the happier I'll be, which, after all, is what really matters.
Palek has finally joined Carolyn on their bed, and he's lying there, completely disengaged, while she keeps kissing him. It seems to take kind of a while for her to get him fluffed up, and then he nods "okay" and climbs on top of her, without doing more than pulling his jeans down as little as possible. And then they have sex. Carolyn seems more into it than he does -- or at least she does a better job of pretending -- and after a moment, he finishes up in a way that indicates the earth didn't exactly move for either of them. Hell, the blankets barely moved. He clearly just wanted to finish up and get out. Much like me with this recap. She makes him stay in place for a minute, while he glances uncomfortably between her face and the headboard, until she finally releases him. Well, now that the sex is out of the way, maybe he and that sandwich can pick up where they left off. I thought something really special was about to happen there.
Dave and Katie are at home going through the spoils of their shopping trip. Looking at the two-foot-long receipt, Dave complains about how much money they've been spending lately. Katie offers to put off buying a car they've apparently decided to get for her, but Dave says that's not it. "At least that's a necessity," Dave says pointedly. Which is really just an excuse for him to bring up the therapy and ask if insurance is paying for it. Katie says that only happens if she's institutionalized. Somehow Dave manages to refrain from suggesting they wait until that happens. Dave wonders how long Katie plans to keep going, and she says she doesn't know. "It took us, what, at least a year to get here?" she says, her expression hovering around level five. Dave still doesn't think it's been a year since they've had sex, and is getting more defensive about it. "Either come with me or stay out of it, okay?" Katie finally says. Guess which one Dave picks.
May and Arthur are eating together at home, and she abruptly makes this announcement: "John got a hold of me." Who's John? Don't know. Don't care. Through their conversation, we learn that John sounded fine in the message he left, which Arthur doubts, since it's only been a year since the funeral. What funeral? Don't know. Don't care. May carefully adds, "Their daughter lives in town now, and I think he's coming to see her." Arthur asks what John's daughter does. It's a banal question, but poor David Selby is so bored in this role that he can't resist giving May the old Quentin Collins werewolf-eyes as he asks it. Using the Manson lamps to try and illuminate the subtext or something. May thinks John's daughter's a waitress or something. Don't know. Don't care. She reaches over and waggles Arthur's wrist affectionately. He smiles and lets it drop, because hell, he is still getting regular blowjobs in his sixties, after all.
Hugo and Jamie drive down the road, agreeing that they're both high. And yes, there's that slip of paper in the car between them, with a congratulatory message from Julian written on it. Jamie turns on the iPod, and they cruise along the freeway blissfully in the most pointlessly interminable driving scene since Manos: The Hands of Fate. They have their side of the road almost all to themselves, but surprisingly, they do not have cruise-control-assisted sex. They just settle for some drugged-up eye-fucking instead.
Dave is putting together sandwiches for lunch, and there's quite a racket coming from the living room. He sticks his head around the corner and watches Katie wrestling and tickling with the kids, generally having a great time. Naturally, this irritates him. Although it's hard to tell, because Dave's "ten" look is roughly equivalent to Katie's "two."
Jamie and Hugo drive to a football stadium. There isn't a game going on or anything, but there are enough custodial workers up in the stands to preclude a fifty-yard-line fuck. But they go out and lie on the grass anyway, and chase each other up the bleachers. Hugo's probably looking for a place to have sex, during which Jamie can ambush him at a crucial moment. These are the magical times in a young couple's life that they'll never forget. Whereas I already have.
Carolyn and Palek join Carolyn's sister Mason at a fancy restaurant for brunch. There are already mimosas sitting on the table, and Carolyn immediately turns up her nose at them because they contain alcohol, not that Mason notices. Mason, a poor man's Kate Hudson, is on her cell phone arguing with her dad about the floors in the new house that he's having Palek build for her. "I love you too, but I still need something to walk on," she says. Hey, why couldn't that be the title of this show? She tries to give the phone to Carolyn as she's sitting down, but Carolyn refuses to talk to their dad. Mason tries Palek instead, saying it's about the house. "Oh, I'm off today," Palek says, as non-prickishly as possible, which is still pretty prickish. Realizing nobody's going to help her out here, Mason tells her dad that Carolyn will call him back after they eat. "How does he manage to be here even when he's not?" Carolyn wonders after Mason hangs up. Mason complains that their dad is trying to cut back her spending, and she would have liked some backup. Carolyn, in turn, says she would have liked not having a phone shoved in her face. Palek asks for the waiter, like, I'm sure one is on the way, dude. His impatience is understandable, though; he's already been sitting at the table for a longer time than he spent screwing his wife.
Mason spots a baby crying, way across the restaurant, and bitches about the nerve of people bringing such noisy objects to a public place where they can be inflicted upon humans. "Take it outta here," she complains. Carolyn just glares at her, while Palek remains oblivious. Mason says, "Maybe I should pop one out, then Dad would really come with the dough." She chuckles at herself, but she does so alone, because even Palek knows enough to be offended along with Carolyn at this insensitive remark. And that makes this just too tough a room for Mason. "Well, I'm just so over these brunches," she says. "It's just too much." Carolyn says it's not that bad. Mason says it isn't fun, and she doesn't look forward to it, and asks if Carolyn or Palek does. "Don't answer that," Carolyn lawyers at her husband. Palek: "Okay, I won't, but if I was going to, I think I would say she has a point. I'm gonna get the waiter." What is he, on The Amazing Race or something? Not that this show couldn't benefit from the addition of a slightly more functional couple, like Jonathan and Victoria.
While he's gone, Mason tells Carolyn that the one good thing about having a dead mom is not having obligations like this. Carolyn agrees to stop with the brunches, as Palek returns, waiterless. Despite having gotten what she wants, Mason still pushes: "If you care so much about family, why don't you invite Dad?" "Because Dad's a dick," Carolyn says. Mason asks who isn't. Nobody that these people know, that's for damn sure. Mason says their dad's too old to be so much of a dick anymore. Palek gets tired of them sparring over it and interjects, "Oh, my God, didn't we establish that your dad was a dick, like, four years ago? Besides, every dad's a dick." Hey, did we just find out why Palek doesn't seem too desperate to become one? He continues, "Every time we get together, you talk about it like it's something new." Mason agrees with Palek, which is why she doesn't want to do the brunches any more. Looking like she's having a sudden head-rush, she gets up to go to the kitchen, so she can "see if Jamie can get us some food or a shotgun or something." Yes, Mason knows Jamie, which is the first connection we've seen between the youngest couple and anyone else on this show. And even that seems tenuous, because apparently Mason is unaware that Jamie is currently on a road-trip to nowhere with Hugo, and if she has a shotgun with her, it is tragically going to waste. As soon as Mason is gone from the table, Carolyn quietly vows, "If she gets pregnant before I do, I'm going to kill myself." "I know you are," Palek says, putting a reassuring hand on her back. By some heroic effort, he manages to prevent his fingers from crossing. I wish I could, because it's really hard to type this way.
Dave and Katie are doing some housework, after the kids are in bed. Speaking as a parent, it's amazing how much you can get done during that time of the day. An example? You're soaking in it. Rinsing the dirty sponge mop in the sink like he was raised in a barn, Dave says to Katie that he thought she was going to therapy because she's unhappy. So why then does she seem so happy with the kids? She says she is, and Dave whines that she doesn't "act happy" for him. Katie points out that as parents, it's kind of their job to shelter their kids from their issues. "Maybe we should shelter each other a little more," Dave tries. By which he of course means, "Shelter me, please." Pretty rich coming from a guy who won't even join his wife in couples therapy. Katie gives that the response it deserves -- a nonverbal one, consisting only of an irritated glare that registers about a six.
Jamie and Hugo have stopped for gas somewhere. Have they just been driving aimlessly all day? If so, I'm glad I didn't have to watch it. Although recapping it would have been a breeze. Sitting in the driver's seat, Jamie watches as Hugo goes into the station to pay for the gas and pick up some munchies. Hugo doesn't seem to be up to anything naughty, but Jamie's apparent realization that she's watching him to make sure seems enough to upset her. Or maybe she just really hates Cool Ranch Doritos. By the time he returns, her buzz is well and truly killed, and his is . He prevails upon her to tell him what's bothering her, and unfortunately for all of us, he succeeds. Her voice dry and scratchy, she brings up his vow never to be with anybody else. "That was a lie, right?" Hugo scratches his head and says, "I can't have this conversation any more, seriously." And I can't watch it any more. She says she can't let it go. "I watch you," she says, "and I look for shit, and that's fucked up." Seconded. Hugo makes it unanimous. "When you push me into a corner like this, I feel fucking dead." She talks abut commitment, and he begs, "Just let it go and it won't ever happen." Picking up on the veiled threat there? Jamie says she can't, and Hugo says he needs to be in love with someone who trusts him. Jamie doesn't think it's her. Aw, poor sad assholes. They should just step back for a minute, get out of the car, and have a nice relaxing cigarette to the gas pumps.
Carolyn and Palek arrive at Dr. Foster's office. "So, what's going on?" she catchphrases. "Not much, how about you?" Palek asks. Dr. Foster chuckles that she's fine, and asks if they tried conceiving again this month. Palek says yeah, they try every month, and in fact, they tried yesterday. Dr. Foster asks about the intimacy, and they quietly agree that it was "good." But then Palek goes off script and says it felt strange. "It feels like we're connecting over something that doesn't exist," he says slowly. "And I don't like it. I want to connect with my wife, you know?" He's clearly struggling, picking his words as carefully as he can. Carolyn is looking a little ambushed, and not a little taken aback by the fact that Palek's pauses are so much more pregnant than she is. Dr. Foster tries to defuse things, saying that Palek's just trying to say that he "misses" her. Carolyn doesn't get that, and claims to have felt very connected during the day's coupling. This seems like fertile territory ["Ha!" -- Miss Alli], but Dr. Foster changes the subject for some reason and suggests they start thinking about getting tested. Palek says that he and Carolyn have agreed not to go there yet. Dr. Foster says it's worth considering, and Carolyn rather coldly tries to shut her down. Dr. Foster quietly insists, "Secrets and shame can do things to us that are very damaging and irreversible." Carolyn swallows her guilty expression and disagrees, saying that losing one's legs is irreversible. Is that a threat of some kind? I'm still back here wondering how secrets and shame came up. But Palek is clearly receptive to whatever it is Dr. Foster is saying; he wants to tell people. "I'm sick of it being such a big deal," he whines. Carolyn refuses to do any such thing. "I'm sorry, is that your decision?" Palek snots mildly at her. Carolyn says she's not listening to "tips from everyone and their aunt who's been through this." Dr. Foster points out that that might actually kind of help. Carolyn is still closed off to the idea. Palek says he's not suggesting a mass email; he's just tired of feeling like there's something wrong with them. "And I'm sick of having sex because we have to. I'm sorry, it sucks." He starts talking about yesterday again, and now that his verbal roadblock has dissolved, that is of course when Carolyn says, "I'm done," gets up, and walks out. After a moment, Palek follows. Not a word from or even a reaction shot of Dr. Foster, which is kind of weird. Maybe she's used to this.
Palek catches up to Carolyn outside the building, and she's pretty pissed at him. "If you feel that way, tell me, not her," she yells. Yeah, what does he think he's doing, talking during therapy like that? Palek says he's trying to save them from what's happening to them. Carolyn shuts down, and Palek can tell that something's up. She starts to cross the street, as he harangues her to tell him what's going on, and she finally admits, "I already got tested last week." "I fucking knew it!" Palek angrily yells, and asks why she didn't tell him. Carolyn says she was afraid. "Of what?" Palek says, which is a valid question considering they're pretty much standing in the middle of the street. "That there was something wrong with me!" Carolyn yells. "Is it that fucking hard to figure out? Jesus." Which doesn't explain why she didn't tell him after the fact, when she knew she was fine. But rather than getting into that, she leaves Palek standing there. She sadly fails to get plowed over by a car in the process.
Meanwhile, Dr. Foster seems to have found a way to fill up the time that Carolyn and Palek should have taken: she's leaving a voice mail message for John, the figure I can't in good conscience call "mysterious" because "mysterious" implies any curiosity whatsoever on my part. Taking roughly forever, she explains that she wanted him to hear her voice and to know that people care about him. Oh, and also, time heals all wounds. Blah, blah, blah. By the time she's done, the remainder of Carolyn and Palek's hour is pretty much up and her day should probably be back on schedule.
Dave sits in his cubicle at work, looking distracted. He checks his watch and then picks up his desk phone. The call rings through to Katie's cell phone, just as she's about to go into her therapy appointment. Dave pretends to not have already known that and asks, "You excited?" Of course Katie isn't; she's nervous. "It's not easy, and you would know that if you were here," she points out, totally wasting a level-three glare on the phone. Dr. Foster comes out of her office and smiles at Katie, who tells Dave she has to go. Stupid Dave tries to get her to tell him he loves him before she hangs up, but she's in too much of a hurry to get off the phone. Denied! Dave couldn't make the therapist hear Katie say that she loves him. Loser.
Back in the office, Dr. Foster is making Katie talk about the last time she and Dave had sex. It comes out that it was on their anniversary, which makes it almost a year now. I kind of figured that, since last week seemed like the first time they'd talked about their dry spell, and you'd think it would have come up before then if their anniversary had fallen somewhere in the middle. "That's a long time ago, isn't it?" she asks nervously. Dr. Foster says that depends on what else happened during the year. Well, I wasn't there, but I'm sure the year was jam-packed with Dave moping around looking exhausted and miserable while Katie kept her glare-dial moving at all times. My question would be when the second-to-last time was, and if it was on the anniversary, then get into that. But instead, Dr. Foster asks why it was the last time. Katie says it just kind of stopped. She doesn't think they even noticed with everything going on, and then when they did, "It was easier not to do it than to do it." Dr. Foster asks if they still kiss. Katie says they do, and indeed we have seen quite a few pecks. Dr. Foster thinks that's good, and asks if Dave still makes her want sex. "Very much, yeah," Katie says, glancing down. Dr. Foster takes the opportunity to start positioning to plug her book: "Many couples who don't have sex dread going to bed. They find those moments when they lie to each other and they can't touch each other very lonely." That seems to resonate with Katie. Dr. Foster wonders whether Dave has asked what they talk about in therapy. Katie says yes, but that she hasn't answered. She figures she's punishing him for not being there, and Dr. Foster suggests that feeling separate from Dave may make her feel stronger. But that, she says, is no way to fix the distance. They have to realize that they're individual sexual beings. "Not when you met. Not before you had children, but now. Can you spend a little time this week thinking about that?" "I'd like to spend some time not thinking about it," Katie says. Yeah, so between this and her performance with Carolyn and Palek earlier, maybe Dr. Foster isn't quite as good a therapist as I originally thought.
Carolyn comes home with a big shopping bag full of frou-frou groceries. But instead of actually doing anything with them, she just calls her sister to ask if she's still seeing the guy who owns the Italian restaurant. "Well, did you fuck him over?" is her follow-up question. Basically, all she wants is for Mason to have the guy send some good eats over to the house. "Whatever he wants. No piccata. No veal. And no white sauce. But whatever he wants." See how easy it is to not be a control freak when you really want to?
Katie and Dave sit quietly in the claustrophobic waiting room of the car dealership. Katie suddenly asks why Dave called her right before she went in and then didn't ask her about it afterward. "It's your thing," Dave shrugs, fake-indifferently. Katie thinks this is the reason Dave picked this time to buy her a car. "You know that I would do this with or without you and that just freaks you out." Dave says this is why he didn't want to start therapy. "You go in there, you start talking about us, and suddenly everything means something else." Katie says it does, and angrily hisses that they're a mess. Her expression's cranked up to ten here. "That's it, we're not getting the car," Dave says, petulantly getting up to go. So much for his claim that the car has nothing to do with what's going on in their marriage. What an idiot. Katie stays in her seat and says that's not his decision. This is when the salesman comes in, meaning they have to pretend that they're fine, happy, and, most of all, ready to buy a car.
Palek comes home at night to find Carolyn sitting at their table before a rather nice spread. "Sorry," she says. "Just like that?" Palek asks. "Hopefully," Carolyn admits. This is her idea of a big, romantic gesture of contrition? Calling her sister to ask a favor?
Later, as they're getting in bed, Palek still seems distant. "I said I was sorry, and I am," Carolyn whines. Clearly, she's used to being the one who decides when the argument is over. She admits that she should have told him about the testing. "It's good news, though, right?" she asks, presumably alluding to the fact that her test came up clean, which we never heard her tell him. Palek admits that it is, but you can totally tell he's thinking that if it's not Carolyn that's the problem, it must be him. Not that Carolyn picks up on this. She offers to make things up to him. As they start rolling around on the bed, and she rubs on the front of his black boxer briefs, Carolyn chuckles that maybe he should be a little sorry too. "I'm starting to become sorry," Palek agrees hornily. And then they have sex. But for some reason, the scene ends before the actual penetration happens. Did my feed cut out for a minute there or something?
Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the sexual activity spectrum, Katie and Dave go about their pre-bedtime routine -- checking on the sleeping kids, brushing their teeth, all the stuff that's too boring to be included in any normal show. As Katie joins him in bed (current glare rating: one), they make some stilted small talk about the latest developments in five-pitch regulations. Dave offers to turn the light off, but Katie says it's fine with her if he wants to read. She can sleep with the light on. "I was asleep before I hit the bed," Dave agrees, and douses the lamp. After a pause, he whines, "I don't care what you talk about, I just don't want to be blamed." Katie responds to his vulnerability, which is what he should have started out with instead of all the game-playing he's been doing (poorly) all episode. She assures him that no one's blaming him; as she said last week, they mostly talk about her. Specifically, she says she has to try remember what she was like as a sexual being. Dave grimaces malely and shakes his head, making me think he's going to say something ignorant, but then he just admits, "I can't even remember yesterday." I have no trouble believing this. But a lot of the tension between them seems to have been defused. So they kiss goodnight and take turns pretending to fall asleep while the other lies awake. I'd like a turn, too, except I wouldn't be pretending.
Carolyn is sitting up in bed, apparently doing some work while Palek watches her. "What if it is me?" Palek wonders. Carolyn just says they'll figure it out. Palek's a bit surprised, not to say skeptical, that Carolyn hasn't already considered this, since she plans out everything in advance. He brings up the fact that she got tested without him, and she gets kind of grumpy that he's "picking a fight" after she said she was sorry. Palek wonders if Carolyn maybe wants him to be the problem. "That's crazy," Carolyn says, as if that makes it less likely. But Palek's initial question still stands. And Carolyn still refuses to answer it. And Palek knows something's up. But if Carolyn is ever going to admit that she already asked about donor sperm, it's not happening in this episode.
Jamie comes in to work the morning, and I suddenly realize that as much as I haven't enjoyed the last twenty or so minutes of this episode, they at least didn't have her and Hugo in them. She enters the restaurant kitchen, pours herself a cup of coffee, and gets her chef's jacket, barely holding herself together the whole time. And given how much she keeps touching her nose, I'm really glad I'm not eating at her restaurant today. Her cell phone rings, and she goes out into the alley to take the call from her mom. We only hear her side of the conversation, which is a small mercy, but it's clear that her mom is being needy about something until Jamie breaks the news that the wedding is off. "I don't give a shit how they feel!" How about how I feel?" Yeah, we haven't heard much about that, have we? Finally she loses patience with the whole conversation and snaps at her mother, "Have the fucking wedding, okay? Because I don't give a shit." She hangs up, leaving me feeling quite ambivalent about hearing her express my own thoughts on the subject so precisely.
Katie is also at work, at home, alone, where it looks like she's a graphic designer of some sort. She turns away from her computer. Looks around. Closes the door. Draws the shades. Basically it's like that scene with Steve Carell in The 40-Year-Old Virgin but without "Boner Jams." She lies down on the bed, and, with a nervous look over at Dave's side of the bed, gets to work. And it does look like work, as she doesn't seem any less nervous than Palek did with Carolyn at the beginning of the episode. After a moment, she gets up and locks herself in the bathroom. Are she and the shower nozzle about to take things to the level? Nope; she just leans against the sink and starts up again. This time things seem like they're going a little better, as she's able to relax somewhat. Her hand goes down the front of her pants. And then she just gives up, as though realizing the ridiculousness of her situation. Which, really, it does look a lot like she's trying to seduce the shower curtain. Shaking her head, she leaves the bathroom, presumably to go back to work, and probably also to practice glare number eight, because it keeps wavering uncontrollably between seven and nine. What was I thinking, getting into this? she seems to be asking herself.
A sentiment that somewhat mirrors my own, at the moment, because that will do it for TMYLM on TWoP. We are, if you'll pardon the expression, pulling out early.