Once & Again Episode Guide

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March March 27, 2000 The Audrey Hepburn movie aired. March 20, 2000 A Peter Jennings Special Report aired. March 13, 2000 A touching 9 Flush episode that realistically portrayed the melancholic results of death. A funeral is not a moment of pure grief, but a never-ending stream of confusion in which we often forget things only to discover what truly matters. At the end of last week's episode, Phil (Lily's dad) died. This week's show picks up where we left off, and Barbara (Phil's wife/Lily's mom) puts Lily in charge of funeral arrangements. Barbara has a very detached demeanor in which she tells the girls to do whatever they think is best. Because my words cannot do the drama of this episode justice, I will simply say that the funeral took place and was a very moving moment. Because Phil was Jewish, the family sat Shiva (a week-long mourning after the funeral. Please note that in Judaism, burials occur within 24 hours of death), but Shiva was shortened because Barbara could not handle all of the confusion that surrounded it. I'm now highlighting the important stories. Judy went to bring Aaron to the funeral. Remember that Aaron is Lily's brother. He is mentally retarded. We learn that Aaron got along very well with his dad, but always gets upset when mom is nearby. We also learn that Aaron was once not retarded. He lived a normal life through high school, but we do not know why he became sick. Anyway, Barbara gets upset because she thinks that Judy and Lily are judging her relationship with Aaron. She tells them that they do not understand her. They know she is right and will try to change their relationship. In the end, Barbara finally confronts her son and begins to make amends with him, but maybe it is too late because she is returning to Florida. By the way, I think Aaron was played by Patrick Demspey. Regardless of who played him, the performance was quite touching as Aaron went from being calm and stable to uncontrollable in moments. He also slipped in and out of sanity, especially at the end of the episode where he admitted his love for his mother (in a touching moment of mental sanity) only to return to a fantasy about some guy being vice president. Another important story involved Jake. Phil's lawyer, Manny, tells Lily that Phil's will splits up the ownership of the restaurant so that Barbara owns 40%, Lily owns 30%, and Jake owns 30%. This ownership arrangement means that Lily can fire Jake. Jake gets very upset and appeals to Barbara in the hopes that Barbara will support his managing the restaurant. She concedes this, but later Lily confronts her and explains that only Lily knows how to control Jake. Barbara just trusted Jake because he was a man who was replacing Phil. Lily now controls her mother's shares of the restaurant, but she will let Jake stay as manager in hopes that he can make the restaurant successful. An additional note: Jake was very hardly hit by Phil's death and will miss him very much. He was also upset about possible losing the restaurant. Rick picked up on Jake's melancholy and told Lily (maybe Rick's telling Lily convinced her to let Jake keep the restaurant) QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: He was a big, loud, impressive schmuck. Phil was, but I liked him. --Jake NEXT WEEK: Rerun, but when this show returns let's hope for some lovin' between Rick and Lily, and let's bring Eli back into the show. March 6, 2000 Once and Again continues on its downward spiral of simplistic stories with this 6 Flush episode. The writers fail to weave together a complicated episode that mixed raw emotion with powerful storytelling through multiple plots. And once again, the Samler family went ignored. Grace is practicing for a school play. She has the female lead in what I think is King Leer (it's the Shakespeare play where the three daughters fight over their father's kingdom). Anyway, her grandfather (Phil) takes her to rehearsal. On the car ride home, they get into a car accident. Sadness and panic ensues, but alas everyone is all right. Grace gets away without a scratch, and Phil has only a broken leg. So they return to the house. The next day Lily and Phil get into a fight, because he says that she should let Jake control the restaurant. Lily disagrees and says that she is sick of her father running her life. As the fight ends in disunion, Lily goes to bed. Unfortunately, she cannot sleep because of the fight. She goes downstairs to make up with dad, but she finds him collapsed on the floor. She calls an ambulance. As it turns out, Phil has had a stroke. We do not know how serious his illness is. He can, however, communicate a little. He even tells Lily to loan Jake $100,000 for the restaurant. Well, now that Phil has had a heart attack, his wife comes to visit him (NOTE: she stayed in Florida? while Phil came to Chicago). Everything seems to be on the up and up when Phil has a second stroke. This one has left him brain dead. Sadness, sadness. Judy says that we cannot let dad die. Jake says that he already is dead. Lily does not know. Mom stays silent. Grace goes to visit her grandfather at the hospital, and after her visit, she tells Lily that Phil's soul has already gone to heaven and that his body has nothing in it. Lily and Judy agree that they should tell their mom it is time for them to end life support. They find her, but she tells them that she has already decided to allow Phil to die. The end. As always, let me fill in some blanks. Lily is on a job hunt. She gets the opportunity to hand in some writing samples to a young, hip magazine. At first, the editor of this magazine does not know if Lily is young enough to work at this magazine, but eventually says she can. Lily is excited to be an assistant editor at this magazine, but learns that she is actually an assistant to the editor. The editor is a flake in her late 20s. I'm sure we will see some conflict in future episodes. Rick supports Lily throughout her father's problems. The two move no closer nor farther away. Why can't the show return its focus to the chaos and confusion of two divorced (or separated) people in love? NEXT WEEK: Lily gets her father's share of the restaurant. Will she fire Jake? February February 28, 2000 No episode. Part II of The Beach Boys: An American Movie was on ABC. February 21, 2000 Rerun. February 14, 2000 What happened to the pace of this episode. It used to have two dynamics...the Lily-Rick relationship and the high school thing that included both Eli and Grace. Now, the pace varies and is unknowing. This episode was fair and gets 8 flushes just because I like the show in general (but I don't know that this particular episode really merited this many flushes). Lily and Jake continue to have money problems. Naomi (remember her from early on in the show...she is both Lily's and Karen's friends) tells Lily that she should get a lawyer. As this happens, Jake spends money for his restaurant's opening like he has a never ending capital flow. Lily, however, has no money because Jake maxed out her credit card after he promised not to use it at all. Lily cannot even afford to send Grace to a special writing camp at Northwestern University, and this has been plug #1 for my school. Lily decides to hire a lawyer named Toby Jacobson, and Toby has a controller who will soon take over the restaurant, because the restaurant is shared property. But in the meantime, Lily decides that she needs some money so she decides to quit working at the book shop for now and to get a full time job. She begins typing her resume where we see that Lily worked on The Daily Northwestern when she was in college. That was plug # 2 for my school. Grace is in the middle of her parents's financial battle. Lily is very supportive of Grace and is trying to protect Grace's relationship with her father, but Jake is trying to make Lily look like the bad parent. Grace, however, knows what's going on. Also with Grace, she has this flirting thing with this kid named Jared who is in her English class. The two build up romantic chemistry and then kiss at the end of the episode. A question: Jared happens to be black, and it seems that his friends tease him when he is around Grace. Will there be a racial fight? I hope not. I hope we can just accept these two as a couple. They're really cute. Rick and Lily sort of see each other this week. Their relationship is on pretty solid ground. Rick stops by for Valentine's Day, and he gives Lily a cricket saying that the cricket is an ancient Chinese symbol of good luck so that she can always have luck even when he is not around. Lily says that she'll need it because her life is so complicated. He says, "If things ever work out the way I wanted them to, things would get a lot more complicated." Lily at first laughs at this, and then realizes this comment's significance on a deeper level and says "Ooohh!" Of note, Grace bumps into Rick. Rick asks Grace how the book he gave her on women's soccer is, Grace says it's good, but in reality she never read the book...she actually threw it in the garbage. Grace asks her mom if she took the book out of the garbage which Lily did, and then Grace asks for the book. Is Grace warming up to Rick? By the way, Grace plays on the club soccer team at her school. Lily's dad is in town. He is here for the opening of Jake's new restaurant and supports Jake 100% even when the support is against Lily. Dad says that the restaurant is the foundation of his family. Of note, Lily says to dad that he looks like he lost a lot of weight. Does this mean that dad is sick and may die soon? There is no implication of that, but I can imagine seeing on a future episode's "previously on once and again" where Lily points out that dad has lost weight and then he becomes sick. CORNY AND NONSENSICAL PICK-UP LINE OF THE EPISODE: I think you are amazing. Like the way a lake is amazing or snow. --Jared to Grace QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: I think they should invent a new word [for] the moment before you kiss someone. --Grace NEXT WEEK: Rerun? February 7, 2000 I believe this was the first truly bad episode of this otherwise almost flawless series. The whole episode was about Judy. Lily and Judy are at a museum when they bump into Rick and his friend, Sam Blue (played by Steven Webber). Sam is one of Rick's closest friends and the artist whose work is being exhibited at the museum. He is currently designing a sculpture for Miles Drentell (the guy who Rick is constructing a building for). Miles is putting big time pressure on Sam to finish the sculpture. Anyway, Judy's car breaks down one day and who is there? Sam! He agrees to drive her home. The two really hit it off. So much so that Judy asks Lily to ask Rick about Sam (fun sentence, huh?). As Lily is getting the facts on Sam, Sam comes by to visit Judy at the bookstore. Judy and Sam talk about some book of poetry, and they kiss. The two obviously have some deep connection. The next day Lily tells Judy that Sam is married. Judy tells Lily that she and Sam had a serious connection. Lily tells Rick that Sam is sort of cheating on his wife. Rick says that is ridiculous. The two get into a huge fight over Sam and Judy; however, they realize that this fight is really the result of unresolved issues over Lily having had sex with Jake. The two make up when Rick says that despite his anger over the affair that he loves Lily and wants to with her. The two are happy again. What happens with Sam and Judy? Judy won't talk to Sam, but after he calls her answering machine a thousand times, she does meet him. He gives her the book of poetry that they had previously discussed and leaves. Later that night, he comes by Judy's apartment and the two kiss. The camera fades out. Let's discuss why this was such a dumb episode. First, we knew the whole time that Sam was married. Second, Judy is not interesting enough to carry a whole hour of show. Third, the show is about Lily and Rick...let's remember that. Fourth, where are the kids? How do children magically disappear whenever the plot deems it necessary? Fifth, how is Lily's mediator still pregnant? It's way past 9 months. And are we going to be surprised when the mediator enters labor as Jake and Lily are at some critical point in the mediation causing them to be at peace with each other? That's just the beginning, but I think you get the point. NEXT WEEK: Jake cancels Lily credit cards. Grace feels sparks between her and a boy.