In San Diego, CA, Keith's Aunt Jeanne dies after being stung by a bee.
Things seem to be improving in the Diaz household. Vanessa and Rico screw happily, and Vanessa wants to start Salsa dancing lessons. Rico is ever so pleased, and has no idea that his wife's euphoria is just as dangerous as her recent dysphoria.
Nate deals with a man whose wife has passed, and as the man explains what a cheating shit he had been while married, he breaks down bawling and squawling. Horrendous acting. The first time anyone has done any terrible acting on this show. It may have been on purpose for all I know, but man...
With sister Brenda living with him, Billy is very bouyant these days.
At LACArts, Russell throws what Olivier appreciates as a classic artist tantrum, but Claire is ill at ease. Actually, she hasn't been too comfortable since that trip to Azuza...
Lisa comforts Nate through his occupational meltdown. Since they made their pact at the art show, their marriage seems on the up and up. Now Lisa is preparing to take a little vacation to Santa Cruz, to visit her sister and family.
In what I consider the second most interesting story twist of the episode, Ruth discovers Arthur's "reason" why he isn't interested in physical intimacy. Why so interesting to me? Because instead of being sweet and kind about it, like a woman in love should be, she's HATEFUL. Arthur's only sex may have been masturbation or perhaps molestation by sweet Aunt Pearl for all we know. Maybe he's not comfortable about sex at all and is asexual for life. No matter what the mystery of Arthur is, Ruth has no cause to be as hateful as she is. I find the whole thing very curious.
In San Diego, Keith and David attend the Aunt's funeral, and go to K's folks' house afterward. As ever, Roderick Charles is cold and distant, in spite of young Taylor's claims that "he went out and got steaks just for you!" When Keith, having learned about better family communications through his counseling sessions, tries to open up a dialogue with his father, the whole thing backfires. Keith and Roderick go at it. David tries to intervene, taking the role of loving and supportive partner, and his actions only create more havoc. Roderick is a homophobe anyway. David ends up on the outs with Keith over this whole mess, and David decides to return to LA alone. And maybe he was more than a little out of line getting in between Roderick and Keith, and especially telling Lucille that her husband cheats on her, but I think he was fed up with Roderick's nasty attitude and all his hypocrisy.
At Billy's place, Brenda comes home for lunch and for some reason, Billy apologizes for things he has no reason to be sorry about...being in a good mood...someone cancelling on Brenda. Strange.
Unable to live with his guilt any longer, Russell confesses to Claire that he and Olivier had sex while she was away in Azuza. The break up is tearful and very ugly.
Nate decides to call Lisa and see how her trip is going. He finds Lisa sitting on her car during a pit stop. The cell phone connection isn't too good, and it's really eerie to hear Nate say, "Lis...Lis...I'm losing you."
Vanessa and Rico have a great time at their dance lessons, but Vanessa dances herself into exhaustion and has an unexpected panic attack. It's only when Rico sees the number of pills she's on that he realizes that his wife's depression isn't better, it's just on the other end, mania.
While they watch a video Billy bought, a cartoon based on the Nathaniel and Isabel stories, Billy reacts strongly. At first he's disgusted with inaccuracies and censorship. Like anyone who "read the book before seeing the movie", he feels the latter is inferior and unworthy. But instead of putting the subject to rest, he rants on and on, talking about their dad Bernard, who bought them the books, and on and on until Brenda understands that Billy's just having a tough time getting over Bern's death. Unwittingly, she assumes the old role of Billy's caretaker, and tries to comfort him, and we get the 2nd of 3 big shockers when Billy tries to kiss his sister in a non brother-sister way.
This scene is amazing. Brenda is panic-stricken as she pulls away from Billy. Her face is shocked. It's like she snapped awake and saw the trouble she was in. Billy looks confused, like he can't understand why Brenda suddenly jerked away. His dialogue is just as flabbergasted: "I was just being affectionate. It was just a kiss." As usual, it's hard for me to know whether or not Billy knows exactly what he's doing, or really, has no idea what he's doing! Brenda high-tails it out of there, leaving me to feel both spooked by and sorry for her brother.
She heads over to Nate's, which isn't much better an idea than moving in with Billy. Good friends that they are, Nate listens as Brenda opens up. But their latent sexual chemistry is too powerful for them to be alone in a room, and they end up having a kiss that would have had Lisa broiling in her skin.
David gets in touch with his friend Patrick from the Gay Chorus, and they go home together.
Russell shows up at Claire's house begging her to take him back, but she can't.
Ruth's feelings for young Arthur cool way down, and now she can't even be civil to him in the laundry room.
Brenda, upset over what's happened with both Billy and Nate, checks into a motel for the night.
Claire and Ruth have one of their many wonderful extended scenes in which they try to make sense of their lovelives.
Nate begins to worry a little about Lisa when she isn't answering her cell phone, and more when she fails to arrive to her sister's
This episode was very good. Lots of new developments, lots of revelations. I give it an A, maybe an A+ even.
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