SEASON FOUR

EPISODE 11: BOMB SHELTER

Four die in car wreck. Stupid damn minivan DVD players!!!

Brenda drops another one onto Nate when she expresses her wishes to bear his children.

Ruth wants to take George to a tantric love workshop. Ruth loves those workshops, doesn't she??? She's still a little concerned over George, who seems more preoccupied than ever about the end of the world coming. A door-to-door evangelist fails to inspire Mr. Sibley to just let the Lord work everything out "his way".

At art school, Billy digs Claire's paper portraits, and Russell steals Claire's thunder. I haven't yet made up my mind whether or not he is right in saying Claire didn't invent this art on her own.

Mr. Pasquese wants to sue David for biting his ear in that cat-fight they had in the restaurant. Perhaps Keith can...smooth things over a little.

Margaret Chenowith has been having profuse vaginal bleeding (perhaps fibroids) and ends up having to get a hysterectomy. Her hospital stay leads to an unexpected reunion between Brenda and Billy, who of course became estranged after Billy's bizzare confession last season. The best scene???

Olivier: "I'm a self-centered miserable prick who wonders how long must I wait before I can fuck you!"

Margaret: "Finally, somebody said something right."

Brenda: "It would have been weird if I would have said it."

Billy: "Not in this family."

This scene alone is probably my favorite moment in this not-so-great season.

When George learns that the Fisher house has a cellar/bomb shelter, he shows great enthusiasm. Uh oh!

Barb and Hoyt persuade Nate into meeting them for a talk. They tell Nate that someone told them that the ashes aren't Lisa's. Stupid Nate confesses that he gave them some from the '70s, and that he buried Lisa out in the country somewhere. NATE!!! Really, why not just tell them that whoever tattled on you is a damn liar and that the ashes are Lisa's??? What is with this trend toward total honest in Season 4???!!! What are they gonna do, run some tests on the bones or something? Like they're gonna find any DNA!!!

The next day Bitchy Barb and Parroting Idiot Hoyt show up on Nate's doorstoop threatening to take Maya from him. Bitchy gets all up in Brenda's face and says more insulting things to her. Again, instead of slapping Barb into next year, Brenda is mature and cool and thus makes Barb look like the stooge she is.

With her friend Jimmy's help, Claire gets a gallery for a show, from a dude who looks like General Robert E. Lee, only he uses the F word a couple of times.

The "life is pain" theme is pervasive in this episode, especially when David learns that the man who assaulted him has finally been arrested.

This episode is better than most of the ones in this season, so I give it an A-.