Why don’t they call them “hot hogs” … that’s what they are.

Once & Again – The Scarlet Letter Jacket
I don’t like this show, but I have decided that it might be fun to blog about something I don’t like. I'm mad at whoever who voted for this show [I know you're out there, it won the poll]. Because I don't like this show, you get a three-in-one post today to help quicken our journey through the world of O&A.

In this ep, Grace tells Lily that everyone at school knows about her and Rick. Even Jake has heard about the relationship from a friend. Lily and Rick are having dinner when Karen interrupts, so Lily hides [which is really lame. To his credit, Rick tries to convince her not to]. The school is having some sort of carnival, and Grace & Eli, Lily & Karen, and Rick & Jake are assigned to work together. Grace and Eli get along really well, and she starts to develop a huge crush on him [I sense trouble ahead, though I think it’d be pretty rad if they also developed a relationship].

Setting up for the carnival, Lily hears all the mothers gossiping and realizes soon they’ll be gossiping about her. Jennifer’s friends are bitches, telling Grace that Eli thinks she’s too fat and her breasts are too small. One of the mothers finally tells Karen about Lily and Rick, and Karen gets pissed at Rick for not telling her.

Lily wonders if their relationship is going too fast, and tells Rick they have to be careful of other people's feelings. Rick feels that other people can get over it [I like Rick. Not so much Lily]. She then reminisces about all the times she has let other people control her actions. So in the end, Lily goes over to Rick in front of everyone at the carnival and puts her hand on his shoulder. This reminds me of the handholding ep of MSCL which will be discussed soon.

Once & Again – Liars and Other Strangers
Lily’s daughters are sullen and snippy (particularly Grace), as they don’t like Rick. Actually, they’ve never met Rick. But they want their own parents to get back together. Lily and Rick need a quiet place to have sex [this show is all about R&L doing it] so Lily’s sister Judy offers up her apartment. Unfortunately when Judy meets Rick, she hates him (she even says so in a B&W interview moment). Judy also tells Lily that she is teaching Grace that sex is shameful – she understands that sneaking around is what makes it hot, but it is teaching Grace the wrong ideas.

Eli lies to his mom about Rick & Lily so as not to hurt her feelings. When he realizes he has left his World Cultures textbook at Rick’s, he goes to pick it up but is stymied when he hears R&L having sex. Eli lies and tells his mom he stayed up all night studying, so when he fails his test she is worried that he can’t handle school even when he studies.

While at Rick’s, Jessie finds Eli’s textbook and Karen sees it. She’s pissed that Eli lied, but Eli won’t defend himself. Eli goes to Rick’s and starts crying, upset because he keeps getting put in the middle. Rick tells him not to cover up for him, but Eli says it’s his responsibility to protect his mom. Finally, Karen tells Eli that he’s good at being the man of the house, but that he doesn’t have to take care of her. She knows about Lily and she doesn’t need to be shielded from it. To sum up, we’re four episodes in and basically nothing has happened. Great.

Once & Again – There Be Dragons
Ok, this theme song is seriously getting on my nerves. I’m sure my cute upstairs neighbor is judging me based solely on this terrible music. It's a woman going "ooooh, ahhhh" much like in the early seasons of Felicity. Anyway, in this ep Rick decides that it’s time Lily met his kids. Rick and Jessie are going on their annual camping trip, so he tells Lily to stop by that morning. He is distracted by her presence and nearly slices his finger off, so Lily takes the family to the emergency room and Jessie likes that she was “not flustered.” Now every time someone chops vegetables in this show [which happens quite often] I’m expecting blood and gore.

Meanwhile, Jake tells Lily that he wants her back, and she says “screw you.” Basically. But it’s super obvious something is going to happen with them. This ep had an excessive amount of sappy B&W glimpses of Jessie's inner thoughts. Parts of this show are really good … there are times when it nails the parent-child relationship. But most of the time, it’s overly saccharine. And it makes a LOT of generalizations based on gender that really bug me; i.e. “sex means more to girls” or “men don’t worry as much as women do.”