Speaker 1: Still the Place with Laura Layton, Courtney thorn Smith and.
Speaker 2: Daphne's Aniga an iHeartRadio podcast. How much fun was it?
Speaker 2: Amazed with Vanessa Williams.
Speaker 3: It was a amazing. She's such a goddess.
Speaker 2: She looks amazing, her energy. I almost fell over.
Speaker 1: And when I walked in the rain and her when
Speaker 1: she looks better than thirty years ago. And I'm not exaggerating,
Speaker 1: I'm not lying, I'm not going she's.
Speaker 3: Oh, my God's beautiful, so filled with like, joyful energy,
Speaker 3: positive person. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know what I really liked was, you know,
Speaker 2: we were getting fan stuff and kind of this resentment
Speaker 2: of how she was let go so early on our show,
Speaker 2: and so I was kind of worried about, like is
Speaker 2: she going to have that. She so transformed herself and
Speaker 2: her story and that incident so beautifully and spiritually that
Speaker 2: she carries the opposite energy. Absolutely, I know. I love
Speaker 2: that too. She didn't avoid it, she didn't shirk it.
Speaker 1: She talked about what a difficult time it was and
Speaker 1: how she leaned into it and really healed.
Speaker 3: She's so so open and honest and lovely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so open and honest and actually deepened her spiritual life,
Speaker 1: and she really used it for her good and to
Speaker 1: really work on not letting her worth be defined by
Speaker 1: her work, which is such a powerful message.
Speaker 2: And I think everyone can relate to us. Yes, we
Speaker 2: certainly can in our industy, absolutely, because we're at the
Speaker 2: mercy of so many other things that we have no
Speaker 2: control over. But I think people in general can relate
Speaker 2: to that absolutely. And you are not what you work,
Speaker 2: You are not your list, or that you're bigger than Yes,
Speaker 2: you're no one thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: It was just so interesting to have that experience with
Speaker 3: her and then have this episode where she It was
Speaker 3: just such an important start and we'll get to it.
Speaker 3: We're going to get into the recap, but it was
Speaker 3: just so interesting to have that conversation with her first
Speaker 3: when we originally thought we were probably going to do
Speaker 3: the recount first and then meet with her after that.
Speaker 3: It is so interesting to.
Speaker 2: And maybe, uh, now the audience will get to see
Speaker 2: what she meant when she went to Darren Remember to
Speaker 2: change some of her lines and to change the story
Speaker 2: according to Rohnda's perspective down in South Central, et cetera.
Speaker 2: So I thought that was really cool, And you know,
Speaker 2: this this episode now is different than it was originally
Speaker 2: to me. Yeah, it's cool, it's great.
Speaker 3: Well, the last time we were together we were in person,
Speaker 3: and we're back on zoo.
Speaker 2: Yeah, outs as you were out of town, Laura. How's
Speaker 2: it going out of town?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, on the East coast.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm in Connecticut to see Doug and his play.
Speaker 2: How was it. How's it going?
Speaker 3: It's going really well, amazing. Yeah, he's gotten over the opening.
Speaker 3: You know, the first couple of performances, those those jitters
Speaker 3: are out of the way, and now it's just like
Speaker 3: regular jitters. For you know, every subsequent performance.
Speaker 2: Doesn't make you play do a play? The play is.
Speaker 3: Terrific and it's yeah, I mean it's that it's a
Speaker 3: very exciting feeling in the theater and I get really
Speaker 3: like the butterflies when the lights go down, you know,
Speaker 3: before they're coming back up. I'm like that that whole
Speaker 3: thing is just in my body too. So that's been
Speaker 3: really fun. It's a new play and it's called Fever Dreams.
Speaker 3: It's three characters. The other actor is Tim Decay, along
Speaker 3: with my husband, Doug Avon and an actress Lang Young,
Speaker 3: and the three of them are on the stage the
Speaker 3: entire time, and it's there's so many twists and turns.
Speaker 3: It's really almost hard to describe a little bit of
Speaker 3: a triangle, but a lot of tension, and it must.
Speaker 1: Be so much fun. Written by Jeffrey Leeber television series Lost.
Speaker 3: Yes, and I just was so nervous. Yes, So Jeffrey
Speaker 3: Raper is the play, right, and it's a terrific script.
Speaker 3: He was co created Lost.
Speaker 2: And wow, that's exciting. It's a wonderful play. How much
Speaker 2: have you ever seen him on stage before?
Speaker 3: I've never seen him in a play before. He hasn't
Speaker 3: done one in so many years. So yeah, this was
Speaker 3: This is a big, gutsy thing to do. And I'm
Speaker 3: really proud of him.
Speaker 1: It's so exciting because that's where we got our love
Speaker 1: of acting, right, and TV and film are so different
Speaker 1: from stage. It sounds so exciting. You can tell him all,
Speaker 1: did you do theater?
Speaker 2: Courtney? I did? I did you do it? I really
Speaker 2: loved it Northern California? Oh yeah, okay, but not.
Speaker 1: Since I've been acting in TV and film. It terrifies me.
Speaker 1: But I love hearing you say it, Laura. It makes
Speaker 1: me think maybe I could Maybe that would be because
Speaker 1: it's such so much fun.
Speaker 3: And Marcia Cross just finished doing a play and so
Speaker 3: the same thing, like she said, oh my god, this
Speaker 3: is a wonderful feeling.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think it's a I think it's daunting
Speaker 2: and exciting. It's both right, the idea of getting on
Speaker 2: stage and using more of your instrument than what TV
Speaker 2: asks for, which is kind of here, and then film
Speaker 2: like a little bit more. But I or it's so intimate,
Speaker 2: you know, it's like and anything. Yeah, yeah, you're just
Speaker 2: everything can happen, that's right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I've only done one movie in my career that's shot
Speaker 1: in order, in sequential order, so you were actually evolving
Speaker 1: with your character. But usually it's in bits and pieces
Speaker 1: here and there. You're trying to remember where you're coming
Speaker 1: from and where you're going.
Speaker 3: You get another take. In television and film you get
Speaker 3: another take, and in theater you do not you do
Speaker 3: you do.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow night, though you get the next night and the
Speaker 1: next you get a whole take.
Speaker 2: You feel a long take, you get that. I did
Speaker 2: a play here in La years ago. I've done a couple.
Speaker 2: We had a strike, I don't know, fifteen years ago
Speaker 2: or something, so I went up to Sanrancisco and did
Speaker 2: a play, and before that, I did one here at
Speaker 2: the Odyssey in West La Tartuffe, and I remember that
Speaker 2: immediate connection with the audience. There is nothing like it
Speaker 2: because it's so it's you just don't know. You're on
Speaker 2: a type rope. You can't plan anything. You can rehearse
Speaker 2: and rehearse like a take, or there's certain a moment
Speaker 2: that you all rehearse this moment and the audience hopefully
Speaker 2: they'll respond to it, but they could respond to something
Speaker 2: else beforehand, and then you got to respond to them,
Speaker 2: and I just it's so exciting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was a funny moment in the play last night.
Speaker 3: It was it was a release. It was a serious
Speaker 3: moment and like sort of a bomb of information was dropped,
Speaker 3: and on that line, the entire audience went oh audibly
Speaker 3: together and then then they all just started laughing because
Speaker 3: they couldn't believe that there was such a collective response
Speaker 3: out loud the audience. So it turned a very heavy
Speaker 3: serious line into I'm laughing. It was I mean, I
Speaker 3: was imagining on stage like that must have been.
Speaker 2: So confusing, but there was themselves.
Speaker 3: The audience was so amused by like how collective. The
Speaker 3: response was, that's great.
Speaker 1: That's a great sign for the play too, that they
Speaker 1: were all so invested.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it came out of.
Speaker 2: The one organism made a little mini or really fun
Speaker 2: to see that, Yeah, and unexciting, completely unexpected to everybody
Speaker 2: on stage and in the audience.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the audience tells you the truth, right, Like I've
Speaker 1: done a lot of sitcom and there will be a
Speaker 1: joke that you laugh at all week, you can't wait
Speaker 1: to get to it. You think it's brilliant, and the
Speaker 1: audience is just crickets, and you go, I guess we
Speaker 1: were wrong. You have like think of something you want
Speaker 1: to fly. You're like, one thing, I know this joke
Speaker 1: is gonna hit and just dead air.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, well comedy anyway, we could this is a
Speaker 2: whole podcast on itself.
Speaker 3: Anyway, we're supposed to be doing a recap this.
Speaker 2: Week one because this is another episode, like we've been
Speaker 2: saying the beginning, where the whole group is in everything
Speaker 2: and in several scenes. So they'll do like a three shot,
Speaker 2: you know, and you know as an actor that that
Speaker 2: could be after lunch sometime you're still shooting the same
Speaker 2: scene and they're like Ronda getting closer to here. So
Speaker 2: you have Ronda, Sandy, and you know Billy or you
Speaker 2: have whatever. It's different every time, and you go it
Speaker 2: just to me, is you remember those move in move in? Okay?
Speaker 2: Now you got to like seem natural, like you're all
Speaker 2: naturally hanging out in this group, you know, when not
Speaker 2: seem they got to get their shot because they're not
Speaker 2: going to do individuals. So I just noticed that a
Speaker 2: few times in this one. Yeah, it was cute, all right.
Speaker 3: So we're on episode episode ten of season one. The
Speaker 3: episode title is Burned, directed by Janet Greek and for context,
Speaker 3: this aired in September mid September of nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: So we open in the core aired Sandy greets Jake
Speaker 3: as he returns home from work. She invites him upstairs
Speaker 3: for beer.
Speaker 2: He declines.
Speaker 3: She then offers some pizza, which he changes his mind,
Speaker 3: so he follows her up the stairs. The inside scenes apartment.
Speaker 3: He is then surprised because the gang is there. They're
Speaker 3: surprising Jake for his birthday, and then mid party, there's
Speaker 3: a knock at the door and the door opens, revealing
Speaker 3: Jake's mother flaming red hair sort of the fabulous, fancy pants, fabulous,
Speaker 3: and she's looking for Jake.
Speaker 2: And I remember her. I remember her on the show.
Speaker 1: I was so fascinated by her skin, which is like orcelain.
Speaker 1: It has never seen son like she is never seen
Speaker 1: in her entire life. It was so beautiful up close
Speaker 1: and you can still see it on the screen, but
Speaker 1: in person you can't even believe it.
Speaker 2: Well, she was a huge Broadway star. She starred in nine,
Speaker 2: that huge. She was nominated for a Tony. She started
Speaker 2: what she starred with Roald Julia and nine, if anyone remembers,
Speaker 2: they made a film of it too, with Helpie Cruise.
Speaker 2: But she was in that kind of like fishnet floor
Speaker 2: all see through thing, and it was she was the
Speaker 2: sex bomb, which was sexy for its time even and
Speaker 2: I think before that she was on Jesus Christ Superstar.
Speaker 2: You know, she was a huge Broadway legend and the
Speaker 2: fact that she came to do our show was really
Speaker 2: cool to see it. And you but you saw, I
Speaker 2: thought in all of her scenes this sort of presence,
Speaker 2: this presence, this theatrical presence, and with all those that curvy,
Speaker 2: remember those shoulder blades with the shoulder.
Speaker 4: And a little a.
Speaker 3: Little sex spot even Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well there's a cute scene before she walks in
Speaker 1: where she runs into Billy on the stairs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and she's walking like, hello, are you his date?
Speaker 1: Because she's right the moment, she's a gettle older and
Speaker 1: it's kind of confusing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and did you notice this subtle like she left
Speaker 3: her suitcase at the bottom of the stairs.
Speaker 2: I did notice that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like she goes up the stairs, but like she's
Speaker 3: not can bring her suitcase. She doesn't want him to
Speaker 3: know just yet, so she leaves her suitcase at the
Speaker 3: bottom stairs, follows him up the stairs to this point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's I'm not sure how she's going to be received, right, And.
Speaker 1: Then very good scene between her and Amy. Yeah, we're
Speaker 1: sesting each other out, trying to figure out what's happening.
Speaker 2: Well, you notice this whole episode and at the party
Speaker 2: they're that that parallel like Sandy's a younger version of
Speaker 2: Jake's mother.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, how did I both know that until you just
Speaker 1: said that, because I'm like, of course that's so fu yea.
Speaker 2: And they're both waitresses. How did I right over my head?
Speaker 2: Thank you, Daphne right over both sun tanning by the
Speaker 2: pool and like the older version and the younger version
Speaker 2: of course, which kind of explains all the Sandy Jake
Speaker 2: stuff that they're constantly you know, because there's like a.
Speaker 1: A little I'm here to represent our slower fans.
Speaker 3: That's okay, we're here to recap the entire episode for you.
Speaker 3: We'll remind you and then you'll go, oh yeah, Bertney.
Speaker 2: You play Alison, okay.
Speaker 3: And Alison was there at the party. And so they're
Speaker 3: having this party for Jake and he's very uncomfortable because
Speaker 3: his mom is making herself a little comfortable with all
Speaker 3: of his friends, and it's clear that he doesn't really
Speaker 3: want her there.
Speaker 1: And you see the hysterical scene when it must it
Speaker 1: was improv and and she's talking to.
Speaker 2: Doug and they're talking about parent just loses it. He
Speaker 2: loses it.
Speaker 3: He Belli laughs because she's she says something about it's
Speaker 3: just really plumping and pumping up. His head goes back
Speaker 3: and he knows I'm plumping.
Speaker 2: He can't even get it out.
Speaker 3: He didn't see it coming.
Speaker 2: Yes. What I love is that the director and the
Speaker 2: editor kept that in, like I know, yeah.
Speaker 3: So Jake is uncomfortable, but she's you know, making herself
Speaker 3: very comfortable in the middle of the party, Billy has
Speaker 3: to leave. He has to go to work, so he
Speaker 3: leaves the party to go drive his cab night. He's
Speaker 3: driving a passenger with groceries into a neighborhood that the
Speaker 3: passenger as she's getting out, she remarks that it's difficult
Speaker 3: to get a cab to drive to this neighborhood and
Speaker 3: she thinks him and she says, also, yeah, in a
Speaker 3: part of South LA And she says, ever since the trouble,
Speaker 3: he feels afraid to ride the bus. And the trouble
Speaker 3: she's referring to is the La riots that were earlier
Speaker 3: that year, in nineteen and two. So the La Riots
Speaker 3: in Los Angeles were April of ninety two, and this
Speaker 3: was since this episode was airing in September. It was written,
Speaker 3: you know, shortly after, probably in July.
Speaker 2: Whatever are you here during the riots? Both of you? Yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm sure it was really scary, So it was I
Speaker 2: think this was This reminded me, Laura that Melvoe's the
Speaker 2: writers did this a lot. They took stuff from that
Speaker 2: was very sort of going on in the real world,
Speaker 2: and they took stuff from the you know, head often
Speaker 2: and this was. Yeah, this was you know, the riots
Speaker 2: started because of the Rodney King beating.
Speaker 3: Where the verdict, Yeah, the verdict that was announced in April.
Speaker 2: After a video tape. It was the first time it
Speaker 2: was videotape, the beating of a black man. So this
Speaker 2: is just for the audience who maybe doesn't remember or
Speaker 2: doesn't know that, you know, this is what it's being
Speaker 2: revisited in this episode, and that the origin which isn't
Speaker 2: talked about in the episode is from that the Rodney
Speaker 2: King beating.
Speaker 1: Yea, and the cops who beat him to a pulp.
Speaker 2: It was horrible to watch got off. The video went
Speaker 2: by and yeah, yeah, and then they got off.
Speaker 3: They got off. That verdict was announced and these white
Speaker 3: cops were you know, not charged.
Speaker 2: The la riots happened and there were fires and the
Speaker 2: just looting and trashing and we were all here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, lasted for five days. It was very There was
Speaker 3: a lot of outrage and it was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, understandable outrage.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. So he drops off his passenger and she has
Speaker 3: said she's you know, thanks him, She's afraid to ride
Speaker 3: the bus. Billy then clocks a group of men watching
Speaker 3: him as he drops off his passenger. He nervously gets
Speaker 3: back in his car to drive away, and the men
Speaker 3: also get into their car and they start to follow
Speaker 3: Billy as he drives away. Billy then makes the mistake
Speaker 3: of turning into a dead end street, and the car
Speaker 3: full of guys follows him, blocking him in, and then
Speaker 3: they get out of the car with baseball bats and
Speaker 3: they start smashing up Billy's cab.
Speaker 2: Smashing up the car shield. Yeah, the WM shield right
Speaker 2: into that. The camera there and Mary.
Speaker 3: Cuts away right on that smash, and then we go
Speaker 3: back to the birthday party, where Jake is still feeling
Speaker 3: uncomfortable with his mom while she makes herself more comfortable.
Speaker 3: I think this is where she says the plumping comment,
Speaker 3: because then Doug laughs big and Sandy's talking to Jake
Speaker 3: and says, you know, you should cut her some slack.
Speaker 3: She's really trying, and Jay tells her to butt out.
Speaker 3: Then the phone rings and Allison answers to learn that
Speaker 3: Billy is at the police station and was rob so
Speaker 3: she leaves to go meet.
Speaker 1: Him there, which could have been a lot worse. I
Speaker 1: got to say, after that last scene, very few hundred.
Speaker 3: Percent we're glad to hear that that's all it is,
Speaker 3: so we go to the police station with her. Billy's
Speaker 3: talking to an officer who tells him that he was
Speaker 3: lucky it was only the car that got hurt and
Speaker 3: that Billy should perhaps be more picky about his fares
Speaker 3: who he picks up. Billy is frustrated the officer doesn't
Speaker 3: seem to think he's going to do with anything more
Speaker 3: to find the guys who did it. Billy says, come on,
Speaker 3: I know where they hang out. Alison then arrives. She's
Speaker 3: very relieved he's okay. Billy expresses his frustration, saying, I
Speaker 3: don't get it. These people are trying to make me
Speaker 3: feel like I committed the crime by going down there.
Speaker 3: So we go back to Jake's apartment. Jake asks his
Speaker 3: mom why she is here, and we learned that it's
Speaker 3: been five years since they've seen each other, and he
Speaker 3: wonders if she needs money, and that's when his mom
Speaker 3: reveals she's left the guy she's been with, this guy Hank,
Speaker 3: because he was drinking and maybe some abuse, and she's
Speaker 3: looking for a place to stay, and Jake sort of
Speaker 3: calls her out for kicking him out when he needed her,
Speaker 3: saying she never wanted him, and Stella claims she's changed
Speaker 3: and wants Jake.
Speaker 2: And that she never did kick him out. She never
Speaker 2: kicked him out, but that's how he perceived it. I
Speaker 2: thought this storyline was so interesting how a child his
Speaker 2: point of view or her point of view to the parent,
Speaker 2: and the parent was a young mom and she is
Speaker 2: how she is and you know it's not doesn't say
Speaker 2: in this scene, but later she says she was nineteen.
Speaker 2: That's so young. Can you imagine being nineteen and have
Speaker 2: and she was terrified that she was she going to
Speaker 2: do it. So but that's not his problem, his problem.
Speaker 2: He experienced what he experienced. So it really is just
Speaker 2: something that I think we can all relate to that
Speaker 2: our our parents, you know. And this I liked this storyline.
Speaker 2: It was tough too, and.
Speaker 1: It gives us a lot of insight into why Jake
Speaker 1: moves through the world the way he does. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: so independent and he's so tough, and he doesn't really
Speaker 1: trust women and doesn't it really intimate relationships because he
Speaker 1: felt like he couldn't really trust his mother, right.
Speaker 3: And I thought Grant's performance for this episode was really
Speaker 3: good and he wants and yeah, I agree because he
Speaker 3: had to play a lot of colors and just the
Speaker 3: torment of and doesn't wanting a mother but maybe not
Speaker 3: this one with this type of behavior, and how it
Speaker 3: broke his heart. And so that was a real struggle
Speaker 3: for him to try to figure out how to yeah
Speaker 3: move for.
Speaker 2: He's really great at the tough guy with the heart
Speaker 2: of gold. That is so a sweet.
Speaker 1: Spot for him because it's who he is, right, He's
Speaker 1: like kind of a tough guy, he's a sweet guy
Speaker 1: and I love it when you get to see him.
Speaker 1: That's a hard thing to play, to play so well.
Speaker 3: So then Billy and Allison at are returning home. They
Speaker 3: come to the courtyard and the gang wants to hear
Speaker 3: what happened, and they're all relieved that Billy is okay.
Speaker 3: Billy sarcastically says maybe he should write a note to
Speaker 3: the gang the gang bangers in gratitude for not hurting him,
Speaker 3: and that the police were very unhelpful, perhaps because he
Speaker 3: is victim ten billion and one. So Billy describes feeling
Speaker 3: very powerless that he had to just sit there and
Speaker 3: take it when he was being attacked, and he says,
Speaker 3: those people can have that part of town if they
Speaker 3: want it because I'm never driving down there again.
Speaker 2: They all hold our collective breath. We go take it back,
Speaker 2: take it back, take it back.
Speaker 3: Which then Ronda questions him, what do you mean down
Speaker 3: there to the jungle?
Speaker 2: She asks, Well, first of all, she says, what do
Speaker 2: you mean those people? Right? Is the crux of this
Speaker 2: whole episode, the other rising and the making a certain
Speaker 2: group of people, whether it be in this case it's
Speaker 2: blacks to be all what they call a monolith like
Speaker 2: those people. Well, you wouldn't say that about white people.
Speaker 2: They're not, because our experience is that we're all different,
Speaker 2: we're all different experiences. So that's to me that that
Speaker 2: is the crux of the whole Yeah, and really brave.
Speaker 1: I thought brave for the writers to do this because
Speaker 1: we had one African American character and to tell this
Speaker 1: story I thought was really brave. And I liked the
Speaker 1: way they did it where she's rightfully angry and asking
Speaker 1: these questions and Billy is such.
Speaker 2: A good, sweet character.
Speaker 1: He didn't mean it, but that's how bias works, right,
Speaker 1: You're unconsciously biased.
Speaker 2: And well, I didn't mean that.
Speaker 1: I meant he's saying I played ball with these guys.
Speaker 1: But his language still was wrong. And I and also
Speaker 1: really like, we're aware of this now, this was thirty
Speaker 1: years ago. I really impressed that they were at such
Speaker 1: a time, so close to the riot totally if they
Speaker 1: were willing to take this on and voice that they
Speaker 1: really were ahead of their times.
Speaker 2: It really was ahead of act really was you didn't? Now?
Speaker 2: I do want to point out that maybe everyone knows,
Speaker 2: but they did not have a black writer on the
Speaker 2: writing team. Did they bring someone in to right now episode?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: Now they would like today they would say this is
Speaker 1: a story, but the staff when Yeah.
Speaker 2: So the point I'm trying to make is that this
Speaker 2: is our point of view. This is a white a male,
Speaker 2: white writer's point of view. And I looked up because
Speaker 2: I was hoping the name uh that I saw and
Speaker 2: the writer was he was going to be a black guy.
Speaker 2: It wasn't. But the point is, I wonder if it
Speaker 2: would have been written differently if it were if there
Speaker 2: were a black writer on there, someone who because this
Speaker 2: is a point of view. This is a POV. Everything
Speaker 2: we see on TV and in the world is somebody's
Speaker 2: or a group of people's point of view. There the
Speaker 2: story through their eyes their experience. So you know, melrose
Speaker 2: Place had one black character, ron the and no black writers.
Speaker 3: They really did have all those things that you that
Speaker 3: you've all just said. Is that he's saying, wait, I
Speaker 3: didn't say that. It's just that those people, and he
Speaker 3: started he doesn't fin in. Ronda says, what do you
Speaker 3: mean those people?
Speaker 2: What people?
Speaker 3: People like me? And and so it's he Billy's saying
Speaker 3: things he doesn't. He's like, that's not what I said.
Speaker 3: And she's saying, but that's what you meant, and all
Speaker 3: of that, all of that is in here, all that
Speaker 3: is in the scene and the dialogue and everything, and she's,
Speaker 3: you know, she's upset by it, and she leaves the scene.
Speaker 3: And the next morning, Billy's just replaying this over and
Speaker 3: over in his head. He's he's envisioning the guy who
Speaker 3: smashed his car, and then he expresses frustration to Alis
Speaker 3: and saying, although he just loved this experience and he
Speaker 3: remembers everything, he can't seem to get it out on paper.
Speaker 3: He really wants to write about it, and Alison assures
Speaker 3: him and he CA's yeah, and Billy says, he hates feelings,
Speaker 3: so angry and frustrated then we cut to Jane and
Speaker 3: Michael who are having a conversation and Jane says she's
Speaker 3: been having nightmares about someone breaking into their apartment. Michael
Speaker 3: comforts her. Jane says she's nervous about raising a child
Speaker 3: in these times, and then she reminds Michael that they
Speaker 3: have a baby seminar that night.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we have three storylines in this episode, which
Speaker 1: is very rare.
Speaker 2: And not only that court. You know how last time
Speaker 2: or in the past we've said how there's a serious
Speaker 2: storyline and then a very light one. We're saying, like, hey,
Speaker 2: you really juxtaposed. I didn't think there was one light
Speaker 2: one in this one. This was a very serious, heavy
Speaker 2: loaded episode.
Speaker 1: I think Jane and Michael was supposed to be lighter,
Speaker 1: but it is serious. But it was supposed to be
Speaker 1: sort of with the I don't know for that way time.
Speaker 2: We're not the baby. Yeah, when they get that was
Speaker 2: a comic scene, but it wasn't to me. It just
Speaker 2: didn't seem that light.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it wasn't as like the light as it's been
Speaker 3: in the past.
Speaker 2: That scene is funny, Yeah.
Speaker 3: There was. They were all consequential like all of.
Speaker 2: That, you know, big like dealing with big issues ye
Speaker 2: arrent relationships. Am I going to be a mother and father?
Speaker 2: That was huge?
Speaker 3: And then this so so then the kitchen scene where
Speaker 3: Jake's mom is cooking at his in his kitchen and
Speaker 3: Jake's sort of skeptical and tells her, you know, not
Speaker 3: to get too comfortable, and she promised that she doesn't
Speaker 3: have anything up or sleeve, but that, you know, hey,
Speaker 3: maybe Jake, you should admit that you're not as tough
Speaker 3: as you think. Maybe I might get to you after
Speaker 3: all sort of thing, which I thought was sort of.
Speaker 2: A so I just thought another you know I brought
Speaker 2: up in the past, like Melrose Place just have has
Speaker 2: these quintessential Melrose lines, and I wrote down one here.
Speaker 2: He's like, let me show you how to make an omelet.
Speaker 3: Mom, Yeah you got.
Speaker 2: You got to coddle it. You have to watch it
Speaker 2: takes patience, you know, could fall apart at any time,
Speaker 2: and yeah, are you talking to a parent and a baby.
Speaker 3: But it was also like talking about an egg, even
Speaker 3: though physical proximity and the way she was standing behind
Speaker 3: him and just sort of like, I don't know, there
Speaker 3: was just something. There was a whole lot of interesting
Speaker 3: Nay what I.
Speaker 1: Noticed as a cook is that was the slowest cooking omelet.
Speaker 1: Cooking omelet takes roughly two and a half minutes, and
Speaker 1: they were there technicity. I'm like, let me show You'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure it's done. I'm pretty sure you're all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but no, because they had to like convey it
Speaker 2: was a poached egg omelet, very slow cooking whatever was happening.
Speaker 3: So then we cut to the courtyard where Alison is
Speaker 3: talking to Ronda. She's saying that Billy didn't mean anything
Speaker 3: last night, and Ronda said, it's not what came out,
Speaker 3: but it's the way it came out, and she thinks
Speaker 3: that Billy's true callers came through and what Allison said
Speaker 3: she really wants to understand, and Rono tells her that
Speaker 3: everyone at Melrose's place would have probably reacted the same
Speaker 3: way Billy did, though she admits it probably wasn't intentional.
Speaker 2: Do you remember shooting.
Speaker 1: This at all that I felt like Allison was super defensive,
Speaker 1: like I want I was so many times, but I'd
Speaker 1: want to do over. I really want to do over
Speaker 1: on all these scenes, but one of it was they
Speaker 1: just want to go just soften like I and look,
Speaker 1: probably an accurate portrayal maybe of me at that age,
Speaker 1: age where I would have been like, how can you think.
Speaker 2: This of me?
Speaker 1: And I would have com meted defensive at that age,
Speaker 1: it was probably very authentic, But I think now I
Speaker 1: would have met it so much softer, like I'm authentically interested,
Speaker 1: just tell me, educate me.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I also think it's like a it's a it's
Speaker 3: a writing like necessity, like they needed to get that
Speaker 3: conversation out from both sides that way for Ronda's character
Speaker 3: to be able to say what she needed to say, right,
Speaker 3: So it's like a writing strategy in the scene. So like,
Speaker 3: don't beat yourself up for being defensive as a character,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, Like you had to play
Speaker 3: that scene to get to what this conversation needed to be.
Speaker 1: But I also think, honestly, yes, and but I was
Speaker 1: so young, I don't think I had the space to
Speaker 1: go like, look, as we know it, the older we are,
Speaker 1: the less we know. Like now I would say, please
Speaker 1: tell me, I honestly don't know.
Speaker 2: I thought I knew. I don't know. Please tell me.
Speaker 2: I don't feel like the older I get, the less
Speaker 2: I know, Oh, you mean because there's more out there.
Speaker 3: You're just so much that you're not.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I've learned as I've gotten older.
Speaker 1: The more definite I am, the more wrong I am.
Speaker 1: A girlfriend, and I always say, if we start with
Speaker 1: one thing, I know, we're guaranteed to be wrong.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because the more I definitely I am, the more
Speaker 2: wrong I am.
Speaker 1: So now I just go, I don't know, maybe because yeah,
Speaker 1: I honestly I realize how much I really don't know
Speaker 1: certainly about someone else's experience. I don't know anything about
Speaker 1: someone else's experience.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I see what you mean for sure. I
Speaker 2: think what's interesting. I like how Vanessa played it was
Speaker 2: that she didn't know. She yes, griggored something in her
Speaker 2: she doesn't have the answers, and it's easy with this
Speaker 2: kind of writing or this kind of like story to
Speaker 2: be sort of like solid in her righteousness. But she
Speaker 2: was confused. She didn't know. She just knows that, she
Speaker 2: just knows that it hurt, and it's bringing up what
Speaker 2: it's like to be, you know, black in a white
Speaker 2: world and in a white apartment building. And so as
Speaker 2: we go on, we'll see how these things come up
Speaker 2: for her.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so too. And I thought they did
Speaker 3: a great job of showing that all the people here
Speaker 3: were feeling that same confusion. And you know, right in
Speaker 3: the end of the scene that's Allison. She said, well,
Speaker 3: where do we go from here? Like what Ronda says,
Speaker 3: she doesn't know.
Speaker 2: I wish I knew, and then she leaves.
Speaker 3: And then we cut to D and D where Billy
Speaker 3: shows up to ask Alison if he can borrow her car.
Speaker 3: She's willing to let him, but he takes the keys
Speaker 3: out of her purse when she gets distracted on a
Speaker 3: phone call, and off he goes. So then we cut
Speaker 3: back to Jake's mom, which is who is joining Sandy
Speaker 3: at the pool side, and they're both on the pool
Speaker 3: launch chairs. At this moment. Sandy wants to know how
Speaker 3: long she'll be staying. Stella says, actually, I plan to
Speaker 3: stay in LA and then they both sort of have
Speaker 3: a bonding conversation about both being waitresses. Me too.
Speaker 1: That the point I'd like to make the point that
Speaker 1: they have a lot in common.
Speaker 2: That it's no that point. I don't know if you
Speaker 2: guys caught onto that. I just want to make I
Speaker 2: represent that I don't get it. It just it just
Speaker 2: came to me. It's the craziest thing. Yeah, Oh, they
Speaker 2: would be besties. I think after the show's over, those
Speaker 2: two characters like went off to They're totally like, you
Speaker 2: know what, you're gonna be my daughter, my son. You're
Speaker 2: an easy one.
Speaker 3: So then we cut to Jane and Michael at their
Speaker 3: parenting class, where Michael is demonstrably disinterested and he's being
Speaker 3: very rough with his doll be and he ends up
Speaker 3: breaking its arm off when he's getting the shirt on,
Speaker 3: and Jane ends up being the one who apologize to
Speaker 3: the teacher on his behalf, and Michael's just like, sorry,
Speaker 3: just a little like you know.
Speaker 1: What I was funny about this scene is how now
Speaker 1: neither one of them had kids yet, but how good
Speaker 1: they were at that moment of the mom trying to
Speaker 1: let the dad do something but really but don't but
Speaker 1: don't but don't like it's so it's so intuitive.
Speaker 2: Rights, So he rips the baby's arm right off, which
Speaker 2: is what we're all secretly afraid they're.
Speaker 4: Going to do.
Speaker 3: For the first time, and he just sort of like,
Speaker 3: I thought that was a very Michael like. It's a
Speaker 3: foreshadowing version of Michael where he's like, you know, like
Speaker 3: the level.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but then the teacher.
Speaker 1: Said, I mean, if you've been to parenting groups, what
Speaker 1: the teachers always say is they're tougher than you think.
Speaker 1: The babies are tougher. They never say it's a delicate flower.
Speaker 1: Like they don't tell the man don't touch it, you'll
Speaker 1: break it. They really want the husbands to be involved.
Speaker 1: And the dad's like, it's okay, like the babies are resilient.
Speaker 1: But the other way, they're not resilient. Information you can
Speaker 1: rip their arm off putting on their T shirt.
Speaker 2: You really can't.
Speaker 1: But I just to be clear, you can't.
Speaker 3: He was sort of like waving it around, like, oh,
Speaker 3: I sorry.
Speaker 2: I remember the first time.
Speaker 1: I remember the first time my son's dad put him
Speaker 1: down to sleep and I came home and I was
Speaker 1: looking at the monitor and I was like, what is that?
Speaker 1: And he goes and and my son was lying on
Speaker 1: his stomach and he goes, that's the buttons and I
Speaker 1: was like, the buttons that go in front. He's like, look,
Speaker 1: I got it on him. I was like, okay, Like
Speaker 1: it was backwards inside, No big deal, it's back Like right,
Speaker 1: I got to have dinner with my girlfriend's never mind,
Speaker 1: zip it, it was sleep.
Speaker 2: We're all good. Oh my god, that's so funny, so cute.
Speaker 3: So then heading to Billy, he's in Allison's car. He's
Speaker 3: brought Jake along. He's staking out the scene crime and
Speaker 3: Billy tells Jake that he thinks Ronda was out a
Speaker 3: line that it's not about black or white, but about
Speaker 3: right or wrong. That someone shouldn't rip you off or
Speaker 3: get in your face make you feel like a worthless
Speaker 3: piece of crap, he says, And Jake points out that
Speaker 3: there's probably a lot of people in this neighborhood who
Speaker 3: feel like that all the time. And then Jake says, Billy,
Speaker 3: I don't think you're ever going to find the guys
Speaker 3: who did it, And Billy says, you wait. If we
Speaker 3: wait long enough, the guys will be here. This is
Speaker 3: where they hang out. So they continue their stakeout.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and shooters.
Speaker 1: Thinking first of all, weren't you a little afraid that
Speaker 1: they were going to confront the guys.
Speaker 3: Well, we didn't know what they were going to do,
Speaker 3: yea right, I mean Billy had an idea plan. Yeah,
Speaker 3: Billy didn't tell the audience what his idea was. He
Speaker 3: was just there. You know, I brought Jake along for
Speaker 3: the ride, and Jake's also says, I think you're crazy,
Speaker 3: but you know, I'll.
Speaker 1: Go with you to sit in this neighborhood where you
Speaker 1: were robbed last night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, two nights again.
Speaker 3: This seems great.
Speaker 2: Let's say it's not a great plan.
Speaker 3: Not a great plan, so shooters. Matt sits down with
Speaker 3: Ronda at the bar, wearing her drink, noting that she's
Speaker 3: still upset, and Ronda tells Matut that the sitch suation
Speaker 3: with Billy is confusing. She says she tries to live
Speaker 3: her life colorblind, that everyone is a person first, and
Speaker 3: hoped everyone did the same thing. She admits to snapping
Speaker 3: a little when Billy went off, but she said it
Speaker 3: was a culmination of years of veiled remarks and little slips,
Speaker 3: and Matt says he can relate, ignoring years of stupid
Speaker 3: remarks about gays and that Ronda has a right to
Speaker 3: be upset. Ronda goes on to talk about the Rodney
Speaker 3: King verdict. She said she was outraged by the verdict
Speaker 3: and upset by the riots, but realizes now that she
Speaker 3: herself didn't do anything and that she feels like she's
Speaker 3: become blind to the problems of people her own color
Speaker 3: and Matt.
Speaker 2: And that's what I was talking about, like, there's there
Speaker 2: was real level to this, you know levels, and you know,
Speaker 2: feelings like this and with issues like this are complex
Speaker 2: for everybody. You know, how he got to see into
Speaker 2: Ronda with what it was like to be her with
Speaker 2: these friends and with this situation. It was a big
Speaker 2: deal in La for a while. The riots. I was
Speaker 2: just going to say that the you know, at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, the riots burned down, did burn
Speaker 2: down their own neighborhoods down in South Central mostly. You know,
Speaker 2: me as a white person who didn't live there, kind
Speaker 2: of was the same thing, Like, oh my god. But
Speaker 2: what Ronda says, they got her attention, They got everyone's attention.
Speaker 2: It got everyone's attention, and we hadn't been seeing this
Speaker 2: for so long and weren't interested in what it's like
Speaker 2: to be not white in this society. So they did
Speaker 2: get people's attention. And here we are thirty years later
Speaker 2: and things are different. I mean, obviously, but I just
Speaker 2: liked how. I don't know if this is where Ronda says,
Speaker 2: you know, she grew up in the suburbs, right, and
Speaker 2: so down there.
Speaker 3: This is just where she's starting to really, like you said,
Speaker 3: like she's not just coming with all the answers. She's
Speaker 3: saying she's got questions too. She's really like open to
Speaker 3: learning and having questions of her own. So everyone in
Speaker 3: this episode is sort of not how all the answers, saying, Yeah,
Speaker 3: this is confusing, there's a lot here, and I don't
Speaker 3: have all the answers, and I have questions too, And
Speaker 3: so she says to Matt, you know, and he's and
Speaker 3: he he agrees with her. It's hard, he says, it's
Speaker 3: hard to know what to do in a world of prejudice.
Speaker 3: It's hard to know what to do. That he's you know,
Speaker 3: he's ignored things you know to on it too, and
Speaker 3: that it's hard to know what to do. But Broanda
Speaker 3: has kind of the conclusion that they're that they're both responsible,
Speaker 3: she says, to help change things, saying if they're not
Speaker 3: part of the solution, then they're part.
Speaker 2: Of the problem problem. She's quoting that from what she's heard. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so she's going to her best friend. I think I
Speaker 2: would say that he's probably your best friend, closest friend
Speaker 2: to share that vulnerability and like, I don't know what
Speaker 2: to do, and I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but she's she's interested in finding a way to do.
Speaker 3: She's like part of the solution too. She's not just
Speaker 3: you know, thinking, she already has all the answers. And
Speaker 3: so back with the guys on the stakeout, Jake and
Speaker 3: Billy are about to give up and go home. Billy
Speaker 3: then spots the car that followed him last night, so
Speaker 3: he takes down the license plate. Thank god, that's all
Speaker 3: he was doing. He took down the license plate and says,
Speaker 3: we got him. So back at the apartment with Alison
Speaker 3: next morning, he's invested in a lock box for his
Speaker 3: cash in the cab, and he's happy that he got that.
Speaker 3: He gave the police the license number. Alison's not as
Speaker 3: enthusiastic as he is about that, and she's pretty pissed
Speaker 3: that Billy sort of conned her with his reasons about
Speaker 3: borrowing the car in the first place. And she said,
Speaker 3: you could have gotten hurt and.
Speaker 2: He could have gotten in my car.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And Billy defends himself saying, well, I was just
Speaker 3: doing what the police couldn't or wouldn't do, and then
Speaker 3: Alison tells Billy that he's forgetting that he said that
Speaker 3: this situation had opened the side of himself he wasn't
Speaker 3: comfortable looking at. So although she understands his desire for justice,
Speaker 3: he shouldn't just lock his feelings about everything in a
Speaker 3: box or assume that the situation is over just because
Speaker 3: and that he hasn't really solved anything, which makes him think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm generally cranky in this episode.
Speaker 3: I'm mad. I thought you were just reminding and like, wait,
Speaker 3: you know, there's a lot more layers to this than
Speaker 3: just a license plate number.
Speaker 2: I didn't see that as I didn't see that at all,
Speaker 2: court I saw Alison as, Yeah, I saw her sort
Speaker 2: of as a peacemaker or as someone who wants to
Speaker 2: have us kind of bringing two sides to have some
Speaker 2: understanding of each side. That's what I meant to say.
Speaker 1: That's what I meant to I.
Speaker 2: Think that's how I saw your scene the same episode
Speaker 2: where just.
Speaker 3: Very self critical Courtney and and we just need to
Speaker 3: remind you.
Speaker 2: I just think that, yeah, maybe you're seeing it through
Speaker 2: self critical. You know, you're talking to Ronda and saying,
Speaker 2: imagine being Billy and you're talking to Billy and saying,
Speaker 2: you know, she's so I liked that, but you had
Speaker 2: an edge to it. I'm just kidding. Striped shirt.
Speaker 1: I didn't like my stripe, big horizontal, weird striped shirt
Speaker 1: that I worked on the episode.
Speaker 2: So that's really the crowded. I think that clouded my vision.
Speaker 3: That must be what I mean.
Speaker 2: We're not even talking about the clothes or the hairstyles.
Speaker 2: That Matt's hair style and Shooters was a nightmare. Oh
Speaker 2: my god, so skillfully went and then he fixed it,
Speaker 2: thank god, because they're talking about big problems and uh,
Speaker 2: you know Anita's you know, Jake's mom's gorgeous rhinestones and
Speaker 2: a different jacket every scene. Denim on denim. Love the
Speaker 2: denim on denim. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I did notice Vanessa Ronda had they brought her a
Speaker 3: like a strawberry dakery or something. I'm like, you know,
Speaker 3: likeme for that on set where they're like, what do
Speaker 3: you want to be drinking in this scene? Oh, bring
Speaker 3: me something really sugary and fruity and just going to make.
Speaker 2: Me like that's just TV drinks. In the eighties and nineties, they.
Speaker 3: Three colorful, very Yeah, she was friendly, never a greyhound.
Speaker 2: You know, boring little it's always.
Speaker 3: Like sparkling water whatever. Nope, it's gotta be colorful. And yeah,
Speaker 3: there was no umbrella in it, though it wasn't that bad.
Speaker 2: So you're at a pool that you were at a
Speaker 2: pool or the beach if you've got an umbrella anyway.
Speaker 3: Okay, So then back in the baby class, Jane and
Speaker 3: Michael are discussing uh no, back at home, Jane and
Speaker 3: Michael are discussing Michael's bad behavior in the baby class,
Speaker 3: and Jane says that Michael needs to learn to be
Speaker 3: more patient. She's worried about what he will do with
Speaker 3: the real baby, and Michael says, Okay, I'm not perfect,
Speaker 3: but you, Jane, you need to be less overbearingly protective.
Speaker 3: So they're sort of accusing each other of being too.
Speaker 2: Much of and he said sorry, but she said no
Speaker 2: parents are perfect.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: In the same episode that we're seeing Jake deal with
Speaker 2: his imperfect mother. I thought that, oh good. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: because also Court, you know, not my memories or my observation,
Speaker 2: not my memories, but my observation of these scripts are
Speaker 2: not clouded by memories of being in it, Like yeah,
Speaker 2: striped shirt by my strung.
Speaker 3: There's so much better, and we're just like viewers, going,
Speaker 3: that's coming, it's fine.
Speaker 2: But right now, Laura and I get to just see
Speaker 2: it as you know, like as total audience members. So
Speaker 2: I just saw that. I just know they're all these parallels,
Speaker 2: these little uh not Easter eggs, but just these little
Speaker 2: treats all throughout it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, also in that scene with Michael and Jane, I
Speaker 1: was thinking one of the writers has a little kid,
Speaker 1: because that was such a parent new parent argument. You're
Speaker 1: too overprotective, you're not patient enough, you know, take these
Speaker 1: things because the energies are so different, you know, the
Speaker 1: new mom energy and the new data energy, and it
Speaker 1: feels like they're so rough, and we want to protect
Speaker 1: our little babies and they don't want them to be coddled.
Speaker 2: But all we want to do is be in a.
Speaker 1: Room holding them, protecting them from the big bad world.
Speaker 3: And these two aren't even parents yet, they're just preparing
Speaker 3: to be parents, just imagining they're going to be, like, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 3: that's think.
Speaker 1: One of the writers is writing from a fight yad
Speaker 1: with his wife that morning, that's thinking.
Speaker 2: I mean a lot of that goes on right as
Speaker 2: with the directors, as you pointed out earlier.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So the back of Shooters, Sandy is discussing Jake's
Speaker 3: mom with sort of a bummed out Jake and he
Speaker 3: wants her to be gone, and then he realizes, oh, look,
Speaker 3: my mother is here at Shooters shooting pool with a
Speaker 3: guy and she he realizes that Sandy has brought her
Speaker 3: to the bar, so he's pissed. Sandy says, hey, I
Speaker 3: felt sorry for you know. She really wants a second chance,
Speaker 3: and Jake says, no, Sandy, my mom's drunk. She doesn't
Speaker 3: deserve a second chance. So this is kind of his
Speaker 3: theme throughout, is like she hasn't changed, she doesn't deserve
Speaker 3: a second chance, you know. And he says it in
Speaker 3: the top scene and he'll say it again. She hasn't changed,
Speaker 3: she hasn't changed. And we'll see down the line he's
Speaker 3: going to repeat that again.
Speaker 2: Well, we see in the scene when you when the
Speaker 2: camera shoots her and she's like and she's flirt. There's
Speaker 2: a guy behind her teaching her how to like do
Speaker 2: the pool thing, and he's like, I rest my case
Speaker 2: and he's completely annoyed hitting on my neighbors.
Speaker 3: The second chance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, she's kind of like, uh, she's kind of
Speaker 2: blind to that part of his mom because she's hurt.
Speaker 2: She sees it as normal. What because she's a yeah, what,
Speaker 2: she's great.
Speaker 3: Ill let him back to Billy. Back to Billy who's
Speaker 3: driving his cab, and then he stops to pick up Ronda,
Speaker 3: who is holding a bag of groceries. She gets in
Speaker 3: his car and she tells him she wants him to
Speaker 3: take her to Florence and Normandy, which is the intersection
Speaker 3: that really represents the heart of south central LA and
Speaker 3: that's the sight of the beginning of the riots and
Speaker 3: really heightened racial tensions at that time. And she says,
Speaker 3: take me to Florence and Normandy, and Billy says, I
Speaker 3: don't need my consciousness raised, but Ronda says.
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she probably meant both. I didn't know if she
Speaker 2: meant I need your consciousness to be raised. I think
Speaker 2: that's meant I need my consciousness to be raised, because
Speaker 2: she had just had that scene with Matt like I
Speaker 2: want to like, you know, I want to step up here.
Speaker 3: I think that was a great line because of that,
Speaker 3: because you get to interpret it that it was both. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was like in a literal sense. She's saying, I
Speaker 3: do like her own, but it really is. I could
Speaker 3: hear it in the way it was delivered. I love
Speaker 3: that it was.
Speaker 2: And then the greatest inside messaging here was when they
Speaker 2: pulled away and the bumper sticker.
Speaker 3: Did you know the art department, Courtney, Let's ask Courtney,
Speaker 3: did you notice the bumper sticker on the back of
Speaker 3: the cab As they drove away, I was still thinking
Speaker 3: about my stripe shir okay, great, all right, said love
Speaker 3: your Mother all on the back of Billie's cab. So
Speaker 3: again our prop and art department having sort of like.
Speaker 2: Gorilla marketing, which was obviously about are themes in the show,
Speaker 2: but also it has a globe of planet on there,
Speaker 2: and it means love your mother, Earth, Earth, of your mother.
Speaker 3: And that was a new bumper sticker. We've seen the
Speaker 3: back of Billy's cab before, but this is the first
Speaker 3: episode and a very important EIO.
Speaker 2: They were on at the art department. Man, they were
Speaker 2: really were now that I've heard about that, all the
Speaker 2: things like this that they would put in, it's because
Speaker 2: that bumper sticker really was about love Mother Earth, Protect
Speaker 2: Mother Earth, protect the planet that's given you everything that
Speaker 2: you have and that you are, uh and there that
Speaker 2: was real sort of environmental movement back then. So but
Speaker 2: they also put it in because of the storyline, which
Speaker 2: is great. But yeah, global, that's great.
Speaker 3: In this episode. And I I'd like to know if
Speaker 3: we can get a love your Mother bumper sticker. Now
Speaker 3: that's a piece of you know, Melrose paraphernalia. I would
Speaker 3: like to consider it still. Maybe put it on the
Speaker 3: back of my kid's card. Love your Mother.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're like, you'll put a picture of you, not
Speaker 2: take out the planet Earth, all of it.
Speaker 3: Love your Mother.
Speaker 2: And I bought a mug one time.
Speaker 1: I was out of town and I've forgotten, like a
Speaker 1: big mug and I'd forgotten my big mug, and so
Speaker 1: I bought one. And the one the biggest mug they
Speaker 1: had it said World's Best Mother.
Speaker 2: So I bought it.
Speaker 1: And it was not for my son. So I'm constantly
Speaker 1: trying to get my son to hold it. So then
Speaker 1: he gives it to me, and he's too smart, like
Speaker 1: he dodges it. But I've dragged to make it give
Speaker 1: it to me. But no, I bought my own world.
Speaker 1: You had to buy it for yourself. I buy it
Speaker 1: for myself and he will like, honeywey you hold this.
Speaker 2: He won't do it. He's too smart for me, damn it.
Speaker 2: So giving you something like that for Mother's Day or
Speaker 2: your birthday. Oh, he's a total sweetheart.
Speaker 1: But he's onto me with the mug, not the mug.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So building a round to drive, They're looking at
Speaker 4: the burned out neighborhood, and this is where Rhonda admits
Speaker 4: that she grew she herself gripped in the middle class
Speaker 4: suburb and she can't really relate because this.
Speaker 3: They agree. It just looks like a war zone, they say,
Speaker 3: and the neighborhood is burned everywhere. And then RNDA notes
Speaker 3: that they reported last night that only three people were
Speaker 3: killed in shootings last night, and just the operative word
Speaker 3: being only three people. Yeah, and Billy says he can.
Speaker 3: You know, they're both just sort of commiserating on like
Speaker 3: this is it's hard to grasp, it's hard to understand.
Speaker 3: And Billy says, you know, I can actually understand someone
Speaker 3: who's looting and stealing TV or a stereo, who you
Speaker 3: know that they might not otherwise be able to afford it,
Speaker 3: But I don't understand burning down one's own neighborhood.
Speaker 2: And that's what she said.
Speaker 3: But it got there when Ronda said, yeah, but it
Speaker 3: got their attention, didn't.
Speaker 2: It got everyone's attention exactly. But that line stuck out
Speaker 2: to me when she said only three people that the news, right,
Speaker 2: the white produced news out to the world, Well, only
Speaker 2: three people died last night. Well who are those three people?
Speaker 2: And it's not only whose kids?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: As if that's a good statistic, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what about zero people? Let's go for that. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So then they arrived at a church. Ronda says that
Speaker 3: Rebuild La an organization is gathering donations to help residents
Speaker 3: in the neighborhood, and so it's clear that now that's
Speaker 3: what the bag of groceries that she's brought, she's bringing
Speaker 3: them for donations. And Ronda admits to Billy that she
Speaker 3: feels like she's always been too busy or maybe too
Speaker 3: scared to come down there to these neighborhoods to see
Speaker 3: how bad things really were. So she adds her donations
Speaker 3: to the pile, and then she joins Billy, who's listening
Speaker 3: to an inspirational pastor speaking about working together, all people
Speaker 3: working together to help, to vote and to build and
Speaker 3: not to be part of the distruction, be a part
Speaker 3: of love, not hatred, be a part of hope and
Speaker 3: the possibility of tomorrow. And so they both stand here
Speaker 3: listening to this message and you just really see that
Speaker 3: it's meaningful for both of them.
Speaker 1: This actor, Ron Canada, who played the minister, has been
Speaker 1: in everything, The Shield, West Wing, Ugly Betty. But like
Speaker 1: he's one of those actors, those character actors who you go,
Speaker 1: I know him, what's he been in?
Speaker 2: The answer is everything.
Speaker 1: So another example of the great guest stars we got
Speaker 1: to meet on our.
Speaker 3: Show, So many great guest stars. So back home, Billy
Speaker 3: is telling Allison that he was always taught to respect
Speaker 3: others and he thought he was doing that, but he,
Speaker 3: you know, doesn't seem so sure about anything anymore. And
Speaker 3: he also notes that he feels guilty a little bit
Speaker 3: now about everything, even though he was a victim. He
Speaker 3: says he feels guilty, and Allison tells him, Oh, while
Speaker 3: the police called and they have now positively id the
Speaker 3: guy who beat up your car based on the license plates.
Speaker 3: So you just need to go down to the jail
Speaker 3: to put the guy in jail. You just need to
Speaker 3: go give a positive idea and verify that they have
Speaker 3: the guy, and then we see that Billy is really
Speaker 3: conflicted about what to do. We cut to Jake's mom
Speaker 3: returning home after her night at Shooters. She stumbles into
Speaker 3: the apartment, clearly very drunk after her night out, and
Speaker 3: she apologizes to Jake when she sees that he was
Speaker 3: waiting up for her, and he is pissed. She passes
Speaker 3: out on the couch and Jake tucks her in and
Speaker 3: sort of says to himself, yeah, mom, you've really changed.
Speaker 2: Oh that was hard.
Speaker 3: Sarcastic, yep. So he just, you know, she just proved
Speaker 3: everything that he was afraid of.
Speaker 2: And yet there's that tender moment when he puts he
Speaker 2: puts a blanket over her and pucks her in, and
Speaker 2: it's very he loves her. He loves her, and she's
Speaker 2: fragile even though she's older. It's kind of switched, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a lot like to you know, somebody
Speaker 3: that just really disappoints you. But it's it's your mother,
Speaker 3: you know, and you want it to be different. And
Speaker 3: I just thought Grant did such a great job playing
Speaker 3: all those colors.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so much easier to feel for someone when
Speaker 2: they're well vulnerable but also sleeping. You know, like it
Speaker 2: just looked like this vulnerable, fragile little thing and you know,
Speaker 2: they're not like in your face or anything.
Speaker 3: Maybe that was the problem with Jane and Michael's baby doll.
Speaker 3: Maybe they just needed the baby to be sleeping for
Speaker 3: Michael to be more tender. Yeah, baby doll. So then
Speaker 3: speaking of Jane and Michael, we cut to them waking
Speaker 3: up in the morning and Jane turned to Michael and
Speaker 3: she apologizes and saying, you know, I overreacted, and Michael says, no, honey,
Speaker 3: you were right. Kids are fragile and little things that
Speaker 3: we do can affect a child for their whole lives.
Speaker 3: And I'm going to learn to be patient, and Jane says, well,
Speaker 3: you know, I can learn to let go a little
Speaker 3: bit too. So they both give what they needed to
Speaker 3: give and say that they learned what they needed to learn,
Speaker 3: and all things seem to be right in the man
Speaker 3: Seni household, amazing, amazing. So then over breakfast, Stella again
Speaker 3: in the morning, apologizes to Jake once more. Jake's as
Speaker 3: a joke, Yeah, it's okay, you know, seeing you drunk
Speaker 3: sort of gave me a chance to relive some childhood memories. Ouch.
Speaker 2: And then he big ouch. She's popping a couple asprin
Speaker 2: in an old fashioned ashburn jar, like nobody has these
Speaker 2: clear jars that the prop department gives. Says, here's the
Speaker 2: ass friend, what is this from the thirties? Cap on
Speaker 2: that and drinking her juice and he's like, hey, mom, yeah,
Speaker 2: and then he has to say something very hard to her.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he says, very gently but firmly, you know
Speaker 3: you can't stay here anymore. You need to go, and
Speaker 3: I want you.
Speaker 2: To be gone when I get back. I mean yeah.
Speaker 3: And this is where she also says you know, because
Speaker 3: he says, you know you gave up on me, and
Speaker 3: she defends herself. She says, but I was nineteen, I
Speaker 3: couldn't handle the motherhood at the time, and give me
Speaker 3: another chance. And Jake tells her, no, this is it's
Speaker 3: twenty years too late. And you know when I was
Speaker 3: in trouble, you were never there to bail me out.
Speaker 3: And I want you gone before I get back. So
Speaker 3: he's firm. He's like, I don't believe that you've changed.
Speaker 3: And yes, all those things are true. Yes you were
Speaker 3: young and too young to handle motherhood, but also, you
Speaker 3: haven't changed. Both are true, Yeah.
Speaker 2: She's he's right, she hasn't changed at all, yep.
Speaker 3: And so he's firm and you can see it's painful,
Speaker 3: but he's clear. So then Ronda comes over to Billy's
Speaker 3: apartment and she's saying, I heard they found the guy,
Speaker 3: and Billy says, yeah, I don't think I'm going to
Speaker 3: go down and identify him. But Ronda says, you know,
Speaker 3: ignoring the law isn't quite the right thing to do either,
Speaker 3: and I don't think that'll make either of us happy.
Speaker 3: So she ends up driving Billy to the police station,
Speaker 3: where Billy ends up positively iding the guy. He's sure
Speaker 3: who it is. And then as they put the guy
Speaker 3: in handcuffs and they're in the front of the station,
Speaker 3: Billy is sort of like stopped in his tracks because
Speaker 3: a handcuffed guy says that line that he had said
Speaker 3: on the night, which is a light It sort of
Speaker 3: gives Billy those chills of hearing that same thing again.
Speaker 3: And then Ronda and Billy watch while the guy's mom
Speaker 3: suddenly appears. She yanks the cigarette out of the guy's mouth,
Speaker 3: she slaps him, saying what did you do? Now get
Speaker 3: dracked together, and she's mothering this guy who's you know,
Speaker 3: messed up, and so again the mother theme coming back
Speaker 3: into the storyline. Then a shooter. Sandy's telling Jake, your
Speaker 3: mom is gone. You can return to your own apartment,
Speaker 3: but you know, she's still at the bus stationed for
Speaker 3: another twenty minutes. Maybe she'd go and tell her goodbye.
Speaker 3: So Jake goes to the bus station, helps his mom
Speaker 3: with her bags, and says, I'm not here to ask
Speaker 3: you to stay. I'm just here to say goodbye, and
Speaker 3: Stella thanks him. She apologizes again and says I love you,
Speaker 3: and instead of saying I love you back, Jake tells her.
Speaker 2: Take care of yourself. I love that. Yeah, that was
Speaker 2: like a movie that saying, isn't it like just to
Speaker 2: see the bus behind her and she's getting on the bus. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and you know whereas much as like just a few
Speaker 2: minutes before, he says, I want you gone when I
Speaker 2: come home, and you're just going. I was just saying, like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, no, you know, like she's vulnerable, just
Speaker 2: take care of her. I pardon me, just wanted him
Speaker 2: to just take care of her. And yet this scene
Speaker 2: made it okay for me, made me go okay, I
Speaker 2: get it. She's you know, she's okay with it. She
Speaker 2: finally starting to wake up, and she has to learn
Speaker 2: to take care of herself because in the end, she
Speaker 2: was just going to her son like she was going
Speaker 2: to every other man to be taken care of, and
Speaker 2: he wasn't having it.
Speaker 3: And you can just see his struggle that when she
Speaker 3: says I love you, that he would like to be
Speaker 3: able to say that, and it's just not what he's
Speaker 3: able to have come out of his mouth right then.
Speaker 3: But he does wish her well and says take care
Speaker 3: of herself, you know. So you can just really see
Speaker 3: the struggle there for sure, and they say goobye.
Speaker 1: So then we cut to the courtin like that, someone
Speaker 1: like that who's needy in the way she is, it's
Speaker 1: scary to say I love you, well, if you love me,
Speaker 1: then I can stay there and we can, you know,
Speaker 1: he has to have some distance because she's just she's
Speaker 1: not she doesn't feel safe because she's really not safe
Speaker 1: for him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he he knows he needs to put his boundaries,
Speaker 3: you know, strong clearly in place with her, and that
Speaker 3: was one of them. So we cut to the final
Speaker 3: scene where Ronda and Billy are soaking their feet, sitting
Speaker 3: side by side. They're soaking their feet in the pool,
Speaker 3: and Alison walks by, saying, well, I'm happy to haven't
Speaker 3: killed each other, and Ronda and Billy both say that,
Speaker 3: you know, they just need to keep talking and they
Speaker 3: really need to keep listening, and Ronda says, we can
Speaker 3: change the world one person at a time. Billy thanks,
Speaker 3: Ronda says, I owe you one, and she says it
Speaker 3: was a lesson for me too, and then she gets
Speaker 3: up and she goes inside to get ready for her
Speaker 3: early days tomorrow, and Billy says good night to her,
Speaker 3: and he ends the episode sitting alone with his feet.
Speaker 2: That's it. That was a very intense and deep and
Speaker 2: cool episode for Meloe's Place. And I was taken as
Speaker 2: I was watching this, you guys, Melro's Obviously the show turns,
Speaker 2: we get it, I know that very shortly in a
Speaker 2: few episodes, and it becomes what it became and what
Speaker 2: it became famous for. But before that happens, I mean,
Speaker 2: this is really I thought thoughtful and like we kept
Speaker 2: saying before, you know, Courtney would say, it's young kids
Speaker 2: trying to make young adults trying to make a go
Speaker 2: at it, you know, and I think some of it
Speaker 2: that I think this is right in between. I don't know.
Speaker 2: It was like it wasn't just you know, me trying
Speaker 2: to find a job or somebody else doing something kind
Speaker 2: of general life stuff. It was issues.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well there's still like they were latly wrapped up,
Speaker 3: Like all these stories did come to a sort of
Speaker 3: happy feeling and a happy end, you know, which isn't
Speaker 3: the dynamic that we know we're going to for the Melrose,
Speaker 3: but like that's the one we've been talking about for
Speaker 3: all our recaps. It's like, Okay, we wrap up these
Speaker 3: stories and there's kind of a little lesson in there.
Speaker 3: But the lesson and the stories for this particular episode,
Speaker 3: they were big topics that were you know, big big
Speaker 3: conversations and big issues, and I thought, like you said,
Speaker 3: there's three going on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wonder too if that's why it worked when
Speaker 1: it started to get crazy, Because after when when we
Speaker 1: were hit, so many shows tried to copy Morrows and
Speaker 1: didn't work. But this time, where it was kind of slow,
Speaker 1: people got attached to the characters so that when it
Speaker 1: started to go crazy, they had. They were like people
Speaker 1: they knew and loved. If you start crazy, you don't
Speaker 1: know who to attach to, right, right, So maybe this
Speaker 1: is actually this part we're sort of setting the groundwork
Speaker 1: because you had to start some were grounded because then
Speaker 1: once it went off the rails, you had to be
Speaker 1: attached to these characters.
Speaker 2: You had to care what happened to them in that
Speaker 2: crazy world.
Speaker 3: Now that's a really good point.
Speaker 2: We do have a few fan questions, all right, So
Speaker 2: there's one in season one, I know, is that a
Speaker 2: lot of hints about Allison's family being not so good?
Speaker 2: Did the writers already know they were going to portray
Speaker 2: her father as a sexual abuser or did that come
Speaker 2: closer to when it was revealed at the end of
Speaker 2: season two?
Speaker 1: You know, Thank you listener. I had the same thought
Speaker 1: they do. They put little breadcrumbs right that it wasn't
Speaker 1: so good, but they didn't tell me in advance, so
Speaker 1: I didn't know until right before that that really difficult
Speaker 1: scene at the family barbecue, that was that was hard
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 2: So I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think it was just I think they were this
Speaker 1: is where they were. They really were smart, Like Allison's
Speaker 1: so controlled and defensive and you're kind of, oh, this
Speaker 1: is why they had an idea. I don't know if
Speaker 1: they had the idea though. Yeah, I doubt we asked
Speaker 1: the writers we have darn.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll have some writers on. We'll have Darren and
Speaker 2: maybe Chuck will come on, like we said, and I'll
Speaker 2: bet you Chip Hays will know. I mean, he will
Speaker 2: have to ask them all come on.
Speaker 3: We want to have them all on, which means we're
Speaker 3: just going to have to Yeah, we will, Well you're
Speaker 3: going to until they get on.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, this is a fun question. I read this question
Speaker 1: as far as wardrobe goes. I feel like every time
Speaker 1: a woman is about to do something bad, she is
Speaker 1: wearing red. That's that coincidence.
Speaker 2: I didn't know the question.
Speaker 3: I think it's a great observation, a great observation.
Speaker 2: I just start looking. I haven't let's clock that, and
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't doubt that could be a very conscious choice.
Speaker 2: That seems just knowing, knowing our crew, that's like putting
Speaker 2: all this subversive stuff in. Maybe. Yeah, so this wardrobe
Speaker 2: person is before Denise Wingate got on, Yes, who came
Speaker 2: on when I came on? I think that's fifteen So
Speaker 2: I don't know who this person was or what they
Speaker 2: were like, or maybe it.
Speaker 1: Was So do you think they lost their job because
Speaker 1: of the striped shirt?
Speaker 3: I don't think so, Coy, I think was it the
Speaker 3: power of stricket?
Speaker 2: Was it the carn this couple episodes.
Speaker 3: Which was a million episodes ago?
Speaker 2: Or was it Dove's hair this episode and night I
Speaker 2: wake up?
Speaker 3: Ago?
Speaker 2: Stripes? Stripes? I just I'm gonna start noticing more.
Speaker 3: I think Leopard has a little bit of sass attached
Speaker 3: to it too.
Speaker 2: Like, but you know what, women didn't start doing bad
Speaker 2: stuff until it turned So I'm wondering if this fan has,
Speaker 2: you know, seen the whole show, and I might have
Speaker 2: to remind us we might.
Speaker 1: Let's pay attention though, because I think that's really interesting.
Speaker 3: It's fun to have something to look for now. So
Speaker 3: thank you for that question, and keep your questions coming.
Speaker 1: Fun, so much fun.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we love your observations and your questions, and so
Speaker 3: DM is still the place Instagram. You know, we're only
Speaker 3: on episode ten. We're moving as fast as we can
Speaker 3: through these recaps. But we've been having really great guests.
Speaker 1: We've had a lot of friends come out, which is
Speaker 1: so sweet. Yeah, but our friends and castmates want to
Speaker 1: come out and play with us as much as we
Speaker 1: want to play with them.
Speaker 3: And we've gotten them all to promise to come back,
Speaker 3: which is really fick, which is really exciting, as.
Speaker 2: We keep pointing out thirty episodes a year.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, but we still have to get through our recap.
Speaker 3: So like every every recap, we're in one episode closer
Speaker 3: to Daphne. We're getting there. We can count how many
Speaker 3: remain on one hand now before we get to Daphne.
Speaker 2: Listen to the whole podcast and follow and download, leave
Speaker 2: reviews if you can to, that would be awesome.
Speaker 3: Keep listening, keep telling your friends, all those friends that
Speaker 3: you watched Melroe's Place with back in the day.
Speaker 2: And watch with us.
Speaker 1: It is super fun to reason watching the episodes, really,
Speaker 1: and then you.
Speaker 2: Can see how full of it we are or for
Speaker 2: the money, really, don't you want to see that striped shirt?
Speaker 3: You're welcome to correct us in the DMS to like,
Speaker 3: you know, what you said, an entirely wrong thing that
Speaker 3: was exactly total. We're happy to hear that too.
Speaker 2: Then we know you're join the conversation. I do love
Speaker 2: what they have to say, all right, you gay guys
Speaker 2: we'll see you next week. Bye.