Season 5, Episode 23: I'll Show You Mine



The credits: olivia d'abo, adam scott, chad todhunter, brenda wehle, edited by richard freeman a.c.e., production designer bill eigenbrodt, director of photography steven h. smith, co-producer valerie joseph, producer daniel attias, supervising producer paul marks, co-executive producer tammy ader, co-executive producer p.k. simonds, executive producer ken topolsky, executive producer john romano, written by julia dahl, directed by daniel attias

Co-starring David Brisbin as Professor Jacobs, John Patrick Hayden as Mr. Briggs, Parry Shen as Kyle, Andi Eystad as Amanda, Margaret Laurena Kemp a Kenia, Josh Green as Bart, Robert Phelps as Mr. Bauman, Karen S. Gregan as Nurse, Brian Smith as Bob, Nunei Harrington as Nan.
Transcribed by Rachel

Josh comes to join Julia at a table at Stanford. She's working on a story. He asks if she wants him to take a look at it, but she says she doesn't like criticism this early on. He asks what the marks are on her paper. She had Perry make some notes. He asks if Perry has become her personal writing coach. Julia tries to downplay it, saying that Perry has just shown some interest in her writing. Josh offers to take her to dinner. He assumes that she's over with "that Ned guy." Julia says she is, but that's kind of why she's been in this monkish hibernation mode. It's nothing personal, she just hasn't felt like being around people. She sees Perry and abandons Josh at the table. She has rewritten the first part of the story and wonders if Perry will take another look at it. Perry teases that she has her own deadline to worry about. They walk past Josh, Julia ignoring him as Perry greets him. Julia offers to do Perry a favor, like grade her papers or do her laundry.

Cody's apartment
Cody brings Claudia back to his place. She asks about his roommates, but they both have girlfriends, so they are hardly ever around. He comments how hot the concert hall was and pulls off his overshirt. He asks if Claudia is hot as well. She pulls away asking him about his snake. Cody gets out an enormous snake named Noah. Cody tells her how snakes can have sex for 24 hours straight. Claudia interrupts saying she forgot to call Bailey. She's going to use the phone in the kitchen. Cody gives her his phone, he's going to go get some water. Claudia pretends to call Bailey, acting like he has demanded that she come straight home. Cody can't believe she has to leave, but Claudia says she'll see him tomorrow.

Kitchen
Claudia comes sneaking into the house, but Bailey is waiting up for her. It's 12:20 am. He can't believe she's doing this to him. He has to be to the fish market in 5 hours. Claudia reminds him that she told him she was going to a concert in the Mission. He called the box office and the concert let out at 9 pm. She tells him he wouldn't have worried if he hadn't stayed up. Charlie didn't worry. He lets her come home when she wants. Bay points out that he isn't Charlie. How is he supposed to trust her when she says she'll be home at 9 and she comes home at midnight. She says there isn't any bargain, he just needs to mind his own business. Bailey says that it is his business. In their family it isn't fair with their past to make each other worry at night. She tells him not to throw their mom and dad in her face. He'll make it easier for her--she's grounded. Until he says she's not. She leaves.

Kirsten's apartment
Kirsten is making the bed when Charlie comes in with coffee. He tells her that if she doesn't change out of her pajamas (very cute flannel ones), he's never going to make it to work. She comments that she didn't even hear him get up. He popped up at 5 am feeling like he hasn't since Little League. He strutted down Market street smiling at people, waiting in the longest line of people to bring her her favorite vanilla whatever it is ( he hands her coffee) and yellow roses. He also found an ad for a 2 bedroom apartment in Lower Haight for 900 bucks. It's the owner who's renting it, so it's going to go in two seconds. He tries to call the owner. Kirsten tells him if anything is wrong with the apartment, for any reason, he should not feel like he has to take it. He thanks her, but he asked if they could crash with her for one night and now it's been seven. She doesn't mind. Charlie gets a hold of the apartment people while Kirsten looks a little disappointed.

Salinger's
Bailey comes over to the table where Sarah is sitting with his guest list. He's inviting food critics, the head of the tourism commission, etc. If you invite people over to your home they think they're your friend and then they help you out. He looks at what she's working on. It's a mock-up for a banner for her Students against Sweatshops campaign. He can't believe he didn't know she was working on this. She's sure that there's stuff that he does that she doesn't know about. He thinks they don't cross paths enough. They live together and he still feels like he misses her. She tells him he can come to one of their meetings. He would love to, why doesn't she host his dinner party with him. She's not sure she would know what to do, but he reassures her that she just has to be bright and charming. Afterwards, they'll kick their feed up and he'll feed her the leftover caviar and they'll make a night of it.

Stanford
Julia comes to Perry's door. She brought her some Mexican wedding cookies to thank her for all of her work. Perry is in a hurry since she has to go to a gathering at the dean's house. Julia tells her to have a good time. She also thanks her for the story Perry gave her. Perry asks how it was. Julia thinks it was good. Perry asks what she means. Julia says it was very good, especially the ending. Perry wonders if that means the rest of it wasn't very good. Where does the story not work? Julia is only a student--but Perry wants to know what she thinks, the dean can wait. Julia tells her that the main character was a bit of a snooze. She lacked a certain--she wasn't proactive. Perry does have to go to the dean's, but Julia is coming with her. She has to tell her how to not make the main character such a snooze.

Berkeley
Sarah's group is meeting about the sit-in they are planning. Sarah offers to help the guy making the flyers. As they discuss it Sarah finds out that the protest has been moved to Saturday. She can't be there on Saturday because she promised her boyfriend that she would do this "thing" with him. The others in the group don't understand why she can't be there. Sarah will still do the banner.

Kirsten's apartment
Kirsten is meeting with someone from the University of Chicago. They were very impressed with her dissertation. They're offering her two years of full-funding. She asks why the plagiarism doesn't matter. He says they understood after she made her statement about the circumstances. He wouldn't be there otherwise. She's very impressed, but it's in Chicago. Even though it's near her family, she can't take it right now. He's going to leave the material with her, maybe she'll change her mind.

Hospital
Dr. Rabin is with Charlie in the MRI exam room. She reminds him to stay very still during the test. The nurse has Diana who's fussing. Charlie tells her to sing a song that calms her down. The nurse sings "the wheels on the bus go round and round." Charlie sings along until Dr. Rabin reminds him not to move his lips.

Salinger's
Charlie and Bailey are having lunch. Charlie tells Bay about his housing dilemma. Two weeks ago Kirsten was telling him how psyched she was to have her own place again. Bay doesn't get it, he thinks that Charlie would want to be there. Charlie says the single biggest mistake of his life was letting her get away, and then he spent two years trying to get over her. He just wants to make sure it works this time so he's taking it slow. He's so lucky, he feels like he won the lotto. Living together is too fast, too risky. Bay asks if he loves her. He does. Is she having any doubts? Not that Charlie knows of. Than how can there be any risks?

Stanford
Julia and Perry are working on Julia's story. It's late and there is music coming from outside. Julia wants to do a little more work, but Perry is worn out. She asks what the throbbing is. She wants to go across the street and have a drink at the party. Julia doesn't want to. The frat house has a urine trough in their basement. Perry wants to go, she never did anything like that in college. She was always on book tours or lecturing. Julia really feels for the trauma of her book deals. Perry realizes that Julia is having about as much of a college life as she did. Julia doesn't think that she's missing out just because she isn't going to keg parties. Perry tells her not to be an idiot. She's in a fully furnished building. For four years she's mere feet away from libraries, concerts, she should take more advantage of college. Besides, Perry took her to one of her parties, Julia has to take her to one of hers.

Claudia's room
Claudia and Cody come into her room. While he comments that he showed her his, so she should show him hers, Claudia acts very uncomfortable. Cody plops down on the bed. He asks when her brothers are getting home. Owen is there now and Bailey is closing the restaurant. As he comments that they can be alone, the doorbell rings. Claudia goes down to find her friend Amanda and a ton of other people. She only asked Amanda to bring over a couple of people. Cody comes down, he isn't really in the mood for a high school party. She doesn't want him to leave, but he really just wanted to be alone with her. Claudia tries to control the party to no avail.

Stanford
Julia and Perry are at the frat party. A guy is hitting on Julia and when she tries to get away he grabs her arm. Josh and Perry help her get away from him. Julia comments that he's a drunken jerk, but Josh informs her that he's always kind of a jerk. Perry asks if she's okay. Josh also inquires after her. Perry thanks him for coming to Julia's rescue. Julia asks if she and Perry can go get coffee, just the two of them.

Living room
Bailey and Sarah come home to find the house full of teenagers. Bailey goes up to Claudia's room to find her. When he opens the door he sees two people in bed. He closes the door telling himself he won't get sick. As he's getting ready to go back in Claudia shows up behind him. He can't believe she did this. Did she just bring the party to her to punish Bailey? Are these Cody's friends? Claudia tells him that he had nothing to do with it. Bailey can't believe she invited all of them over. She tries to explain that she only invited a few of them. There are 50 drunk teenagers there trashing all the stuff for his party, so he needs a good explanation. She doesn't have one.

Kirsten's apartment
Kirsten comes home to find Charlie. He congratulates her. He shouldn't have read it, but she left it open. She asks what he's talking about. He holds up the letter from Chicago. He read her offer letter. She turned it down. He can't believe she did. He hopes she didn't do that because of him. She asks why. They can commute back and forth and he has next summer off... She points out that three weeks before he didn't want her to go to Africa. Africa is 9,000 miles away, Chicago is 3 hours. This is the best thing that's happened to her since-- She asks why he's the one to decide this. He continues that in the not so distant past she had worked 4 years undergrad and 3 years into a Ph.D. for this and he's the reason it went to waste and he's not going to get in her way again. She wants to know what he means. If he hadn't let his stupid fear get in the way, they would have gotten married and she would have never gotten depressed and she would have finished her degree. She can't believe that he blames himself for that happening. He does and he won't let her give up her dream again for him.

Stanford
Julia wants to know why she's a walking target for drooling jerks. Perry exudes a "don't mess with me" attitude. She doesn't think so, but Julia thinks she is very self-confident in all that she does. Even in her work. Perry says she is tortured too. Julia doesn't think so. Perry responds that she's plenty tortured. The only reason she doesn't seem tortured is because she works all the time. In her literary convent she doesn't have to deal with the physiological reality that she hasn't been laid in over a year. So, she doesn't have to deal with the issues of love and rejection. Julia pulls Perry's hand up and starts examining her rings. They grow quiet until Perry gets up saying she should print her story out.

Cody's apartment
Claudia comes over to talk to Cody about the night before. She invited the people over because she isn't sure if she's ready to be alone in bedrooms with him. He asks what she means. She recounts a horror novel she read about a girl who is kidnaped and driven around in the trunk of a man's car. Cody can't believe that she thinks he's going to attack her, rip her clothes off and make her do stuff she doesn't want to. That isn't it, it's just that they've never done this stuff before. Cody can't believe that's what she thinks of him. That hurts his feelings. He leaves.

Living room
Bailey's dinner party is in full swing. One of the guests is telling a joke, but Sarah doesn't get it. Bailey explains it, but it isn't very flattering to the man's wife. Sarah says she's going to go check on the appetizers. She leaves for the kitchen. Bay comes to find her. He wants her to come back out. She doesn't want to, but after he pleads she does so grudgingly.

Kirsten's apartment
Charlie is working at his desk when Kirsten comes in with the laundry. She's upset. He comments that laundry is a pain. She was going through checking his pockets and in his jeans' pocket there was a receipt from the hospital, from tests he had done that week. Is he sick? Why didn't he tell her he was having tests? This is what he was talking about, what he didn't want to happen. She asks again why he had the tests done. They are standard tests. He has to have them done twice a year for six years. So he isn't sick? He feels fine, but he hasn't gotten the results aback. She asks if he's scared. Maybe a little bit, but that's his decision to make. He's just trying to protect her. She doesn't want to be protected. If he's scared, then she wants to be scared with hm. She wants to be allowed to love him, no matter what it means, even if she has to turn down that job for him. He can't tell her how much or how little to love him, otherwise they might as well end it right now. He agrees. He hears what she's saying. Will she please come to the hospital with him tomorrow? She says yes and they hug and kiss.

Living room
Sarah is listening to some man talk about social security. Bailey calls her over. He has a man who's going to make hats for them and Sarah is the one with the taste. He introduces her to Mr. Briggs. He makes the shoes that Claudia has, with the thick laces. Sarah asks if they are the ones that she made Claudia take back. Bailey doesn't think so, but it turns out they are. Mr. Briggs runs the company that Sarah's group is protesting against. Sarah doesn't want caps from his company. For every cap that costs $20, 8 cents goes to the worker. Sarah gets very upset as the party grows quiet. She leaves while Bailey tries to find some way to recover.

Stanford
Perry and Julia are walking up to the mail box. Perry wanted her to know that she felt that Julia's input was really helpful with her story. Julia is pleased she thought so. So as a way of thanks, Perry decided to talk to an editor friend of hers and the editor liked Julia's essay. Julia is very surprised, so Perry mails them both. Julia can't believe she did this for her. Well, someone gave Perry her first break. Julia thanks her again, hugging her and then kissing her quickly on the lips. They pull apart and look very intently, then Julia moves in to kiss her more carefully, but Perry doesn't respond. Julia pulls away and Perry walks off. Julia calls to her. Perry stops and reminds Julia that there are no guarantees, it still has to go to the editor above him.

Kitchen
Sarah and Bailey are cleaning up after the party. He tells her that if she had not wanted to do it she should have said so. Sarah wouldn't have done it if she had known she was going to have to be so fake. She isn't sorry for what she said. Bay tells her that didn't matter, what mattered was when she said it and how she said it and that fact that she didn't think about how it would affect Bailey. Claudia comes in interrupting them. Bailey heads into the living room to clean up a wine stain on the couch. Claudia comes in. Sarah thanks her for sticking around the night before. She was wiping beer off the floor until 3 am. Claudia says she's sorry. She'll finish cleaning up for Sarah. Sarah asks what the deal is, why she had that party. Claudia thinks Sarah will think she's crazy, but she's scared to be around Cody. When they start to mess around she gets all scared and doesn't know what he'll expect from her. Sarah asks if she's tried to talk to him. Claudia tells Sarah about how she compared herself to the girl in the trunk. Sarah can't believe she did that. Whatever Claudia is feeling, she should tell Cody straight out. Claudia is scared to do that because she thinks if she tells him to slow down that he'll think she doesn't like him anymore. Sarah tells her that it doesn't matter. She's her own person. She isn't on this planet to serve his needs. She should just be up-front and honest and how he responds, that's his problem. The camera pulls away to show Bailey around the corner listening to the talk.

Stanford
Julia walks past her class where Perry is talking. She leaves without going in.

Hospital
Kirsten and Charlie are in Dr. Rabin's office waiting for her. Kirsten is pacing when the phone starts to ring. While it keeps ringing she starts to laugh nervously. Charlie starts to laugh as well. She comments that she really isn't helping much. The phone stops ringing and they regain their composure. It's clear they are both nervous. As the phone starts to ring again, they begin laughing again.

Claudia's room
Claudia and Cody are on her bed. She asks him if he understands what she's saying, she's trying to be clear. He thinks he does. She's saying that she's just trying to create boundaries while she comes to terms with her sexual identity in a pluralistic culture with complicated sexual paradigms, is all. He thinks he understands, so they'll just talk it all through, one step at a time. Like this...he wonders if he might kiss her hand. She says it is. And then finally on her lips

Hospital
Charlie and Kirsten are still laughing when Dr. Rabin comes in. His white counts are low, his LAP levels are low. He's in perfect health. Kirsten starts to cry. Both the doctor and Charlie laugh as she thanks Dr. Rabin. She may not look like she's happy, but she is. She and Charlie hug.

Berkeley
Sarah is camped out at the sit-in. Bailey comes to join her. He owes her an amends, big time ninth step. She thinks she should be sorry, but he's been thinking about it all morning. He's seeing himself in 10 or 20 years and he saw her there sitting next to him and she hadn't changed a bit. So, she was telling off the guests? No, she was sticking up for herself like she was telling Claudia. He thanks her for speaking with his sister. She really needs that, without her mother. Sarah was just talking to her as a friend. She's only 3 years older than her. Bay says it's more than that, she's going to make a really great mother some day. She thinks it could happen in like 80 years, but no Bailey can already see it. Sarah doesn't respond right away and then changes the subject. She hopes they adopt a code (the purpose of the sit-in). Bay says they'll sit there until they do.

Stanford
Julia comes into Perry's classroom. She asks if they've been avoiding each other. She has. Perry gets up, she was just leaving. Julia wants to talk about it. Perry knows she does, she always does. Julia is confused. Which is why Perry doesn't want to talk about it. Julia asks why. Perry wants to know why she kissed her, why that happened. Julia doesn't know. Perry wants to know if she suddenly felt like she was gay. Julia doesn't think so. Well, Perry is and that means something to her, what they did, it means something too. Julia agrees that it means something. Perry says it isn't the same. She doesn't know what's going on with Julia right now, but she knows where she's coming from, that she's had some bad times with men, but that isn't Perry. She's not gay because she doesn't like men, she likes women. Julia says that she likes Perry. Being around her the past few weeks, she has made Julia feel so great, so safe and Julia doesn't want to lose that. Julia kissed her, whatever that means, whatever she's going through...Perry isn't letting her get there through her.

Kirsten's apartment
Kirsten answers the phone while Charlie feeds the baby. He hands the baby to Kirsten. It's the people with the apartment. He tells them that he found something that he thinks is going to work out. He found it with a friend. He kisses Kirsten as he hangs up..
Notes:

All of the build up for this episode was for the KISS but in the end that wasn't really the story here. I've done a little complaining recently about continuity, but this week not only were there no mistakes, there were some really wonderful examples of picking things up from past story lines to make the plot here move along. That might have something to do with an episode helmed by two veterans, writer Julia Dahl and director Daniel Attias.

I like what's happening with Claudia. She's growing up while remaining true to herself. We're seeing her at the same age as Julia was when the show began, but she is very different than Julia. She's been motherless much longer than Jule and that's showing. She's very lucky to have Sarah to help her in these kinds of situations, but she's still having to figure out a lot of stuff on her own. Sarah made a very good point, she's only three years older than Claudia. I think Bailey is putting an incredible amount of pressure on Sarah. I was pleased to see him listening to Sarah talk to his younger sister because there wasn't much else he did that I approved of.

For example... he just had to have Owen live with him to the point that it almost tore the family apart for good, yet just a couple of months later we don't even see Owen anymore. What is it about this family?!? I'm also intrigued with Claudia, the perfect child, turning wild on Bailey. I guess Charlie actually was doing something around the house.

While I want to shake Bailey and make him wake up and smell the coffee, I'm awfully glad somebody finally told Julia something that she needs to hear... she needs to figure out her troubles by herself! This whole thing about Perry isn't gay vs. straight, but rather it's about Julia moving from relationship to relationship as a way to deal with her problems. She wants to start something with Perry just so she doesn't have to address what happened with Ned. This has been a pattern again and again. Besides, she should try to go be a college student for a while. None of them have had what I consider a normal college experience. It's about living in the dorm and going to parties and getting coffee at 2 am and sometimes running around naked. It's college... go enjoy yourself, you've got the rest of your life to be unhappy and stressed out!

So why the lesbian plot? I fear it's a ratings grabber. We'll have to wait and see the numbers, but they have promoted this story heavily. In last week's Entertainment Weekly there were no less than six mentions of some aspect of Party of Five. I've seen comments from Olivia d'Abo all over the place. I think it's a perfectly valid story, I'm just uncomfortable the way it's been sensationalized. Party of Five has told gay stories before, sometimes very well (Ross) and other times not so well (that boyfriend of Sarah's who had the hots for Bailey). In the context of this episode, it just wasn't that big of a thing, it only becomes significant because it's Julia. It was a kiss between two people who were in an emotional moment. I'm going to wait until next week and then offer my more extensive thoughts.

Okay, let me regain my composure cause what I've really wanted to talk about is Kirsten and Charlie. If you read my reviews with any regularity it's no surprise that I have a fondness for these two. I have been so sad every time it hasn't worked out for them and tonight was that pay-off that I was looking for two weeks ago. They really love each other and I agree with Bailey — what are they waiting for? They need to just go for it.

There were some great moments within their story. We finally found out what happened with Kirsten's dissertation. I'm still not really sure on the mechanics of all of it, but it seems that she has defended, it's been accepted and she's now Dr. Bennett. We also saw Charlie at the hospital and what a nice touch to have Brenda Wehle back as Dr. Rabin. That's good story. Anyway, I digress, we see two people who thought their chance was over being surprised by a third or fourth or maybe fifth chance to make it work. Charlie's anguish that he had caused her to ruin her academic career, her sadness that he didn't confide in her about the tests, that wonderful sequence in Dr. Rabin's office. Laughter and tears are very close in the emotional range and it was a very real reaction for them to be laughing as the phone rang. The tension was palpable, even across the television screen. I want them to be happy and I sure hope I'm getting my way this time!

Copyright ©1999 by Rachel Vagts. All rights reserved.
Previous episode | Index | Next episode