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S02.E04: The Lice Storm

AnnaRose

By AnnaRose
in American Housewife [V]

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AnnaRose

AnnaRose

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A lice infestation occurs in the Otto household thanks to Anna-Kate, and Katie uses this as an excuse to bond with Taylor. Meanwhile, Greg and Oliver camp in the backyard, but Oliver keeps ditching their campout to hang with their sleazy new neighbor.

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ItCouldBeWorse

ItCouldBeWorse

(edited)

So Katie de-loused herself? And after doing a "lousy" job, rubbed her head against her friends' heads and the waitress's head so that they became lousy, too? Because lice don't jump across tables. 

One would also have to be a psychopath to purposefully inflict lice on someone who lives in your house when you are responsible for their elimination. Greg should definitely stay in the tent. I actually laughed when Katie was in Tyler's room when Tyler had her hair in braids after presumably being combed through and saw a pile of fancy pillows on her bed. That bed would have been stripped down to the basics.

Since Katie just left the open bags of Anna-Kat's stuffed animals outside the door, I expected Anna-Kat to retrieve them, thus reintroducing head pets to the house. I think the more direct way she had of doing it was superior.

The only good part was Katie realizing how Anna-Kat manipulated her into infantalizing her.

Edited by ItCouldBeWorse
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ItCouldBeWorse

ItCouldBeWorse

2 hours ago, KLJ said:

Why wouldn't Katie check herself or have Greg check her?  Lice freaks me out, I'd be washing anything and everything.  I also don't understand the 'lice braids'.  What's that about?  

You can't check yourself unless you have eyes in the back of and on top of your head.

Greg was the designated survivor, so he wasn't getting near anyone with suspected lice.

You normally put long hair in a ponytail to keep it from either inadvertently touching the hair of other people with lice if you don't have any, or touching the hair of people without lice if you do, The braids were a more visual way of showing this for tv since a ponytail in the back would not be visible from the front.

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iMonrey

iMonrey

I  hate stories about head lice because I always find myself starting to scratch my head. 

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George Hamilton is looking pretty rough these days. He didn't age well, did he?

Well, he looks okay, but because he still paints his skin orange his lips look really weird because they clash with his face. Orange skin and pink lips do not go together. And that has to be a spray-on skin color because anyone who maintained a tan that long would have skin the consistency of leather.

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Snarklepuss

Snarklepuss

16 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

One would also have to be a psychopath to purposefully inflict lice on someone who lives in your house when you are responsible for their elimination. Greg should definitely stay in the tent.

Yeah, I didn't find anything humorous about this plot line because of this.  How sick and twisted could she possibly be with her own kids?  And we thought her going on about being the "second fattest woman in Westport" or being mean and nasty to the other women in town were bad ideas!  It definitely "could be worse" and is!  Hey, I'm trying to find something redeemable about this character but they just keep making it harder to do that!

That said, I liked how she faced the fact that she's been doting on Anna-Kat at the expense of Taylor.  And the plot line with George Hamilton was amusing.

10 hours ago, MaryMitch said:

George Hamilton is looking pretty rough these days. He didn't age well, did he?

Well, he's close to 80 so I don't really expect much.  But I did feel like there was something weird about his appearance.

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queenbee9b

queenbee9b

19 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I  hate stories about head lice because I always find myself starting to scratch my head. 

I watched last night and couldn't stop itching after and now reading the thread I'm itching again.  The part with Anna Kat at the end was my favorite, but I did like how she and Taylor came to an understanding.  I know Oliver is the worst, but I find him hilarious and I knew where he was going as soon as we had the scene with George Hamilton talking about having no family.   Is he supposed to reoccur the rest of the season? 

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Chewy101

Chewy101

(edited)

I don't get how an OCD germaphobe isn't at all wigged out about a parasite living on her head. So out of character for Ana-Kat.

I enjoyed Oliver, because although he was still Alex P. Keaton in his motives, he was still respectful and keeping good company. 

Katie is truly terrible. She hates her kids, until they pull away, and then she traps them back in. Narcissistic behaviour to a T. I love her husband, and how he gets her and loves her, but I'd prefer Katie to just be misunderstood at times, rather than be actually selfish and evil. Still, the conversations she and  Greg had between the back door were sweet. 

I think George Hamilton looks wretched. He doesn't look 80, he looks like a plastic alien. Wrinkles are far less scary than whatever he did to himself to avoid the wrinkles. What a poser. 

Does anyone know if Two Fitbits girl from across the street is returning? I loved her. 

Edited by Chewy101
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readster

readster

3 hours ago, Chewy101 said:

I don't get how an OCD germaphobe isn't at all wigged out about a parasite living on her head. So out of character for Ana-Kat.

I enjoyed Oliver, because although he was still Alex P. Keaton in his motives, he was still respectful and keeping good company. 

Katie is truly terrible. She hates her kids, until they pull away, and then she traps them back in. Narcissistic behaviour to a T. I love her husband, and how he gets her and loves her, but I'd prefer Katie to just be misunderstood at times, rather than be actually selfish and evil. Still, the conversations she and  Greg had between the back door were sweet. 

I think George Hamilton looks wretched. He doesn't look 80, he looks like a plastic alien. Wrinkles are far less scary than whatever he did to himself to avoid the wrinkles. What a poser. 

Does anyone know if Two Fitbits girl from across the street is returning? I loved her. 

Yeah, when they do this with Katie, it just comes off that she is a horrible person. Then they try to re enforce it by having town folk give a reason for her hatred, but it comes off pretty bad. The entire story line was badly written. Plus, sorry, as someone who has avoid lice and had family members not be so lucky. You can't make the story defy logic like that. Plot drive character episode instead of the other way around.

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msrachelj

msrachelj

1 hour ago, readster said:

Yeah, when they do this with Katie, it just comes off that she is a horrible person. Then they try to re enforce it by having town folk give a reason for her hatred, but it comes off pretty bad. The entire story line was badly written. Plus, sorry, as someone who has avoid lice and had family members not be so lucky. You can't make the story defy logic like that. Plot drive character episode instead of the other way around.

horrible psycho bitch to intentionally give your child and friends lice. why do they want us to hate her? she was fine as an out of place , loud but funny mother and wife. this is over the top crazy.  the daughter should have smacked her and not spoken to her for a good long time. that was cruel. i hate when they start ruining characters.

and is anna cat intellectually slow? thinking lice are pets, putting them back on her head. is she getting special help?

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AnnaRose

AnnaRose

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5 hours ago, Chewy101 said:

I don't get how an OCD germaphobe isn't at all wigged out about a parasite living on her head. So out of character for Ana-Kat.

...I love her husband, and how he gets her and loves her, but I'd prefer Katie to just be misunderstood at times, rather than be actually selfish and evil. Still, the conversations she and  Greg had between the back door were sweet.

...Does anyone know if Two Fitbits girl from across the street is returning? I loved her. 

 

I thought the same thing about Anna-Kat.  Totally out of character for a germa-phobe.

Greg and Katie's relationship is my favorite part of this series.  Greg is the best, and I love how they really get each other.

I love Viv (Two Fitbits) too, and I recently came across an ABC PR site that had screencaps of episode 2x07 which features Viv.  I've really missed her this season and I'm so glad she will be back.  I think she is one of the funniest characters in this show.  I hope they have her in a lot of other episodes too.

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ItCouldBeWorse

ItCouldBeWorse

15 hours ago, msrachelj said:

intentionally give your child and friends lice.

She didn't give it intentionally to her friends. Even if she had wanted to, sitting across the table from them isn't close enough to transmit it. What she did to Taylor was abusive, though. 

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readster

readster

7 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

She didn't give it intentionally to her friends. Even if she had wanted to, sitting across the table from them isn't close enough to transmit it. What she did to Taylor was abusive, though. 

Right, as many of us have said, the story line defined logic. That is not how you get lice, why Katie did it to Taylor was up there with the hair reaction from last episode. Then messing it up with Greg, I mean, who were these people? 

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Snarklepuss

Snarklepuss

On 10/21/2017 at 5:29 AM, Chewy101 said:

I think George Hamilton looks wretched. He doesn't look 80, he looks like a plastic alien. Wrinkles are far less scary than whatever he did to himself to avoid the wrinkles. What a poser.

Actually he probably did more to himself to encourage wrinkles judging from an interview with him I found online where he's quoted as saying his perpetual tan is not from a bottle but a result of actual long term sun exposure.  So his strange appearance now is probably a result of that plus anything he did to eradicate the wrinkles (which might have even been scarier).

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Snarklepuss

Snarklepuss

23 hours ago, msrachelj said:

and is anna cat intellectually slow? thinking lice are pets, putting them back on her head. is she getting special help?

That plus contradicting herself being a germophobe makes me think the writers are going for making her seem quirky and "special" like Brick from "The Middle", only it's just making her look weirder, IMO.

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readster

readster

1 hour ago, Snarklepuss said:

That plus contradicting herself being a germophobe makes me think the writers are going for making her seem quirky and "special" like Brick from "The Middle", only it's just making her look weirder, IMO.

Right, it defies logic and over a year's worth of character work on Anna Kat. They turned her into Amelia Badela all of a sudden, who can't understand basic concepts.

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theatremouse

theatremouse

The internal logic of a person with OCD involving contamination issues is just that: internal logic. She's been shown in the past to have a fondness for animals. She wanted a dog. She doesn't seem to have problems with the pig. I think at some point she also wanted a pony? I don't think they've ever shown her connecting the dots between "bugs present" and contamination. So given that, even though this grossed me the fuck out, I can kind of believe that at her age she could potentially have obsessions and compulsions related to cleanliness/contamination but not have that override her thought that the tiny living beings were "friends" and she didn't want them to die. Plus I think she's still young enough to have certain blind spots about some actual germ-related things that because she doesn't know yet, it doesn't affect her OCD but if she did (or once she does) it probably will.

Taking it to a not-really-funny place...Katie as a parent actually had a really difficult task here that we didn't get to see. They went in the separation anxiety over Taylor plot. But in realish life Katie probably would've been trying to walk a fine line with Anna-Kat in establishing the grossness of the lice and the need for cleaning them, and all their stuff, etc. but at the same time trying not to feed any decontamination anxiety Anna-Kat might have. It can be really difficult if you find something that she, for once, doesn't have any germ-concerns about, and to get her on board about that thing being gross...without sending her into a spiral about other stuff. The not-showering-because-ships-sometimes-sink-in-the-ocean thing made less sense to me, with her supposedly being a germaphobe, than this one did.

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AnnaRose

AnnaRose

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6 minutes ago, 17wheatthins said:

I still love the show, even when it shows Katy's selfishness. Live are gross, to be sure, but aren't many sitcoms prone to exaggerating real life scenarios? 

Katy and her friends are always funny to me. 

Same here.  It's a comedy, so I give it a lot of leeway.  And Katie immediately knew how wrong she was when she impulsively put the hat on her daughter as she was trying to walk away.  She seemed almost as mortified as we were watching it.  And then she made it up to Taylor by listening to her, having an honest heart to heart conversation with her and really bonding, and also correcting the way she was babying Anna-Kat.

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msrachelj

msrachelj

17 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

She didn't give it intentionally to her friends. Even if she had wanted to, sitting across the table from them isn't close enough to transmit it. What she did to Taylor was abusive, though. 

the show seemed to want us to think she gave them lice though. defying logic  as many sitcoms do.

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ItCouldBeWorse

ItCouldBeWorse

14 minutes ago, theatremouse said:

If Katie hugged her friends when she arrived at the restaurant, before she told them the deal with the braids, she could've transferred to them. It didn't have to be across-the-table-only magic.

You're right.  That would be the kind of selfish thing she'd do.

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Snarklepuss

Snarklepuss

On 10/22/2017 at 6:15 PM, AnnaRose said:

Same here.  It's a comedy, so I give it a lot of leeway.  And Katie immediately knew how wrong she was when she impulsively put the hat on her daughter as she was trying to walk away.  She seemed almost as mortified as we were watching it.  And then she made it up to Taylor by listening to her, having an honest heart to heart conversation with her and really bonding, and also correcting the way she was babying Anna-Kat.

I didn't care if she realized it was wrong, it just seemed like unnecessarily nasty, abusive behavior for a mother to do to a child and certainly not funny to me, anyway, and I usually give sitcoms (and people in general) a lot of leeway.

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Court

Court

Ugh I so found lice in my super curly headed child tonight while washing it. She's 3 so this process took ages. I only found two but I'm seriously debating paying someone to check it again because combing through curly hair? Sucks more than straight. 

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juliet73

juliet73

At this point, I just watch the show for Oliver.

George Hamilton looks like he had some bad bad work done...especially around his eyes. It looked like he was wearing a mask that was too big. Or like the skin around his eyes was melting.

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Chewy101

Chewy101

On 10/24/2017 at 10:52 PM, juliet73 said:

George Hamilton looks like he had some bad bad work done...especially around his eyes. It looked like he was wearing a mask that was too big. Or like the skin around his eyes was melting.

Agreed. I know he was an avid tanner, but that makes you crinkle up over the years. He is weirdly smooth and it freaks me out.

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TheLastKidPicked

TheLastKidPicked

On 10/24/2017 at 9:52 PM, juliet73 said:

At this point, I just watch the show for Oliver.

George Hamilton looks like he had some bad bad work done...especially around his eyes. It looked like he was wearing a mask that was too big. Or like the skin around his eyes was melting.

They replayed this episode last night, and maybe watching it twice made it better because you can pick up the little jokes with Oliver and Spencer.

Oliver:  "Spencer hasn't been out since the 90's.   He's paged me to get him a Crystal Pepsi".   

BWHAHAHAHA!  Do you remember when pagers were all the rage in the Nineties?  And of course Spencer would still think a pager was a status symbol.

Spencer:  "I ordered Lobster, to remind me of the food I had in prison"

Greg:  "I can't believe my taxes paid for that!"

Spencer (Chuckling):   You pay taxes?

When Greg asks if he's being manipulated, Spencer gives this friendly smile,  "A little bit."  And when Oliver lays some smooth talk on Greg and Greg asks him,  "I feel like you're manipulating me."  Oliver gets that same EXACT smile,  "A little bit".

You can just picture George Hamilton and the kid practicing that smile off stage.

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readster

readster

On 12/21/2017 at 0:10 PM, TheLastKidPicked said:

They replayed this episode last night, and maybe watching it twice made it better because you can pick up the little jokes with Oliver and Spencer.

Oliver:  "Spencer hasn't been out since the 90's.   He's paged me to get him a Crystal Pepsi".   

BWHAHAHAHA!  Do you remember when pagers were all the rage in the Nineties?  And of course Spencer would still think a pager was a status symbol.

Spencer:  "I ordered Lobster, to remind me of the food I had in prison"

Greg:  "I can't believe my taxes paid for that!"

Spencer (Chuckling):   You pay taxes?

When Greg asks if he's being manipulated, Spencer gives this friendly smile,  "A little bit."  And when Oliver lays some smooth talk on Greg and Greg asks him,  "I feel like you're manipulating me."  Oliver gets that same EXACT smile,  "A little bit".

You can just picture George Hamilton and the kid practicing that smile off stage.

After last night's episode, I wonder if they are leading to Spencer getting a wake up call because he got actual punishment from the phone tracking situation and the fact that Oliver openly knows that Spencer is using him. It paints Oliver that he has no backbone. He might be smart, but really doesn't get that acting like the rest of the "rich" people in town is going to get his ass kicked.

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readster

readster

1 hour ago, hanifanze said:

I found online where he's quoted as saying his perpetual tan is not from a bottle but a result of actual long term sun exposure. 

That  happens. I burn very easily, but when I'm outside longer in the summer I get very dark. It can be early October and people ask if I've been tanning and I just tell them it's just how my skin is.

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