Alright.  Once again I have to say I’m sorry.  I’m a week late again.  I’ll spare you any excuses and promise to do better.  Let’s just get going.

 

Last week we were teased with cute, adorable, thinks she can sing Erika saying she wants to go home on the “Next on…”  But when I went to DVR this there was no aftershow so safe assumption is that she didn’t.  However I got my wish for a big Erika episode.  You know how they say be careful what you wish for?  Yeah…

 

 

As usual we start off with a fairly innocuous scene.  Ants have invaded the house due to at least Andrew leaving a bowl on the window.  Erika is very upset about this because she claims to be allergic to ants.

 

Jump to Ashley and Mike standing in the closet talking about the dude Mike met at the gay bar last week.  His name is Erik by the way.  This will make writing about him easier.  Anyway they’re going on their first date.

 

 

At dinner they discuss how Erik came out at 19 and coming out in general.  Mike only came out about a year ago and is still getting used to it.  Erik things Mike is gay, not bi as he claims to be.

 

 

All the girls are chilling on the beanbags the next day (BTW I want a house with dedicated beanbag area so bad it hurts) discussing exactly the same thing.  They think Mike is straight out gay too.  Then they spend time being amateur psychologists, because that’s what they do.

 

 

Callie, Erika, and Ashley all go to lunch at “Grill From Ipanema” which I only mention because it’s kinda clever.  It’s here that Erika admits she’s gone through some serious depression in her life and when she was a sophomore in college she got dumped and threatened to kill herself.  This lead to her being put in a mental ward.

 

Normally I’d make fun of her that being dumped made her get committed but as someone who has fought depression and had a very similar situation as her I know exactly what she was feeling then (Mine had nothing to do with a relationship however) and what it is like to be committed to a mental ward and how scary it is.  This actually struck home with me and sorry to bring this recap down but for once there’s a moment of realness here.  OK let’s get back to the show.

 

Anyway Ashley says she also had depression and that she now feels closer to Erika.  Then Erika talks about how great her parents are and how they really helped her out.  This does not make Ashley so happy.

 

 

It’s that night and they’re in the kitchen and Erika is talking about how she’d like to use that experience to talk to kids in schools or churches or something while Ashley stews and boils and is about to pop.  I have a feeling we are about to see crazy Ashley come to town.  Ashley says she doesn’t like to talk about her depression because it makes her cry.  Erika counters saying she feels like she has a responsibility to talk about it and help out others and talking about it is like therapy for her.  Then she talks more about her awesome parents.  Ashley storms off.

 

 

Why is there a question mark after that?  Good job captioning department.  Ashley goes and cries in the bathroom and confesses that her problem is that when Erika talks about her depression she talks about her parents and Ashley never had that support system so that’s what upsets her.

 

 

Now it’s time to go out and Ashley is impatient.  Erika is on the phone with her boyfriend and Emily isn’t ready either.  Time elapses and Erika is still on the phone even though Emily is now ready.  Finally Erika starts getting ready and Ashley is fed up so she gathers everyone except Callie who stays behind for Erika and leaves them.

 

 

Erika says it’s things like this that make it hard to befriend Ashley.

 

It’s the next day.  Ashley wants to go on a duck tour.  I’m not sure what the hell that is but apparently it’s something that goes by all the monuments and stuff.  She talks Mike into it.  Erika says she’d “rather spend $32 on a dress”.  And then is all like “No one ever wants to do what I want to do”.  Ashley asks what she wants to do and the answer is she wants to go shopping.  Ashley proposes they go on the tour then shopping, but Erika says by the time the tour is over the stores will be all closed.  Then Ashley pulls out the line of the episode:

 

Are you about to start your period or something?

 

Holy shit!  I did not know people actually said that to each other in real life (not that this is in anyway representative of real life, but you get what I mean).  It’s like one of those TV or movie things, not something someone would actually say, let alone a girl to another girl.  Wow.  Surprisingly that’s Ashley not being bitchy.  Also surprisingly this doesn’t make Erika throw a shit fit.

 

She does get upset when Ashley calls her a Debbie Downer.  Erika confesses she’s not a tourist type and doesn’t really need to go to every monument.  It might sound stupid but I kind of understand what she means.  It’s so much better to experience a city as it’s regular inhabitants do and encounter those things naturally than be all touristy.  Anyway Ty joins in and says even if some people don’t want to go the duck tour would be the most fun if everyone went.  He’s obviously totally right, if you’re dealing with a group of normal sane people.

 

Erika explains to the group she’s not a sightseer type and that really all she wants to do is go shopping.  Ty then shifts to alright then we should all go shopping with Erika.  Ashley makes a sad face and says she really wants to go on her tour.  Then Erika throws the period comment back at her saying if she said it to her she’d fly off the handle.  They’re both getting annoying.  Everyone goes shopping.

 

 

Pretty much immediately Ashley says she’s hungry and they have to go to a restaurant.  Erika and Ty both say they aren’t hungry and don’t want to sit down and eat.  But everyone is willing to just chill for a few minutes to let Ashley eat except Erika who wants to go shopping damn it and won’t let it go.  They even tell her she should just go by herself and she pretty much just throws a fit.  She does go into the restaurant though.

 

 

She makes some air quotes and gets into a little scuffle with Emily who says she’s being a little oversensitive.  Which she is.  She’s being totally nuts.

 

 

Ty is all like bitches be crazy.

 

 

There’s some more boring discussion of shopping and eating that takes too long and they could have done both in the time this stupid discussion is taking.  Then Erika starts crying for no reason at all.  This leads to an Ashley confessional and her second brilliant line this episode:

 

It’s baby time.

 

Erika you just got called a baby by Ashley.  Ashley is supposed to be the crazy one.  You are supposed to be cute and adorable.  Mike says he’s going to take Erika shopping, he confesses it’s to shut her up.  Also he has a good line:

 

I hope I come back alive.

 

Once outside Erika goes on a huge rant about how Ashley is dead to her and blah, blah, blah.  It’s amusing watching Mike not give a shit yet try to seem like he does.

 

 

This seems like a good place to go to the next page