Lucy and Ruthie walk in the front door, so we're glad that we can keep this scintillating party plot going, and Lucy's all, "Don't worry, you're going to that party tonight," and of course Annie overhears this and she's all, "What party?" and Lucy tries to sell her mom on it by calling it a "cool couples' party," like that's going to work. "I told her I'm sure we could work something out so that she could go," says Lucy, and Annie's all, "'We'?" and Ruthie says, "It's just a party!" like she's all defending the party while Annie's understandably wondering what the hell Lucy has to do with any of this, but she tells Ruthie that if it were just a party, Ruthie probably would have asked permission herself and Lucy wouldn't be in the middle of things. So then Annie starts asking questions about the party, and when she finds out it's Suzanne Rogers's party, she says, "And who is Suzanne Rogers? Have I ever met her parents? Or her?" and as much as I hate this show, Annie is sounding a lot like my mom used to sound when I was Ruthie's age. So Lucy, in a condescending tone of voice that would have earned me all the holy terror of my pissed-off mom, suggests that Annie drop Ruthie off so that she can meet the Rogers parents, and then everything will be okay, but Ruthie ixnays that immediately due to the high embarrassment factor that results from having your parents drop you off at a party. Annie tells her not to worry about the embarrassment, since she's not going, because she didn't go about it "in the right way," and then she trains her sights on Lucy and says, "And neither did you. What are you doing in the middle of this?" and Lucy -- who really just does not get it -- starts blabbering on to the effect that she's sure they can all work out a compromise that makes everybody happy, and Annie says, "There's that 'we' again. What 'we'?" Ruthie, being an idiot, tries the "Paris is letting Peter go!" tack, but then has no answer when Annie says, "And why is that?" because she remembered too late Peter's lie to his own mom. Lucy then tries to take the blame, but gets dismissed by Annie, because this doesn't concern her in any way, and rolls her eyes and stomps away, and maybe someone could explain to me why Lucy suddenly thought that raising Ruthie is a joint effort between herself and Annie.