In bed, Lisa's apparently on IM with "Robert Russell, the painter." Nick tells her to get rid of him so they can have one-fifth the sex that Jeremy currently is enjoying, but she says she can't, as the "project" with Jeremy is in full flight. Apparently, Robert is supposed to have painted five works in progress of Sofia, which Jeremy will collect, so as to "fake being a painter in real time." That's quite clever, so I assume it was Lisa's idea, because (a) Jeremy's too busy having sex to plan anything now, and (b) Jeremy. Anyway, Robert is apparently "starting to feel" like the whole thing is putting his integrity at stake. That's some fast thinking, there, Art Guy. Weirdly, we get a close-up of Nick's Blackberry Pearl ringing, but the phone he actually picks up and puts to his ear is twice as big and looks like a Motorola job to me. Props and Product Placement danced around for hours on that little moment, I'd wager. Anyway, it's Elder, who's shirtless (ugh), wants Nick to come over to discuss a "delicate matter" (double ugh), and is in bed with Karen (I don't want to use up all the "ugh" in the world, but...). Nick warily agrees to come by at ten.

Elder disconnects, and Karen comes into frame by putting her arms around him from behind. She kittens, "Bye, Nick" (heh), and then asks what's so delicate, and Elder's like, "You." I don't think most of her conquests would agree, and it's not like it would be too hard to track them down and ask them, either. Elder offers Karen some cherry lemonade, which is just too twee for me, and then asks her what she's up to that night. Karen sighs that it's the "annual Nutcracker evening with the Darlings," which is a family tradition. Elder says he has someone important coming in from out of town that he'd like Karen to meet, and it's pretty obvious, given the mention of her last week, who it's going to be. Whether Karen has an idea or not, though, she jumps at the chance to get out of the family affair, and then tells Elder he really knows how to treat a girl. I'll take her word for it, but he certainly doesn't know how to treat a recapper. Elder blathers something about how we all want the same things, which thankfully causes me to nod off before they start making out again.