...and is presumably on his way to the library when he looks through an open door and pauses when he sees Karen in the room, in which there's apparently some light work being done, given the presence of the stepladder and the plastic covering the piano. Karen seems pretty upset, and tells Nick that it's about Freddy, but also about all the guys she picks: all they see is the money. Well, in their defense, there's an awful lot of it stuck into their fields of vision. In a marked contrast to her earlier flightiness, Karen tells Nick that he's the only guy she ever dated who really saw her. He tells her that he doesn't know what happened with her and Freddy, and when she starts to open her mouth, he adds that he doesn't want to know, to which she meekly nods. Ha! I swear, the actors and editors certainly have their comic timing down, and Krause is especially no slouch in that department. He goes on, though, to say that if Karen doesn't want to marry Freddy, she shouldn't, since life is short, and she deserves to be loved. It's a nice sentiment, but I think Freddy is maybe getting the short end of the stick here after he gamely played the straight man during the earlier installment of Inappropriate Theater. Nick starts to go, but Karen tells him he's sweet and pulls him in for a hug and a kiss on the neck, and it's not like there's not some innocence to it, but he's not exactly erring on the side of caution either. And Nick would have been well served to, because of course, the laws of television dictate that Lisa come across them at that moment. Makes sense here, though -- Nick was late to begin with and now he's left Lisa alone again. Anyway, Lisa's a little pissed, and tells him that Patrick's looking for him before snarking that she's sorry to interrupt. Karen: "Oh, that's okay." Hee. Lisa flees, and Nick, in turn, stomps off, mildly exasperated.

Outside, Nick gives the doorman a description of Lisa and asks if she passed by, but Brian comes out and accosts Nick, wanting to know what happened at Maple Grove. Nick says he can't deal with this right now, so Brian is like, "But you can show up like you belong?" And he pronounces that last word "belonk," which means he has the dubious distinction of winning this edition of The Shiri Appleby Memorial Award. Yes, I know she's not dead, but she's dead to me, which is all that matters. Nick heatedly tells Brian that if he's willing to give the kid the precious Darling name, he'll be allowed into Maple Grove: "If not, the little bastard's outta luck!" Heh. All the extras are horrified, and since they're not allowed to talk, it would have been a good idea to give them monocles to drop. Nick starts to walk toward the camera in a shot that's more reminiscent of Nate Fisher than any I've seen, but Brian makes some derogatory (and retreading) comments about Dutch, prompting Nick to come at him. Instead of answering the challenge, Brian turns tail and runs inside, a choice I thought was hilarious. Nick catches Brian and tackles him, though, and twists his ear as he yells at him not to talk about Nick's dad that way. Tripp comes striding out, flanked by Jeremy, but before too many recriminations are made, Karen appears at the top of the stairs and shrieks for them to get a doctor. So...no one besides Jeremy noticed Juliet wasn't at the party this whole time? Wouldn't the lower noise level have clued people in? From above, we see the four men rush off...