And we drift into a montage. The first part is Grace leading a blindfolded Luke into Don Thornberry's -- a reasonably classy-looking joint, at odds with the cheeseball t-shirt Friedman was sporting. Frink: "What? What's she going to eat there?" I don't think it's actually been established that she's a vegetarian, though if she were, it would surprise exactly no one. When she gets him inside, she removes the blindfold (which is black with white skulls all over it -- hee) and Luke quickly puts on his glasses, reaching over to put his hand on Grace's cheek and pull her face gently against his shoulder. It's a really lovely gesture.

Next we see Bonnie riding the bus home and pulling the Bosch book out of her knapsack and perusing it. Man. Helen's sure trusting. I have to think twice to lend a book I don't even care about to a person I've been friends with for twenty years.

Helen's in her classroom alone, putting kids' paintings up on small tabletop easels.

We see Kevin and Lily through a window, sitting at a table in a little restaurant, talking and laughing…and kissing! Huh. Man, I do like them together, although I don't think the whole thing's been written altogether convincingly. But I understand Constance Zimmer has landed a role on some other show and so I kind of expect she's not going to be around, which sucks, even if she's not with Kevin. I wish this show could stop losing its best secondary characters. They should have made April Grace (Toni) an offer. It wouldn't have saved the police plots but I liked her anyway. I love Constance Zimmer. I grew to love Sprague Grayden. Anyway. Suffice to say, this date's going a lot better than the last one, and you can make up your own joke about dipping pickles in mustard.

Back to Joan, reading Emily Dickinson in the half-closed-up bookstore. She gets up and puts the poetry collection on the metal display thingy in the window of the bookstore. Out on the street, she glances at it briefly before walking away. "And when your back's against the wall / Just turn around and you will see / I will catch, I will catch your fall baby / Just have a little faith in me…"

I miss Hart Hanson.