You know, I really miss that opening theme. This episode, by the way, is directed by former thirtysomething Peter Horton, who seems to have a penchant for edits that feel like hiccups in the space-time continuum. They're annoying.

We open with a close-up of Rick's computer desktop, which is wallpapered with a family picture from his and Lily's wedding. What a sap. "You've got mail!" his computer says. We cut to a close-up of his cursor scrolling down a list of clients.

Soliloquy Rick complains, "Email. The great leveler. In about six seconds you can get three polite 'no's on presentations that took you eighty-six hours to finish. And one friendly 'hi' from Amber, a hot college vixen. The 'no's are real; Amber isn't." Tell that to her parents. They must be so proud. Soliloquy Rick casts a sullen glance at the camera and sulks, "I need a job."

Lily creeps into the living room in her sweats, whispering, "It's 5:45 AM. What're you doing?" She wraps her arms around Rick from behind and gives him a squeeze. He quips about the wife and kids she doesn't know about. She tells him to say hi for her, and then asks whether he's okay. He gives her a subdued assurance that he's fine, and she smoothes his hair and plants a kiss on his forehead. "I like you unemployed," she says. "I get you home more often." That novelty should wear off pretty quickly. She ruffles his hair and heads back toward the stairs, telling him to come back to bed. He absently agrees.

Cut to a sequence of Rick at his office, putting together Sammler and Associates promotional packages. In the background, we hear overlapping snippets of his cold calls to potential clients. A secretary cuts through all the madness by plunking a brown paper bag on his desk. "Pad thai," he says with feigned surprise. "Every day, and every day you act surprised," she answers. He's broke, but eating pad thai every day for lunch? Hasn't he heard of brown-bagging it? As she walks away, Sam Blue materializes in the doorway. He spreads his arms wide and announces, "Rico!" This time Rick really is surprised. He stands slowly, amazed to see Sam, and they do the back-slapping man-hug thing. "You're looking large, my brother!" Sam says. Sam is very white. Rick asks what happened to him, and adds "I must have waited on that racquetball court for three hours." Sam says he went to Rome, the way most people would say they got held up in traffic, and asks, "Is that pad thai?"