Back to You: 1.8 ‘Cradle to Grave’ Recap
Original Air Date: February 26, 2008
After CHUCK and KELLY close the news broadcast with the development that former anchor Ed Coleman has died, Kelly reveals she was asked to deliver the eulogy at his funeral, although she didn’t like him because he was so mean to her. GARY is stunned because, according to him, he knew the man better than anyone else at the station. Chuck, on the other hand, informs his colleagues he’s not even going to the funeral since he decided at nine years old that there were certain things he wouldn’t do anymore, and funerals was one of them.
In their shared office, Kelly makes a few snide remarks when she realizes Chuck is preparing for a date with AMBER, a blonde who’s much younger. She receives a message then that her babysitter for the funeral has canceled. Chuck volunteers while claiming he has to start spending time with their daughter GRACIE eventually, even if she still doesn’t know he’s her father.
So, Kelly drops Gracie off at Chuck’s hotel on the day of the funeral. Gracie is petulant, however, because she thinks she’s too old to require a babysitter. Everything Chuck has planned sucks to her, too, such as watching a movie with the Olsen twins — Gracie thinks their movies are stupid and their lives are a mess.
Bored, Gracie eventually starts giving Chuck the third degree, asking questions like why does he live in a hotel and then telling him what her mother said — he’s emotionally crippled and can’t form attachments. When Amber shows up, Chuck gets into hot water after Gracie asks if they’re a couple and he says no while Amber says yes.
Chuck finally manages to persuade Amber to leave. Yet, Gracie persists with her questions, forcing him to claim he volunteered to babysit her because he might want to be a dad one day and he wanted to try it out. When Gracie complains that she’s bored and thought hotels were supposed to be fun, Chuck takes her to what he believes is the most fun room in the place — the bar.
Gracie eventually apologies for her earlier moodiness — she hates being treated like a baby — and when a man recognizes Chuck from TV and comes over to say hello, she tells him Chuck is her dad. After the fan leaves, she also informs Chuck that although her mother conceived her through artificial insemination, they know a few things about her biological father: he has blue eyes and he’s smart, handsome, tall, and braggy. The last is a trait she shares with him, according to her mom.
Meanwhile, at the funeral, Kelly mistakes everyone’s heartfelt condolences to her as a sign that she meant more to Ed than she realized. As MARSH shares with MONTANA, it’s actually a sign that Ed told everyone for ten years he was sleeping with Kelly in order to cover up the fact that he was gay. Montana reveals these tidbits to Gary later to help him finally realize why Ed spent so much time with him — he was in love with Gary.
While WURG staff members are slowly discovering Ed’s lies, RYAN is still trying to figure out just exactly who Ed was since he can’t seem to remember him. A clueless Kelly begins to give her eulogy speech, unintentionally dropping all sorts of double entendres, such as Ed rode her hard and she needed it. The people in attendance laugh, of course, and Marsh finally goes up to explain to Kelly why when he can’t take it anymore.
Kelly is as shocked as the next person, especially since she never guessed Ed’s sexual preference, and she apologizes for her speech leaving everyone with such inappropriate imagery. No fear, though, because Ryan’s cell phone rings just then from inside Ed’s coffin. That’s where Marsh dropped it when someone startled him while he was trying to take a picture of the dead man to help Ryan finally remember who he was.
As Gary stands at Ed’s grave during the closing credits, he, too, is freaked out when the phone starts to ring from beneath the ground. It’s a shame he left the funeral in such a hurry before everyone else after learning the real reason why Ed was so chummy with him. Otherwise, he would have been there when the phone rang from inside the coffin.
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Apr 16, 2008 at 6:41 pm
[…] the freshman Fox sitcom Back to You returned to the tube with two new episodes — “Cradle to Grave” and “Business or Pleasure” — after a three-month drought of fresh […]
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