I was over at a friend’s place across town tonight, and my roommate and I still haven’t quite figured out how to get all the cable channels on our VCR, so I ended up missing Ed. Since Television Without Pity is no longer recapping the show, I figured I could turn to the trusty Teeming Millions for help. So what happened on Ed tonight? The more detailed, the better.
Hey…you know I’d do the same for you. 
Come on, you guys. I worked tonight and forgot to set the VCR. HELP.
Big show. I’ve only watched it sporadically, so you’ll have to bear with me.
Basic Premise:
Dr. Mike, Mike’s wife, Molly, Stubbs, Shirley (the bowling alley secretary?) and the guy in the wheelchair (iMDB mentions an Eli, we’ll call him that) decide that the tension and bitterness between Ed and Carol is getting too much, and they lock them in Stuckybowl until they settle their differences.
Storyline:
Kelly (of Regis and Kelly) decides that she and Ed need to go on a safari. Ed blanches, still wondering if he needs to do something about the available Carol Vessy. Kelly gets pissed, doesn’t want to play second fiddle. Tells Ed to Do Something. Ed buys Carol a tuning fork. Get it, tuning fork? To tune her life up? Well, Carol got it, and went off at the handle at the Laughing Goat.
Dr. Mike gets everyone mentioned in the Basic Premise together and formulates a plan. The next day, Molly calls Carol from the parking lot of Stuckybowl, saying her car broke down and she needs a lift. Shirley goes into Ed’s office, wanting to show him a magic trick. She proceeds to handcuff him to a pole in the office. She shuts the blinds, and closes the door. Carol arrives at Molly’s car, where Eli is helping out. He says that all he needs is some ducktape, which he gets Carol to go get in the bowling alley. Stubbs meanwhile declares there is a “security breach” and everyone needs to leave. He tells Carol the ducktape is behind lane 14.
Carol gets back there, and sees an envelope with “CAROL” written on it. There’s a pair of keys in it. She gets pissed, starts yelling at Ed, thinking it’s another of his stunts. She storms into his office, he rejoices, she throws the keys at him while yelling at him, he unlocks himself, and tries to defend his non-actions.
Walking to the front door (which by this time have been curtained from the outside), Carol finds the doors chained on the outside. Dr. Mike has the intercom, and announces that he is Zeus, and that Carol and Ed cannot leave Stuckybowl until they settle their differences. They go and try the backdoor, where Eli and Stubbs have barricaded the door.
So, they sit around. (Something might have happened, can’t remember.) Cut to later, Carol gets hungry. She asks Ed to open the hotdog case, where there is one hotdog left. He takes it out, puts it in a bun, and says she can have half - as long as she apologizes for assuming that the handcuff thing was a typical Ed stunt. She refuses, he eats the hotdog.
Later, Ed remembers there’s a crawl space in the basement that opens to the outside. But he needs Carol’s help to reach it (it’s in a trapdoor on the ceiling). She says she’ll help - if he’ll apologize for eating the hotdog. He agrees, but if they apologize at the same time. Ed does, Carol doesn’t. Having won, Carol goes to help. They get up to the crawl space, only to find that Shirley has it blocked.
Defeated, Carol jumps down first, only to hurt her ankle. Ed comes down, carries her to the front door, telling Dr. Mike that she needs some help. He doesn’t, door stays closed. Ed puts her on the couch in the office, and goes to get some ice. He asks her if she needs anything else - nachos, hamburger, hotdog, etc.
Commercial break. I’ll be right back.
Okay, we’re back.
Carol is sitting at the concession counter, Ed is cooking. He makes her a cheeseburger omelette, and basically making her laugh. They share a Moment, and decide that things are different, things are tense, they need to talk. So they do. Ed tells her that the one problem he sees is that Carol is in love with him, but afraid to admit it. Carol says the one problem she sees is that Ed is in love with an idealized version of Carol that she’ll never live up to, and is afraid to admit it. Ouch.
So the solution they come up with is to come up with a contract. They go into Ed’s office, and begin writting it up. They decide to be courteous and respectful of each other. They agree not to meddle in each other’s relationships, etc. There were a few other points they added which I can’t remember. Anyway, Carol signs it, gives the pen to Ed. Ed is about to sign it, and then says he can’t until he tells her something. He tells her about his plans of riding into her wedding on a horse to sweep her away.
Boom. Carol explodes. She can’t believe it. She says that the reason Dennis called off the wedding is because Carol was looking for Ed during the wedding. Ed asks if she was. She says yes, because ever since Ed showed up in Stuckyville, he’s always been there, doing something. It’s always something. And it never stops. Ed just keeps coming up with way after way of intruding into her life.
Ed stops her. Says that yes, he has always been doing something. He showed up in a knight’s armor. He threw waffles at her window. He even rode a horse named Crazy Jimmy to her wedding. Why? Because she loved it. And she hated it. She loved it and hated it. “Do you know why, Carol? Because you always felt like you didn’t deserve it. But do you know what?..<pause> You didn’t. I can’t keep doing this, I’m done.”
He turns away, Carol (crying) turns him around and tries to kiss him. He stops her, and asks her what she’s doing. She doesn’t know, he says they’re done, he walks to the door, and pounds on it. Dr. Mike opens the curtain, sees his face and unlocks it. Molly, Dr. Mike, and Mike’s wife are all waiting for the good news. Ed just walks to his car and leaves. Carol does the same.
Commercial break. I’ll be back with side stories.
Side Stories:
Stubbs and Eli are out back, guarding the back door. They’re playing Scrabble, and they’re betting on it. Stubbs has his life savings on the line ($48.17 - everything he has on him), and Eli agrees to ask out a woman who was in Stuckybowl earlier that day (very attractive).
The game goes back and forth, it’s best of 5, and it’s tied 2-2 at the end. Eli is about to lose, and shows that he REALLY doesn’t want to call the girl. He alludes to the fact that he just hasn’t been ready to get back on that horse since being put in the wheelchair. Eli wins and takes Stubbs’ money. But Stubbs holds up the phone, and says that sooner or later, he will have to get back on that horse.
The other side story is simply that Dr. Mike didn’t want Molly and his wife to leave the bowling alley vigil, and says he’ll entertain them. He begins by coming up with the story of Salty Pete the pirate. The story of Salty Pete goes stale, and he begins to mime. We also see him breakdance, and sing. I didn’t see any $10 bets.
Munch, you rock so hard. (And if your name comes from where I think it comes from, you’re obviously a discerning viewer of quality television.) Thanks for the fantastic recap.
(Wonder if they’re going to try and pull the Ross-Rachel reversal now, with Ed no longer pining for Carol, but Carol’s on-the-rebound self pining for Ed…)
Gad, where do you think my name comes from? For the record, it just came to me out of the blue. But any story I can associate it with would most assuredly improve my love life (because frankly, nothing at this point can hurt it).
Heh. Here ya go.
Don’t know if it’ll help with the ladies, though.
What exactly happened at the wedding?
The day before the wedding, Dr. Mike had a little shower for Carol and Dennis’ families. They were playing charades, Dennis sucked. Ed came by to play basketball with Mike, but Mike had forgotten to cancel because of the party. Mike pulls Ed in to play charades, and he rocked. Everyone was having a great time - it was clear that Carol has a better time with Ed than Dennis. Pan to Dennis moping in the corner.
Kelly (of Regis and Kelly) tells Ed he has to stop the wedding, or he’ll regret it forever. So Ed plans big - he gets a white tux with tails, and rents a white horse (Crazy Jimmy). The night before the wedding, Carol (having serious doubts about getting married to Dennis) goes the Stuckybowl, and tells Ed that she really needs him at the wedding (he previously had said that he couldn’t go, it would be too awkward). Ed agrees.
The day of the wedding, Ed is getting ready. Kelly comes in, asks what he’s doing, and convinces him to go get on the horse. Reluctantly, Ed goes to get Crazy Jimmy. Well, CJ isn’t the most obedient steed, and runs willy-nilly. Ed is having a hell of a time controlling him.
Meanwhile, back in the Hall of Justice…I mean church, Carol is walking down the aisle, past Ed’s empty seat. She doesn’t notice. But taking their vows, Carol glaces towards the audience, and sees the empty seat. But more importantly, Dennis sees Carol looking at the empty seat.
Ed is still on Crazy Jimmy, out of control.
Dennis then says that the wedding is over, he’s not doing this, and walks out. Carol runs after him, asks what the problem is, and he says that during their entire relationship, Carol has always looked for Ed, and even at their wedding, Carol isn’t looking at him, she’s looking for Ed. So he leaves.
The church empties, Carol goes back in to talk with her family, and Ed arrives, sans Crazy Jimmy. Mike tells him what happened, and Ed walks in the church. Carol is sitting on the steps of the altar, crying, with her family and Molly consoling her. Ed sees that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to talk to her wearing the white tux, and leaves.
Wow, Munch…I saw the episode and wasn’t as moved by it as I was by your synopsis. Beautifully encapsulized. Thank you.
I’ve been an on-and-off Ed viewer these past few seasons, basically just waiting for the West Wing to come on (Must See Wednesday), but the quality of yesterday’s respective episodes may have resulted in a shift of allegiances.
Thanks, poohp! I know I missed a bunch in there, but the barebones are in there. I noticed I quoted Ed as saying, “<pause> You didn’t” when he actually said “You’re right.” But that’s niggling.
I love the writing on this show. It’s not the best on TV, nor the most original. But I find myself identifying with the quirkiness of it, and I also find myself saying lines before they’re said. If I were a writer, this is the show I’d be working on.
If they ever do a crappy flashback episode, it should be nothing but $10 bets.
The ending kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. Where did Ed’s feeling that Carol didn’t deserve his attention come from? Earlier in the show he blows of Kelly Ripa and goes into his babbling mode talking to Mike about Carol. It sure seemed like he still had very strong feelings for her. What exactly happened that made him come to the conclusion that he didn’t want to be with her (or spend any more energy trying to be with her)? He had the line in an earlier scene that he and Carol only had one thing that kept them apart, and that it was coming from her side. Ten minutes later he’s walking out on her. I haven’t watched every show this season so maybe I’m too far out of the loop, but that just seemed really out of place to me. What am I missing?
All Ed has ever done is try to impress Carol and make her feel special. In return, she’s either loved what Ed did, hated what Ed did, or a combination of both. She’s fought with it, and in her mind, she sort of feels like she doesn’t deserve the attention (we’ve all been there).
But what has Carol done? Really, Carol has done nothing comensurate with the level of devotion that Ed has. Sure, she’s been a great friend. But so has Mike and so has Molly. Of course Ed has strong feelings for Carol. And I would wager a guess that Carol has strong feelings for Ed. But she hasn’t done diddly-poo with them, were Ed has at least made his feelings known, and gone to great lengths to set them apart.
It comes down to, in my opinion, this:
People are deserving of great deeds when they acknowledge and make an effort to reciprocate them. Thus, Carol was right - she didn’t deserve Ed’s actions because she didn’t make that effort.
I for one like where Kelly Ripa’s character is going. She’s shown Ed that you can’t accept being second fiddle and being put on the backburner. If she gets involved with Ed, we’ll finally see an interactive, reciprocating couple. At no point in an Ed/Carol relationship would Ed ever say anything remotely close to “I can’t believe I’m going to see the zebras.”
For the record, I also would like to see the zebras.
I read an interview with the creator of “Ed” back during the first season. When asked the question “Will Carol and Ed ever get together?”, his answer was “Not until my kids are through college!” So I wouldn’t expect a relationship any time soon.
Aside from the Ed/Carol drama, I thought the episode last night (Primarily Mike’s stuff) was pretty damn funny. Mike’s getting to be quite the comedian this season.
wasn’t carol the one who wondered why dennis hadn’t made a big show of devotion? ala her dad’s buying huge quantities of pie?
it seems that ed made the big show of devotion and she didn’t appreciate it.
perhaps she is afraid of being loved that intensely. some people don’t want to have that kind of relationship.
A million thanks, Munch.
I’m so glad to see an Ed thread. I love this show, but unfortunately I have to work most Wednesday nights. Since my VCR won’t tape for some reason I am too much of a mechanical idiot to figure out, I now can turn to you guys to keep me up to date.
I have a theory about Ed, and I’m wondering how you feel about it. I think Ed is an adult version of Lloyd Dobbler. How can you not love a grown-up Lloyd?