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Original Air Date: March 3, 2008
Oh, boy — CHRISTINE is an emotional mess. Following her breakup with clear catch Daniel Harris, she takes RITCHIE to school while wearing her pajamas and absentmindedly mistakes her maroon lipstick for lip balm, creating a distorted grimace that rival’s The Joker’s. Thank goodness new dad MIKE GAY likes her now, and he leads her off the school’s premises when she begins laughing hysterically after managing the impossible — evoking sympathy from meanie moms LINDSAY and MARLY.
Later that day at the Campbell household, RICHARD complains about having to step up during Christine’s mourning period. BARB arrives, too, when she’s called over by MATTHEW, who wants her to look after her best friend while he attends the first of twelve therapy session required by his school to help him empathize with patients.
Not only does Barb think Christine’s situation is minor — she only dated Daniel for three months, while Barb is divorcing after ten years of marriage — but she also repeatedly claims she doesn’t know how to help Christine. No worries, Matthew explains. She only needs to top off Christine’s Chardonnay and warm her body pillow in the dryer every now and then.
Christine has other ideas, however, because she’s decided she’s had enough downtime. Now she needs to get back in the swing of things, even if no one else thinks she can. After all, Richard reminds her, she is the woman who stayed in bed for three days when Melinda Doolittle was voted off American Idol. Still, Christine insists on accompanying Ritchie to his schoolmate’s birthday party.
Meanwhile, Matthew attends his first training therapy session with a therapist (Guest Star Stephanie Faracy), who almost immediately reaches a conclusion about why he has no close friends and has never been in a long-term relationship with a woman. According to her, the problem isn’t his overly involved relationship with his mother — whose picture is Matthew’s computer screensaver and who still makes him go swimsuit shopping with her — but rather his all-consuming intimate relationship with Christine. The realization that his relationship with his sister isn’t normal causes Matthew to make vomiting sounds and eventually curl up on the therapist’s couch in a fetal position.
Christine is about to experience a very different reaction when she boldly decides to climb the rock wall set up as an activity at the birthday party. When she gets inches away from the top, she suddenly becomes paralyzed with fear over the idea that she’s alone and that nobody cares if she makes it all the way to the top of the wall. When Mike climbs up to ask what’s wrong with her, Christine begs him to call her brother because she needs him.
The call interrupts Matthew’s therapy session, and he reluctantly goes to the party to help Christine come down off the wall. Unfortunately, the therapist has convinced him his relationship with his sister is unhealthy, and he’s decided to move out of her house as a result.
When a dejected Christine informs Barb and Richard of the news afterwards, they both can’t understand what happened to the fiery woman they used to know. Talking to her best friend and ex helps Christine reclaim her determination, and she heads over to confront Matthew’s therapist during her brother’s session.
Both siblings make numerous verbal slips, unintentionally calling each other mother (Matthew to Christine) and lover (Christine to Matthew). Yet, even the therapist admits their relationship has helped each of them overcome difficulties, which suggests that maybe they shouldn’t separate. Even so, Christine makes sure to set an appointment before leaving in order to meet with the therapist later herself.
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