In the second episode of Secret Life’s Season 4, lots of changes are in the works. George is renovating the Juergens homestead when Anne comes by to ask him to watch their little baby, Robie. (sounds like Robbie). Anne is not happy to find George doing major work on her home. She also wants to know if he’s heard from Ashley who was supposed to call in from her cross-country educational trip with Toby. Anne leaves and George tells Robie that they can do whatever they want. Robie says “yeah,” not that he really has a clue what daddy is talking about.

George calls Ashley, demanding to know how she could have forgotten the rules already. She whips them out, ticking off no drugs, no alcohol, no sex, no driving after 9 p.m., no speeding, no tornado chasing, Toby’s pee rule, Ashley’s pee rule, etc. etc. George is also annoyed that Ashley and Toby stopped off to feed donkeys in a town only a couple of hours away and didn’t even learn the town’s history. All they learned is that it’s where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon.  Who knew Ashley was interested in Hollywood’s Golden Age?

Remember Ashley’s flat robotic way of talking in prior seasons? Well, India Eisley has gotten a lot better at delivering her lines. But Mark Derwin as George talks really fast, like non-stop and it’s a little disconcerting. Ashley is only half of his problem because he’s also found out from Adrian’s dad, Ruben, that Amy moved in with Ricky. He launches into a non-stop tirade on how it’s not going to work out with Ricky, he ends by saying if it doesn’t the door is always open. Amy asks if the door will be open if it does work out, and when she says that, George sees her as a 6-year-old, sort of like the State Farm safe driver commercials where the dad still sees his teenager as a little kid.

At school, Ben confronts Ricky about Amy telling Adrian that they are about to live together. Uh-oh, problem. Amy has just got done telling Ricky that she did not tell Adrian anything. Ricky takes the opportunity to give Ben one of his “voice of experience” lectures. He knows Ben wants to bail out on Adrian and warns him he will never get Amy back. Ben is pretty sure that Ricky won’t be able to resist a single Adrian. Oh, Ben, in the shape Adrian is in, we think he can.

Grace is trying to comfort Adrian via webcam from Zimbabwe, and that’s going along okay until she suggests that Adrian volunteer like she’s doing. That translates as “you should be like me” to Adrian who abruptly cuts Grace off. As Ben is leaving, she puckers up to let him have a kiss, When Ben just pecks her on the cheek, it’s an instant telegraph that she’s no longer the hot and sexy filly he couldn’t keep his hands off. More insecurity and doubt for Adrian.

When Ben’s dad, Leo, tells his wife Betty that Camille has left the building, Betty wants to take over the job and “be an assistant to a big important man like yourself.” Leo directs her energies to comforting Adrian. That would be a bigger help to him. Maybe he should have let her come in, because when Betty comes to Adrian’s rescue, it’s like a tonic. She gives Adrian a massive dose of truth about what a “big hot mess” she is, plus she’s fat and needs a bath really bad. Adrian says she’s in mourning. “You can mourn and still look good,” Betty points out and gets Adrian to smile. Betty says the Boykewich girls have to stick together, unaware that her own Mrs. Boykewich status is in jeopardy.

Her husband Leo’s eyes are being opened by Ben. Leo apparently had no idea that Camille has had the long-term hots for him. It’s a novel idea to Leo, who has just got done telling Ben that they are both stayed married, likes it or not. But Ben is not feeling the “for worse” part of the marriage vows Betty reminded Adrian about. He’s feeling liberated by the admission that he wants out and the more he thinks about it, the less guilty he feels. Maybe so, but when Adrian gets her act back together, he won’t stand a chance.

Other Doors:

Jack fills Madison in on his plans to move back to Arizona for college because he misses his parents. He wants her to move out there in another year or so and in the meantime, they can continue their arms-length love at an even safer distance. But until that happens, he is moving out of the Bowman gatehouse and into the main house. His bedroom door is going to be right next to the bedroom door of his true love, Grace. Tom and his single mom girlfriend, Rachel, are moving in the gatehouse, presumably with her children. When Grace learns that her brother’s room will be occupied by Jack, she is furious and “hangs up” on her video chat with her mother. Kathleen.

Back at the Juergens, Anne comes to pick up Robie and is really upset to find her kitchen counter tops gone. After they work that one out, George inquires as to whether her relationship with Josh (last seen in It’s Not Over) has fizzled. It has, she says, but that has nothing to do with the two of them. George still invites her to stay for a bite to eat. Before we assume that these two will reunite, let us not forget that George told Anne (in Or Not To Be) he’d sleep with his ex-wife Kathleen in a heartbeat.