Mission Control<TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">   <center> <font size=2> Mission Control <br> </center> <font size=3> <br> This episode takes place a few days before Thanksgiving in the season that Murphy is pregnant. Murphy is complaining about dry cleaning and that her clothes don't fit. Eldin says she is starting to show, but Murphy argues that she is not supposed to show for another month (December 15). Murphy admits that Eldin is right, she is starting to show and jokes that it must be a boy -- he can't wait to come out and wreck her car.... (*hmmm* foreshadowing??) Eldin continues to make fun of Murphy... <br> The conversation shifts a little. Murphy talks about her childhood Thanksgivings: Dad dropkicks Butterball... Mother comes after dad with a gravy ladle... and Eldin shares what he does on Thanksgivings. He drives to a country club and watches all the men wearing their blue blazers and gives thanks that he's not one of them. <p> Murphy decides to clean out her closet and get rid of the things that don't fit... She takes them over to a mission and meets Patrice Wilson who works there. She thinks that Murphy is doing a story on them and is disappointed when she is not. They need media coverage... and volunteers. Murphy says she would like to help, but she is pretty busy. Patrice tries to get her to volunteer for Thanksgiving. Murphy makes an excuse, but Patrice says that "everyone deserves a good Thanksgiving even if only once in their lives." This gets to Murphy and she volunteers to help. <p> <i> A few days later... at the FYI office...</i> Corky is mad that Will has to stay in New York through Thanksgiving and invites Frank to Thanksgiving at her house (so neither of them have to be alone). Then Murphy walks in. She is very mad because it is the day before Thanksgiving and her last two volunteers canceled on her. <br>MURPHY: <i>(reading excuse)</i> ...fell down stairs, broke my arm. What? You can't serve single handed?... Grandmother died. Yeah, like I killed her??? <br> <br> So Murphy says she needs 3-4 volunteers and hints that she wants her co-workers to volunteer... Jim says he has dinner at the Brinkley's at 5 and is going to make his Dial family apple prune stuffing. Murphy tells him there is no conflict in time (she needs him earlier in the afternoon) so Jim decides he will volunteer. Miles volunteers because he'd rather be there than at his Aunt Rivka's house. Frank says he can't because a woman football trainer that he really likes said she'd wave to him from the sidelines, but decides to help out because Murphy said he could bring his TV. Corky will come because she has nothing better to do. <p><i> Thanksgiving Day...</i>It's nine A.M. and the dining room is ready. Frank is complaining about bad reception on the TV and plans to make Italian food. Murphy gets mad and shows him a picture from a Betty Crocker cookbook and informs him there is no Italian food there, so why should he make it.... Jim talks about his Grammy Dial, who created the Dial family apple prune stuffing. He said she was so proud, so strong, but towards the end she thought she was a Rockette... Murphy did not buy prunes for Jim's stuffing because no one really likes prunes and Jim gets very mad. Jim and Frank are arguing, Murphy breaks it up. Corky comes in. She has made 10 pumpkin pies (she got up at 4 A.M. to make them), but they were still a little hot so she left them on the stairs outside. She also made "Pilgrim people" which are made of cornhusks with radishes for a head. <br> Miles comes in half an hour late with two live turkeys. He originally had six, but he lost two out the sunroof and two are in his car mating. Murphy is mad that they aren't dead and no one wants to kill them. It is all chaos, everyone is arguing. Murphy tries to get the turkeys to walk into the oven (calling it "Auntie Murphy's turkey sauna"). <p> Murphy sends Frank to buy a turkey with a thermometer built into it because he was talking about those earlier. She has Corky make the salad and Jim make his stuffing. If they work fast, they may still finish on time. <p> It is now 12:30. Frank is not back yet, Corky tries to entertain the homeless, but they keep asking for food. Finally, Frank comes. (Throughout this episode whenever the outside door is opened, there are turkey sounds.) The closest Frank comes to finding a turkey is the soy "Almost Turkey." Jim says that it's a perfect compliment to his "almost stuffing." It's now that they realize that the turkeys ate Corky's pies. <p> <i>Later...</i> They are ready to serve, but everyone has left. They ate the radish heads off of the Pilgrim people and headed to another mission where there's hot turkey and no wait. Corky, Jim, Miles, and Frank decide to head to the other mission, but Murphy decides to stay back and clean up. <br> One man enters. She serves him eagerly. The meal is potatoes, cranberries, eggrolls and coffee or milk. Murphy sits with him and since he doesn't like to eat alone, eats with him. He says the potatoes are good, but not as good as his mothers, because these have too much pepper. He tells that his mother made great potatoes. People used to come over to his house just to eat his mom's potatoes. She asks him what was in the potatoes (or what made them special). He names off: butter, cream, no pepper. He says his mother died this year Easter time. Murphy says that her mother died this year too. She finds out his name is John Lloyd Barrows. <p> She asks him how he ended up on street. <br> JOHN: How? No matter now, doesn't stop you from being hungry. <i> (John pulls a bottle of liquor from his pocket and with a shaky hand, sets it on the table.)</i> <br> MURPHY: <i> (Looks at the liquor for a second.)</i> Well John Lloyd Barrows, I understand that how. <p> He realizes she hasn't eaten much. So they go back to their Thanksgiving dinner... <i> THE END</i> <p> <p> The first time I saw that episode, I cried and cried. It still is one of my favorites. When I re-watched it last night, it only made me miss the whole show even more. <i>Murphy</i> could be funny and yet make a point. In fact they did that pretty often. John and Murphy were so similar, and yet so different. 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