On Beauty

Howard shows up at Emerson in his suit. Victoria shows up very late, saying there was an issue with her outfit. She is wearing a low-cut suit with nothing underneath. Howard notices Monty sitting with a student who looks a lot like Victoria. Howard wonders if Victoria has some ulterior motive for continuing to pursue Howard.

A drunk Erskine comes over to greet Howard. He drank a lot before the event because a male student that he finds boring and stupid asked him to attend. When Erskine hears that Howard came with Victoria, he’s extremely jealous.

When Howard sees the evening’s program, he’s dismayed to notice a glee club performance on it. As soon as the glee club starts to sing, Howard starts involuntarily crying tears of laughter at how ridiculous it is. He gets so loud that Victoria tells him to be quiet. Howard tries to picture unfunny things like death and taxes, but he can’t stop himself. He leaves the event and heads home.

Howard makes it home and greets Murdoch. He tries in vain to read a book before falling asleep. Kiki comes in and tells him that apparently their kids came back while Howard was asleep. Howard asks if Kiki wants a nightcap, and though she refuses at first, eventually Kiki agrees.

Kiki talks about her friend who will probably have to get divorced. She says it feels like everyone she knows is falling apart. She asks Howard about his dinner, and he says it was embarrassing because there was a glee club. Kiki knows immediately what this means. She asks if it was worse than what he did during the glee club performance at Yale, and Howard says it was indeed worse.

Kiki laughs as Howard does his imitation of the glee club. Levi yells down at them that he’s trying to sleep. Eventually, Kiki stops laughing and sighs, then she tells Howard where to find clean sheets for the divan.