Summary: Felicity’s in Professor Sherman’s class, where the students are critiquing a sketch of two people making out. Felicity says something seems off, but she can’t figure out what it is. Professor Sherman agrees that something’s wrong, but not artistically – it’s that Felicity’s a manipulator, a liar, and “a bit of a slut.” Another student tells Felicity that was harsh, then kisses her. When she pushes him away, he turns into Noel. She says she was confused, and he says it’s because she’s still in love with him. Of course, it’s all a dream.
Felicity makes a tape for Sally about how her feelings for Noel have been stirred up again. In their first class back from break, he brings up their kiss, calling it a drunken mistake. She says she feels the same. Noel thinks Professor Sherman will be professional about what happened and not let her personal feelings about them affect their grades. Yeah, doubtful.
We fast-forward a few weeks, and Felicity tells Sally she’s still thinking about Noel. Professor Sherman gives the class their final assignment: two self-portraits, one how they see themselves and one how they think others see them. Then they need to pair off and do portraits of their partners. Noel and Felicity pair up, which means they’ll be staring at each other’s faces a lot.
After class, the two of them approach Professor Sherman to get her approval of their partnership. They tell her that their Thanksgiving kiss had nothing to do with David. Noel blames Professor Sherman’s punch, which doesn’t help. After he leaves, Felicity says she admires Professor Sherman and says she doesn’t want the kiss to affect their relationship. Professor Sherman says she’s going to pretend Felicity didn’t just say that.
At the loft, Sean is thrilled to learn that there’s an investor interested in Smoothaise. This could lead to Smoothaise being distributed to restaurant chains. Julie wants to celebrate by buying Sean a drink at Epstein Bar that night. She’s doing a whole show and thinks it could lead to a music career. Ben comes home, slamming doors because he’s stressed about a paper he has to write.
Felicity keeps having dreams about her and Noel’s kiss, and they’re getting weirder. Eli shows up in one, bragging that he was the first one to sleep with Felicity, which Noel can never take away from him. They argue over which of them is Felicity’s soulmate. Then Lucky makes an appearance, saying in French (I think with David’s voice) that he’s a metaphor for Felicity’s confusion and sexual ambivalence. That’s one smart dog!
Felicity spaces out while sketching Noel, then tells him she had a weird dream that doesn’t make sense. She’s dreading having to study her own face for her self-portrait. Noel says he’s enjoying drawing her. Yeah, I’m sure he loves the excuse to stare at her. Felicity asks about Ruby, who’s still away, working on her movie for a couple of weeks. Noel says he misses her, but…I don’t know.
During one of their sketching sessions, the two take a break to watch TV but both fall asleep. Felicity wakes up with Noel’s arm around her. She tells Elena that she’s not sure it was on purpose. Elena reminds her that she told David she doesn’t want to date anyone right now. Felicity confirms that she meant that, but what if she has a chance to make a fresh start with Noel? She wonders if Noel and Ruby are serious. Elena knows he likes her, but if Ruby’s been away for weeks, it might not be that serious. Felicity might as well talk to him about her feelings.
Felicity tells Sally that all the dreams have made her decide to talk to Noel and live with the consequences. But – surprise! – Ruby’s back in town for a final. Felicity and Noel have another sketching session instead of a big conversation, and she sees that he’s bought a Palm Pilot for Ruby for Christmas…maybe. He might give her a sweater instead. Or an ugly bracelet. He worries the Palm Pilot might be too impersonal, but Ruby always says she’s disorganized, so it would be a good gift.
Noel asks Felicity’s advice, and after trying to dodge the question, Felicity admits that she has her own interest at stake. She blurts out that she wants to date him again. Noel is floored and takes a little while to respond. He tells Felicity this is bad timing. When he was a kid, he saw a news report about a daredevil who screwed up a stunt and said he wouldn’t try again because he’d screwed it up so badly. Felicity gets the message and thanks Noel for being honest. She’s happy they both expressed their feelings, even if those feelings aren’t the same. Now they can move on. She tells Noel to give Ruby the bracelet, which is what Felicity would want for herself.
Julie performs at Epstein Bar, then chats with a guy named Erik, who’s from a small label called Pop Rocks Records. He asks to hear a demo tape. Sean comes to congratulate Julie on her performance but isn’t that thrilled with Erik. Felicity visits Elena in a chemistry lab and meets her new lab partner, Gwen. She’s a slow talker, so apparently this is an episode of Seinfeld. Felicity tells Elena that Noel dumped her, even though they weren’t dating again. She again says that she’s happy that they got everything out in the open. She respects Noel’s decision, though it makes her want him more.
Noel gives Ruby her Christmas present early, but it’s not the bracelet – it’s the Palm Pilot. She loves it, but he offers to return it if she doesn’t. She insists that she wants it. At the loft, Julie comes home from dropping off a tape for Erik; he seems really interested in her. She may get to be part of a demo deal, where the label pays for her to record a few songs, then signs her if they like them. Sean makes sure she hasn’t signed anything yet, just in case. He thinks Erik is interested in more than just Julie’s musical talents.
Julie snaps at Sean for saying that Erik was hitting on her instead of being professional. When Sean told her about his potential investor, she was happy for him. She thinks Erik’s label is legit, and Sean is seeing something he wouldn’t if Julie were a guy. Ben emerges from his room to tell them to stop yelling, since he’s trying to write about a topic he doesn’t understand. Julie storms out.
More sketching with Felicity and Noel. She hopes she didn’t freak him out when she said she wanted to get back together. He says he appreciates her interest in him. He adds that he gave Ruby the Palm Pilot instead of the bracelet. Hmm, I wonder who he’ll give the bracelet to?
Noel doesn’t like his sketch of Felicity, so he asks if he can try a technique he learned from their classmate, Bruce (that would be the guy who turned into Noel in her dream). He wants to stare into Felicity’s eyes before he draws her. YEAH, BUDDY, THAT SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT IDEA. Staring. Staring. Staring…and then kissing. Just then, Elena walks in and accuses the two of being about to do exactly what they were about to do. She tells them they’re allowed to kiss if they want – “it doesn’t have to be Thanksgiving.”
Felicity tells Sally about her next dream: She wakes up in bed with Noel and finds the ugly bracelet under her pillow. Some of the stones have broken up. Noel turns into Ruby, who says she really wanted the bracelet. Felicity says she did, too. She tells Sally that she took a final and has no idea what it was about.
Ben tries to study at the loft, but he’s too stressed to concentrate. Sean’s like, “Wait till you’re a real adult and have to worry about life stuff.” Thanks for your sympathy, Sean. Ben has to write 5,000 words about The Invisible Man, but he can’t quite grasp the metaphor. Sean informs him that he’s thinking about the wrong book. He’s supposed to write about the Ralph Ellison book, not the H.G. Wells book.
Julie comes home and announces that Erik is going to offer her a contract. Sean apologizes for being overprotective and tells Julie he’s happy that she gets to make a demo tape. He admits that his investor wasn’t actually an investor, just an underling, so the deal fell apart. It’s okay, though, because Sean would have had to sign over all his rights to Smoothaise.
Ruby comes by Felicity’s room while she’s staring at herself in the mirror for her self-portrait. Ruby confides that she’s thinking of using her per diem from the movie to buy Noel a ticket to join her in L.A. for the rest of the movie shoot. It seems extravagant, so she wants Felicity’s advice about whether it would freak Noel out. If Felicity were Ruby, would she buy the ticket? Felicity starts, “If I were you…” then finally says Ruby should do it.
Felicity finds Noel at Epstein Bar and asks if he was going to kiss her. He admits that he was. She asks about Ruby, and he slams her for blindsiding him while he’s in a relationship. Felicity tells him he needs to be fair to Ruby. Noel points out that Ruby’s been gone longer than they’ve been together, so obviously she can’t mean more to him than Felicity does.
On the other hand, he sticks by his daredevil story. But on the other other hand, he may be ready to risk things again. If Elena hadn’t interrupted, Noel would have kissed Felicity. Felicity notes that Noel said he thinks he’s ready to risk things again. Maybe they should take some time to really think about it before they make any decisions. Yeah, I’m sure that’ll make a difference.
After a night without dreams, Felicity tells Sally she feels excited because she and Noel might really get back together. Ruby is suspicious about exactly that and confronts Felicity. She hasn’t enjoyed herself while filming the movie, and Noel’s care packages have been the only thing getting her through it. Felicity didn’t know about the packages or how much they meant to Ruby.
Ruby says she gave Noel the ticket, but he seemed distant and said he wasn’t sure if he could go. He wouldn’t tell her why, but Ruby can tell that he’s different when he talks about Felicity. She knows she can’t compete with Felicity. Felicity says she likes Noel, but Ruby has nothing to worry about. Ruby’s satisfied with Felicity’s claim that they’re just friends.
Ben has managed to write his paper, and Sean is giving it a look 15 minutes before it’s due. He jokes that he deleted it, which isn’t funny. Noel and Felicity go to their last class with Professor Sherman, worried that she’ll hate their portraits. Felicity tells him that Ruby came to see her, and she thinks Noel should go to L.A. with him. Ruby reminded Felicity of how she felt when Hanna came back into the picture. Noel says the situation is totally different, but he’s going to go to L.A.
Felicity and Noel are first for class critiques. Professor Sherman is very fair with them, and says their portraits are drawn by two people who clearly see each other. After class, Felicity thanks her for being generous; Professor Sherman says her critique was about the art, not the artists. So Noel was right, and she was professional after all.
Felicity tells Sally that Ruby has already gone back to L.A., and she and Noel are both leaving tonight. Noel gives Ruby the ugly bracelet before she leaves. Felicity and Noel meet up to say goodbye before splitting up for Christmas vacation, but they keep things non-romantic. Well, for now, at least.
Thoughts: Erik is played by Adam Rodriguez. One of the students in Professor Sherman’s class is played by Greg Rikaart.
Ruby comes back to take a final, so was she still doing classwork while shooting the movie? Seems unlikely.
So did Ben’s professor assign a paper about a book they hadn’t discussed in class? Did he just say, “Read The Invisible Man” without specifying which one? Did Ben just not read the syllabus? I have to say, this whole thing makes Ben look really dumb.
'90s Flashback 
Leave a comment