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Plot[]
The Ricardos' anniversary is fast approaching, and Ricky is secretly planning on buying Lucy a string of real pearls as a present. Neighbor Grace Foster works at a jewelry store, so she can give Ricky a 20% discount on the pearls. Ricky pretends like he has no idea what the important date is coming up, and Lucy is fooled into thinking that Ricky has forgotten their anniversary completely. When she catches him secretly meeting and phoning Grace Foster, she immediately thinks Ricky and Grace are having an affair.
Ricky goes to Grace's apartment to look at many different pearl necklaces. When Lucy can't properly hear what's going on through the furnace pipe, she and Ethel dress in painters' uniforms, go on the scaffold, and try to get a peek at what's happening in the Fosters' apartment through the window. Lucy gets a bucket of paint dumped all over her, and she and Ethel almost fall off the scaffold. Ricky and Fred save Lucy and Ethel, and they are stunned when they find out the painters are their wives. Ricky and Grace realize the jig is up, and Ricky also realizes that Lucy thinks he's fooling around. So, he starts explaining what's been going on in a way that sounds like he really is cheating on Lucy ("there's enough money from these pearls for two people to run away to Mexico"), but he ends with saying that he has chosen a particular strand of anniversary pearls for Lucy. Ecstatic to have her husband back, paint-covered Lucy gives Ricky a paint-covered kiss.
Trivia[]
- In episode #24, we learned that Grace Foster was a beautiful blonde. So, why is she a brunette the first time we ever see her on camera?!
- When he lived in Cuba, Ricky ate rice for breakfast on a regular basis. He enjoys it most with butter added on top.
- The date circled on Lucy's calendar signaling the Ricardos' anniversary is the 19th, but the month isn't visible. The Ricardos' anniversary was probably picked as the 19th here, because that was Lucy's lucky number and the date Lucy and Desi renewed their wedding vows (June 19, 1949).
- Ricky buys Lucy the string of pearls, because she's always wanted a pair of real pearls but never had the opportunity to afford them. But in episode #12 of the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, when Lucy goes to Japan, she schemes to get a pair of real pearls, something she's supposedly never had before. What happened to the first string of pearls?!
- Ricky paid $50 for Lucy's wedding ring.
Quotes[]
- Lucy: How do you want your eggs? Scrambled or fried?
Ricky: Sam. (to Grace on phone) I'll talk to you later, Scrambled.
- Lucy: Well, now, suppose you were my husband and I served you rice for breakfast. What would you think?
Ethel: I think I'd eat at the drugstore from now on.
- Lucy: Honey, doesn't that rice remind you of anything?
Ricky: It sure does. It makes me think of when I was a little boy in Cuba. We used to eat rice fro breakfast all the time. It's sweet of you to think about it, honey.
- Ethel: In fact, Grace Foster hasn't got anything you haven't got.
Lucy: She has so.
Ethel: What?
Lucy: She's got Ricky!
- Ricky: (to Grace) Let's open another case [of pearls].
Lucy: (listening through furnace pipes) They're up there drinking!
- Fred: I wonder what makes this [painter] so heavy? (sees the painter is Ethel) Oh, no wonder!