Second Look at a Season Two Episode
It was never a big favorite of mine but after rewatching it, but "Lucy Changes Her Mind" has a lot going for it.
It starts off in the usual ILL fashion, Lucy sucks all the oxygen out of the room with her behavior. She can't decide what to wear, what to eat, what movie to see and everyone has to wait on her.
But Frank Nelson has one of his best performances as the frustrated waiter dealing with Lucy's change of mind.
The second part of the episode is interesting as it reveals some of Lucy's past. She is cleaning out the closet and finds a fifteen year old unfinished love letter to an old beau. And I thought I kept old mail!
She was already married to Ricky but she had kept a four year old love letter when they moved into the Mertz building. Interesting.
It's a revelation that Tom Henderson was an old college boyfriend. That would've meant that Lucy went to college in the 1930's. It wasn't unheard of but it was unusual for girls to attend college back then. I wonder what she studied. Did she major in theater arts?
During that time, most girls lived at home until they married. They may have had jobs like secretary or shop girl. But Lucy obviously had ambitions way back then and left home to attend college.
An interesting glimpse into Lucy's past.
The one thing that's puzzling though...how did she mistake Tom's brother Harry for him? Sure, people can change after fifteen years. A man can lose some hair but he rarely loses six inches in height! Why didn't Lucy realize it must've been Tom's brother?
Of course we wouldn't have had Ethel's incredulous question, "THAT'S a gorgeous hunk of man???"