Brian is missing Michael and driving everyone crazy. To Ted’s surprise, Brain calls and asks if he wants to hang out and so they go to Woody’s after work. Guy after guy keeps hitting on Brian, but he keeps turning them down. Ted is amazed at how many times in a night Brian is propositioned, but he then sees this as an opportunity and so his sex life explodes as he hooks up with the guys Brian shuns. For the first time, Brian Kinney seems to have no interest in sex! He finally gets a blow job in the alley behind Babylon at the same time Mikey and Dr. Dave are going at it back home. However, neither Michael nor Brian seems to be thinking of their respective partners. Both of them are a million miles away, undoubtedly thinking of and wishing they were with one another.

Michael packs up his stuff and moves in with David but his things don’t seem to be in keeping with David’s style of décor. David, who apparently has a place for everything and everything in its place, says to Mikey this is his place too and to put his stuff wherever he likes. And so early Saturday morning before he even gets dressed for the day, Michael, shirtless, hot, and cute as could be, strategically and with great pride positions his stuff here and there and, well, everywhere to be honest. David is shocked and tries to blow it off and says he wants to spend the day hanging around the house watching “the game,” but Michael had to work. David was puzzled but Mikey was never into that sort of thing or doing stuff on Saturdays because that was the day all his friends had spent time doing things with their fathers, and since he grew up without a dad, he dreaded that day. Here again is a spot where real life crosses with fiction as I identify strongly with Michael in this circumstance. My dad died when I was very young and so I had much the same experience as Michael did and my mom would work on weekends a lot of the time too. I’m certainly not a “watch the game” kind of guy. Interestingly, what I remember most about my dad is working in the yard and around the house. You have to wonder if history does repeat itself as I find myself now in my thirties invariably spending my Saturdays working in the garden and doing stuff around the house.

Michael went off to work and the staff was gathering outside of the Big Q as Marley regaled them with tasteless gay jokes. But Tracey wasn’t laughing and Michael brushed it off by saying he wasn’t listening, but you could see the hurt in his face, and Tracey picked up on it. She spoke up and told Marley off by so much as saying that people who make fun of other people for being different are ignorant and cruel. Despite that, she still gave Michael her notice. He said that he had hoped she wasn’t leaving because of him being gay. She said, not entirely, but that she felt used and thought that they were friends and that they could trust one another. And as is the case so much of the time when dealing with such issues, Michael told her that when you spend your whole life keeping who you are a secret you learn to stop trusting people and that is so true. They did end up parting amicably and taking a stab at being friends.

When he got home from work, Michael found out that Dr. Dave had been doing more than just sitting around watching the game! All of Michael’s stuff had been taken down and was nowhere to be seen. It seems that gay superhero Capt. Astro was pushed back into the closet, quite literally, as Michael found his silhouette shoved behind the coats in the closet! David made a big boo-boo and said that Mikey’s toys were cute, but they just didn’t belong because the house is “architectural.” And so that made Michael feel like he didn’t belong because those things are his treasures and are what he identifies with just as much as David’s perfectly placed architectural accouterments express him. How hurtful. After a lifetime of feeling you don’t belong because of your sexual orientation to finally find a partner to settle down with and then you’re slapped in the face with the same expression of not fitting in.

Mel and Lindz are having their share of weekend problems too. Mel accused Lindsay of shutting her out and feeling alone but Lindz doesn’t want to talk and all Melanie wants to do is talk. She suggests they go to a therapist to try and work out their difficulties. As they were in the midst of cleaning the house, Brian shows up for dinner… at 2PM in the afternoon. He had nothing to do and so he just came over to hang out. He spent the afternoon trying to justify why he and Michael should stay separated while they and the boys have tried everything to push them back together. Mel got so pissed with Brian just hanging around that she enlisted Ted to get him out of their house. Lindsay finally did talk, but it was to Brain, yet another crux of their problems. She thinks a big part of their problems are that Gus was to be hers and Mel’s, but since Brian wouldn’t give up parental rights, Mel is feeling left out and alienated. Lindz isn’t even sure what she wants, but is afraid to talk for fear of what she will say.

When Lindsay finally gives in and starts talking to Mel, what came out was shocking. Lindsay is of the mind that Mel expects too much. Too much of her, jealous of the time she spends with the baby, and that if Lindz is tired and ignores Mel, they have a problem, that Brian didn’t give up paternal rights, and that Lindz can have children, but Mel can’t. Lindsay said that she feels like she spends her life apologizing and wonders if anything could ever be enough for Mel.

Emmett is entering into a crisis, post HIV test. A hottie came up to him in the gym and asked him out but Em turned him down because of his promise to God. At Woody’s another guy came up to him and they started to talk. He said that Em should see the light and takes him to a meeting – a meeting that convinces people they really aren’t gay. How ironic that the poster children for the group are gayer than anyone. And so as recovering queers step up to explain their stories and how they have all “seen the light,” Emmett takes a stand and says that he wants to see the light too. Scared to death of death and of becoming sick, he takes the only course of action that he thinks there is. Seeing his HIV scare as warning, and his promise to never have sex with a man again, he does the impossible, to try and convince himself that he isn’t gay.

Still reeling from the break up, Brian actually invited Justin to come over – another monumental Kinney moment – but Justin knew it was only because he was missing Michael. So Daphne and Justin put their heads together and decided Justin needed to get them back together. He tracked Michael down at the comic book store, finding him only because Brian knew where to look. Justin bought the first edition of Captain Astro with him that Brian gave Michael for his birthday and told him how miserable Brian has been and that he really does love Michael. Michael aptly pointed out that Brian doesn’t believe in love, but Justin agreed but adding that Mikey is the exception to the rule. He spilled the beans of how Brian purposely outed him to Tracey to drive him away so he wouldn’t spend his life following Brian around hoping that somehow, someday, there might be something between them. He did it for Michael so that he could get on with his life and try and see what he might have with David.

And so later on at Babylon as the thumpa thumpa beats on and bare-chested guys undulate around him, Brian is having a bad case of the doldrums. He turns and there stands Michael grinning sheepishly. He tells Brian he’s been drinking too much and thanked him for the “birthday present,” saying it was unique. Brian thought so too. Mikey asked him to dance and as they talked, Brian lied and said he hadn’t even thought about how weird it was not talking for so long. Not interested at all, Brian asked how he and the doc were. Mikey sort is disillusioned by the happenings back home said that no one knows him better than Brian and Brian added and “knows that on one special day in 1970 Capt. Astro became Astro Woman.” Later when Michael went back home, he found David had put all his collectibles back around the house and Dr. Dave was sitting on the sofa reading an issue of Captain Astro. David said to Michael, “Did you know that one special day in 1970…”