XX-XX-XX Sade's Zero Zinnias

An interesting premise...

Sade, the gardener, is paying special attention to her Zero Zinnias flowers.

A young neighbor girl, visiting down the street, also appears interested in the flowers... so much so that Sade must slap the girl's hands away, (Vic asks Sade if she hit the girl in the face/Sade says, ''You think I am a monster?'')

Sade laments hitting the girl and running up to her like a ''big elephant.''  Much of the episode is about her remorse.

Finally, the naive, innocent waif returns.  Sade says, ''If that child touches my Zero Zinnias again, I'll kill her!''

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
What an intriguing synopsis! It seems quite uncharacteristic of Sade to lash out physically at somebody like this -- we certainly never see her raise a hand to Rush. Obviously Sade lost control of her temper, as one might when one sees a naughty neighbor kid messing around with one's stuff, and acted before she thought. I would really like to know what year this episode is from because, from the synopses and scripts I've read, it seems like Sade matures considerably over the years. I would guess this is probably an earlier episode. 

Sade's abrupt turn from remorse to rage again at the end is a funny punchline, but it also shows how strong a grip these flowers seem to have on her psyche. We have always known Sade as the homemaker extraordinaire -- home and community are her entire world, and when she perceives a threat to her world, it's a shock to her whole system. Remember the state she was in when Mis' Appelrot came in and moved her furniture around? Or when Mis' Scott entered her house without knocking? She turns into a mother tiger when someone muscles in on her territory, and the need to maintain peace with her adult neighbors was the only thing keeping her from "hollering something cross" in these two incidences. When it was a child, someone in an inferior social position, who was the intruder, she was able to let go! She feels horrible about it because confrontation and violence are not really in her nature, but at the same time, she's only flesh and blood, and there are certain lines that cannot be crossed with her.

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Zero Zinnias are another in a long line of fake Paul Rhymer flowers. Rhymer also had sets of fake foods, books, films and their stars, card games and their rules, inventions, cities -- and people!

The date is unknown and the title was provided by me, purely for identification purposes.