A sort of very special episode of 'Kyle XY'

After last week's fairly light-hearted vibe, Kyle XY decides to bring the room down a little and get personal. There's a resolution of a long standing issue for one character, two others struggle to deal with the aftermath of last week's final scene and another gets put in a rough situation.

Spoilers ahead!

After Lori got knocked out and her necklace stolen in the alley last week, everyone's handling her with kid gloves despite her insistence that she's fine. Kyle feels guilty and is keeping watch outside her door while Papa Stephen is sleeping in her room, which she tells them to stop doing. Lori chalks up the attack as a hate crime, someone going after her for being socially conscious and she refuses to let it get her down despite everyone telling her it's okay to break down. Except for her brother. Josh is partially avoiding her, leaving abruptly every time he looks at her bruised face and hasn't said anything insensitive since the incident.

Strangely, Kyle's storyline wasn't as important as Jessi's and Lori's.

Kyle discovers Patent-Pending Power #117, picking up brief messages/mental images from the comatose. Comes in handy since Stephen's estranged father, William, is laid up in the hospital after a stroke. Stephen hasn't talked to his dad in years after they had a big falling out. With the help of a somewhat insistent Amanda the Bland (who sadly went back to fairly innocuous form this episode), Kyle manages to decipher some seemingly disjointed bits and pieces and finally allowed Stephen and William (who of course dies at the end of the episode) to reconcile. Also, Kyle and Amanda finally kiss ... without any tongue. Which is good since it was a close-up and Kirsten Proust isn't quite legal yet (17 to Matt Dallas' 25-ish -- sorry if that's too much info but I was curious and felt the need to share).

Jessi pops up in Lori's doorway, startling her. Lori shows her the injuries (she has scratches on her shoulder as well) and tells Jessi they look worse than they feel. They have a brief conversation and it's clear that there's something off, partially Jessi not totally comprehending the situation and partially something else ...

During Jessi's session with Nicole, Jessi wants to know what Nicole is writing and asks if she can read the notes. She can't because they're confidential but Nicole does share that she sometimes writes what Jessi says and sometimes just records notes. Nicole then inquires about her "sister" (she's basically trying to figure of if Jessi is being abused). Jessi confesses that Emily is controlling and that she's not the same person she projects which leads Nicole to have a meeting with Emily later. Not wanting Nicole to dig any deeper, Emily says she thinks it was a mistake to bring Jessi to her and Nicole disagrees and threatens to call family services if Jessi misses any appointments.

Emily talks to Ballantine the Evil Madacorp Figurehead and tells him the situation. His solution? Bring her in to reprogram her. This doesn't sit well with Emily because Jessi is a teenage girl with "feelings and emotions and desires" and she can't just be reprogrammed every time she exhibits her own personality. She wants out of the assignment, but Ballantine tells her that it would behoove her to stay. Later on she calls to check on her daughter and finds out someone's picked her up from school already, someone from Madacorp with false permission. Rushing home, she asks her mother where her daughter is. Turns out she was dropped home and the guy who did it told her that "They always have [Emily's] family in mind."

During all this, Declan has been gravitating back towards Lori even more than before. While discussing the incident at the beginning of the episode, Declan is certain that Foss is behind the attack, though Kyle doesn't think he is. It's Kyle who tells Declan that Lori would really appreciate him visiting her and, despite being somewhat unsure, he does. Declan tells Lori it would be okay if she needed to freak out but she maintains her strong act and says she'll see him at some dude's party later.

Meanwhile, Jessi uses a fancy ability Kyle hasn't used yet -- by remembering the sound of the pencil and the way Nicole's hand was moving during her session, Jessi copies down the note she was curious about and discovers that Nicole believes Jessi "lacks empathy, is socially manipulative and has no remorse." Sounds about right, poor thing. Declan pops up at that moment and they briefly discuss Lori, which causes Jessi to empathize for the first time.

As Lori gets ready for the party, she finally decides that she doesn't want to go and texts Declan to have fun. He texts back "Open your window" - which she does to let him in. He brought her chick flicks and she asks him to hang out for awhile. He agrees, but only if she plays him the song he missed to go make out with Jessi a few episodes ago. Declan hands Lori the guitar and they sit on opposite ends of the bed.

When Emily gets home, Jessi's sitting on the floor, crying in the dark. Jessi is scared and confused and we see Emily in a brief motherly moment. Too bad it's short lived as Emily marches Jessi into the office the next morning and hands her over to Ballantine for rewiring. Emily also gets ordered to step up whatever game plan she has for Stephen. Last week I called 2 to 3 episodes before Emily's big push ... not that I'm trying to pat myself on the back or anything, but ... *pat pat*

Oh, also the main reason Jessi was crying was because she's the one who mugged Lori so she could get Declan's necklace. Nice. She leaves it in Lori's locker, who is a bit unnerved when she finds it the next morning. Lori also confronts Josh on his weirdness. Josh says it's because when he sees her bruise, he gets angry because he wants to pound on the guy who did it. It's a touching exchange ... but not too touching as Josh sums up by adding, "Hillary Duff called. She wants her shirt back."

So next week, the kids go off on a Scooby-Doo sized adventure involving flashlights, the blown-up remains of Jessi and Kyle's birthplace, Jessi and Amanda fighting (read: Amanda probably getting the crap beaten out of her) because of Jessi's newly programmed preoccupation with Kyle, Lori getting trapped in a room, Josh getting called out by Andy and ... is that a Kyle clone in a pod?!? Zoinks!