The particular "F-word" in the title of this Lipstick Jungle [1] episode is "family." As in, the one you suddenly have an awful lot of free time to spend with after you're fired from your job. Or the one you might have to learn to love if you start dating one of its members. Or the one that can suddenly resurface and start wreaking havoc on your life. To talk about all the family matters on this week's episode, just .

• So Wendy's fired, at home, and bored out of her mind. Oh, she's trying — making pancakes, setting up dentist appointments, watering plants. But inside, she's going nuts. It's not helping that Maddie is less than thrilled to have mom around ("Do me a favor and un-quit your job"). And it's also not helping that Wendy told her kids she quit, so every time she catches one of them (well, Maddie) in a lie, she feels like a hypocrite.
• Oh yeah — and she also has to deal with Nico telling her that she's hurt all women: "You made an emotional decision at work that a man would never make." Ouch. Wendy still believes she did the compassionate thing (though she shouldn't have lied), but Nico thinks it gives executive women a bad name.



• Not that Nico has a leg to stand on when it comes to emotional decisions, because our Nico Reilly is really Nico Pappademos from Queens, daughter of a former restaurant owner and sister of a small-time criminal. She's mostly left her family behind (her dad never seemed to love her; her brother stole from her), she ultimately comes through to bail her brother out of jail and set him up with a good lawyer. And she insists to Gordon that Bonfire not write a story about his crime (something-or-other about audiotapes of stockbrokers), because no way will she drag her family through that kind of mud.
• Meanwhile, Victory does absolutely nothing to endear herself to Rodrigo's daughter, including showing up late for their first meeting and accidentally spoiling Charlotte's Web. Her efforts to impress later by inviting Rodrigo and Celia to a charity fundraiser are no better, because they get swept up in the crush of photographers (literally, in the case of poor Celia) while Victory has to go around being her fancy self. Rodrigo likes the Victory who cares about the world and likes sitting at home in sweats; he doesn't know what to do with the one in the glittery dresses who shows up in magazines. And he can't have just one of them.
• Also, is Victory's publicist/"image consultant" just bad at her job? Why on earth would it be good for Victory to be the face of garbage in New York?
• On a positive note, Nico and Kirby are publicly a couple, which so far seems not to be as awkward as either one of them had feared.
• Wendy ultimately confesses her lie to her kids, and Maddie sweetly tells her mom she did the right thing letting Noah make his movie. Honestly, despite their ups and downs, the Healys must be the best-adjusted family in showbiz.

Are you surprised about Nico's background (and glad she's not just "making Greek babies and moussaka")? Is this the end for Victory and Rodrigo? Can I have the Healy family's guac recipe? Discuss. Also, if you loved the clothes, check them out on CelebStyle [2]!

Photos courtesy of NBC [3]