"So Weird"'s second season opens in Hope Springs, Colorado - home base for the Phillips and Bell clans. The Molly Phillips Band is taking a few weeks to unwind at home and lay down a few demo tracks at the Hope Springs Studios. In these first few episodes we see some rather soul-searching scenes with the Phillips family. The weirdness Fi encounters at home is of a much more personal nature than what she generally stumbles into while on the road.
This first episode brings to the foreground a character that has been in the background since the very beginning - Rick Phillips, Fiona's deceased father. It begins with a montage of photos and video images of a young and happy Phillips family. It moves on to Fiona dragging e-pal Candy to a seance. To anyone familiar with fictional seances, it is obvious that Fi is being set up by the apparently well-intentioned woman called Susan. Fi spills a few important details about why she has come to the seance and these little clues are then used by the medium, Leopold Martin, to "contact" Rick. Martin should be ashamed of himself for playing on the emotions of these people - especially children like Fiona. While Martin is undoubtedly in it for the money and the fame, we'd like to be generous and imagine that perhaps he also believes that he's giving people comfort and closure.
One man who is getting neither comfort nor closure here is Patrick Raymond. Halfway through Martin's performance Raymond interrupts to explain that his daughter, whom Martin has "contacted", never even existed and invites in a film crew to help publicize Martin's fraud. Fiona is crushed by the deception. She had truly believed that Martin had contacted her father.
Meanwhile Molly is confronting a ghost of her own in the studio. As she struggles to produce a great recording for her demo tape she is bombarded by images and memories of her dead husband. She is even astonished to hear his words echoed by her manager Irene. "They ain't paying to hear you talk so you better sing." Unable to deal with the competing voices in her head Molly has to take a break from the studio.
Later that evening we come to Jack's only speaking scene in this episode. He's pulling his "man of the house" routine by checking up on his mother. He can obviously sense that she is disturbed, but he is unable to supply the reassurance that Molly needs.
Sometime later, in a rare, responsible gesture Clu accompanies Fiona to Patrick Raymond's office - a small travel agency. He even offers to come inside with her, but Fi needs to do this on her own. Fiona has learned that Raymond is a professional "de-bunker" of psychic phenomena and has written several books about his work exposing frauds. Fi is convinced that Raymond might be able to help her find a "real" medium to contact her father. After bitterly explaining to Fi that *all* psychics are fake... he then claims to be a genuine medium himself. His bitterness stems from the loss of his wife and the subsequent loss of his "talent". This confrontation leaves Fi as shaken as she had been at the seance. (Note: Clu can be seen clowning with a skateboard outside the office during this scene through the glass door behind Fiona.)
Due to time restrictions (and possibly the rather "colorful" nature of the dialogue) a rather important scene was not filmed. This unwritten scene involved Jack paying a visit to Raymond's office to berate him for upsetting Fiona. He presumably learned about the afternoon's events and the location of the travel agency from Clu, as Fiona was utterly surprised to learn that Jack had gone looking for Raymond. The end result of this brotherly concern was Raymond's appearance on the Phillips' front porch in an attempt to apologize to Fi.
Raymond then offers to try contacting Rick if Fiona wants. He holds her father's old guitar for a moment then hands it to Fi with the request that she play something. After fumbling through a few meaningless chords Fiona then proceeds to play a short riff - a piece of something that she's never heard before. To her astonishment, Raymond tells her that this means "hello". Despite the fact that Fiona is thrilled by this revelation, Raymond has actually offered her no more proof that he has contacted her father than Martin did.
When Molly comes home from the studio she finds Fiona in her room practicing the "hello" chords. Fi's explanation of the music and her belief that she got it from her father disturb Molly. The house and studio have brought back memories that Molly is uncomfortable with and it is clear that even after ten years she is still having a great deal of difficulty coping with Rick's death. She doesn't know how to help herself and even less of a clue about how to help her children deal with the loss. She snaps at Fiona for trying to hold on to the past, while at the same time admitting that she can't let go either. At last, she manages to ignore the paranormal aspect of Fiona's claim and recognize that the girl simply wants some acknowledgement of her father's existence. As the camera angle changes in the final moments of the episode it reveals Jack standing silently in the hallway, out of his mother and sister's line of sight. He has obviously overheard the conversation, but makes no move to join them. Instead, he remains in isolation, trying to protect the strong front he puts up for their benefit.