Penny and Aggie/Recap/Bedside Manners

"Let him hear her voice."

As Rich lies comatose in hospital from his stabbing in the previous arc, Penny and her friends visit him. Stan, who's already there with Jack when they arrive, is infuriated to see Penny, as he blames Rich's plight on Penny allegedly having softened him up and made him careless. Jack talks him down, saying that Rich still had feelings for Penny, and that they should honour what would be his wishes, not theirs, by letting her speak to him. Sara spots Marshall down the hall and apprehensively goes to speak with him.

Karen visits Rich first, confiding in him that she'd planned to hurt Penny by gradually seducing him (presumably in retaliation for, as Karen mistakenly believed, Penny trying to steal Marshall from her in Dinner for Six); however, she came to realize that Marshall means too much to her for her to go through with it. She contents herself with a pat on the groin as she leaves.

Meanwhile, Sara and Marshall chat about not knowing what they'd say to Rich, as neither has a particularly friendly history with him. Eventually, Sara works up the nerve to kiss Marshall. Furious, he warns her that this had better not be some plot of Penny's. However, when Sara realizes out loud that she's gay and breaks down crying, Marshall realizes what she was really up to and consoles her.

Inside Rich's room, Brandi, perturbed at Stan's apparent unconcern over Michelle's loud weeping, has him take her into the hall so that Penny can speak to Rich. To her friends' shock, Penny launches an angry tirade at him, saying she'd warned him to look after himself, but that he stupidly insisted on taking risks with his life. As she shouts "Just hurry up and die!", Brandi ushers her outside. On the way home, Jack and Katy-Ann have their first serious conversation, disagreeing about Penny's feelings for Rich, while Karen, watching Stan leave with Michelle, appears to get an idea. As for Penny, once home she cries privately over him, saying, "You were supposed to be my first."

Tropes

 * Coming Out Story: Sara finally realizes she's gay, with Marshall the first person to whom she's out.
 * Converse With the Unconscious: Karen and Penny both speak to the comatose Rich, Penny less civilly than expected.
 * How Dare You Die On Me: Double Subversion. In the hospital, Penny seemingly inverts this by telling Rich to "Just hurry up and die!" However, in the privacy of her bedroom, she cries for him, as she'd meant for him to be the first guy she would sleep with.
 * Test Kiss: Sara attempts this with Marshall, the one boy she'd ever felt the slightest attraction to, thereby producing No Sparks and thus confirming for her that she's gay.
 * The Vamp: Averted, and Discussed after the fact, as Karen confesses to the unconscious Rich her aborted plan to steal him from Penny.