It’s not going well. Ruth is nervous, unpracticed in facing the kind of overt sexism that thwarts her legal reasoning on a level beyond rational discourse, and Mel is determined to brace her for it. Between bites of paté, he grills the young lawyer over and over again, while Marty interjects once in a while, with advice to throw in a joke. As the proceedings wind down, Mel decides it might be nice to give Ruth a compliment. “Your paté is the best I’ve ever tasted,” he says, assuming that Ruth is the cook. He’s wrong. Marty made the paté, as well as any of the other snacks they see before them. Ruth is a terrible cook.