Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Of Camdens
By Sara M | Season 8 | Episode 5 | Aired on 10.12.2003
Ruthie will be the hardest person for Simon to leave, but she won't have time to miss him because she's going through puberty with "thoughtful intelligence" and "a great sense of humor" and "high self-esteem." And a lame clear phone, judging by the picture of her talking on it. Simon hopes that he'll always be a "positive influence" on her life. But since he and Ruthie are so close, Simon fears that she "feels his pain" (not really -- wasn't Ruthie the first person to have a good time and tell people to start moving on after the accident?) and distance is a good idea. And he knows that she'll be "just fine" without him anyway.
And the CamRents, who raised Simon "right," and are sending a "man" into the world, and not a boy. Simon is man enough to work through an accident that killed a boy "who was reckless with his life." Because PaulSmith was high (I don't know why Simon's stating as fact what was, a few episodes ago, mere speculation) the night he crashed into Simon without wearing a helmet. And JustinSmith might have given him the weed. And the Smith parents think that they did something wrong (and I'm sure we're supposed to think that they did). And Simon blames himself because, you know, he drove into the kid. But blame doesn't help anything, and in the end no one made Paul get high (even though Frankie and Johnny were blamed for making Mary get "drunk"), ride his bike, and not wear his helmet except Paul.
Admissions Guy 1: You can tell that Simon really feels bad about what happened because he's already found a way to place the blame entirely on the person he killed.
Admissions Guy 2: I'd be much less angry right now if he had just chalked this all up to an accident and not something that was caused by the kid it killed.
But the Smith parents are still trying to do their job by asking Simon to leave school, and he's ready to go, because the CamRents taught Simon all the basics, like being polite and treating people well. They taught him to say "please" and "thank you," if not to say "goodbye" before ending a phone conversation. "If you don't have anything nice to say, say nothing at all." That is, until you get home and say whatever you want behind people's backs. "Take a shower every day." Unless you're Dopey and you want your hair to retain its glistening oily shine. And of course, there's the stuff that the bad Smiths didn't teach their sons, like "wear a helmet" and "don't do drugs." And then there are some more philosophical teachings, but Simon doesn't really go into those, most likely because they don't exist. "Philosophical Camden" is an oxymoron, after all. The CamRents have taught Simon to do the right thing, and what to do if he doesn't, and about the love of a family. And respect for each other. By not trusting them to do the right thing and spying on them to make sure they do. Simon may question his parents' beliefs, he's still the "son of a preacher man," and someday, he will have what the CamRents have. The camera tracks out of the house, and the door closes by itself.
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