Episode Report Card Deborah: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Jew Of Arcadia
By Deborah | Season 2 | Episode 10 | Aired on 11.25.2004
We drift over to Joan, picking out nibbles. A Jewish auntie-type from Central Casting -- in the requisite hideously patterned/sequined top -- comes over and says, "Lovely affair." She pinches Joan's cheek: "You did a nice job, Joanie!" Do you think it would confuse Joan if we explained that what she did for Grace was a mitzvah? Joan: "God shouldn't pinch cheeks. It never makes the world better." YentaGod offers: "Rugelach?" Joan refuses, claiming she only eats what she can spell. That would really limit some folks. YentaGod investigates the dessert buffet as Joan asks, "So…questions? That's -- that's it? It's about questions?" YentaGod: "That's it." Joan has one, then: "Judith. Why did she have to die?" YentaGod: "What if she never lived at all?" Joan should say, "Why do you answer my question with a question?" And then YentaGod could say, "Why should a Jew not answer a question with a question?" Joan asks instead, "What if I had done things differently? What if I could have saved her?" YentaGod: "What if knowing you gave her days she never thought she'd have?" Joan: "No, no! I want answers. People need answers. Don't you see how much I miss her?" YentaGod: "Can't you still feel her? See, it's not about answers. It's about asking the right questions, Joanie." She gently pats Joan's cheek and leaves.
Luke's dragging Grace outside. She's objecting: "I told you not to get me anything." Luke's eyes are on the sky, as he urges her, "Just come on." Grace: "Alone in the dark? This better not be something Friedman suggested." He tells her to look up. She does. Luke: "No, no, no, right over there. Above the constellation Leo." Grace complains her neck is cramping. Suddenly Luke says, "Look! Did you see that?" He points at a shooting star -- a very slow, CGI shooting star. Grace smiles: "How did you get them to do that?" Luke explains, "It's the Leonid meteor shower. Happens every year or so." The Leonids can be awesome, especially if you've got a clear sky in an area not overly polluted by light. I think they're usually in November, although not normally this late. The camera's above them so we're looking down at their shining faces. They look at each other and Luke says, "So you'll never forget tonight." She beams at him. Luke: "I mean, it was either this or…Shabbat candlesticks." They point at some more sluggish meteors. The first notes of the Goo Goo Dolls's cover of "Give a Little Bit" start up. Bleah. Hate the Goo Goo Dolls. Got over Supertramp more than twenty years ago. Luke says, "You know, there's a theory that…that all organic matter on earth -- life -- may have come from those. Wonder if we'll ever know?" They look at the meteor shower a bit more and then Luke turns to Grace to kiss her, placing his hand gently on the side of her face. She puts her hand gently on the underside of his elbow. I tell you what, the kids on this show really know what they're doing with their hands. But enough with the looking-up-at-the-sky endings. They're lovely, but they're getting overused lately. I do like it as a recurring motif, but it's getting predictable. Too much of a good thing.