Episode Report Card Jacob: A+ | 562 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT There's Beauty In The Breakdown
By Jacob | Season 4 | Episode 4 | Aired on April 25, 2008
The Razor recap was weird, because I laid out all my tools on the first page. I wanted to put down all the cards at once, because the ethics of the story were too complex and moved too fast to get tripped up in talking, and I didn't know a better way. I haven't gotten smarter since then. Or maybe I've gotten smarter, or more cowardly, or something else I don't know about yet. I've always been confused by complaints about the length of the recap in the first place: The page you stop reading is how long the recap is. Nobody will know, if you just go do something better. There's not like a quiz.
This is my favorite episode of this entire series, or any series, so I felt caught between not needing any hatemail this week, or regretting later that I didn't give such a beautiful piece of art the full-tilt boogie. It's a little shorter than I was afraid it would be, frankly. So I'm sticking this at the end, and you're free to go until next week, or whatever. You're perfect just as you are, either way. But I don't think that my reaction to this episode is the most normal possible reaction to the episode, which makes me sad in a way, but also hopeful. Here's the justification, anyway, because it's obviously going to factor into everything this show pulls from here on out, so we might as well get it out of the way.
Matt. 6 basically comes down to this: "But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." The chapter is basically a repeated exhortation to avoid what some call "spiritual materialism." That is, debasing what is most beautiful and private -- our relationship with God -- by turning it into a showy performance of our own salvation (riya, in Islam). Matthew compares showy charity to conspicuous consumption, to making a big deal out of fasting, to letting your faith be decided by whether God answered your requests for a new bike this week. In each case, religion has become more about you than it is about God, which overlooks the entire point of God.
He corrects these childish missteps by the faithful to lock themselves in a closet to pray, defused and self-abnegated. The Lord's Prayer -- Matthew's example of proper prayer -- is a laying down of burdens, a recapitulation of Gethsemane: "Thy will, not mine." We begin every week in prayer, on this show: more light, more knowledge, more greatness of spirit. It depends on the necessity of something: something strong and big, the rock at the rock bottom, the flagstone on which you stand. We can call it "God" if you want. Gaius will, but that's his prerogative as usual.