Episode Report Card Deborah: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT "Can You See Them / See Right Through Them"
By Deborah | Season 2 | Episode 14 | Aired on 01.27.2005
Joan walks through the halls at school, with everyone staring at her, gossiping about her, calling her names, and passing judgment on her. Honestly, isn't there anyone at Arcadia High who's just indifferent, or out of it, or not part of the hive mind? As Joan reaches her locker, some girl tells her, "Lying so you have something to write about on your college essay? You make me sick." Joan calls after her, "Have a nice day!" Then she mutters to herself: "Now I know how JLo feels." The Duff walks through the hall behind Joan with her bitchface posse. Gold Bag snots, "Oh my God, someone's in peril! Oh, never fear, SuperJoan's going to take credit." No way does Gold Bag know the word "peril." Joan asks The Duff, "So you're back to making fun of me? How does that work?" The Duff squeaks, "Don't rag on me!" Joan: "You were there." The Duff: "I wasn't looking, and they said --" Joan: "You're incredible! Yesterday you said I was the most important person in your life, but the second these clones take me down, I'm just something on your shoe?" Nine West asks The Duff: "'The most important person in your life'?" The Duff claims she didn't say that. Joan huffs that she tried to cut The Duff some slack: "Thinking there was a decent person in there." She takes off the watch and gives it back to The Duff: "Why don't you give this to the next most important person in your life?" The Duff: "I don't want that thing! It was just some cheapie off of a cart in the mall." She tries to walk away again but Joan's pretty mad: "But you know what it meant when you gave it to me!" The Duff claims it was a joke. Joan: "Oh my God, I can't take this anymore. The whole sob story about your mother being a waitress -- was that just another lie, too?" The Duff looks scared now -- and the clones look suspicious. The Duff says Joan doesn't know what she's talking about. Joan: "'Oh, Joan's a subdefective. She'll buy that waitress story. Hmm, Don Thornberry's by the airport…that's good and sad.'" Nine West: "Your mom's a waitress?" The Duff's little eyebrows keep bunching up and now she's all teary as Joan rants on: "Yeah, what's it gonna be next week? Oceanographer? Oh, I know: a princess!" The Duff just stands there looking like a smacked puppy. She finally turns and walks away without a word as Joan realizes what's happened. She calls out, "I thought you were making it up! I'm so --"
Adam's in Helen's classroom, angrily cutting his ad campaign to pieces. Helen comes in and asks him how the big meeting went. Looking at what he's doing, she asks, "Was that your mockup for the presentation?" Adam: "Yeah. Mockup. That's the perfect word." Helen, assuming they hated his pitch, says she's sorry. He says they loved it. He's mad because Michael took all the credit for the campaign, and then sent him out for coffee. Helen looks like she's not all that surprised, and says she's sorry. Adam continues slicing and ranting and flinging stuff around. Helen reminds him that he's just sixteen: "What'd you expect? This is the real world?" Adam: "So people pump you up just to steal your ideas?" Uh, yeah. He can't believe that's the real world, and says he's going to go back to his cleaning job at the hotel, which was at least an honest job. Helen says maybe Adam pumped Michael up, thinking he would change Adam's life when he's just some guy who's out for himself. Adam calms down a little, but says he just thought that maybe he'd have something to show for all his effort. Helen says that he does: "You know your work is good enough to steal." That had clearly not occurred to Adam.