Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Great Expectations (1)
By Kim | Season 2 | Episode 10 | Aired on 01.15.2000
Knoll is lecturing again, still looking at the paper the whole time. He really does a good impression of a distracted professor. He asks the clearly bored group of students what the difference is between Hobbes and Locke. Ruby keeps pointing at her eyes to try to get Knoll to make eye contact. Knoll further alienates the students by saying, condescendingly, "This is pretty basic stuff, guys." Gee, even if I had planned to hazard a guess earlier, I definitely wouldn't now! Knoll sees Ruby's frantic gestures and thinks she wants to answer the question, so he calls on her. She says she can't remember. Knoll starts to give the answer, in a really snotty tone, and then tells them to turn to Chapter Thirteen. I hate him. ["Plus, I'm sorry, but the difference between Locke and Hobbes can't really be boiled down to a single Teacher's Edition textbook answer, so Noel (no surprise) just needs to get over himself." -- Wing Chun]
Julie is looking into the now assembled telescope, and Felicity suggests going out to check out used CDs. Julie says that the view in the telescope looks like a giant eyeball, and Elena walks by and points out that she has the lens in backwards. Felicity opens the door to leave and says, "Don't worry about the telescope. I'm never going to use the thing anyway." As you probably guessed, the Three Men and a Baby Boy is standing right there and Felicity is so busted. He offers to take the three ladies out for lunch, and they accept. As they are leaving, he tells Felicity she can return the telescope, but she says she didn't mean what she said.
Julie, Elena, Felicity and Dad Porter are eating lunch. There are lots of the aforementioned awkward silences. Dad asks Elena about her classes, but that is quickly over. Felicity tells her dad to ask Julie about her demo, like that's not weird. Why wouldn't she just say, "Julie, I was telling my dad about your demo. What's the latest?" I swear, these people have no social skills. So, Dad asks Julie about her demo, and Julie answers, and then they all sit there. Dad asks Julie if she's a music major, and she says no, and he says he thought they had to declare their majors by the end of the semester. Instead of pointing out that the semester just started, and that it's none of Mr. Porter's beeswax, Elena shows some grace by saying that most students change their majors multiple times before graduating so it doesn't really matter. Then there are more awkward silences.
Felicity and her father are walking near a building on campus, I guess. Dad says that they can have lunch together more often. Felicity stops walking and Dad asks her what is wrong. She says he called the Dean, even though she specifically asked him not to do it. Dad says he thinks it was pretty nice of him to call when he didn't even want her to take art classes in the first place. Felicity says, "Everything's feeling a little claustrophobic," and admits that she's not okay with him staying in NYC. Dad says that it's because the hotel is too close to campus. Felicity says it's not that, and as soon as her mom moves there they will be having weekly dinners and going shopping. Her father interrupts to say her mother is not moving there -- in fact, they are separating. Felicity looks stunned. Dad says he was supposed to wait until her mother arrived to tell Felicity. They've been talking about it for a while and then he got the offer. Felicity says, "You chose a job over mom?" Dad says, "This was your mother's decision." Felicity can't believe it and asks why. Her father says he doesn't know, and that they wanted to tell her together. I have to say, Keri Russell did a good job with this scene.