Episode Report Card Deborah: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Six Feet Under
By Deborah | Season 2 | Episode 11 | Aired on 12.09.2004
Helen and Lily are at a café, and Lily seems to be enthusiastically regaling Helen with the details of an episode of The Jerry Springer Show. When Helen wonders why, Lily says, "Modern-day David and Goliath." More like a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah. Lily adds, "Look, it's about courage, and our overwhelming need to confront odds." Helen: "So shouldn't there be a part where David's mother tells him how dangerous it's gonna be? And where's the part that urges caution? It's like the Bible was written by Johnny Knoxville." Hee. Well, there's the Gospel according to John. Maybe he had something to do with that. And if it's caution she wants, Helen should check out the Qur'an. There's a fair bit of cautioning going on in there. Lily's surprised: "You like Jackass, too? Okay, did you see the one where Steve-O, he put chicken in his pants and alligators were, like, snapping at him, and he was…" Lily can see Helen's not that interested in this. Helen says, "We just buried one of Joan's friends. I can't see Kevin getting in a car without thinking about --" I suppose the lawsuit has made things that way, because Helen was the one pushing Kevin to get a car and re-learn how to drive last year. She asks, "Why does God put kids in harm's way? Why would he do that?" Well, I figure there's either a really good -- if vexingly ineffable, incomprehensible -- reason, or God's a sick old bastard. What do you believe? Lily: "Hey, why does he always put a cigarette machine in front of me when I'm trying to stop? Look, Helen, the truth is, we never get out of school. There is always another test that we're afraid we'll fail. It's natural to be a little pissed at the teacher." Helen doesn't find that especially satisfying, but it brings to mind a C.S. Lewis quotation, which is currently my screensaver: "If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable; think of it as a place of training and correction and it's not so bad."
Grace and Luke and many jars of specimens in formaldehyde are in their secret science storage room hangout, and Grace is regaling Luke with the details of what happened at home after her bat mitzvah. I guess this show must follow very closely on the heels of that one, time-wise, because it's hard to believe she wouldn't have discussed this with Luke on the phone or through IM if very much time has elapsed. ["Which means that Arcadia has the fastest marble-cutters on the east coast. It always annoys me on TV and in the movies when the stone is already done, or done in, like, a week. It's my (fortunately, limited) understanding that those things take months; my grandmother's didn't go in for nearly a year." -- Sars] Anyway, Grace says her mother got out the photo album: "And got totally hammered while narrating the complete Polonski family history, starting in Poland. I heard her even through the headphones in my room." Luke: "I don't know how you just put up with that." The way he says it feels more judgmental than sympathetic. And Grace doesn't miss that either; she gets defensive right away: "She's my mother. Like I have a choice?" Luke: "Grace, isn't that what your bat mitzvah was all about? Taking responsibility?" Doesn't the Alateen literature tell her she's not responsible for her mother's choices? Grace: "Hey, you don't wanna go there, dude." Luke apparently does wanna go there: "Of all people, I'd think you would have the courage to make her get help! What are you so afraid of?" What? Seriously: what? First of all, I don't think a lack of courage on Grace's part has much to do with this. You can't make anyone change if they don't want to, and it's pretty hard for a child to even make a dent in that project when it comes to a parent. Second, it's been at least implied previously that Grace has confronted her mother about the problem, and not just once. Otherwise, what's all that "I'm not going there this time" stuff? Sarah's comments to her daughter at the bat mitzvah about not thinking she can change suggest that the topic has been discussed openly between them. If he's just picking a fight because Grace wouldn't kiss him in the hallway, he needs to learn something about proportionate response.