Episode Report Card Drunken Bee: A+ | 16 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT The Work
By Drunken Bee | Season 4 | Episode 5 | Aired on 06.04.2010
Some garage somewhere. A man leads Vince and Bad Gold Chain Kid in and tells them that they're looking for old cars, old models, because once cars stop being made, their parts start being worth more. Ah, a little lesson in Grand Theft Auto. Their Felony Guru tells them to walk away if they come upon a new car, and Bad Gold Chain Kid thinks he knows why: "Cuz they have Lo Jack." Felony Guru corrects him, "We in West Texas, ain't nobody got Lo Jack!" and says that new cars have steering locks. Vince and Bad Gold Chain Kid start bitching at each other, but Felony Guru tells them to shut it and pay attention. The more they talk, they more they miss, the more likely they'll do something stupid. He shows them how to stick a screwdriver in the ignition, that sometimes the dash might come on after they do, but "Don't panic, be cool, get paid." He yanks the screwdriver out, the car roars to life and Vince grins.
Matt sits on the stoop in front of Grandma's shotgun house, Julie comes out of the house to sit next to him (she's re-wearing a very normal-teen-girl outfit from the other day-- a purple tee, A-line jersey skirt and flip-flops-- when she was reading the review of Matt's artist mentor's art exhibition to him). Matt tells her that it was really nice of her mom to help him that afternoon and she tells him that "She's good in crisis. She's pretty much built for crisis." In some ways this show has taken me through a period in my life where I have made my peace with wanting to be a woman like Tami-- getting done being a girl fucking around and starting to be a woman who can take care of people and tell opportunistic funeral directors where to shove it. Matt is grabbing hold of the metal banister on the side of the poured-cement stoop, sort of worrying it with his thumb and staring at it. Julie gently tells him that her mom invited him over for dinner that night if he wants to get away for an hour or so that night. Matt just says "Okay" and Julie wants to know if that means he'll come or....Matt distractedly tells her "Okay, okay, I'll come." Julie asks him if he's alright and Matt tells her that yeah, he's fine. He swallows and his eye kind of redden a bit: "You know, this stuff happens. Right now it's happening to me, someday it'll happen to you, and...sorry I didn't mean it like that. That was a stupid thing to say." And, oh, god, like Julie, I don't think I've ever thought about this before and this is kind of like how I've had to make a pact with myself to not think about my dog dying. In the same way, I CANNOT THINK ABOUT THE TAYLORS EVER DYING. Julie tells him that it's okay, and Zach Gilford-- seriously SLAM DUNKING the Emmy-- peels himself away from his inward-turning focus on worrying the metal railing and wills himself to spin slightly toward Julie, brightly asking "So, what time is this dinner?" That small shift of his body telling us that the character feels guilty for bringing up the issue of death, and how parents die, and he needs to do the emotional heavy lifting to distract Julie from such a downer.